 throughkarenseyes.com - Karen Rosenblum  Contact Karen Rosenblum Karen Rosenblum's Gallery |
Commercial co. wants my photos on its website A general contractor loves photos I took of a job they did for my RE development company. I don't work for my company as a photographer but since I am one, my boss asked me to take photos of the job site to show progress. On my own time I also made some of them into "artistic" images. The owner of the construction co. bought 3 of my "fine art" prints poster-size, and now wants to use several more on its commercial web site for advertising. They want to "work out how" we can do this. I've only sold prints, not licenses for use on a commercial web site. I'm not a pro but I'm good (and hopefully getting better!), and do make money in photography on the side (portraits, events, prints, "fine art rendering," restorations, etc., and am developing my photog biz, and I even write a regular newspaper column on photography, so I guess I'm within reach of semi-pro status down the line some day. How do I figure out what to charge for website use? And if I charge them, is it reasonable to insist they also give me photographic credit (or I can print my copyright and name on the images themselves) - is this standard? Any advice would be sooooooooo appreciated!
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Monnie Ryan |
After several years of working for a university and all the issues with researchers on the "who owns what" question, I know my first call would be to an attorney who deals with intellectual property rights. I understand you made the "artistic" images on your own time, but I'm assuming you TOOK them on company time and at the company's request. Whether that gives ownership to you to do with them as you please afterward is, at least from where I'm sitting, a legal question (or, a much simpler approach would be to ask your boss whether it's a problem if you sell them and, if he or she has no objections, get it in writing). Anybody else have other insights on this?? It's a very interesting question.
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throughkarenseyes.com - Karen Rosenblum Contact Karen Rosenblum Karen Rosenblum's Gallery |
Thanks for responding, Monnie. To clarify, while I did take the pictures on company time, and at the company's request, there is no question about to whom the copyrights belong - me. I work in the legal dept. and photography is not in my job description. It was a favor that my boss asked me to do because he wanted good images, not snapshots, and I told him I'd be happy to do it. I wasn't paid for this (aside from my normal salary for doing the regular work for which I was actually hired). My boss knows I have a photography biz and even knows I use some of the images I made from his job site on my own web site as examples of "Construction Art." So I really just need an idea of what to charge for each photo, and whether I need to paper the licensing rights to limit the use to their web site display only, as well as whether it's customary to include my name and copyright. Thanks.
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John H. Siskin |
Hi Karen, Congratulations! It is always nice to have people want to use you images, very validating. You might want to check on some stock sites and see what you or your client might have to pay for images, this can give you an idea of how little work can be worth. Usually low-res images for the web are not as profitable as a print sale. They may be looked at by a lot of people, but they may not be looked at for long. I would try to charge at least four times what you can buy cheap stock for, since this is custom and the image isn’t generally available. I would ask for credit on the site AND a link to your site. You are the expert on your market, and you are the expert on your images. I can only throw out some ideas. Thanks, John Siskin
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throughkarenseyes.com - Karen Rosenblum Contact Karen Rosenblum Karen Rosenblum's Gallery |
Thank you so, so much, John! I did look at Getty and I'll look at others as well. I'm nervous because the contractor has no idea what licenses can cost, and I don't want to scare him out of buying from me. I suppose if he balks I can send him links to some of these sites so he sees for himself. Again, many thanks. Your reply was most helpful. :)
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