Dennis S. Rito
09-18-2007, 12:17 PM
According to Jeff Sedlik, “The number one issue with photographers is that they don’t understand the value of their own work in the marketplace and how to best leverage that value to succeed in business.” As a past president of the Advertising Photographers of America, an internationally recognized photographer responsible for dozens of award-winning advertising campaigns, a professor at the prestigious Art Center College of Design, and a 2005 International Center of Photography (ICP) “Industry Leader of the Year,” Sedlik is uniquely qualified to offer his insightful perspective on the photography industry.
He believes that many photographers get into the business of photography for the wrong reason. “They think it will be easy money,” says Sedlik, “but once turning pro, they quickly learn that photography is a business and that earning a living in that business involves quite a bit more than just pressing a shutter button. “We are artists, and our medium is photography. But, with the exception of photographers working exclusively in the fine art realm, we are not in the business of making or selling photographs. We are in the business of licensing rights to our customers. There is a common misconception that licensing applies only to commercial and editorial photographers, but even wedding and portrait photographers are in the licensing business, whether they know it or not. They retain copyright ownership and limit their customers’ right to reproduce their images. That is licensing. Given the very real issues posed by the proliferation of cheap scanners and highquality printers, wedding and portrait photographers would be well served to revise their paperwork so as to clearly communicate a license to their customers, granting limited rights for personal use. This will help to ensure that their customers understand that the purchase of a sitting or a print does not give them ownership of the photographer’s copyright or the right to make unauthorized reproductions.”
During his term as APA president, Sedlik met with groups of photographers around the country and listened to their concerns. He heard from legions of talented photographers, frustrated by their inability to earn a comfortable living. These photographers are plagued by what Sedlik calls a “focus problem.” He says, “When determining their fees, many photographers mistakenly focus on the time it takes to create a photograph, rather than basing their fees on the value the photograph represents to their customer. Big mistake. Successful photographers focus on creating and communicating value to their clients. Value is the key.”
Even top photographers often make the mistake of undervaluing themselves, says Sedlik, often because of the pressure of high overhead costs (from studios, staff, etc.). Every photographer should know his/her cost of doing business— the cost involved in producing a shoot and all business overhead costs, expressed as a daily cost of doing business. Photographers who carefully consider these factors, along with the media use requested by their clients, can make informed decisions when determining an appropriate fee for any prospective assignment.
“I license my clients the right to exploit my photographs in their businesses. I am not selling them the photograph. Nor am I working at an hourly or daily rate. I ask them how they are going to use the photograph, and I base my fees on that license. In 20 years of business, with clients in every state, I have never sold a copyright. I concentrate on creating value for my clients and helping my clients to recognize that value. When I am successful, they are very glad to relicense additional rights in the future. It’s not uncommon for me to have five additional licenses after a job, far exceeding the fee originally received,” Sedlik says. At the same time, Sedlik ensures that the client gets what he/she needs—a gem of a photograph and the appropriate rights to use it.
He goes on to say that the typical client says he needs all the rights and doesn’t have a lot of money. Sedlik says this amounts to a test most photographers will fail—they won’t even ask about how the photo will be used. Again he emphasizes that the issue is not the difficulty of the photo, nor the time involved in making the photo; it is more about the value of the photo to the client. Some jobs may be lost when the photographer fails to communicate the value to the client. But in the long run, the photographer will earn better fees, and re-licensing will generate far more revenue (and profit) over time than might be earned by working for a day rate.
Sedlik’s view of the future of the industry is also interesting. He says a photo used by a company such as Coca-Cola® can be worth millions to them, yet they could potentially get such an image for as little as $1.50 on a stock photo website. He also mentions a new development— stock agencies that provide stock photography “on request.” Rather than assigning work to a photographer or licensing an existing photo from a stock agency, clients can now order custom images from an agency, made to suit. The agency then assigns the shoot to five photographers, without reimbursing their production expenses, and with no guaranty of a fee or other compensation. The photographers shoot and upload digital images to the client’s lightbox within 72 hours, and the client takes his pick. Only the winning photographer gets paid and receives only 50% of a stock license fee and no expense reimbursement. The other photographers, after having invested their time and money in the shoot, get paid nothing, but the agency receives exclusive rights to offer their images on stock web sites. “This isn’t stock photography at all—it is assignment photography on spec, transferring all risk from the client to the photographer. The photographers who fall for the agency’s carefully crafted pitch are teaching our clients that there is no need to hire a photographer, no need to pay expenses, and no need to license existing stock photography. This is not a sustainable business practice. It’s an example of photographers being their own worst enemies,” says Sedlik.
He sees the next wave being stock and assignment photography produced in Japan, India and China, at first for local clients but then for export and use in the American market. I asked jokingly if this means photographers should go back to school to study accounting. No, Sedlik says, photographers just need to keep their eyes open to such changes, learn about business, minimize their overhead, and be willing to diversify.
Sedlik has diversified to such an extent that the word “photographer” begins to fall short of describing what he does. For example, behind a black curtain in Sedlik’s studio is a highly profitable little business occupying only 60 square feet of floor space, but providing one of Sedlik’s many streams of income. It’s a poster business: He sells beautiful, quad-tone posters of his images of jazz greats such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and BB King. Behind the black curtain is his stock of posters, mailing tubes and, frankly, not much more.
He advertises in jazz magazines, using bartered ad space earned by shooting magazine covers. He uses a telemarketing firm to answer calls from customers and email the orders to him. He also sells to all of the major distributors, and the posters appear in poster stores worldwide. His website, www.jazzandblues (http://www.jazzandblues) masters.com is also used to sell the posters. He has someone come in every few weeks to roll the posters.
With his emphasis on strategic business practices, it is not surprising that Sedlik has surveyed his customer base to find out what other posters they would be interested in. The results were revealing. Many of these musicians died before Sedlik had his first Brownie camera, but Sedlik was undeterred. He sought out existing images of John Coltrane and others and licensed the right to produce posters of those images. The business does well for Sedlik—his expenses are limited to printing, advertising, shipping and royalties. But the posters are of such high quality that people are happy to pay $34 for an unsigned poster and $50 for a signed one.
In addition to making posters, Sedlik shoots commercials, provides business consulting services to photographers, testifies as an expert witness, lectures to photographers’ groups, and teaches at the Art Center. He has won the Communication Arts Award of Excellence 10 times, and also received a Clio Award, the PDN/Nikon Self- Promotion Award, Mamiya Award of Excellence, Ozzie Award, The One Show award, and several Art Directors Club awards.
Sedlik is an expert on licensing and copyright in the photography industry, and in addition to testifying as an expert in copyright lawsuits, he provides consulting services to companies such as Adobe and Digimarc. As if that weren’t enough, he is also the president and CEO of the Picture Licensing Universal System (the PLUS Coalition), a non-profit trade association.
PLUS is a coalition of photographers, illustrators, designers, ad agencies, publishers and artist reps, all working together to create standards designed to simplify the licensing of images. It is an international effort, with dozens of trade associations involved, collectively representing hundreds of thousands of artists and clients worldwide.
Continue reading, click:
http://www.rangefindermag.com/magazine/Jan06/sedlik.tml
He believes that many photographers get into the business of photography for the wrong reason. “They think it will be easy money,” says Sedlik, “but once turning pro, they quickly learn that photography is a business and that earning a living in that business involves quite a bit more than just pressing a shutter button. “We are artists, and our medium is photography. But, with the exception of photographers working exclusively in the fine art realm, we are not in the business of making or selling photographs. We are in the business of licensing rights to our customers. There is a common misconception that licensing applies only to commercial and editorial photographers, but even wedding and portrait photographers are in the licensing business, whether they know it or not. They retain copyright ownership and limit their customers’ right to reproduce their images. That is licensing. Given the very real issues posed by the proliferation of cheap scanners and highquality printers, wedding and portrait photographers would be well served to revise their paperwork so as to clearly communicate a license to their customers, granting limited rights for personal use. This will help to ensure that their customers understand that the purchase of a sitting or a print does not give them ownership of the photographer’s copyright or the right to make unauthorized reproductions.”
During his term as APA president, Sedlik met with groups of photographers around the country and listened to their concerns. He heard from legions of talented photographers, frustrated by their inability to earn a comfortable living. These photographers are plagued by what Sedlik calls a “focus problem.” He says, “When determining their fees, many photographers mistakenly focus on the time it takes to create a photograph, rather than basing their fees on the value the photograph represents to their customer. Big mistake. Successful photographers focus on creating and communicating value to their clients. Value is the key.”
Even top photographers often make the mistake of undervaluing themselves, says Sedlik, often because of the pressure of high overhead costs (from studios, staff, etc.). Every photographer should know his/her cost of doing business— the cost involved in producing a shoot and all business overhead costs, expressed as a daily cost of doing business. Photographers who carefully consider these factors, along with the media use requested by their clients, can make informed decisions when determining an appropriate fee for any prospective assignment.
“I license my clients the right to exploit my photographs in their businesses. I am not selling them the photograph. Nor am I working at an hourly or daily rate. I ask them how they are going to use the photograph, and I base my fees on that license. In 20 years of business, with clients in every state, I have never sold a copyright. I concentrate on creating value for my clients and helping my clients to recognize that value. When I am successful, they are very glad to relicense additional rights in the future. It’s not uncommon for me to have five additional licenses after a job, far exceeding the fee originally received,” Sedlik says. At the same time, Sedlik ensures that the client gets what he/she needs—a gem of a photograph and the appropriate rights to use it.
He goes on to say that the typical client says he needs all the rights and doesn’t have a lot of money. Sedlik says this amounts to a test most photographers will fail—they won’t even ask about how the photo will be used. Again he emphasizes that the issue is not the difficulty of the photo, nor the time involved in making the photo; it is more about the value of the photo to the client. Some jobs may be lost when the photographer fails to communicate the value to the client. But in the long run, the photographer will earn better fees, and re-licensing will generate far more revenue (and profit) over time than might be earned by working for a day rate.
Sedlik’s view of the future of the industry is also interesting. He says a photo used by a company such as Coca-Cola® can be worth millions to them, yet they could potentially get such an image for as little as $1.50 on a stock photo website. He also mentions a new development— stock agencies that provide stock photography “on request.” Rather than assigning work to a photographer or licensing an existing photo from a stock agency, clients can now order custom images from an agency, made to suit. The agency then assigns the shoot to five photographers, without reimbursing their production expenses, and with no guaranty of a fee or other compensation. The photographers shoot and upload digital images to the client’s lightbox within 72 hours, and the client takes his pick. Only the winning photographer gets paid and receives only 50% of a stock license fee and no expense reimbursement. The other photographers, after having invested their time and money in the shoot, get paid nothing, but the agency receives exclusive rights to offer their images on stock web sites. “This isn’t stock photography at all—it is assignment photography on spec, transferring all risk from the client to the photographer. The photographers who fall for the agency’s carefully crafted pitch are teaching our clients that there is no need to hire a photographer, no need to pay expenses, and no need to license existing stock photography. This is not a sustainable business practice. It’s an example of photographers being their own worst enemies,” says Sedlik.
He sees the next wave being stock and assignment photography produced in Japan, India and China, at first for local clients but then for export and use in the American market. I asked jokingly if this means photographers should go back to school to study accounting. No, Sedlik says, photographers just need to keep their eyes open to such changes, learn about business, minimize their overhead, and be willing to diversify.
Sedlik has diversified to such an extent that the word “photographer” begins to fall short of describing what he does. For example, behind a black curtain in Sedlik’s studio is a highly profitable little business occupying only 60 square feet of floor space, but providing one of Sedlik’s many streams of income. It’s a poster business: He sells beautiful, quad-tone posters of his images of jazz greats such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and BB King. Behind the black curtain is his stock of posters, mailing tubes and, frankly, not much more.
He advertises in jazz magazines, using bartered ad space earned by shooting magazine covers. He uses a telemarketing firm to answer calls from customers and email the orders to him. He also sells to all of the major distributors, and the posters appear in poster stores worldwide. His website, www.jazzandblues (http://www.jazzandblues) masters.com is also used to sell the posters. He has someone come in every few weeks to roll the posters.
With his emphasis on strategic business practices, it is not surprising that Sedlik has surveyed his customer base to find out what other posters they would be interested in. The results were revealing. Many of these musicians died before Sedlik had his first Brownie camera, but Sedlik was undeterred. He sought out existing images of John Coltrane and others and licensed the right to produce posters of those images. The business does well for Sedlik—his expenses are limited to printing, advertising, shipping and royalties. But the posters are of such high quality that people are happy to pay $34 for an unsigned poster and $50 for a signed one.
In addition to making posters, Sedlik shoots commercials, provides business consulting services to photographers, testifies as an expert witness, lectures to photographers’ groups, and teaches at the Art Center. He has won the Communication Arts Award of Excellence 10 times, and also received a Clio Award, the PDN/Nikon Self- Promotion Award, Mamiya Award of Excellence, Ozzie Award, The One Show award, and several Art Directors Club awards.
Sedlik is an expert on licensing and copyright in the photography industry, and in addition to testifying as an expert in copyright lawsuits, he provides consulting services to companies such as Adobe and Digimarc. As if that weren’t enough, he is also the president and CEO of the Picture Licensing Universal System (the PLUS Coalition), a non-profit trade association.
PLUS is a coalition of photographers, illustrators, designers, ad agencies, publishers and artist reps, all working together to create standards designed to simplify the licensing of images. It is an international effort, with dozens of trade associations involved, collectively representing hundreds of thousands of artists and clients worldwide.
Continue reading, click:
http://www.rangefindermag.com/magazine/Jan06/sedlik.tml