yay, i got my first real payed photojob.
the other night i saw some amazing northern lights in the sky and i just took some shots of the hotel, where i work on the weekends, showed them to the manager and he was just happy with them and wants to print postcards (around 5000 for the beginning he said), maybe also posters and as a painting in a restaurant.
he said i should think about it, but i have absolutely no idea, how i should price the photo and the copyright and everything, so please, guys and girls, help a helpless business newb'!!! ;)
As far as pricing goes, you need to approach each entity separately. The postcards should be a separate price from a poster and from a painting (what exactly do you mean by painting?).
First of all, grant them a non-exclusive license, do not "sell" the photo.
A stock shot for that quantity of postcards/posters would probably run anywhere from $50-500 USD (unless they were lucky enough to find it on a microstock site). An exclusive license -- meaning you can't let anyone else use it for anything -- should probably run about ten times that cost.
I don't know what to charge for a one-off adaptation to hand on their wall ...
If it's for a hotel they are not likely to be selling anything -- they'll slap their logo in the upper-left "blank" area and leave them in the rooms as promotional items.
Consider giving them a lower price if they include a photo credit/copyright notice on each printed piece.
If it's for a hotel they are not likely to be selling anything -- they'll slap their logo in the upper-left "blank" area and leave them in the rooms as promotional items.
Consider giving them a lower price if they include a photo credit/copyright notice on each printed piece.
actually we're talking about the biggest hotel group in iceland including 17 hotels with appr. 120.000 guests a year, so i guess they will sell a lot.
but anyways, what would you charge for this "exclusive license" including 3 or 4 of my photos?
@super-dave: do you think i'll sell 5000 postcards within 2 month, cause that's the left time for my stay here in iceland? ;)
probably not ... if you're leaving, you're probably better off charging a flat rate, as already suggested by others.
as generale said, they might give them away for free ... then you get 30% of nothing! :) i never thought of that the first time.
if they print the postcard, then ask for a flat rate for use of the image and credit on the postcard (name and website) ... extend their right to use the image on posters and such ... but don't let them have exclusive rights or you can't use the image elsewhere.
ok, i'm starting to understand this thing, and i misunderstood GeneralE's post about leaving them in the rooms, if i just give'em away for nothing...
so considering i'm not going to use the photos elsowheres and also considering, that this exclusive rights might bring some more cash, what would you charge for that?
oh and excuse me for beeing a bit nerved and clueless with this thing, i've just had no idea, how to get this thing started, so thank you all for your patience! :)
I don't know that they'll be a giveaway item, that's just an educated guess.
Somewhere in the forums, people have posted links to a site with a stock usage calculator. You could also comparison-shop at Alamy, Getty and Corbis, and see what they would charge for similar usage.
If this is a big chain and they want an exclusive license, $2-5000/image is probably in the right ballpark; see if you can retain the actual copyright and the right to reproduce the image for self-promotional purposes, and still try for the printed photo-credit.
and i got another question: how or where should i postprocess the photo, so that it looks the same or at least similar as i wanted it on the postcard?
just asking, cus i don't think, that my monitor is well enough calibrated to provide a good photo in this price range...
They will always be able to change it, but if you first convert it to the CYMYK color space and save the result as a TIFF file with a resolution of 300-400 dpi at the final print size they should be able to use it directly, assuming they are talking traditional offset printing; otherwise they may want an RGB TIFF if they are printing with a digital press.
Go to www.alamy.com
find a similar photo that is L. Put in all the information about how you expect they will use the photo. This will give you a pretty darn close price for a royalty managed pic. If they want exclusive then double or triple the price. Great pic, best of luck.
