Editorial Photographer's FORUM
The Editorial Photographer's Forum is an excellent site to learn about the varied possibilities in editorial photography.
You mention my book, Sell & ReSell Your Photos . The book deals with freelance editorial stock photography. I choose to call it the New Generation of editorial stock photography.
With emerging markets coming on the scene, and new approaches to selling to these markets, it's inevitable that we as stock photographers will take new approaches to pricing our work.
In my book (and also in my new book, sellphotos.com), I suggest that the editorial stock photographer doesn't need to be of the classic genre, that is, on salary with a newspaper or on the staff of a magazine or publishing house that directs continual assignment work to their staff photographers. Independent New Generation photographers can, on their own, focus on a particular area or areas of interest, shoot in those areas, while finding and working with the markets that need material in those highly specialized interest (subject) areas.
This, to me, is the true sense of being a stock photographer. Making pictures in an area that you thoroughly enjoy. To be free to shoot what you feel like shooting, without the constraints of industry to direct your shooting schedule.
The markets you will be dealing with as a New Generation editorial stock photographer are usually publishers that deal in volumes of photos, rather than single pictures. Your first sale might be a single picture. But afterwards the publisher, film producer, magazine editor, book editor, CD-ROM producer, corporate designer, will decide to work with you because they discern that your interest and talents match their special interest area. They will then encourage you by buying your pictures in quantity.
This brings me to the question you asked about pricing.
The above publication producers most always have a budget for each of their projects and periodicals. Their range of payment will vary depending on several factors that go into the production formula for a publishing project. The budget for photos at these markets is decided by the management, not the photographer. As the photographer, where the choice comes in for you, is to weigh whether you want to work for a particular market and within their budget.
For example, usually small state or regional magazines will pay in the lower fee range. National magazines with a healthy circulation will pay in the higher range. As an editorial stock photographer working in any of these areas, you make the decision whether you want to work within lower budgets as well as go for the higher budget markets. You don't try to charge high prices to low-budget markets.
Arriving at a fee is a different process for the classic commercial stock photographer, working with ad agencies and for corporate projects. The commercial photographer must do some homework to determine the "going rates" for specific types of commercial work, and then determine what fee and day rate he wants to charge, and negotiate for each assignment, based on the specific project and the ad agency, pr company, or corporation he/she is dealing with. It's very similar to what members of APA (Advertising Photographers of America) do on each project.
This is where the pricing issue can be confusing at first for the person just breaking into editorial stock. For a photographer coming to the stock field from the advertising arena, or from the classic commercial editorial field (of the 80's and 90's), it is a shock to see the lower prices in editorial stock photography. The classic commercial photographer is often unaware that this is made up for by the fact that photobuyers in the editorial stock field frequently buy not single pictures (as in the advertising classic commercial field), but in volume, due to the nature of their needs and to encourage the specialized stock photographers to stay with them.
Sure, it would be nice to get advertising rates for editorial stock photography in the publishing industry, but that world doesn't exist, unless you are shooting only covers, or you're a celebrity and have an NFL-type contract with the publishing house.
Another related problem that photographers in classic commercial stock work encounter, is that whereas in the past they've been financially successful in shooting generic stock imagery, they have now been set back by the advent of Royalty Free (Clip Art) photos. Fees for generic commercial stock photos have plummeted. This was bound to happen, just as the exclusive department stores were out-raced and under-priced by chain discount houses. The old rules you learned in the last century in Marketing 101 don't apply anymore.
For the New Generation editorial stock photographer - this letdown has not occurred. With thanks to the World Wide Web, editorial photobuyers have realized they can now search out editorial pictures that exactly match their specific needs. They are no longer dependent on a generic picture of a "bird." They can now locate a specific bird, and not just a woodpecker, but a pileated woodpecker, and in various stages of life, feeding, nesting, and so on because the photographer is knowledgeable and a specialist in ornithology. "Why not deal with the photographer who speaks my language?" the photobuyer asks.
The Web can locate highly specialized stock photographers for a buyer's specialized needs. Photobuyers can view the Web page of New Generation photographers who are specialists in specific subject areas, and select pictures they need in those specialized areas.
In fact a publisher might do a whole book (volume purchases) based on the knowledge that their administrative costs of finding specific editorial stock photos have been drastically reduced thanks to the advantages of the World Wide Web search system. This phenomenon will present new markets for New Generation editorial stock photographers who choose not to go the usual classic commercial stock route.
Pursuing a creative field, -- whether it is music, acting, writing, and so on -- is not an easy road. If it were, everyone would be doing it. However, if you have an abiding love of photography and an ardent
The Editorial Photographer's Forum is a good learning place. And a good place to visit regularly to keep up with trends and new ideas.(As is the PhotoSource International Web site, as you well know!) Keep in mind there are several fields or divisions of editorial photography. And these different divisions have different payment and fee systems.
The two main divisions of stock photography are editorial stock, and commercial stock. It's possible for a photographer to do both.
In my new book, sellphotos.com, in Chapter 4, page 73, I describe the differences between these two main types of stock photography and outline them in a chart. You'll find the chart reproduced at http://www.sellphotos.com/generation.html Best wishes for good E-marketing! -- Rohn Engh
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 Kerry Kolb |
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