Selling Photos

mSummers

mSummers

Member
As some of you know, I post my railroad pictures on RailPictures.net. ; I received an email this morning through their member contact system from a very small microbrewery in the UK that wants to use one of my photos on the label on one of their beers. ; They do all the brewing and bottling by hand in small batches of about 20 bottles at a time. ;

So here's the question... ; I've never sold a photo before, so I have no idea how much to charge for it. ; I've found a few price guides online, but they're all geared to selling photos to magazines and books with really large production runs, so they're no use in this case. ; Anyone have any suggestions on how much to charge?
 
This situation seems a little different than selling a photo, you are giving them use of one of your images for widespread use. ; Depends if you want to give them unlimited use of the photo forever or for a limited time I guess. Also have to decide if they will have exclusive use of the image.

I have never had the opportunity to do this, but I have looked at Scott Bourne's Avian Stock site and he has some pricing there for reference and it might help you figure out what you want to do.

http://www.avianstock.com/

1 year use $50
2 years $100
3 years $150
Exclusive License $750
 
Thanks for the info guys. ;

Unfortunately the deal fell through. ; I forgot that I lost the original copy of the image in a computer crash last December just days after I took the photo. ; Since I had not backed those photos up before the crash, the only copy I had was the one that was online and the image quality wasn't high enough for printing. ; But, they said that they may be interested in using some of my other shots in the future, so we'll see what happens.
 
Ouch! ; Sorry to hear...maybe you'll still get the deal. ; You should head back out if possible and try to get a similar shot to the one they liked - same type of train, setting, and action...and see if you can prompt them to consider it. ; I'm sure they'll hunt around for another - so if you can get one in there quick, you may still be able to get the sale. ; I think it would be pretty cool to have your photo on beer bottles...something to brag about at the bar while hoisting a few! ; ;)

I generally have sold to publishers for magazine use or newspapers, and the occasional private print (companies for in-house periodicals or flyers). ; I charge less for in-house non-distribution use than for publication. ; For something like your situation, I'd probably consider a license deal for permanent usage for the labels at a fixed rate ($750-1500 sounds about right to me)...but include a clause that would dictate additional fees for use in advertising posters, publications, etc. on a per-print basis (usually I'll charge a set fee to publishers of $150 or so for the first run - set the number as needed for the situation such as 100,000 or 1 year...then additional fee for each additional run or year).

Good luck on getting the sale back.
 
Thanks for the advice Justin. ; Unfortunately they have selected another photo from someone else that they're going to use. ; But I do intend to go get another shot at the same place. ; Here's the photo they were looking at:

1148.1230256460.jpg


I'll have to wait until November or December to get it because it has to very cold (the closer to 0° the better) to get that much steam. ; Also, it has to be very cloudy otherwise that spot is horribly back lit and they only run on steam on the weekend those two months. ; So, I'll get another shot like it, it might take a while though...
 
hey mike, i just looked at that shot a couple of days ago, i was looking at your railpictures.net portfolio, some very nice wm shots, i'm still trying to get one past the screeners, but i only have the lirr around here and it's hard to get excited about the m7 electrics
 
Thanks Gary! ; Keep trying... I'm sure you'll get one in. ; It look me a while to get my first shot in the database too. ; What they don't tell you anywhere is that they live and die by the rule of thirds, hate high sun, expect perfect exposure and want everything to look level.[nb]Looking level is not the same as actually being level. ; Michael lost his right to appeal rejections in an argument over whether a shot was level or not because apparently they don't care that the hot shoe level said that it was perfectly level since the house in the background appeared to lean to the right because of the grading along the front of the house.[/nb] Also the shot was taken in weather other than sunny it has to be something unique in the eyes of the screeners or it won't get in.
 
well hey thanks much, now i at least know some of their unwritten rules, i wondered why they rejected as too dark, a shot i submitted of the fgc r5 manressa train taken at the monserrat monastery station
i thought it had good scale and comp with the jagged peaks in the background, and it was kind of an overcast day, guess i'll have to go back to spain when it's sunny
 
Excellent photo- sorry to hear the deal fell apart.

Seems like the image you posted has enough resolution for a beer label (2" x 3" maybe?) but what do I know. ; ???
 
Thanks guys!

Jeff, the image was good enough quality to do the label, but they also wanted to do some advertising, and the image wasn't high enough quality for that. ;
 
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