Question about photo licensing

Chicagophotoshop · Apr 17, 2007

how exactly does this work? let me give you an example as it applies to me.

A Chicago tourism website is interested in using my photos in their "photo gallery" section.

do I trade services? such as letting them use my photos, for some free advertising in their media outlets? (website, brochures, etc)

if money is involved, how does payment work with licensing?

who then owns the photo once its on their site?

thanks for any advise. right now all I do is sell a few prints to hang on walls. I haven't crossed this bridge yet

thanks

darich · Apr 18, 2007

Who would own the photo on their site would depend on the rights you grant them.
If you grant them rights to display only on their site for a certain period of time then you still own the photo - you're effectively renting it to them for a while.

You could sell them the rights allowing them to do whatever they wanted in whatever market they chose. That wouldn't be such a good idea and would be way more expensive than merely "renting" (above).

How much to charge would depend on how large a company they are, how much traffic their site gets, how large the image would be etc etc.
There are many variables so it's difficult to say you should get $xx.

By "renting", you retain all the rights and can re-use the image again if you wish. it also means that they would be bound by your agreement that they can only use it for the agreed purpose. They would be highly unlikely to break that agreement by using it elsewhere or for longer than agreed because it would be an obvious breach of contract and they'd be open to litigation from the photographer ie you.