what to charge for calendar images?

artyeva

i was a bit suspect of this at first but i checked him out and all his details were legit - basically a guy with a printing business in the UK has a client originally from round here where i live and yer man wants to make a corporate calender for his clients with images from mayo. the printer guy wants to ''buy'' 20 of my photos to show him and let him choose whatever 13 he'd like in the calendar.

this all sounds spiffing - but what should i be charging? obviously i don't want to be taken the piss out of here and i have no idea what the going rate would be

PCPhoto

why not create a slideshow with 20images (not suitable for print) and let him choose from that.

I'd be more inclined to keep hold of my images until I'm after clearing a cheque and get the other side to sign a contract limiting them to exactly what they pay for. (ie. for 1 print run of X amount of calendars)

artyeva

yeah, i'm not really bothered about the terms as such, i was just wondering about how much the going rate for that amount of images would be. like, say for instance the print run is 500, etc.

magicbastarder

knowing how many calendars he sells would be a good way of telling you how much to ask. if it's only a few hundred, your options are limited. i know someone who used to charge 10k per calendar, for the american domestic market, per country.

PCPhoto

depends on how you value your images!!

- if they are making calendars for sale (despite what they tell you) - they will be making a big profit from your images.

- if they print multiple "runs" of the calendar - they could be making profit year on year.

- if you sell the images - you might also giving them exclusive rights (to use the images whatever way they want)

why not ask for €100 per image (which is cheap in commercial terms) - they might turn around and tell you its too high...it comes down to them wanting your "work" and if they are willing to pay for it.... if they say its too high - you could try bargain - asking them how much they want to pay and haggle to find a fair compromise.

Personally I would sell them at a reasonable price - but on strict conditions - written in a contract - if they breach the conditions - legal action straight away.

artyeva

oh - maybe i wasn't clear in the op? the guy who contacted me is the printer. he has a client who wants him to print these calendars so he can give them away as a corporate gift type thing. so it's not really a calendar for profit type thing, iykwim. the printer [and me!] will be the ones making the profit, lol.

PCPhoto

artyeva wrote: »

oh - maybe i wasn't clear in the op? the guy who contacted me is the printer. he has a client who wants him to print these calendars so he can give them away as a corporate gift type thing. so it's not really a calendar for profit type thing, iykwim. the printer [and me!] will be the ones making the profit, lol.

without sounding like a conspiracy theorist .... thats just what he's telling you !! ...it sounds a bit dodgy to me ....I mean ... if he has a client who wants a calendar made - surely its up to the client to choose images and obtain them for the printer.... I've never heard of a printer sourcing images for a client....drop Steve (stcstc) a PM and ask his advice.

if you trust him(the printer) - quote him for usage - if you want to charge him €50 per image....€200....€500 for a set ...its up to you !!

Personally I would take a look at what prices the NUJ in England suggest http://www.londonfreelance.org/feesguide/photo.html

its a question of how much do you value your work !!! - do you think your 13/20 images are worth €1000 in total or .... €10 per image... €20 per image.... €50 per image....if its possible - calculate how many days you went out taking all the images, how much your equipment cost etc .... remember they are very unlikely to EVER get the same lighting conditions and position for your images.... they could hire a pro to goto the same area but he/she might not be able to reproduce your image.

artyeva

PCPhoto wrote: »

without sounding like a conspiracy theorist .... thats just what he's telling you !! ...it sounds a bit dodgy to me ....I mean ... if he has a client who wants a calendar made - surely its up to the client to choose images and obtain them for the printer.... I've never heard of a printer sourcing images for a client....drop Steve (stcstc) a PM and ask his advice.

really? god, i was being a bit naiive then, eh?!

thanks for the advice PC, i'll suss it out a bit more. i'm too trusting.

stcstc

you should check out the alamy price calculator

you might be surprised how much people pay agencies for images

and the reason generally people come to places like boards and flickr etc instead of approaching pros, it to save a whole heap of money on what it would cost the buy images through a traditional channel