Educating Clients About the Value of Photography, Part 2

Following up on the post I wrote the other day about educating clients, I had another opportunity to put my words into practice today.

This morning, I found a message in my email inbox that was sent from a photo intern at a national magazine. I had recently submitted some images to fill a specific request that they had sent me a couple of weeks ago, and the intern had let me know that the magazine was considering my images. However, she informed me that they had a small budget and could only pay $100 per photo.

That’s right, $100. And not just for a spot or quarter page use, they were looking to go full page, maybe even a two-page spread in a publication that has circulation of about 40,000 readers.

Rather than grumble, I called her up and gave her my standard spiel. Don’t worry, I didn’t let loose on her, in fact, I was extremely cordial. I realize that she doesn’t make the financial decisions for the magazine, and whenever I get in situations like this, I always express my understanding of the difficult position that photo editors are in.

They’ve actually got it tough. They like us. They WANT to use our imagery, because they know that good imagery matters. Unfortunately, their hands are tied by the people who hold the purse strings. They’re given a budget, which may or may not actually reflect the actual cost of acquiring visual content, are told not to exceed it, and then turned loose to find images that will fill the pages.

I actually had a very good, but honest conversation with the intern. I explained that a magazine that will charge $30,000 to an advertiser for a full page spot and then turn around and only pay a photographer $100 for the same space, is insulting the very people who actually provide the content that sells the magazine and attracts readers who read those ads. I pointed out that, yes, we photographers actually know how much magazines charge for their ad space, so we have a pretty good idea of what they can and can’t afford. We’re not dummies.

Essentially, I pointed out that we can’t continue to provide the quality imagery that clients demand if we don’t get fair rates. To further educate her on what a fair rate was for that kind of use, I quoted a few prices straight from my Negotiating Stock Photo Prices book by Jim Pickerell.

In the end, I told her that I could simply not let a full page photo go for $100, because that doesn’t even allow me to pay my expenses on the image, let alone make a profit and produce more great shots to send them in the future. However, I also told her that I completely understand the economic difficulties that print magazines face these days and am absolutely willing to negotiate a fair price that fits with both of our budgetary needs.

Now I know what you’re saying, “she’s only the intern, she has no power over the price.” True, but this particular intern is a young photographer who, in a couple of years will likely be out there shooting with the rest of us, or working as a photo editor somewhere. She’s exactly the person who needs to hear this message because she is the future of our industry, and now she’s that much more knowledgeable about the issue.

She’ll pass on my request to negotiate a better price to the main photo editor. I may not be able to get them to raise their prices this time, and I’ll have to let the sale go. That said, imagine what would happen if we all had this type of conversation with a photo editor, especially a younger one who may one day find themselves in the position to actually call the shots.

Oh yea, and I also told her to check out this great photo site called The Photoletariat.

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Dan Bailey is a professional adventure, outdoor and travel photographer based in Anchorage, Alaska. Follow his own blog at danbaileyphoto.com/blog and see his daily updates at facebook.com/danbaileyphoto.

Tagged as: Dan Bailey, magazines, Photographer, Photography, photography industry, Photojournalism, stock photography