Did you ever get your photos published in a photo book?

Ilovemycam · Oct 27, 2012

Did you get paid for the use of your photo/s? Would you share what you were paid per photo?

Or is it more of an honorarium to just get published for free or almost free?

If there were people in your pix, did the publisher require a model release?

Tony S · Oct 28, 2012

A lot of the "photo" book publishings and contests are just a scam to sell you a book. they take in all these photos from folks, put them in a book and then make their money by selling "you" the book to put on your coffee table so you can say "see, I was published".

I have been paid to put photos in a book, depending on the subject, how many copies were bing printed and other licensing issues payment has ranged from $20 to just over $3,000. If you are using your photography to make money then there is never any photos for "honorarium or photo credit" unless it's a charity/fundraiser that I decide to do.

For people in images that get published in a book you bet a model release was required...... it protects the publisher from getting sued. Any publisher who does not require one is a publisher I would not want to do business with because they are probably going to cut other corners too.

But like I said at the top, the majority of offers you see to get published are just scams to make money off of you buying a book.

KmH · Oct 28, 2012

Ilovemycam said:
Did you get paid for the use of your photo/s? Would you share what you were paid per photo?

There are 2 kinds of use - commercial and editorial. (legal definitions, not 'street' definitions)
Copyright is actually a bundle of rights, and those rights can be licensed piecemeal, and the rights granted can be limited in a wide variety of ways.

Use online on a person web site is not considered publication.
If a photo used in a book, newspaper, magazine, etc, to support a story would be an editorial use. Editorial usage generally does not require an image be released (model release). How much one gets paid per photo, generally depends on how many books, magazines, etc, get printed, and that is all defined in a use license.

Today, with the flood of images on the Internet, many publications approach amateur photographers so they can take advantage of the amateur and get very broad or even unlimited use terms at a fraction of their normal cost.

Commercial use generally means advertising or promotion. Model releases are generally required by publishers, but a surprising number of publications will use an image that hasn't been released, and risk being sued. A photo that has people in it that have not signed a release, is essentially worth less than a photo that has people in it that have signed a release.

You can visit American Society of Media Photographers and on the left click on 'Business Resources'. ASMP recommends the pricing software fotoQuote Pro.

Here is an online pricing aid - Stock Photo Price Calculator

Alex_B · Oct 28, 2012

What is a photo book?

I mean I know that it technically refers to books which contain photos, and yes I have done a couple of them.

But you seem to refer to a concept where someone collects other photograpers' images to publish them in his book? How lame is that? Not sure I understand the concept.

Ilovemycam · Oct 28, 2012

Thanks for the replies and info.

Interesting that the net is viewed differently than print.

Tony, has this flood of photos affected what is paid to you for your work?

Alex...nothing lame about it. Every photo book is not about one photographers work.

Say Taschen's NY Portrait of a City book. Do you think the photographers got paid for their work or was it an honorarium thing?

KmH · Oct 28, 2012

If an image is used online for a commercial purpose, it is then considered published. Advertising or promoting a photography business would be a commercial use. However, photographers get some latitude for self-publishing images, online or elsewhere, for advertising and promotion.

Selling prints, online or otherwise, is usually considered an editorial use up to a point. That point is ill-defined quantitatively, but changes to a commercial use if a print is mass produced for wide distribution.

Publication and model/property release law is not as cut and dried as laws like traffic laws. Model/property release and 'Right of Publicity' laws vary by state and country.

For information related to model/property release, what constitutes publication, editorial, and commercials usage here in the USA, I highly recommend reading - A Digital Photographer's Guide to Model Releases: Making the Best Business Decisions with Your Photos of People, Places and Things

That book has some older images that have long been in the public domain. Copyright law has changed over the years. The last major update was in 1976, and there have been some minor updates since, like the Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) of 1998.

Consequently, for many more of the images in the book copyright ownership would be a key for a photographer being in a position to demand payment. Certainly, the publishing company will be making a profit from every book sold.

I would expect that most of the photos made since 1965 or so required a payment to the photographer before they could be used. No doubt, some photographers may have allowed their image(s) to be used gratis, or for a minimal fee.

fmw · Oct 28, 2012

I was a commercial photographer. I didn't sell images. I sold time. I billed for time, materials and expenses. The images belonged to the clients. They were published in magazines, brochures, catalogs, annual reports and so forth. Actually, I didn't pay all that much attention to where they were published. I usually knew the purpose of the images when I shot them but didn't see them in print all that often. To my knowledge, I never had an image published in an art book. I did sell stock photos through an agency so one of those could have been published anywhere. So, sorry, I can't really answer your question.

roxanadiaz057 · Jun 6, 2013

Ilovemycam said:
Did you get paid for the use of your photo/s? Would you share what you were paid per photo?

Or is it more of an honorarium to just get published for free or almost free?

If there were people in your pix, did the publisher require a model release?

You can publish your photos on the sites where you can make your own photobook as well as publish your photobook . The charges are depend on the service you choose. You can make a photobook on any topic. There are some sites where they have scanning services. You can utilize that also. So try for it.

bc_steve · Jun 8, 2013

Someone from a magazine found one of my pictures online and asked if they could publish it in their magazine. It was just a small magazine and there wasn't any money offered but I was proud of my picture and I didn't mind it being put out there for others to see. They did send me a free copy of the magazine at least.

It would be nice to be paid for photography but I am happy just do it for the love of it.

Not sure if this is bad, but we didn't do up a contract or anything. She was specific about what it would be used for though and I was okay with that.

this one:

Lightning Hits the Vegas of the North by Steve Dinicol, on Flickr

tirediron · Jun 9, 2013

Alex_B said:
What is a photo book?

I mean I know that it technically refers to books which contain photos, and yes I have done a couple of them.

But you seem to refer to a concept where someone collects other photograpers' images to publish them in his book? How lame is that? Not sure I understand the concept.

It's basically an easy-money scam; there are a lot of variations, but it generally goes something like this: You find a photo contest advertised, enter it, and win a prize/place (often the non-monentary "Honourable Mention"). You're pleased with yourself since the letter told you that your work had been mentioned and there had been 'X' thousands of entries. Some time later, you're contacted by the contest organizer/sponsor who have "decided" to publish a book of the winners, and would you like a copy? "Yes, that is a lot of money, but publishing is very expensive these days!" You buy the book, as do the other few hundred honourable mention winners and presto, they've sold you an over-priced book and acquired some probably very nice images (since a rights release is usually contingent on entry acceptance).

SCraig · Jun 9, 2013

If they approached you, then you should take the initiative. Tell them EXACTLY how long they are allowed to print the photograph without a renegotiation of the fee (i.e. x months or xxx,xxx copies). Tell them that they are allowed to use the photograph in this particular publication ONLY (no derivative or future works). Tell them that rights to this particular photograph does not grant the right to use any other photographs by you. Tell them that the photograph will have the credit line of "Photograph By [Your Name Here]" in at least 8 point font immediately beneath the photograph (otherwise they will print it in a tiny font along with hundreds of other photographers on the last page of the book).

Their contract is intended to be beneficial to them and not you. They could care less whether you are happy with the details or not because they feel like they are in the driver's seat. If they want to use your photographs be absolutely certain that they understand this is not the case, and that the photographs are yours and will be reproduced on your terms.

Even if you give them free rights to the photograph make sure there is an expiration clause and a clause for limited derivative works or they may use that photograph for decades to come and never pay you a dime.

If they don't agree, and they may well not, then thank them for their time and walk away. Your photographs are YOUR property, not theirs. YOU decide what is done with them, not their attorneys, and it is going to be done according to YOUR wishes and not theirs.

Tony S · Jun 11, 2013

BC Steve, your situation is a lot different from the scam books. They just wanted to use your image and were up front about it even sending you a copy. Congrats on getting it in a magazine to be seen.