Selling Photographs. Has Anyone Done This? And a ? About FOTKI

[Virgo10]

It seems to me you'd have to have a gimmick. Calendars, nice frames, posters... I don't know. A friend of mine is trying to convince me to market some of my stuff but, honestly, I wouldn't have a clue on how to do this. Her father belongs to some ritzy photo club and even he said I should look into it. I'd feel better about it if some schmo on the street told me these things. Sort of takes the "I'm your friend" equation out of it if you know what I mean.

So, back to the original question. Do we have anyone on this board who has ever sold a photo. Give me the who, what, when and wheres.

 

[Learic]

A great place to start is zazzle.com. If you sign up with them, you can create a collection based on your images for T-Shirts, postcards, postage stamps, and many other things. Once you have your collection created, you can publish it for others to browse on their site. If an item is ordered from your collection, you get compensated. I'm not sure what the percentage is and this is the "shady" part that causes alot of people to "not" want to sell. There are plenty of sites that offer this type of service so it just depends on how much you want for items created with your images! Do they offer enough compensation to make it "worth the while?"

 

[Razor Roman]

I've got some awesome Disney World character photos (from parades, shows, etc..) and i'm getting in to taking pictures of my cats, and people kepe telling me I should try to sell both of those... I don't think I want to get involved with selling the Disney pictures (obvious reasons) but I would love to sell photos too, if they were really good enough

 

[MICKEY88]

I've got some awesome Disney World character photos (from parades, shows, etc..) I don't think I want to get involved with selling the Disney pictures (obvious reasons)

good idea, Disney does not look kindly upon selling photos taken in the park..,

when my daughter was doing the college program, I made up an album of character pictures for her so she could get her friends to sign them, many of them showed interest in purchasing an album from me..

to be safe I contacted Disney's LEgal dept. they said I could sell the albums to the employees, but if I started selling the pics outside the Disney Family, or on ebay...etc...they would come looking for me...

 

[MICKEY88]

if you just want to sell your photos, as such, rather than on tshirts and other merchandise...

FOTKI allows you to sell your photos, I have a premium account with them. it's 50 a year for unlimited storage, if I choose to sell my pictures, they will handle the transactions, credit cards etc, print and ship the pictures for a 15% commision...


Fotki can help you sell your photos - simply put your photos on Fotki and name your own price. Keeping your photo collection on our site will provide additional exposure for your photos to get you more customers and increase your sales. Your customers will be able to choose between the sizes and finish types that you specify. Fotki will take care of all your customers’ credit card transactions, do all the processing and printing and mail the prints to your clients – all for a small 15% commission fee. There is no extra charge for storing your photos: as a Premium member, you have unlimited space. You can literally "make money while you sleep".

 

[Geoff_M]

Almost all of my work that I sell is produced for the paying client.

As a cautionary note, remember that once you start selling your work you enter a new legal realm. Namely, if your work contains the images of identifiable people (even if they are in a public place), trademarked items, etc. you need legal permission to do so from the people/rights holder before you commerically exploit their likeness or trademarked item. In the case of people you'd need a "model release", in the case of a trademarked item you'd need legal license to do so. This is what Razor Roman hinted at with regard to Disney photos.

The only exception to this is if your photos are "editorial" in nature. This means part of a periodical (newspaper, magazine, etc.), book, web site, etc. "Editoral" usage is considered covered under "fair use" laws.

 

[MICKEY88]

Almost all of my work that I sell is produced for the paying client.

As a cautionary note, remember that once you start selling your work you enter a new legal realm. Namely, if your work contains the images of identifiable people (even if they are in a public place), trademarked items, etc. you need legal permission to do so from the people/rights holder before you commerically exploit their likeness or trademarked item. In the case of people you'd need a "model release", in the case of a trademarked item you'd need legal license to do so. This is what Razor Roman hinted at with regard to Disney photos.

The only exception to this is if your photos are "editorial" in nature. This means part of a periodical (newspaper, magazine, etc.), book, web site, etc. "Editoral" usage is considered covered under "fair use" laws.

you also need a property release for property owned by others... example..

you see a beautiful Mansion you take a few pictures then decide to sell them to a stock photo agency.., or just to sell framed copies...you need a property release,

 

[Geoff_M]

You are correct, because the physical features on a property can be trademarked... Like the lone pine tree (no longer there, btw) at the Pebble Beach golf resort.

 

[MICKEY88]

You are correct, because the physical features on a property can be trademarked... Like the lone pine tree (no longer there, btw) at the Pebble Beach golf resort.

dosen't even have to be trademarked... one of the examples I learned about was a picture of a house that was sold to a stock photo agency, they sold it to someone who was doing an anti drug campaign, the house ended up in an add talking about crack houses..., the fact that you can't tell from the outside what's going on inside...the owner of the house sued...for defamation, slander, etc...

 

[Virgo10]

Thanks for all the great advice. My primary subjects right now are weather related events with no structures, like other people's property, in them and my cats. I don't think the cats mind having their photos taken.

Mickey88, can I find out more about FOTKI's marketing service? I'm not a member of that site. Just wondering if you have a link.

 

[Geoff_M]

dosen't even have to be trademarked... one of the examples I learned about was a picture of a house that was sold to a stock photo agency, they sold it to someone who was doing an anti drug campaign, the house ended up in an add talking about crack houses..., the fact that you can't tell from the outside what's going on inside...the owner of the house sued...for defamation, slander, etc...

I agree... and even a release won't insure that you'll avoid those sort of legal problems. A couple of years ago a stock photo of a teenager (whose parents executed a release) was used as an illustration that led off a story about teen pregnancy in a popular teen magazine (IIRC, the photo showed her in a pensive manner). Her parents sued in a similar manner. I don't know that her parents prevailed, but it difinitely generated some legal bills that probably exceeded the revenues generated by the sale of the image.

 

[MICKEY88]

Thanks for all the great advice. My primary subjects right now are weather related events with no structures, like other people's property, in them and my cats. I don't think the cats mind having their photos taken.

Mickey88, can I find out more about FOTKI's marketing service? I'm not a member of that site. Just wondering if you have a link.

FOTKI FAQ

look for the photo selling link...

 

[Muushka]

You are correct, because the physical features on a property can be trademarked... Like the lone pine tree (no longer there, btw) at the Pebble Beach golf resort.

Sorry, OT, but I didn't know that tree was gone

 

[Geoff_M]

It died of "pitch canker" disease in 2001. There was talk of replacing it, but I haven't found any record of them actually doing it. It reportingly would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace it due to the logistics and repair work to the hole.