An issue that often confounds photographers is the amount of compensation they should pay a model upon the sale of a stock photograph. It’s a situation that arises when you want to shoot a spec shot, but, you don’t have the financial resources to pay for the model’s time.

Most models, especially friends, are happy to work with you in exchange for prints. Adding the incentive of sharing some of the profit from the stock sale of the image is good business and usually makes it easier to get a signature on a model release. It also enhances your reputation, and, puts you in a better position to solicit more modeling favors in the future.

The best and easiest way to calculate fair compensation for a model who poses in spec image for you is the 25/10 rule. For every 2500.00 dollars you make with the image, allocate ten percent to your model. So if you have an image that yields a 750.00 stock sale, keep all the money for yourself. But, as soon as that image accumulates 2500.00 in total sales, write your model a check for 250.00.

The same rule applies at the high end as well. If you sell an image for 11,000.00 write your model a check for 1,000.00 which takes into account the first four occurrences of 2500.00 - but does not include the additional 1000.00 which is considered part of the 5th iteration of the 2500.00 mark.

Every time that I present a check to a model I get a million thanks. Even if the amount is only 250.00, the models truly appreciate the consideration. But more than anything else, having a reputation as a photographer that takes care of their talent is worth a hundred times more than the ten percent check you write.

Popularity: 36% [?]

If there was a stupid mistake to be made as an advertising photographer, I made it. Not by design. It’s just that no one told me that being a commercial photographer required more business acumen than the ability to sign a charge card slip. I was happily living the delusion that, one day, I would be fabulously successful and all that business stuff would be taken care of by my people.

Unfortunately I had no people representing me at the time I made one of the most costly errors of my career. Ridiculously, I didn’t know it was a costly error until I got people or more accurately, a person, my agent, to educate me about my blunder. From that day forward I became much more diligent about the business side of my career. One of the first things I learned is that having people to tell you how much your mistakes cost you - costs a lot of money.

A little over a year ago, I was asked to write a book based on the articles I’ve writen about the photography industry. The book came out at the end of October, and Chris Garrett was kind enough to let me write a post about it here on DSLR Blog. Below is an excerpt about the mistake I mention above.

When I started shooting, life was simple. I would shoot a model test or a magazine spread and get paid a fixed amount of money for it. The fees were rarely negotiable and usually dictated by the market. Simple! Then I landed my first advertising assignment. I was shooting a small regional ad for a big client at a worldwide agency. I was being treated like a big shot, with valet parking and cappuccinos at all the meetings. It was thrilling. I figured those business-minded photographers with their percentages, markups, usage rights, and agents didn’t know what they were doing. Why should I complicate things? I was getting good money for an easy shot and I didn’t have to pay an agent. I concluded that those other photographers were old school and I was new school, all about the art. I completely screwed myself.

Somewhere between the valet guy parking my car and my second cappuccino I signed away all my rights to the image. The image was shot so well that the client decided to upgrade the ad from regional to national. It ran for three years. A hindsight assessment revealed that my cocky little pen stroke had cost me thirty thousand dollars in additional usage fees.

If you get a chance, give the book a read. Many thanks to Chris and the readers of DSLR Blog for your time.

All the best
Lou Lesko

Popularity: 11% [?]

It is an occupational imperative. When you least expect it, you’ll receive a phone call out of the blue from a friend, ex-lover or relation that has just started a new business, or attained some sort of notoriety that requires a photograph. As the details of their situation unfolds, the conversation will inevitably wind around to the least profitable phrase in the English language for photographers; “I need a favor.”

(more…)

Popularity: 18% [?]