How to charge for photograph

[osumisan]

I have been shooting local sports for the past few years for fun and enjoy sharing the galleries with the participants and parents. I shot for the local high schools for exposure and experience. The galleries I share are edited and re-sized just for the fact that I want to make sure that I am the only one with the originals. It was cool to see the pics posted on Facebook and such and I gained a ton of experience by shooting as many events as possible.

I felt it was time to purchase a business license and DBA and take my hobby a bit more seriously. As most of you know, it's hard to charge people who were used to getting re-sized and watermarked images for free but that's what I am doing now. My current method is to shoot an event, create a gallery, and share the link with interested parties. I include the disclaimer with my galleries that you may download the re-sized images for personal/school use, but commercial use for profit must obtain the expressed, written consent of the photographer.

Here's the situation I have a question about: How would you TACTFULLY handle this?
A parent in one of the events I shot saw my gallery and shot me a single-line email asking me to send him one of the originals of a photo of his son. I responded by informing him that he can purchase the entire gallery at X amount of dollars or he can Paypal me $15 for the single photo. He sent me another one-liner email stating "I didnt know you were a professional".

I considered all his emails extremely rude like he felt entitled to my work. He then sent me another one-line email saying that if one of the parents buys the whole gallery, to let him know. (My initial thought was to tell him to _______himself, but did not respond at all).

This is a two-part question:
1) how would a more experienced photographer than I handle the described situation above?
2) how how would a more experienced photographer set up a model to avoid this awkward situation in the first place?

In my defense, the first image in all my shared galleries (now) is a price list for those who want to purchase the image(s).

Thanks for any help.

 

[480sparky]

By offering the dichotomy of 'free for personal use, but pay me for commercial use', you set yourself into this position. You see Joe Sixpack wanting to make an 11x14 of one of your shots as commercial, but Joe sees it a personal use.

Avoid the situation altogether by not offering 'free for personal use'. If you're professional, why are you giving your work away?

 

[MLeeK]

I have been shooting local sports for the past few years for fun and enjoy sharing the galleries with the participants and parents. I shot for the local high schools for exposure and experience. The galleries I share are edited and re-sized just for the fact that I want to make sure that I am the only one with the originals. It was cool to see the pics posted on Facebook and such and I gained a ton of experience by shooting as many events as possible.

I felt it was time to purchase a business license and DBA and take my hobby a bit more seriously. As most of you know, it's hard to charge people who were used to getting re-sized and watermarked images for free but that's what I am doing now. My current method is to shoot an event, create a gallery, and share the link with interested parties. I include the disclaimer with my galleries that you may download the re-sized images for personal/school use, but commercial use for profit must obtain the expressed, written consent of the photographer.

Here's the situation I have a question about: How would you TACTFULLY handle this?
A parent in one of the events I shot saw my gallery and shot me a single-line email asking me to send him one of the originals of a photo of his son. I responded by informing him that he can purchase the entire gallery at X amount of dollars or he can Paypal me $15 for the single photo. He sent me another one-liner email stating "I didnt know you were a professional".

I considered all his emails extremely rude like he felt entitled to my work. He then sent me another one-line email saying that if one of the parents buys the whole gallery, to let him know. (My initial thought was to tell him to _______himself, but did not respond at all).

This is a two-part question:
1) how would a more experienced photographer than I handle the described situation above?
2) how how would a more experienced photographer set up a model to avoid this awkward situation in the first place?

In my defense, the first image in all my shared galleries (now) is a price list for those who want to purchase the image(s).

Thanks for any help.

I'd stop right there and let it drop. Yes, it's rude and I have a few other things I'd probably like to say, but... bad blood is bad blood.
I've learned to change the copyright line in my facebook uploaded sports images to say that 'individual images can be purchased at....'
Also get your sports work away from your personal facebook and set up a page for the sports work only. It definitely separates the 'buddy-buddy' stuff and places you in a more professional light.
If you are posting those galleries somewhere like flickr-stop. Get them onto a website YOU manage and set them up as selling galleries. Zenfolio, ShootProof, Smugmug or your own website-it doesn't matter. You have set yourself up for them to think you're giving it away.
If you are doing this for exposure you should be interacting with the parents and they should know you are selling the images. Exposure by being seen down on the field doesn't do much good. They are watching the game, not the photographers on the sidelines. Having the kids see you and use your images does help some, but really not much. Parents don't watch their kids facebooks like they should.

 

[Overread]

Just as a point but, as its been mentioned by Mleek - flickr itself does not allow you to commercially advertise images you hose on their site without a prior arrangement with them. Far as I know you can happily link to a site in your profile that you deal commercially from, but those photos on the commercial site must be displayed using an image host other than flickr. They defend the point that the site is for display of photos not commercial. Smugmug and other services which offer shop fronts and the like are far superior as they are built around the whole concept of giving you a commercial website with payment, printing etc... all rolled in.

 

[Tee]

Here's the situation I have a question about: How would you TACTFULLY handle this?
A parent in one of the events I shot saw my gallery and shot me a single-line email asking me to send him one of the originals of a photo of his son. I responded by informing him that he can purchase the entire gallery at X amount of dollars or he can Paypal me $15 for the single photo. He sent me another one-liner email stating "I didnt know you were a professional".

I considered all his emails extremely rude like he felt entitled to my work. He then sent me another one-line email saying that if one of the parents buys the whole gallery, to let him know. (My initial thought was to tell him to _______himself, but did not respond at all).

Consider this: you took away a free product and put in its place a product with a price tag. Perhaps the free product was good enough but not worth buying? Now that good enough product has a price tag. We had free coffee at work. It was a bargain basement brand but it was free and did the job. A while ago, the decision was made to charge for coffee. They did not upgrade the quality of coffee and everyone stopped drinking it while the workplace kept buying it. The point I'm trying to make is often times people settle for free but become more choosy when money is involved. If you're offering a qulaity product then don't let one man's rude emails stand in your way. You might need to market yourself differently as MLEEK has suggested above.

 

[osumisan]

[/QUOTE]


Consider this: you took away a free product and put in its place a product with a price tag. Perhaps the free product was good enough but not worth buying? Now that good enough product has a price tag. We had free coffee at work. It was a bargain basement brand but it was free and did the job. A while ago, the decision was made to charge for coffee. They did not upgrade the quality of coffee and everyone stopped drinking it while the workplace kept buying it. The point I'm trying to make is often times people settle for free but become more choosy when money is involved. If you're offering a qulaity product then don't let one man's rude emails stand in your way. You might need to market yourself differently as MLEEK has suggested above.[/QUOTE]

Yes, that is probably what is going through his mind. He could have kept the 500kb version that was available free, it's just that he didn't want it with my watermark on it. That's the thing that puts me off.

I have taken the advice of MLEEK and will post on Facebook as a separate page from my personal profile. I just started a Smugmug account so it's now a matter of changing my habits and public perception.

thanks for the advice

 

[MLeeK]

I too shoot sports as a form of advertisement. I have managed to make it pay for itself over the years, but it's taken me YEARS to do that. So, don't be shocked when your smugmug $40 a month or whatever is more than you make from your sales of sports images for now. I poke and prod to get parent sales. I've gotten picked up by a couple of schools to shoot a minimum amount for them of action as well as yearbook team and individual shots. I also know that if budget cuts come down I'll get cut. I have a booster club that pays me to shoot some stuff for their team. I shoot for the paper...
I have gotten to where I know my money kids at every school I shoot. I have parents on each team that will order every time I post images and I make sure I get that kid as often as I can in a game.
There is a lot of tricks that will go into making the high school sports pay, but it can. Just don't expect it to come easily! It's always good marketing for senior portraits to be involved in the school and to allow the school use some of your best images and print and display your images where they want.
The point here: Get creative if you expect it to even break even shooting high school sports.
Good luck!