Recently at the OP HQ we read an interesting blog by a landscape photographer focusing on the costs of images and the rights of copyright. http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmueller/6643032477/in/photostream
The topic of copyrighting and credit is of high value to us here at Octane Photographic, like any other professional photographer we do not stand for our images being stolen from our archive and being reposted to websites and social networking sites. Especially when the time is taken to remove all copyright from the image, the copyright is there to protect our images and in turn bring us business. Removing the watermark from the image takes time, though this does not mean we will not recognize our image, our portfolio may be large but we know the shots which we have taken. When copyright is removed, it is called ‘Theft of Intellectual Property’ this term means that the original creative thought or design which any person has created which has commercial value and has been trademarked, copyrighted, or patented. More information on theft of intellectual property can be found here – http://www.diversifiedriskmanagement.com/articles/intellectual-property-theft.html
We thought we would price two of our images like photographer from the blog has done to show how much it costs us to do what we do….
The image shown above is taken with the cheaper end of our photography kit.
- 7D – £1,079 + 17-40mm Len – £595 = £1,674
- Lens HD filter – £70
- Memory card -£200
- Train from HQ to Airport – £15
- Travel to Sweden from UK – £100
- Train to hotel – £50
- Nights stay in hotel – £70
- Hotel to stage to take image – £30
- Card reader – £50
- Mac & editting software – £1500
- Clothes for the snow conditions – £100
- Media application for media – £1000
Total = £4,859 + six hours standing in snow at -28c
Taken with the dearer kit which we use –
- 1D – £4,099 + 500mm Lens – £5,500 = £13,358
- Memory card -£200
- Car hire to Dover – £40
- Dover to Spa – £100
- Nights stay in hotel – £80
- Car hire & petrol in Belgium – £50
- Card reader – £50
- Mac & editting software – £1500
Total = £15,378
The costings take into consideration set up cost of equipment to take the image, just because the image is shot in digital it doesn’t mean that it is free to take and edit.
Next time when looking at work by any photographer, think of their set up fee’s, time, effort and learning of equipment and editing software before putting the image down to being just a photograph.
Credit does not pay bills, so think before reposting copyrighted images to any source.
