Photography Usage Rates

The license fee for a photo is determined by each unique job. The price can be as low as $50 for certain web site usages and as high as several thousand dollars for commercial and advertising photography. To determine a fair price, I need to know the following information. If you don't know all the details, that's okay. Just tell me as much about the planned usage as you can.

• How will the photograph be used? Is this an editorial or commercial product?
• How large will the image be reproduced?
• How will it be placed on the product? On the cover? Back? Inside page?
• How many copies of the publication will be printed?
• How will the product be distributed? Regionally? Nationally? Worldwide?
• If a magazine, what is readership number?
• If a web site, how will you use the image? In the banner? As a small thumbnail? As a background?
• Do you need any special rights? Exclusive for a period? Worldwide?

Photography Usage Rights

I want to make photo editors happy. I don't wish to make life difficult by enforcing a long list of usage rights just for the sake of it. Typically, I sell one-time, North American usage rights, which means you can use the image once for the purpose specified and in North America only. For instance, if you purchase a photograph to illustrate a magazine article, that is the only thing you could use it for and you could not publish the article in France. But every sale is different and every photo buyer has different needs. I pride myself in working directly with clients to achieve beneficial solutions. So let's talk about what you need.

Please note that I do not provide photographs to the Royalty Free market. Every image I license is fully Rights Managed, which means you have the option of choosing usage rights that control how others use the photo. You don't have to worry that the image you just purchased will appear next month in your competitor's ad campaign.