John G. Blair
Chairman, Picade, LLC, a photographer-owned stock and assignment agency
John G. Blair studio

Thanks for your positive feedback. Firstly on file sizes. Have a look on the Fotolia site: http://en.fotolia.com/Info/SizesAndUses I believe these are the standards used by others as well for Xs to XL

I suggest that if you want to use only parts of the model (like xs and s) you can publish the whole matrix but put ‘call’ in the prices you want to negotiate on the phone. You can experiment by adding more or less prices vs ‘call’ in the cells.

You can also make any decission you like on the actual level of pricing. The key of the model is the combo usage/file size and, as you mentioned, the ability to publish prices upfront to clients.

Perhaps there ae other people with ideas as well. I would like the feedback to come back ere so we can retain some sense of control and development. But if you want to start using it, feel free. I can send the excell version as well

Marco

Could you share with me what the typical sizes would be? You mention sizes like clothing, which is great because most consumers are well aware of these. I’d like to know what the typical pixel size would be for xs, s, m. l, xl. Thank you for sharing.

What are you thoughts on a photography site that might offer pricing up front on xs, s and m sizes but continue to have RM on L and XL image requests?

My experience to date has been advertising, catalog, fashion, editorial photography, corporate photography; so exposure to stock photography is admittedly thin,
limited to the stock my friends & associates sell and the tails of stock photo sales that I hear about from my ex-wife whom works at Getty.

The fact that it is difficult to keep track of usage, terms, multiple sources and such should not be the reason to cut expenses that trickle down to the photographers rates.
Having sold stock, thankfully to Vanity Fair I can tell you first hand that in many instances the photographer makes only 30-50% per sale a 30% being the norm.
And all too often while the publisher may pay that stock photo invoice in a reasonable amount of time the photographer all too often will get a check maybe quarterly.

Your example of 10 images for $100 seems extremely low. I’ve never heard of any photographer getting less than $150 per image for magazine usage.
Getty being the 800 lb gorilla does seem to hold the cards over most. however despite their best efforts they too have images stolen, most often by publications and web sites outside of the united sates. Calls, emails, and invoices are sent in an attempt to collect on images used with out license and 90% of the time those are ignored.
And believe it or not those same offenders will later purchase select images, and again continue using beyond the license date.

You may have even seen the posts by APA & ASMP members that found dozens of their images being used last year on an automobile manufactures web site.
Emails were ignored until the lawyers got involved only then were the images removed. No compensation that I am aware of.

So piracy is not limited to music or movies, it also happens to photographers, bloggers having their text/articles cut and pasted to others blogs even stropping of the writers copyright notice. Happened to me twice last year by another photographer. Yup, he ignored the emails too.

The fact is there are too many people in business that have little to no respect for the works, knowledge and efforts of others.
Running several web sites, producing videos, and even a magazine both online and soon print I am well aware of the cost of doing business.
Employees are the biggest expenses and I pay mine (5 Freelancers) far better than others. I have 1 gentleman that when working for me makes in 2 days what he would other wise earn in 5 at his regular photo job(s). But than again I expect the best from them and they deliver.

I don’t think many people realize that making great images is not just grabbing a cheap DSLR and popping on an on camera flash and holding down the button praying that you get 1 useable image. Professional photographers who have been working for years know the difference between lighting and production values that make a CEO look trustworthy, a product look valuable and worth purchasing.
And even something as simple as getting a great shot of a kid playing basketball will look better from a pro than what you’ll find on flicker of other site that someone shot with their iPhone. These are the images that make people stop and look at a web page or a magazine page.
This is what sells products and magazines.
The perfect example of this is any magazine kiosk in NYC.
Simply compare and contrast the quality of content of the magazines that have gone out of business in the last 3 years and those that are still selling to niche audiences at $35.00 a piece.
Be it web sites or magazines people will when they can afford to, pay for quality.

Certainly the amount of and need for web images and content is growing but if you kill the cow you get no milk.
Photographers can not afford to make pretty pictures if they can not be assured of getting paid a reasonable amount for the time and efforts that they spend/invest.

To that I should point out that on average a freelance commercial photographer is only shooting for a total of about 5-6 months of the year. That meaning billable days to several clients. Those invoices on average get paid 180 days later. Which means the photographer has put out his money for a clients job and prays they will see the money.
The remaining days when the photographer is not shooting he is doing pre or post production that falls outside of the billing spectrum, and he is doing sales and marketing in order to get the next job.

So how does anyone stay in business at $10.00 per image.
It would be great if we were all named Leibovitz, Seliger, Meisel, Klein, Eccles, Ockenfels
but those photographers account for about 5% of the total working photographers that after expenses and taxes make about $30,00 – 60,000 a year at best
A quick poll will reveal that photographers selling stock can make anywhere from $200 – $1500 a year on sales, closer $200, and never consistently.
And of course the bigger names make lots more.

So next time you get an image for $10.00 ask yourself what that photographer with a kid will be able to do with that $10.00

Publishers here are keeping a very close eye on the recent events in the U.K. concerning the ‘Orphan works’ laws.
This too has been an issue in the U.S. but seems to have been tabled for a while.
In the U.K. when the law does take effect publishers will essentialy have free regain to use images for free whose owners they can not locate or make contact with.
This may also end up being the case in the U.S. in the coming years.
which means that as is the case in South Africa all photographers will or could end up being work for hire and have no rights to the copyright of their works or creations.

Golly, this business stuff is just so much fun.