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A common stumbling block among new photographers is how to sell their photography work and the role of licenses (a usage agreement) in managing the rights that their work automatically holds.

I’ll cover copyright in another post but for the purposes of this post lets assume you live in the UK, USA or one of the many countries where the creator of the image is automatically the holder of the copyright in that image.

So, you’ve created your masterpiece and you are the holder of the copyright in your image. What now? What’s the point of owning the copyright and more to the point - why do many people who want your photo also want your copyright?!!

Answer: because holding copyright (the right to copy) is valuable to the owner

You might see copyright also referred to as intellectual property (IP). The Government run UK Intellectual Property Office define IP as:

Intellectual property (IP) can allow you to own things you create in a similar way to owning physical property. You can control the use of your IP, and use it to gain reward. This encourages further innovation and creativity.

So where does licensing fit in?

Lets recap at this point. As the creator of the image you are both

• the copyright owner and
• the owner of the intellectual property rights of the image

If someone else (your client or a third party or a buyer of one of your images on sale as a stock image) wants to use your image then you are able to let them use your IP by granting them permission. In photography this permission takes the form of a license to use. It’s like any other paper license that sets out terms and conditions for the use of something.

The license to use needs to set out the precise rights you are granting. When we license images we need to set out:

1. media type (what media will your image be used in - print, web, press ads, point of sale, billboards)
2. territory (where will your image be seen - Region/State only, Country only, Continent, Worldwide)
3. duration of license (how long will your image be used for - 3 months, 1 year, 2 years)

This usage agreement will be set depending on the needs of your client or the buyer of your rights-managed stock image (this “menu driven licensing” approach does not apply to Royalty Free images which I will cover in another tutorial)

Unsurprisingly, the more usage (get used to that word, its key in understanding pricing in the commercial world of photography) that is required of your image, the more you should charge when pricing the license to use.

Important! Commissioned work should never be sold “Royalty Free” (i.e. you charge only for the creation but not the end usage) because it is a bespoke image created specifically for your client. It cannot be bought “off the shelf”.

Let’s take a look at a typical license to use, courtesy of the license available from the UK Association of Photographers

Here’s the license as a pdf download: Sample image licence

So as you can see, its a very simple document that explicity states what uses you are granting (and selling) to your client or the end buyer of your image. If you aren’t using licences in your commercial photography business you should be! You can use a licence even if you are just starting out - you don’t need to be a top end professional photographer, we all have the same rights in our images (country dependent) as each other.

Pricing your licence will be the subject of another post very soon!

PP

Tags: copyright, intellectual property, licences, licenses, Photography Business

If you found this article helpful you may also like to read:

• Why photo credit lines aren’t worth the paper they’re written on (0)
• Understanding licensing types: Royalty Free image licences (1)
• Understanding licensing types: Rights Ready Image licences (0)
• Understanding licensing types: Rights Protected or Exclusive image licences (0)
• Understanding licensing types: Rights Managed image licences (0)