Help for pricing a photo for commercial use (contacted by ad agency)

[Thomasfrost]

hi all


Hoping for quick help


I have been contacted by an advertising agency from India.


They want to buy the rights for a picture I have taken. It is for the company High Sierra, which makes backpacks and which is part of the Samsonite holding company. They want to use the image as the main image for a micro website that an upcoming campaign will be centered around.


I have no other info than that. I do not think they want to buy the full rights but only for a limited time - maybe a year?


They want me to come up with a price suggestion?


Since I'm new to this game, I can really use some advice.


What is the price range for something like that?

 

[ecphoto]

I would say $5,000? I'm not sure I'm just as clueless lol. I've only been paid twice lol.

 

[Thomasfrost]

Any specific thing you are basing you guess on?

 

[tirediron]

$5000 doesn't seem wildly unreasonable; a lot depends on the size of the image, and the amount of traffic that hits the 'site. I would say it would be between USD $3-500/month for a one year, non-exclusive license. At least double that for exclusivity, and going down incrementally if they're interested in a longer duration license.

 

[bribrius]

like to know how I could get 5k for a photo for a year....................

 

[KmH]

The price range will be different for an advertising agency in India than it is for an advertising agency in the USA or the EU.

Here in the US many commercial photographers use stock and assignment photography pricing software, like fotoQuote - Stock and Assignment Photography Price Guide

A key will be writing an ironclad use license that uses ironclad language. Here is an online use license generator - :: PLUS :: License Generator

 

[KmH]

like to know how I could get 5k for a photo for a year....................

Become a successful commercial photographer.

 

[spacefuzz]

Use Tandem or Getty to help determine pricing by looking at what they would charge for a similar photo. Also you could approach someone like Tandem and say you have a photo they want to license, could they do the deal so you dont have to worry about it. I know Tandem typically pays 75% royalty in those situations and usually get a better price.

For example Tandam usually charges $750 for a home page placement, but that can vary based on use length.
https://tandemstock.com/assets/37970713

Good luck and congrats

 

[Thomasfrost]

Hi again

First, thanks for all the quick feedback.

Now i got a bit more info:
They want it for 1 month only and just wanna use it for the web. They want to pay me 500 US$, which is fine by me

But what is the next step? How do i make a contract and what about payment method?
As i said i quiet new to all this, so i really could use a little help

 

[tirediron]

Hi again

First, thanks for all the quick feedback.

Now i got a bit more info:
They want it for 1 month only and just wanna use it for the web. They want to pay me 500 US$, which is fine by me

But what is the next step? How do i make a contract and what about payment method?
As i said i quiet new to all this, so i really could use a little help

For that, you're should use a lawyer, which would doubtless eat up all of the fee I would just draft up a quick "XYZ Advertising Inc. is granted a non-exclusive license to use the image entitled 123.jpg (copy attached) for the period from <Date> to <Date> in digital form only on their web-page (full URL) at a size not to exceed <long dimension>x<short dimension>" and hope that they honour it. As for payment, cheque or bank transfer are the two most likely options - if you're lucky they'll do a credit-card payment.

 

[Thomasfrost]

Thank you tirediron... That i will do