Photo Rights Help

bike21

I've been contacted by a gent who'd like to use some of my photos for albums of some old train cars behind his business location that have been removed. He plans on giving albums to both his investment partners and employees. He had a question about personal vs. commercial usage that left me scratching my head a bit.

Here is the part that left me wondering...

Also, I plan to get some photo albums printed for our investment partners and my employees, probably no more than 40 or 50 copies. Since I am giving them away is that a personal or commercial use?

Since I haven't dealt with this kind of request before, I wanted to get some feedback. It is fairly obvious to me if he was purchasing digital download only then it would certainly be 'commercial' use. However if he buys 40-50 prints of each photo do I really mind what we call it? I guess perhaps I should think long term in case the prints are re-used for something else right? Should I do some sort of 'usage agreement' with him?

I'll clarify exactly what he intends to buy (print or digital) but this left me wondering how these things work. I've been receiving more attention for my work lately and I know this is bound to come up again soon. Thanks!

Pure Energy

Dear Nick from the faraway land of the People's Republic of Boulder,

I would try to kill two or three birds with one stone. The possibilities are endless when it comes to adding something new to your bag of tricks. I would inquire more about these photo albums. How many photos are in the album? How many will be coming from you? What sort of text, captions and descriptions? How much do the trains really tie into his business?

To answer your question more directly: I would consider the photo albums for his investment partners and his employees to be for a commercial purpose.

Back to some ideas... I'd consider making a custom photo album/book for the person. There are various ways of presenting it and binding it. Charge him handsomely for the first custom one and now that the prep work is done, additional copies are relatively inexpensive. Give him breakdowns on prices for one or many and the simplicity of ordering now or later for whatever present or future demand that he will have. It's also possible you've just lined up a person to sell more through his business beyond his potential investors and employees. Not to mention, you now have a product to show future clients.

Of course, he may be interested in something more like an investor brochure, like an annual report from a publicly traded company. Or he may not know exactly what he wants, so feel free to steer him towards what you both want.

Sam

Hi Nick,

I am located in the people's Republic of California, and I am going to pass on a very sneaky trick I use in these situations.

If executed properly it is flawless.

Ask your client what they want. Ask specific questions. EX: Do you plan on printing these yourself or were you thinking I would do the printing? What size do you plan on printing? If printing yourself who are you planning on using? Would you like me to work with your printer on color management to assure the best print? What is your budget?

While sneaky as heck I have found clients will be so baffled they will answer pretty quick thus avoiding the whole discussion of water boarding or hiring of psychics.

Sam

bike21

Thanks guys, I ultimately sent him the following message before ya'll replied. I never heard back from him, so maybe I turned him off to the sale?

As for the personal or commercial use - it seems you would be using it in a business sense with your investment partners therefore it likely falls in the commercial use category. If you purchase prints, I'm not overly concerned on splitting hairs for usage; more so for digital downloads and future use (one time vs. multiple use rights) that gets more complicated. Just let me know which format you choose to purchase and we can go from there.

I'm happy to work with you to get prints so please let me know if you have any questions at all.