Should we just give free photos for promos?


Status
Not open for further replies.

ragdolll

New Member
Aug 30, 2004
36
0
0
HI all, I have abit of a delimma.

I have a friend whos an up and coming well known person and I have just had some casual shooting sessions with her just for fun .

She has some gigs lined up, some for town councils some for other organisations and they usually ask her for photos to do promo posters and stuff.

She has asked me for some photos of her so that she can give it to them .

I dont mind doing it for her as shes my friend but I cant help but feel kinda strange about it .

Should she be providing the photos? These are paid gigs and if they are using a well known person to headline and promote an event should we then be asking for money for the photos?

what would you guys do?

thanks in advance for the advice.
 

that's pretty tricky. I'm not sure if town councils have a budget for publicity design. if they are producing the event they should be in charge of getting the publicity material. for her own sake, they should be getting photos done for her. in the case where your photos of her look great, she should refer them to you to work out a charge for using your photos.
Of course, I'm not sure what kind of deal your friend has for these gigs, you need to check if she's supposed to handle her own publicity material (I doubt it)

you shouldn't be giving away your work, it'll undermine your value and the market value of photography in general.
 

mattlock said:
that's pretty tricky. I'm not sure if town councils have a budget for publicity design. if they are producing the event they should be in charge of getting the publicity material. for her own sake, they should be getting photos done for her. in the case where your photos of her look great, she should refer them to you to work out a charge for using your photos.
Of course, I'm not sure what kind of deal your friend has for these gigs, you need to check if she's supposed to handle her own publicity material (I doubt it)

you shouldn't be giving away your work, it'll undermine your value and the market value of photography in general.


yeah i agree. i would imagine that you're kinda feeling a little indignant at some point in time or other that you're not being paid for the work that you're doing, considering that it's town council stuff. maybe you'd like to talk to her. :)
 

shes kinda new at this and she doesn't have representation(i.e manager). she says that up to this point, people have been asking HER for photos when they hire her for gigs, to do the publicity materials.

It seems like a cop-out to me.

Shes a good friend and Im doing up her publicity stuff for her. which is fine . but when that stuff is used to promote events and stuff. it crosses the line.

How would you guys go about approaching this situation?
 

ragdolll said:
shes kinda new at this and she doesn't have representation(i.e manager). she says that up to this point, people have been asking HER for photos when they hire her for gigs, to do the publicity materials.

It seems like a cop-out to me.

Shes a good friend and Im doing up her publicity stuff for her. which is fine . but when that stuff is used to promote events and stuff. it crosses the line.

How would you guys go about approaching this situation?

hmm...it's a tricky situation la.

1) you can ask her to talk to town council people and see if they are willing to set aside a promotional budget. BUT, she may think you're a bit insensitive towards her by asking for money. (girls lah!)

2) you can just continue shooting and hope...and pray...that you get paid.

for me, i'd do no 1 la. it's difficult no doubt. but sit her down over coffee bean or lunch and talk to her about it la. just mention casually: eh, why don't you ask your boss to pay me lah... something like that.

yup.....
 

just tell her that you're ok with her using your photos for herself but if she wants to use it for publicity then must treat it professionally lah.
my friends take photos for their friends but their friends understand that it is fair to pay decently for time taken for photos
you can present it this way, a portion of money should be going towards equipment fee and usage, wear and tear, plus your time (including editting and retouching).
the first time I did a shoot for friends I told them that they have to pay for equipment fees, which is reasonable to demand for.
 

hey.....i think you really shd tell her to talk to the town council for a budget. afterall, the photo copyright belongs to you. and you have a right to demand that the town council stop using it. that is within your legal rights. but of course its not nice to do that la. so you gotta think of a way to do it nicely. :)

plus, you can ask the council to give acknowledgement to the fact that you're the photographer. this is all within the boundaries of copyright law. yup...

think about it la
 

what a difficult situation.

torn between being looked upon as a 'money grabber' and getting what you rightly deserve.

It just doesn't feel right to let others use your work to earn money when you give them for free.

Its quite a difficult situation coz she will probably have to pay you from her own pocket.

I would suggest telling her straight to the point and that you don't feel right when you are giving her the pictures for free so that she can use it to earn money. Best if you can do it without offending her, so that it is easier for her to go back to you for more pictures next time.

If she refuses to pay and make you feel that you don't have the right to charge her then... don't give her the pictures(of course don't say straight to the face that u dun wanna give her.. agree to give her the photos and then say things like "oh no! my CF card corrupted")

She will learn soon learn that photography isn't for free.

She should be the one feeling awkard about the matter. Not you.
 

What I would do?

I would pass her the photos, either watermarked or stamped "sample", "copyright, all rights reserved" for her to pass to the town councils. If they want the photos, then they come straight to me. The point is to try not to sandwich the friend.

Whatever happens next is between me and the town council. Of course if I want to help my friend then I won't (be the first to) talk about money and just touch on the copyright issues.

Anything for brownie points:lovegrin: :lovegrin: :lovegrin:
 

After all town council always has a fix budget to do a set of activities.
Paying her + paying for her photo.
or
Paying her (and imply that she has to provide photo).

Just imaging if town council engage some famous movie star and Photograph is provided for
free as part of the deal. This will make your friend less competitive. I am sure you do not
want to make her less competitive, but can always try....
 

Status
Not open for further replies.