Charge for electronic copy?

[skydivart 0]

I have someone asking for an electronic copy of a photo I took. What would you charge for it? Should I sell it in that form, knowing in this day and age they can take a picture and have it duplicated as many times as they want?

touch someone today

[XDV 0]

for myself I prefert to sell only the print, and keep track of it.

of course they can scan it but it won't be the same result

[quade 4]

Depends on the photo.

Let's say a guy asks you to go up and shoot some stills of him in freefall. You have a digital camera and do quality work. For this service I know of at least one camera flyer that has changed his rate to slot + $60 and that would include three 8x10 prints. Could be 3 of the same or three different -- client's choice. Seems pretty fair. If that same client wants a CD burned of those photos, the camera flyer charges him a little extra for burning the CD, but that's pretty much it.

To me, that seems pretty fair as long as the client knows he can't use the photos for anything but personal use -- no adds, no magazine submittals. I mean, you've already gotten some money out of the client and it's not like he's going to be taking any money out of your pocket by selling photos to his friends. Sure, you'll lose that 20x30 print you could have sold him, but he probably doesn't know how to go about making something that large good anyway. He probably just wants a nice photo he can email to his friends and family.

On the other hand . . . say it's a 100-way and I'm selling 8x10s at $20 a pop . . . uh, no, we're not giving you a high quality electronic copy so that you can make prints for your other 10 friends.

Check this out. I recently did a two plane formation load event. I'd come down from the load, dub video and then leave the dubbing area to do other stuff: check equipment, download stills, blah, blah, blah. I come back to the debrief station and I find a guy who has hooked his camera up to it and is making his own dub of the event! Nice eh?

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[jdhill 0]

I gennerally don't give out (or sell) full quality soft copies of my pictures. Under certain circumstances, I will, but that is only to people I know.

I don't beleive any of the, "I just want it for my desktop" stuff... for those folks I might do a dumbed down copy with watermarks...

If they bug you about it, then charge at least 3x the amount you would charge for the largest print I will make, and put your copyright info on the file. For example, if the picture in question is a full frame 6mp shot, it will produce a 20x30 without any problem, say your rate for a 20x30 is $75, charge $225, and have a little copyright thingy in the corner. It might be extream, but hey, if they are willing to pay it...

Just my opinion.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. - Edmund Burke