Free-lance pricing

[jgibson2[$]]

I'm not sure this is the right place to put this, but I don't know where else it would go.

My husband was approached by a high end regional magazine about using some of his photographs. Circulation is about 80,000 and their rate for a 1/4 page ad is $1,200-$1,800 just to give you a frame of reference. They want to use the photos in one issue the magazine and indefinitely on their web site (low res images on the web to protect copyright).

He was a photographer for a federal agency for over 20 years and retired about 18 months ago. Since then, he's been photographing weddings and the occasional portrait sitting. He's figured out what he wants to charge for those, but he has no idea where to go with this request.

He took the photos as a favor to an organization I belong to, but hoped to sell some of them. This isn't quite what he expected, though.

Initially they offered him NOTHING and a very unprofessional contract. When he said no, they asked for rates. Does anyone have any idea where to start with something like this?

[frazzledspice]

Books like Writer's Market will list payment rates for different periodicals.

Is there a Photogapher's Market that would list similar rates?

When the paper I work for uses a photo or two along with my article, I get $10 a photo...but they're printed on newsprint, usually in B&W, occasionally in color (although I don't receive more for color photos than B&W.)

[jgibson2[$]]

Our local paper pays Wivabef about $10 also, but I don't think their ad rates are anything remotely like this magazine's. Good thought about books with payment rates. I'll check the library this morning.

[pippadaisy[$]]

Judy, here is a UK site with different types of freelance rates (need to convert pricing from British pounds):

NUJ Freelance Fees Guide: Photography index

You might want to check some local photographers' web sites to see the going rate, and also determine what kind of licensing they want for the photos. I know that for full-use rights for stock stuff when I was doing web design, we'd pay a few hundred dollars for an image, but that was for us to basically own it and do whatever we wanted with it.

PM Sara. I bet she'd be able to give you a better idea.

[hadassahchana[$]]

Judy, Howard Creech! He's an EPs member who has been kind enough to answer all of my photography questions. He sells a lot of his stuff to national magazines. Here's his member page with his email address. He is very nice and very appraochable.

[jgibson2[$]]

hadassahchana said

Judy, Howard Creech! He's an EPs member who has been kind enough to answer all of my photography questions. He sells a lot of his stuff to national magazines. Here's his member page with his email address. He is very nice and very appraochable.

Thanks! I'll contact him this weekend.

[conradd]

Judy, I sent a query off to a friend of mine who is a professional photographer(Linda Kelly from Westone Images). This is her line of work, so I hope she'll have some ideas.

Deb

[jgibson2[$]]

Thanks Deb. My husband tends to really undervalue his work. Advice from a pro who isn't salaried might help him figure out more appropriate pricing.

[conradd]

Here's her response:

Is the magazine “for profit” and who are their readers? They should have a standard rate for what they pay photographers. If it’s a for profit magazine he should be paid anywhere from $50 to $500 depending on the size it’s used. Magazine generally don’t pay much because they need so many images (unlike ad agencies using photos for brochures, etc.). Have him talk with the editor of the magazine. Ask what the pay out rate is for images (and it doesn’t matter about your friend’s professional photographer background. They’d pay the same to a pro or amateur if the want the image).

[jgibson2[$]]

Thanks Deb. This is a for-profit regional publication. We weren't sure if it was OK to ask about standard rates since they offered NOTHING as a starting bid. I wonder if they're trying to get off cheap, or if the person who contacted us is just new and doesn't know how this is supposed to be done. I've looked at the photos on their web site and I cannot imagine that they're paying NOTHING for most of them.

[jgibson2[$]]

Woo Hoo!

Thank you one and all! Howard Creech and Deb's friend were both most helpful.

I talked Bob into letting the editor make an offer based on their standard rate. They don't pay extra for publishing on the web, but their standard rate is about 60% of the stock rate listed on the web sites which is more than double what he would have asked and about 50% more than I would have asked. Stock rates include a fee for the stock agency, so this is definitely a fair price for his work.

Now we just have to see how many images they use to see what kind of paycheck he'll get for this. As a result of all this, we've found a couple of stock agencies he may want to place some of his images with to be marketed. He's been photographing weddings and those make him very anxious. Stock photography is much more like what he did as a DOD photographer and would suit his temperament very well.

[wivabef]

That is soooo coool! I missed this thread... I worked for an ad agency in a prior life and I was going to say 50% of the going stock rate. But of course, it's been ages since I did this and have no clue what the going stock rate is!

Getting involved with a stock agency would be a good idea as long as he doesn't get involved with any exclusivity contracts.

[jgibson2[$]]

The agricultural stock agency has an exclusivity contract, but only for agricultural photos. IOW, if it's on their site, you can't sell it elsewhere, but you probably can't anyway.

We really need to find out a lot more about the business end of this -- releases, etc. It would be really lovely if he could make enough at this to support his camera habit. I would be lovely if he made a profit, but I'd settle for this "hobby" coming close to paying for itself. I'm so glad he doesn't care for golf.