mmatus

I have a customer who wants to buy three digital files? Do I lose all ownership of those files? She wants large files(30 x40) @300 dpi, so she can resize and print.
The weddings and Senior Portages I have done I have never released (My choice) the digital files. What is everyone opinion about selling digital files? If I want to do this I would charge $50 per file. Thanks for your time.


EQUIPMENT USED: Canon 7D Mark ll, Canon F-2.8 70-200mm.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

You can provide digital files, as JPG, with a limited use.

You lose ownership only if you give the exclusive rights for that person. In this case, ask for an arm, a leg, his/her first born and oh, yeah, their bicycle. (You may need that when gas goes through the roof again)

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Your camera makes images that are 3648x5472, so 30x40, 300 ppi images are not possible without considerable resampling (up-rezzing) which is never a great idea. You would have to go to 9000x12000, or 108 megapixels from 20 mp, which is 5x bigger. Clearly your client is clueless about what she wants. If she needs to make a 24x36 print, she only needs 6-8mp.

As far as your question, you can provide her with a license to use the pictures any way you would like them to be used, since they are yours forever, unless you sign that right away. Limited use in this case is merely a deterrent, since once she has the image she can make as many copies as she wants, and there is nothing you or anyone else can do about that. Sure, you can sue in small claims court, but if you win, you still have to collect, which can be nearly impossible and generally not with the time to pursue.

Do people ever come back and order more prints from you? That should figure in your real "lost opportunity" cost. If you sell prints and charge say $35 for a single 8x12, but never see the client again other than for another shoot, then that is typically all you can expect from the sale of an image, digital or not. Subtracting out your cost for the print, time to prep the image with your print lab, etc and that print probably cost you $5, so you are looking at $30 profit. If you can get $50 - $60 per digital image you are way ahead of the game.

picsman Loc: Scotland

Provide a personal license not a commercial license so that the files use are limited.

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

I think she wants to print 30x40 so just a large jpg will do. Since canon is 2:3, and she wants to print 30x40 some cropping will occur. If you decide to give her the files I would crop them before you send them in case they don't know what they are doing and your picture gets butchered. You could leave your watermark so even if they print extra copies your name follows.

Back to the original issue issue. If you give them a master what prevents them from post processing and screwing up your work. You are allowing someone to mess with your reputation and cause the phone to stop ringing. Be leery of getting into that quandary.

Zone-System-Grandpa Loc: Springfield, Ohio

++++++++++++++++++++

Excellent advice!

Wilderness Images Loc: Apache Junction, AZ.

I have agreed to sell the exclusive, yet limited, rights to my edited digital files for a fee of $35 each file. This grants the buyer the rights to make unlimited copies of the files for calendars and post cards (with my watermark) for a period of one year. During that one year period, I agree that I will not sell digital copies of the same photo to anyone else, yet I am still free to sell larger size prints. At the end of the time period, the files are to be returned to me with all of the customers rights to further use them terminated. This way I always remain the owner of the files.

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

...but without a monitoring service, you may not realise where it is being used if at all.

mmatus

Thank you for all the feed back,great suggestions.

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

A lotta trust going on. Files returned? How do you police that? Do they "cross their heart and hope to die" if they don't erase the file.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

The only digital files I will release are very small, very limited size and quality Jpegs. I do not want others making their own adjustments and prints, or just getting lousy prints and then showing the work as mine. That is what concerns me more than anything. For a fee, which is variable due to many considerations, I will provide a non-exclusive right. In cases where I get a model release to use the photos in advertising myself, I may be more generous. I have no one answer to this, as it depends. Hope this helps.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

You might not want to sell all the rights to your images. You can write a contract that gives them certain rights, but you retain the ownership. You need to ask them what they are asking for. A friend of mine was just offered $150 per image for about 3 or 4 with limited rights. The person may,or may not actually sell them. They may photoshop the image to look any way they like and then supply stores with the prints for sale. But they can not sell the images files to someone else to do with as they please.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I sell digital files all the time. It's no big deal and demand for it is increasing every year. But there are some very important considerations and licensing procedures.

First question is, what is her intended use? Personal or commercial?

If she just wants freedom to print them herself, using the printer of her choice to make a big print to display on her wall at home (and even reprint in the future), that's personal use. Displaying a smaller version on a personal website or sharing it somewhere online also would be personal use. I license this type of usage perpetually, non-transferrable and non-exclusively, with copyright remaining mine. I never sell "all rights" or ever, EVER transfer copyright ownership.

For personal use, I offer two sizes: "Low resolution" that are plenty for 4x5 or 4x6 prints, maybe 5x7 or online sharing and display (1200x1500 or 1200x1800 max), $8 apiece.. And "high resolution" big enough to make 8x10 to 8x12 size or slightly larger (usually about 2400x3000 or 2400x3600 pixels) for $18 apiece. If larger number of digital files are purchased at the same time, I offer some volume discounts, too. All images sold this way are "marked" with a small, unobtrusive "signature", with copyright info and license details embedded in the image EXIF and, optionally, as a plain txt file. The license also allows for third party to provide printing services or host the image on behalf of the licensee. Any other usage, transfer of usage rights, or modification of the image other than minor re-sizing requires additional, written approval of the the copyright owner (me!), which would only be given after negotiating additional payment.

30x40 inches @ 300 ppi is huge, though... and really makes me kinda suspicious that she might have a more commercial intention with the images. I'd be asking more questions. Lots more!

Using the image in one calendar to hang over her desk = personal usage. Using the image in a press run of 100 or 1000 or 10,000 calendars that will be sold = commercial usage. Using the image to make a dozen or twenty postcards to send to friends = personal usage. Using the image to make 10,000 or 100,000 postcards to sell = commercial usage. Using the file to make a 30x40 print to frame and hang on her living room wall = personal usage. Using it to offer up to 30x40 prints for sale on certain websites or in a local gallery = commercial usage.

Rates for commercial usage (including one-time editorial usage) are higher... much higher in some cases depending upon the type of use, quantities, any sort of exclusivity, rights of renewal, etc.

If her intentions are commercial, far more details about exact use of the image needs to be known, before any sort of price could be negotiated and determined. It could be structured as a single fee, up front... or as a per-item royalty on sales... or a combination of the two.

30x40 inches @ 300 ppi is doable... as noted up-rezzing will certainly be needed, but I disagree with previous response. I think that, assuming the image itself is a high quality capture, with care it could be done. However, for printing purposes 300 ppi is generally overkill. Printers I work with are happy with 170 ppi for prints that large... 5100x6800, or about 35 MP. There would be no discernible improvement in quality, merely by providing 300 ppi. vs 240 ppi... and little to be gained over 170 ppi with many printing processes for a very large print that will necessarily be viewed from some distance. $50 seems reasonable, for personal usage only such as I license, and considering the extra post-processing work that would be needed to make a 9000x12000 pixel file. If you end up making it that large, it might need to be burned it to disk and delivered or mailed, due to the size, rather than sent via a download (something like Dropbox might work... can't say for sure since I've never had reason to deal with that large a file).

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

If they are doing canvas wraps, you can usually get away with 150ppi...or at least I do at CGProprints. I've done that size and larger from my m4/3 sensor, so I'm confident that your 7Dii would be just fine.

http://www.cgproprints.com/faq#Wraps

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

If the odds of residual/additional sales of those images is nill go ahead and sell non-exclusive rights to them as JPEGs. That way you can still use them for promotion and if by some chance a party wants a picture from you you can still sell it.