Perhaps he's thinking of ways to get more value for photography.
Yesterday I talked about the inherent value that your photographs have and the disservice you do yourself when you let people use them however they like. Today, let’s take a look at some ways for you to benefit when the end user truly doesn’t have a budget for your work.
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It does sound a little strange but sometimes there are legitimate reasons as to why an organization or publication cannot pay license fees at the applicable market rate. Often this will occur when you initiate the contact. If the clients approaches you and requests images for free, it should set your warning bells off. So let’s work on the assumption that the client’s reasons for not being able to pay are acceptable – and if you didn’t read Sunday’s post on Pitfalls, you should because I mentioned two commonly heard unacceptable reasons.
The first thing to look for is what does the client have that you can benefit from? Before going any further, I should emphasize that a contract is still necessary even when money is not changing hands. Always have a written contract. If you don’t know much or anything about contracts, take a look at my earlier post on contracts for an overview or John Harrington’s excellent and essential book Best Business Practices for Photographers, Second Edition
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For the sake of example, I’ll look at a local community newspaper. While they are often owned by larger media conglomerates, the local editions often have very limited budgets. Say you have a photo that you want them to run. Remember here that you have initiated the contact. What can they offer you in lieu of money? For a local community newspaper, if you are setting yourself up as a photographer to serve that community, perhaps they could run a small ad for you, or a classified listing. Maybe a small feature introducing you to the community is possible.
What about something larger? A publication may be able to offer you access to people and places that you wouldn’t normally get into. If you negotiate limited rights for the publication while at the same time reserving your right to market and license the work elsewhere, it could be a plausible solution for you. This really only applies though in situations where you’d be unable to shoot the job otherwise.
When you come across a request to use an image for free, ask yourself these two questions first.
1.Who initiated the contact?
2.What can they offer you in lieu of money that you need?
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