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Selling Digital Raw files
Afternoon, Have a question to ask, a client of mine is interested in purchasing my digital raw files from the baptism of her child she wants me to photograph next month along with some family photos. i'm unsure how much to charge her, any ideas? Apr 22 18 11:27 am Link Alejandro Cerdena wrote: Not enough detail. Are you selling the copyright as well? Are you selling exclusive usage to the client, or can you also still use the images in the future? Does working with this client lead to potentially future work, either directly or indirectly? Apr 22 18 12:23 pm Link Yeah -- what do you think is the commercial potential of the images from your client's baptism? Especially if the client doesn't sign any kind of release? I would think that the copyright of these specific images to be near-worthless to you. Your ability to use the images for yourself would be limited. I would think that you are doing a work-for-hire, producing the RAW files, and you are dodging the post production & printing work that could accompany the job. Or you can look at it from another perspective -- could these clients use the RAW files to take work away from you? If so, how much work? If you can characterize that "lost work", include it in what you charge them. But since you are creating a private family collection and not a commercially viable set of images, I would think that you wouldn't charge much. My opinion, only, of course. Apr 22 18 12:37 pm Link I have no opinion on how much to charge, but it has been my observation that clients who want the RAW files, but are not commercial entities with in-house retouchers generally have no understanding whatever of what they are requesting. Frequently they ask for them because they heard somewhere that such files are the best and the source of all quality. Often they have no software capable of opening them and will pitch a kitten when they discover that Windows Explorer is not helpful. The other thing they rarely understand is that the final image from a pro shooter seldom comes straight out of the camera. More often, files from the camera get color correction, exposure adjustment, zit and dust removal, background suppression, and tons of other tweaks and fixes that just are not in the files straight out of the camera. Thus the RAW files are simply not what they think they are, and in fact are of poorer quality than they'd get if they just let the pro do his/her job. I know of a pro shooter who let a client talk him into just turning over the RAW file to a portrait client. He then went on to retouch, adjust, etc. his copy thereof, posted it on his web page, and then got an angry letter from the client threatening suit because the client's son's half-assed Photoshoppery butchered the file so it hardly resembled the one posted on the photographer's page, and the client was convinced he'd been sand-bagged. So before I'd agree to sell a RAW file to such a client, I'd want to make sure they understood that (a) particular software that is generally expensive is needed to even open the files, and (b) they are squandering half of the talents of the shooter by short-circuiting the job, and unless their Photoshop guy/gal is better at it than the Shooter's guy/gal, they are better off waiting for the standard final product. Apr 22 18 01:32 pm Link Michael DBA Expressions wrote: I hear ya. Apr 22 18 07:25 pm Link Good advice above from Looknsee and Michael. The chances are very good your client doesn't understand what she is asking for. A lot of non-photographers confuse RAW with unretouched. As suggested above, you need to find out what she really wants and needs, not just what she thinks she wants and needs, then explain the technicalities to her. As far as pricing, just charge a sitting/session fee without prints. And grant her a usage license for non-commercial use while retaining your copyright. Just for clarification, a work-for-hire (actually, "work made for hire") is a legal term of art within the Copyright Act. It is either "a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment" (think staff photographer in an ad agency, for example) or "a work specially ordered or commissioned for use..." as a contribution to a collective work, part of a motion picture, a translation, a supplementary work, a compilation, an instructional text, a test, answer material for a test, or an atlas. Importantly, both parties have to expressly agree in a written instrument signed by each of them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire. When a work is made for hire, the employer or person doing the hiring owns the copyright, not the photographer. See the Copyright Office's Circular 09 for more details. Apr 24 18 05:18 pm Link Alejandro Cerdena wrote: The normal price you would charge per image (which is based on your business setup) minus the price of editing plus (if that is the case) the price of copyright transfer (or whatever other license you give to the client). Apr 25 18 05:01 am Link |
