Friday, February 17, 2012

Photographer to Model Tips: Innovation Tip to Pricing Structure for Models...

The industry standard is you as the photographer pay one set rates to a model of a per hour rate and you pay for the model's likenesses rights to use for commercial purposes.... BUT there is one problem what if I don't want to or plan to use the photo(s) for commercial purposes? Tough, you must pay a premium rate that has one size fits all in usage rights of the likeness of the model provides. 


Here's a tip and I know agencies won't approve of because they'll lose money of this tip, but if you're an independent freelance model without an agency I recommend have a set of rates that's for non-commercial usage (like portfolio and self-promotion usage only) and another set of rates for commercial usage only. Here's why, rates as a photographer generally is much higher for commercial usage photos than non-commercial usage photos. Let's say a photographer charges $100 for personal usage photos only, if you'd like to use those photos for commercial usage that $100 may become at least $400 for the same exact product but only difference is the usage rights. It may not seem its a big deal right away but legally it is because then you'll have the rights to use photos commercially and you'll be able to do whatever the parties agreed to that's allowed for commercial usage.

I have lower rates for non-commercial usage, and same goes for most photographers out there, same should go for models if they want more consistent work. It would be nice to get commercial work only all the time yes, but in reality those jobs are very geographically more likely to get those jobs in very popular cities like NYC, Philly, LA, etc... Do more personal usage jobs to get more paid jobs instead of waiting around for photographers who are willing to pay premium rates to a model. Book yourself an hour or more with photographers who just want to experiment, learn, or portfolio build and knowingly they won't be using the photos commercially that could easily increase jobs as a model. Just be careful with contracts, ensure usage rights on the contract is strictly on what you agree to for a non-commercial usage it should say that in the contract, and same goes for commercial usage contract (model releases).

You want some innovation in this industry? Do this now and you'll get more gigs because most photographers in the world are new photographers and always craving to learn more, be their subject and get paid to do so just don't charge them rates that commercial photographers would be paying for...



Disagree or Agree to the above content? Make comments here with questions, comments, concerns, etc. or send them to my email at Chris@ChrisAdval.com and I'll respond to them as soon as possible. Thank You and much appreciated!

Like this article? Did you learn anything, want more? Check out related articles in the following blog series articles... Photographer to Model Tips and Models and Photographers Tips

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