 Contessa D. Wolverton |
Selling The Rights I am a portrait photographer. I was recently asked if I would sell the rights of the photos (not taken yet) to a customer. Her brother has part ownership in a photo lab. I am leaning toward not doing it. But if I decided to do it, how would I go about deciding what the files were worth? Any suggestions?
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Mark Feldstein |
I like your inclination. And this is something I've run into a lot with corporate image clients who want unlimited usage rights to exec portraits among other shots. What I occasionally do is agree to what I call "co-extensive usage rights". For a "reasonable fee" I agree to let them have a duplicate original (I shoot film) and unlimited use while I retain the original neg or chrome and get them to sign a model release allowing ME unlimited usage. But before deciding, first decide whether you'd have an additional market for these images (besides marketing to the original client(s). If it's not likely, then sure. Why not? You can't use a portrait commercially without a model release and it's probably not likely they'd sign one anyone based on their initial inquiry. In other words, if you decide to transfer the rights to them, just make sure it's worth the entire loss of your rights to use the image for anything...or get them to agree to coextensive usage. To calculate an amount, charge at least what you think the value would be if they'd bought prints and then multiply that times a factor of say 3 or 4 to come up with a ballpark number for you to give them as a very high number then when they balk, drop it down a notch or two to make them feel like they're getting a great deal. One last thing: I wouldn't be inclined to trade services with this guy even though he's part owner in a lab. You never can tell where or when his lab might go south on you and you get left holding a bunch of empty promises. Take it light.
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Michael A. Bielat |
Make it a limited release where all they do is have rights to print the images. Some companies charge up to $600 for the rights. You say that you have to charge $x, (with x being some elaborate number), to cover: 1.) to cover the loss of profits from print reproduction 2.) the fact that the images that will be printed won't necessarily reflect your standards of print quality that you follow and could basically cause a damper on prospective clients if they are not printed properly. Wedding photography cost about $600 for rights on the high end of my area. I charge $200 since I am starting still off. Take what your BEST profits from what you charge for a portrait session and round up for a decent estimate.
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