Selling Photos

[byte]

Anyone here have experience with selling railroad photos they've taken? A photo of mine (this one: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 854&nseq=1) has attracted the interest of a high-profile engineering firm from which I recieved an email saying that they'd like to use it for an internal brochure and sales brochure, limited to around 500 copies. I've heard that the minimum anyone should ask for is $500, although given that this is merely an internal publication, that price seems to be a bit much to ask for. Any advice would be appreciated!

[railohio]

Wow! The last time I was in there those were still dark and there was a train sheet on the desk!

As for the value of your photo, unless you're a professional deriving a majority of your income from photography, you can forget $500. It might not hurt to ask for that, but they might not give you a chance to come down, either. I've always $100 for the use of my photos in books and such and have never had a complaint.

[byte]

Thanks for the kind words, railohio. The picture was taken on a CERA trip last fall and for whatever reason, I'm unable to find any other pictures online from it. There was a whole crowd of railfans looking in there and snapping away, but I staked out a good spot in front!

And I'll go with the $100. I talked to a rail photographer-turned newspaper photo editor friend of mine a little while ago and he thought the same amount would be appropriate for such a publication.

[Chessie GM50]

I would've suggested $125 believe it or not...

[EMTRailfan]

Wow! The last time I was in there those were still dark and there was a train sheet on the desk!

As for the value of your photo, unless you're a professional deriving a majority of your income from photography, you can forget $500. It might not hurt to ask for that, but they might not give you a chance to come down, either. I've always $100 for the use of my photos in books and such and have never had a complaint.

Expanding on what railohio said, you could always ask them to make YOU a fair offer, and decide if that is fair or not. If not, try to wheel with them. $$$ would also depend if they just want to use your photo for the brochure, or if they want the rights to it for future use too.

[Otto Vondrak]

Are you selling them the exclusive rights or one-time usage?

[byte]

From what I can get out of it, one-time usage.

Confirming this. Also haven't heard back from the company, which had set up their own RP account and favorited several different dispatcher's panel shots (including mine). I would guess that emails were sent out to the owners of all of those shots, and the one with the best offered deal (i.e., free or less than my $100 offer) would be picked.