Noodlejaffa
Well-Known Member
p.s. And how many of us who have replied to this post have their own photographs in their sig/avatar?! (my conscious is clear!).
A few years ago (maybe 4 or 5) we were amazed to discover Rosie and her spotty horse were the April 'pin-up' picture in the Pony Club calendar. We knew nothing about it until a friend mentioned it.
Do think the publisher might have sent a few free copies but there you go!
p.s. And how many of us who have replied to this post have their own photographs in their sig/avatar?! (my conscious is clear!).
I think your structure for pricing seems very fair and Its sad to know your revenue has actually decreased.
I wonder if there's a statute of limitations on these images? What if.....
...you've bought prints from a photographer years ago (say, 5) and you'd then like to have an electronic image of it. But you can't remember who you bought it from - who the photographer was...or maybe even WHERE exactly it was taken. You just like the image and want to scan it.
Or what if it's more like 10 years ago....
20?
Surely there has to be a limit....
Completely OT, but I love your signature HuggyBear!!!
Does anyone know any photographers who DO sell the photo in it's entirety (including it's copyright)? I would love to know which photographers to look out for or recommend.
If you ask the photographer when you see a photograph you like you may be pleasently surprised. They probably won't give you full unrestricted copyright but will probably be happy to give you permission to use it for all non-comercial purposes. If you want it for commercial purposes then you will probably have to pay considerably more.
The issue it, the photographer takes a photo of a kid at a pony club show. It probably has very little commercial value, he may be able to sell it via an agency for use in a magazine or catalogue or something but it will be of limited use. However in future that kid becomes Jordan and suddenly selling that photo to all the newspapers and celeb magazines will net him thousands, if he has retained copyright for commercial purposes he can do this, if he didn't he can't. Potentially being able to sell a picture like that could net him several months pay. The photographer never knows whether a photograph may in future be worth lots, you see all kinds of photos that were probably considered insignificant when taken that have later made the photographer some cash.
There is a limit, but I'm not sure you would want to wait around for it to expire, it is 70 years after the death of the creator! The same as all other artistic works.
There are some special conditions though I believe for "orphan works" which is when the creator cannot be identified or traced. This is why many photographers print their name or their business name discreately on the picture or the reverse of the picture.
That's the crux, I want full unrestricted copyright. I don't want them to make potential money off me in the future and I want to be able to put a photo of me wherever I want to when I have paid money for it. Commercial or private use.
I wouldn't bat an eyelid at the prices charged if you were actually getting full value for money (I understand your set up costs) but when you realise all you are effectively shelling out for is a piece of paper with some colour on it, the prices charged are completely ridiculous. With full copyright, the original image file, free to use when ever, how ever and as many times as you want make the charge of £10 + a photo worth while. Until then, I see it as a rip off. Cover your costs by all mean but make it actually value for money for the purchaser.
If photographers at events weren't such an avaricious bunch of people then competitors wouldn't be tempted to copyright photos. At the end of the day lots of people i know go on MS photo editor, enlarge the photo to 400 pixels and then spend an hour or so cutting the water mark out. Either that or pay £15 for a piece of paper, which in effect is what it is. With these all singing, all dancing fancy cameras it doesn't seem to be the photographers talent that your paying for these days, it appears to be the expensive cameras equipment. That said I paid a rather ridiculous £10 for a photo last weekend but that is the exception and not the rule. I don't like to be ripped off for anything and I don't know how they can justify charging £10-£15 for a phot which costs pence to produce.Note to event photographers - Charge a fiver a photo and see how many more you will sell.
![]()
But maybe you want to use it for a purpose the photographer wouldn't approve of, that would be another reason for him restricting copyright. Say he was at a drag hunt meet, and he sells copyright to you and subsequently you sell the image to be used in pro-hunt literature but he is fervently anti-blood sports and would hate to support anything associated with hunting.
Or maybe you sell the image but manipulate it in some way so that it no longer looks the same.
Can you see why photographers like to retain the copyright? It isn't just the financial issues, it is about professional integrety and reputation etc. The same as with music, many artists will restrict where their work can be used.
If you genuinely want the photographer to give up all rights to an image he has created then you are likely to have to pay a significant amount. If you just want to use it for personal purposes then the photographer will most likely be happy to agree something, likewise he will likely agree lowscale commercial use like classified ads.
Generally photographers are reasonable, I've been through getting permission for commercial use with DH. He is an artist, when he was a teenager he did some drawings based upon photographs he found in books and magazines, at the time it was just for his own pleasure. Since then he has become a professional, he sells original drawings and reproductions of his drawings, he had interest from people wanting to buy some of these old images. So retrospectively we had to approach the photographers, one in particular was owned by a newspaper group but still they were happy for the picture to be used for free.
At the end of the day if you want the photographer to not be able to potentially make money out of images of you then the only way to do it is to ask them not to photograph you. As they always have the right to refuse to sell copyright.
Plus, the charge already put on photos (£10+ for a single print) is already too much for a piece of paper with colour on it. To charge even more than that just so we can put the image anywhere we want shows what gall some photographers have and why they need to get with the times.
Well no one is forcing you to buy the pictures!
.
But it's the value behind the photo. Hence why a print that is limited edition and 1 of say 50 could be worth £5000, but if the same print were replicated hundreds of times and sold it would only be worth £50. If I were to sell you a photo that only you had the rights to, it would be worth a lot more than if I were to sell you a copy and I still held the copyright.
You don't buy a cd/dvd/painting and automatically buy the copyright to it do you?
Plus, I also download via itunes and it is great because I have the song on the computer, ipod and phone for one price. Value.
It isn't about 'settling' to produce sub-standard work - it's about coming up with a product people want to buy, at a price they are willing to pay, whilst still making money yourself. It's business, not a competition. I could shell out X thousands for kit for my business, but at the end of the day, it would not improve my product to such a degree that I would make that back in what I consider to be a reasonable time-frame, unless I increased my prices to a level which I know the market cannot sustain.
It's no skin off my nose as a consumer if you want to have the most expensive kit and produce a better image than other photographers out there, just to show you can - but don't confuse that with the simple business issue here, which is that currently photographers seem (although HHO is a bit of a bubble and probably not representative of the industry as a whole) to be charging more for a product than people are willing to pay on a regular basis, and getting themselves worked up over copyright when the consumer just wants to be able to display the image in whatever way they choose. You have to balance the ability to take good shots on a bad weather day with the number of shots you sell on a sunny day vs a horrid day. If the maths dictates that you stick with the £150 camera and only take pictures in decent light, because despite the 2K of equipment you still don't sell enough to make the purchase costs back in a reasonable time (say a year), then as a business person you'd be nuts to buy the more expensive stuff.
It isn't about 'settling' to produce sub-standard work - it's about coming up with a product people want to buy, at a price they are willing to pay, whilst still making money yourself. It's business, not a competition. I could shell out X thousands for kit for my business, but at the end of the day, it would not improve my product to such a degree that I would make that back in what I consider to be a reasonable time-frame, unless I increased my prices to a level which I know the market cannot sustain.
It's no skin off my nose as a consumer if you want to have the most expensive kit and produce a better image than other photographers out there, just to show you can - but don't confuse that with the simple business issue here, which is that currently photographers seem (although HHO is a bit of a bubble and probably not representative of the industry as a whole) to be charging more for a product than people are willing to pay on a regular basis, and getting themselves worked up over copyright when the consumer just wants to be able to display the image in whatever way they choose. You have to balance the ability to take good shots on a bad weather day with the number of shots you sell on a sunny day vs a horrid day. If the maths dictates that you stick with the £150 camera and only take pictures in decent light, because despite the 2K of equipment you still don't sell enough to make the purchase costs back in a reasonable time (say a year), then as a business person you'd be nuts to buy the more expensive stuff.