How much can you sell photos for?

[dingo]

I've been approached by a local business man who is starting a new exotic-car related company.

He wants to use some of my images for his advertising (website, brochures, magazine ads etc) and wants to know what I charge per photo.

So far I've only sold photos of a photoshoot to a magazine, not individual shots to someone who will use them in advertising.

So does anyone have experience in this situation that can give me a rough idea of what I can charge per photo.

I know a few of you sell photos so your help would be appreciated, feel free to PM me if you don't want it public how much you get for a photo.

I need a response ASAP, no pressure. :P

Thanks!!!!!!!

[TT]

Since it's not my real business I tend to sell them for ridiculously low prices (I guess :D).. usually I just give the originals of a whole photoshoot for some 100, 200, max 300 USD and I don't really care what the guy will do with them :bah: anyway I know they will never make it to Time's cover :roll:

[sameerrao]

I dont know much about this either but google up agencies that sell stock photographs - these are typically what go into print ads. Maybe you can idea of the price there.

Also do you intend to sell a digital file to them or is it a hard copy taken on photo paper, glossy, poster. If the latter, you will need to include the printing costs. An example here is the prime photographer used by F1 racing magazine - Mark Sutton. Look at his website to see how he sells the pictures. http://www.sutton-images.co.uk/

I think $200-400 should be a good start to begin with and maybe you can raise it later as you build a portfolio list of clients

[nthfinity]

how about this Dingo

write up a long term contract with him, and offer your services at $xx per car, rather then per photo.

chances are, you will end up doing similar photos of each car, and it is ideal to get a baseline, both to save time, and make sure he isn't taking too serious advantage of you ;)

[stmoritzer]

So far I only got once some money for my pics, around 250USD for a bunch of pics (~120), but they are only used to be sent to the participants per email.

The copyright of a picture beeing published in magazines, ads can easily be 1000+ USD


I agree with sameerrao , 300-400USD is probabely a good number
since the brochures and ads will not be published in the whole country I guess :wink:, and for this prize he gets the right of the picture.

What did you get for the magazine-shooting (pm me if you want)? IMO the copyright of one or two pictures for a brochure is close to the value for a magazine-shooting or even higher. Let me know and I ask my bro about it (maybe I can compare some numbers) , he has a connection to a fotographer site.

I hope you can get a good prize, fingers crossed

[dutchmasterflex]

how about this Dingo

write up a long term contract with him, and offer your services at $xx per car, rather then per photo.

chances are, you will end up doing similar photos of each car, and it is ideal to get a baseline, both to save time, and make sure he isn't taking too serious advantage of you ;)

I agree with Nth.. think bigger, think business.

Write up some sort of contract explaining exactly the number of photos and what he can do with them and for how long. Have a meeting with this guy and see exactly what he wants to do with them and his business. You should even try to do more than just his ads and brochures.

[dingo]

Thanks guys, you've given me an indication of what seems a fair price....I had a figure of $200 in mind but needed some more thoughts from you guys.

As for contracts and stuff, good idea but maybe down the track a bit. This is still a side income and not something I can spend too long on anymore these days unfortunately. :bah:

..You should even try to do more than just his ads and brochures.

We are already in discussions about doing some more stuff, will be interesting if it all works out. :D

[salegosse]

sounds good for you :wink:

[spanky]

Good luck dingo ole boy!

[sentra_dude]

Good luck man, I hope you make some good bucks! 8)

[dutchmasterflex]

Awesome dude, good luck. You should really start offering prints off of your webpage.. I wouldnt mind a couple of nice 16x20 prints of your photos ;)

[TT]

IMO, since this is afterall just side income and not really needed to "survive", it's wiser to ask a lower price and be sure they won't turn to somebody else rather than trying to gain more money and maybe loose an opportunity... maybe it's just me

[dingo]

IMO, since this is afterall just side income and not really needed to "survive", it's wiser to ask a lower price and be sure they won't turn to somebody else rather than trying to gain more money and maybe loose an opportunity... maybe it's just me

Exactly how I feel, there are some nice things that could come out of becoming known to this guy and the business he is starting.

[Wutputt]

IMO, since this is afterall just side income and not really needed to "survive", it's wiser to ask a lower price and be sure they won't turn to somebody else rather than trying to gain more money and maybe loose an opportunity... maybe it's just me

Exactly how I feel, there are some nice things that could come out of becoming known to this guy and the business he is starting.

I agree 100% completely. Though if there's an opportunity to gain some money out of it, why don't try to get as much out of it as possible without giving the impression being greedy.

Anyways, good look with this ne dealership, Dingo!

[sentra_dude]

Ok guys, I need your help! :D

Similar situation to dingo's so I figured I wouldn't make a new topic. The owner of one of the cars I took pics of at the french quarter classic has asked if there's anyway he can buy prints of the pics I took(!) I really have no idea how much to charge per individual photo (I'm guessing he wants to buy 5-10 photos). Also, do you usually include the files when you sell prints, say on a CD-R or something? Finally, where is a good place to get prints done (and what is a good size), there is an Office Depot close to me, do you guys use professional shops or what?

Sorry for all the questions, any help is greatly appreciated! :D

[philip]

A long while back a professional photographer took a photo that a company wanted to use in a national add. He had already been paid to take the photo, but the copyright did not extend to this other company. He asked $700 for his permission to release the photo for their use. Instead the company hired another photographer for $250 to take the same exact photo again.

So if you price your photography too high, there is always some one else who will take the photographs for less. If your photographs are unique and not easily replaceable, obviously you can charge more. The excellent pictures from the French Quarter is an example. Here however it is not for a national add campaign, just some guys who would like to see what they looked like in their Ferraris for their scrap books or personal web page. So I would think some small nominal charge would be typical as I would want to get in their good graces and you may get more rides next year.

I would give them a CD and let them do the printing. You may want to put a small watermark on the photos in photoshop so you can retain the ownership in case Ferrari USA discovers the photos and just has to use one.

[TopGearNL]

IMO, since this is afterall just side income and not really needed to "survive", it's wiser to ask a lower price and be sure they won't turn to somebody else rather than trying to gain more money and maybe loose an opportunity... maybe it's just me

Exactly how I feel, there are some nice things that could come out of becoming known to this guy and the business he is starting.

Its nice to earn something out of it Dingo, but do be honest the hobby and pleasure come first, then the business bit. :wink:

[sentra_dude]

A long while back a professional photographer took a photo that a company wanted to use in a national add. He had already been paid to take the photo, but the copyright did not extend to this other company. He asked $700 for his permission to release the photo for their use. Instead the company hired another photographer for $250 to take the same exact photo again.

So if you price your photography too high, there is always some one else who will take the photographs for less. If your photographs are unique and not easily replaceable, obviously you can charge more. The excellent pictures from the French Quarter is an example. Here however it is not for a national add campaign, just some guys who would like to see what they looked like in their Ferraris for their scrap books or personal web page. So I would think some small nominal charge would be typical as I would want to get in their good graces and you may get more rides next year.

I would give them a CD and let them do the printing. You may want to put a small watermark on the photos in photoshop so you can retain the ownership in case Ferrari USA discovers the photos and just has to use one.

Very good point, I was thinking of making the prints and depending on how big, charging maybe 1.5x or 2x the cost of printing it, I don't think that's too much.

[stmoritzer]

Just sold my first picture !!!


somebody wants to organize a F meeting next year and was looking for some nice photos, and to make the story short, I sold them this picture of a 348 :D

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/9092/3483vh9.th.jpg (http://img154.imageshack.us/my.php?image=3483vh9.jpg)

300CHF ~200Euros (to let them print some invitations and make 1000 posters)



about prizes: got this interesting link of a swiss "copyright"-company dealing with all kind of media
and they have listed prizes for posters, calendars, postcards, videos,...... !

main pages are in 4 languages (german, frenchm, italian & english)
http://www.prolitteris.ch/set.asp?go=/wis/&lang=e

the pdf listing all kind of prizes is only available in the three main languages of Switzerland :wink:

here's the german version
http://www.prolitteris.ch/imad/pdfd/bildd.pdf

[stmoritzer]

same for germany
http://www.bildkunst.de/

prizes
http://www.bildkunst.de/html/pdf/Tarifealle2.PDF

[stmoritzer]

^they are organising a F event ( don't know much about it, since a event-company is looking for a advertismnet cpmpany, which make the ads for another company, confusing :lol: , where some F's are around, but no supercars (they asked for some 348, 355, TR, 360 pics first, no Enzo of F40 :wink: ), then they asked for a 348 pic -> pics of a 348 are quite rare (I've more parking pictures, but hardly any nice driving ones) .

[dingo]

Congrats mate.....it is a nice feeling to be paid for doing something you love, its becoming more and more common now for me so hopefully one day it will be my main income. :D

[stmoritzer]

^ so you aiming to be a carphotographer in the future ?

[sentra_dude]

Great work stmoritzer! Its a cool feeling to sell one of your pictures, and that is really good to have 1000+ of your picture floating around now. :D Although, like Dani said, you have much better pics than this! Hopefully they will buy more pics from you in the future. :D

I recently closed a deal, 7 pictures sold, for a very modest price. Now I'm waiting to hear back from him, he wants to do a photoshoot with his other Ferrari, I hope he doesn't forget!

[Erez]

nice! :D congrats! :good:

[dingo]

I just wanted to dig this up again….

Slightly different situation, I have just got an email from a major USA car magazine (one of the few I’ve heard) and they want to use a couple of my photos to print in the magazine. Now this is different to the situation earlier in this topic since its an established brand with a worldwide audience – he wants to know what I will charge them for reprint rates per photo.

Thoughts, ideas?

[stmoritzer]

Great news dingo !

all I have about copyright prizes,... I already posted above, the two links to the german and Swiss "copyright-organisation". This could give you an idea
Even if in german, you should be able to get some infos. Else don't know much about magazine prizes.

Good Luck!

[nthfinity]

I just wanted to dig this up again….

Slightly different situation, I have just got an email from a major USA car magazine (one of the few I’ve heard) and they want to use a couple of my photos to print in the magazine. Now this is different to the situation earlier in this topic since its an established brand with a worldwide audience – he wants to know what I will charge them for reprint rates per photo.

Thoughts, ideas?

cover the costs associated with those images (drive time or distance+ time at the job, + something extra for the artist in you) as to what that is... think of an hourly rate maybe? and then that is the solid numerical value?

[acknot]

Ask them to make you an offer first, then use that as your absolute bottom plus expenses and such.

I used to do then when i was in school. Make sure to write a simple contract granting them the use of your images for this or that purpose. Later on, you might want to sell the same images to someone else. But don't come dragging a ten page release form - I saw a pro do this once, and the company were so offended they bought my images in stead right there and then :lol:

[acmarttin]

I just wanted to dig this up again….

Slightly different situation, I have just got an email from a major USA car magazine (one of the few I’ve heard) and they want to use a couple of my photos to print in the magazine. Now this is different to the situation earlier in this topic since its an established brand with a worldwide audience – he wants to know what I will charge them for reprint rates per photo.

Thoughts, ideas?

If it will help you out any I could e-mail an old professor of mine from art school who is still a professional (celebrity) photographer. It may not be exactly the same racket but I'm sure he could offer some useful info to pass along to you. He still sells lots and lots of photos and I'm sure he's familiar enough with the process that he could give you an idea of what American magazines expect to pay for photos.

I'll pm you my e-mail address - not that I don't trust any JW members I just don't want to get spam from bots :x

[dingo]

Thanks guys (and thanks for the PM acmarttin.

I went ahead and emailed them with a price per photo and to my surprise it was accepted - so I should make a tidy profit if 2-3 photos end up going to print.

Will keep you guys updated.

[sentra_dude]

Thanks guys (and thanks for the PM acmarttin.

I went ahead and emailed them with a price per photo and to my surprise it was accepted - so I should make a tidy profit if 2-3 photos end up going to print.

Will keep you guys updated.

Congrats dude! Keep us updated on what magazine we should keep a look out for to see your pics. 8)