what to charge??

I have a job over the summer and being paid a quite healthy rate.. but the customer wants the copyright... so i agree.. I get lots of luverly work and good money.

Or I could take advice and not give the copyright.. The que behind me will move up one and the next person will do the job.. I will have no copyright to keep hold of and no money... I prefer the no copyright and lots of money.

IF and this is the big IF? If you can afford to turn away work and choose work that doesn't want copyright then great.. If you cant afford to turn away work then whats the point of losing out just in case one day in the future someone wants to use your picture?

In a nice fluffy world with lots of people wanting your service then turn down work that wants copyright.. In the real world where you want to make money then do the job.. take the money.. and stop worrying about the fortune you might make.

I am sure someone will be along with an example of how they held onto copyright and it paid dividends. I will counter that with my dads littlewoods pools cheque from 1963 :)

In a nutshell. If you can afford to refuse copyright. Miss the job and get another then I agree keep the copyright. However If the job is dependant on giving the copyright and you need that job then its a no brainer.

All the above is just my humble opinion... which I believe is what is being asked for.. Its not advice or rules or best practice.. Its my opinion of the way I would go about it :)
 
Its unfortunately absolutely true that if one photographer says no to a job because it involves a copyright grab, another will come along and do it anyway.

If only all photographers would say no to copyright grabs the situation would change overnight.

Talk about herding cats .....:shake:
 
the other side of the copyright coin is

why does the customer want the copyright?
that in itself implies either

a) they think they need it but don't understand
OR
b) they know exactly what they are doing and have a future use in mind

it's a bit like late payment charges on an invoice
some companies will argue they are not needed
well if you're gonna pay on time it doesn't matter then does it!!!!

and as for £50 an hour being too much
a) no-one gets paid 40 hours a week 52 weeks a year at that rate
b) what about paying for the knowledge that allows you to do the job in an hour and not take a week to get the same result
 
and as for £50 an hour being too much
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There are almost two opposite threads going on here.

For good commercial photography, £50 per hour is way way too low in my opinion. Perhaps this is why I can feel nice and warm handing over all my work with copyright.

It's all down to how you see the transaction I suppose. You either get hired by someone to make the images that they have asked for. Or you get hired to make the images for yourself and then sell them onto the client. I just don't understand that mindset. I do however, charge enough to not worry about repeat earnings from existing images.
 
Okay! there are obviously 2 ways of looking at this issue. I am of the mindset that it is not good practice to give away the copyright because if you do:

1) you may be doing yourself out of repeat income for that image
2) the client can continue to use the image beyond the usage you were paid for
3) the client can use the image in ways you had not envisaged and with which you do not agree or that offend you

I believe that giving away copyright for free or cheaply weakens the position for all photographers and is therefore detrimental to the industry. But I accept that others hold different views.

dazzajl said:
For good commercial photography, £50 per hour is way way too low in my opinion. Perhaps this is why I can feel nice and warm handing over all my work with copyright.

I do however, charge enough to not worry about repeat earnings from existing images.
Click to expand...

Fair enough! I do hope that you are not using any of these images on your website to promote your business because you don't own the copyright and owe the person who does a fee!
 
wow...what a response!!

im still no closer to a answer though...lol.

great post photon!!

the pub is 30 minutes drive from me...if i am there for a hour or 2 taking pics....pp work....give up copyright or not??

what to charge?? mmmmmmmmmmm :bang::thinking::lol:
 
don't give away the (C) there's almost never a good reason to do that

charge slightly more than you'll be happy with

or rather less than you want, but more than they want to pay
should be threshold of pain for both sides
 
Charge them just above what you feel comfortable with and leave room for negotiation. They feel like they've got a bargain and you know you're still making a profit!

Alternatively, phone round a few local commercial tog's and get quotes for the same job, for your 'restaurant/gastro-pub' then base your quote around that. I'm not saying undercut them by any means, but at least you'll know what's a fair ball-park figure.

£50 an hour is cheap btw. Generally my work doesn't average out less than that and sometimes it can be as much as £100 p/h. I don't work full time, I probably only do about 10-15 hours a week plus travel sometimes less, sometimes more.

So why am I always skint eh?

As for copyright....

If you could see the images being worth something to you in the future e.g. you could sell them as stock through alamy then by all means keep the copyright, but you will need both property and model releases (if they contain people) if you want them to be used for anything other than editorial use.

If you were shooting some stunning model on a beach somewhere that you could maybe sell to an ad company at a later date, or landscape images of a holiday destination that could be sold to many travel companies/holiday guides/tourist boards etc then keep the copyright.

There's plenty of interesting stuff about the licensing of images all over the web as it's very pertinent to stock photography.


I'm with Daz on this one really. If the price you charge is good then there's no need to keep the copyright.
 
Kerioak said:
Defiance - why the difference between petrol and diesel travel quotes - one will go towards covering costs other than fuel and the other just about covers the fuel?
Click to expand...

To be honest, the costs were just to illustrate the principle of how to charge rather than properly calculated - there's a limit to how much research I'd do for s imple post. The RAC or AA or even the DoT may have better figures.

On the £50 per hour it probably is cheap, but I have added labour for pp too. Again was just for illustration, but I did want to illustrate the high charge out rate required for doing this job.

Regarding overall pricing, remember a customer will often tell you if they think you are expensives and you can negotiate downwards, but a customer will never tell you that you are too cheap and negotiate the price upwards. On that basis, always go with the higher end of your estimate to begin with.
 
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