For your information and I also hope for some comments on this

I was requested to do a PR/Corporate job in Tokyo by Kate Woods (www.showmeconsulting.com) for a major soap company where I had to give up my copyrights. The job description was:

“We would like to work with you for 3 days of shooting — not very long days, 2x interviews each day lasting 2-hours each (6 hours maximum each day). I would also like you to edit her photographs from each session and photoshop the best ones (we anticipate 10-20 per interview) in addition to the shooting time. Lastly, I will want you to provide me with a CD of all the “good” images in addition to the photoshopped edited ones.

We are prepared to pay a day rate but the pictures need to belong to our client after this exercise. We will not use them for any other purposes, but also need agreement from you that you won’t sell the images on to stock photography companies or use them in any of your promotional material. This is absolutely vital as we are going into women’s homes and they will not grant us permission unless we can promise this."

I told her that I don’t usually give up my copyright and that I can do it if they pay me the triple of the normal fee which was too much for them. So I basically said no!… Giving up the rights to pictures is something no photographer should do! That means that you can not resell your pictures directly or via some agency/image bank, not even use them for your portfolio…

Basically what I told her is:

“The minimum day rate for a job like this without giving up my rights is 800 pounds plus expenses and digital processing fee that would be 15 pounds per processed image. Burning the photos on a DVD will cost 10 pounds per DVD.

If you insist on me giving up my rights to my pictures, then I will have to change my day rate to 2400 pounds per day. "

The above calculation is based on the NUJ standards so I think that the price is reasonable as it is a PR job for a major company and about 6 hours shooting per day plus travel (3 days work). See:

http://www.londonfreelance.org/feesguide/index.php?language=en&country=UK&section=Photography&subsect=Public+relations&subsubs=All

Please keep in mind the above if you are contacted for the same job and I hope that you can help stop companies like this getting used to grabbing photographers’ copyrights.

Please send me your thoughts on the above and share similar experiences and how you handled them. It would be good if we can all have a coordinated reaction to similar requests.

All best

Androniki