Skip to main content

Pricing Your Licensed Images

Lesson 93 from: Fine Art Photography: The Complete Guide

Brooke Shaden

Pricing Your Licensed Images

Lesson 93 from: Fine Art Photography: The Complete Guide

Brooke Shaden

most popular photo & video

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2000+ more >

Lesson Info

93. Pricing Your Licensed Images

Lessons

Class Trailer
1

Class Introduction

19:06
2

Storytelling & Ideas

27:34
3

Universal Symbols in Stories

03:19
4

Create Interactive Characters

02:16
5

The Story is in The Details

04:13
6

Giving Your Audience Feelings

05:49
7

Guided Daydream Exercise

04:20
8

Elements of Imagery

02:19
9

The Death Scenario

01:47
10

Associations with Objects

03:01
11

Three Writing Exercises

06:39
12

Connection Through Art

30:35
13

Break Through Imposter Syndrome

07:40
14

Layering Inspiration

23:13
15

Creating an Original Narrative

07:42
16

Analyze an Image

04:12
17

Translate Emotion into Images

04:31
18

Finding Parts in Images

06:02
19

Finding Your Target Audience

04:05
20

Where Do You Want Your Images to Live?

12:01
21

Create a Series That Targets Your Audience

32:43
22

Formatting Your Work

06:08
23

Additional Materials to Attract Clients

07:24
24

Which Social Media Platforms Will be Useful?

04:17
25

How to Make Money from Your Target Audience

11:27
26

Circle of Focus

07:55
27

The Pillars of Branding

06:18
28

Planning Your Photoshoot

09:05
29

Choose Every Element for The Series

07:38
30

Write a Descriptive Paragraph

09:37
31

Sketch Your Ideas

17:27
32

Choose Your Gear

02:50
33

How to Utilize Costumes, Props & Locations

26:18
34

What Tells a Story in a Series?

13:06
35

Set Design Overview

01:43
36

Color Theory

19:50
37

Lighting for the Scene

12:05
38

Props, Wardrobe & Time Period for Set Design

06:00
39

Locations

04:31
40

Subject Within the Scene

07:26
41

Set Design Arrangement

05:46
42

Fine Art Compositing

03:46
43

Plan The Composite Before Shooting

10:29
44

Checklist for Composite Shooting

18:52
45

Analyze Composite Mistakes

12:11
46

Shoot: Black Backdrop for White Clothing

10:42
47

Shoot: Black Backdrop for Color Clothing

08:36
48

Shoot: Black Backdrop for Accessories

08:17
49

Shoot: Miniature Scene

09:59
50

Editing Workflow Overview

01:57
51

Add Fabric to Make a Big Dress

08:35
52

Edit Details of Images

08:09
53

Add Smoke & Texture

10:47
54

Blend Multiple Images Into One Composite

24:58
55

Put Subject Into a Miniature Scenario

17:55
56

Location Scouting & Test Photoshoot

22:10
57

Self Portrait Test Shoots

22:30
58

Shoot for Edit

04:21
59

Shoot Extra Stock Images

10:01
60

Practice the Shoot

25:07
61

Introduction to Shooting Photo Series

03:33
62

Shoot: Vine Image

10:40
63

Shoot: Sand Image

09:50
64

Shoot: End Table Image

04:59
65

Shoot: Bed Image

06:18
66

Shoot: Wall Paper Image

05:54
67

Shoot: Chair Image

08:02
68

Shoot: Mirror Image

06:57
69

Shoot: Moss Image

05:48
70

Shoot: Tree Image

07:33
71

Shoot: Fish Tank Image

04:09
72

Shoot: Feather Image

09:00
73

View Photo Series for Cohesion & Advanced Compositing

07:35
74

Edit Multiple Images to Show Cohesion

36:55
75

Edit Images with Advanced Compositing

29:33
76

Decide How to Start the Composite

09:35
77

Organize Final Images

21:37
78

Choosing Images for Your Portfolio

08:19
79

Order the Images in Your Portfolio

16:28
80

Why do Some Images Sell More Than Others?

16:03
81

Analyze Student Portfolio Image Order

11:42
82

Framing, Sizing, Editioning & Pricing

02:19
83

Determine Sizes for Prints

16:44
84

How to Choose Paper

13:56
85

How to Choose Editions

07:18
86

Pricing Strategies

18:59
87

How to Present Your Images

13:26
88

Example Pricing Exercise

09:39
89

Print Examples

08:23
90

Licensing, Commissions & Contracts

04:44
91

How to Keep Licensing Organized

06:07
92

How to Prepare Files for Licensing

07:28
93

Pricing Your Licensed Images

12:33
94

Contract Terms for Licensing

12:07
95

Where to Sell Images

04:55
96

Commission Pricing Structure

08:23
97

Contract for Commissions

12:17
98

Questions for a Commission Shoot

08:45
99

Working with Galleries

08:58
100

Benefits of Galleries

07:39
101

Contracts for Galleries

10:32
102

How to Find Galleries

05:22
103

Choose Images to Show

08:53
104

Hanging the Images

03:38
105

Importance of Proofing Prints

08:04
106

Interview with Soren Christensen Gallery

21:59
107

Press Package Overview

04:35
108

Artist Statement for Your Series

18:20
109

Write Your 'About Me' Page

09:04
110

Importance of Your Headshot

03:55
111

Create a Leave Behind & Elevator Pitch

20:19
112

Writing For Fine Art

04:44
113

Define Your Writing Style

14:49
114

Find Your Genre

06:41
115

What Sets You Apart?

02:25
116

Write to Different Audiences

05:10
117

Write for Blogging

39:57
118

Speak About Your Work

14:21
119

Branding for Video

07:37
120

Clearly Define Video Talking Points

14:27
121

Types of Video Content

31:45
122

Interview Practice

13:22
123

Diversifying Social Media Content

22:32
124

Create an Intentional Social Media Persona

24:48
125

Monetize Your Social Media Presence

18:46
126

Social Media Posting Plan

04:01
127

Choose Networks to Use & Invest

02:57
128

Presentation of Final Images

19:13
129

Printing Your Series

09:16
130

How to Work With a Print Lab

13:39
131

Proofing Your Prints

10:11
132

Bad Vs. Good Prints

03:32
133

Find Confidence to Print

10:50
134

Why Critique?

06:55
135

Critiquing Your Own Portfolio

10:39
136

Critique of Brooke's Series

16:18
137

Critique of Student Series

40:07
138

Yours is a Story Worth Telling

02:09

Lesson Info

Pricing Your Licensed Images

So how do we price this work? And I have this little tiny formula that I hope is helpful, which is your base price, which is not helpful for me to say, but we're gonna talk about that, your base price of the least amount you would sell an image for digitally plus how exclusive that file is going to be with that company, and that will equal your cost. So let's just give a quick example here. And this is a totally random example. I do not remember the exact terms of this license. But let's just say when I sold this image, this person had come to me and said "Okay, I would like this image "not to be sold on any albums for one year." Let's just say that. So I could still sell this picture for book covers, for websites, whatever I might want. And they said "You can sell this anywhere else in the world, "I'm not giving any location exclusivity. "But no other album art for one year." Well, I'm gonna have to determine what is my base price and how exclusive does that make that contract to get ...

my cost. So let's just say that my base price is $500. That's my base price of if somebody wanted, like, no exclusivity, I can sell it anywhere at any time, $500 is my price. So if I have $500 as my base price and then I take into account I can't sell this image for one year on albums only, you have all these little, tiny steps of what you could decide to make your pricing. So I'm not gonna tell you yet exactly what I would do, we will get there. But just keep in mind there are a lot of tiny things to think about and it's quite daunting. Hopefully we'll get to a good place. Oh, there we go. So if your base price is $100, let's say that you just tack on another hundred for each piece of exclusivity just to make it easy. Maybe you have that adds up to $300, and then that would be 400 bucks. Simple, but not so simple at all. (chuckling) All right, so let's talk about why it's not so simple. So this is a pricing structure with limitations. So if there are limitations to how your image can be used, this is what you would wanna consider: is it within a certain country, within a certain medium, for how many different years, or forever. And I write out these specific things because this is how my pricing works. So instead of figuring out my terms for two years, and four years, and eight years, and 15 years, and all the things that it could be, I tend to just choose the most common of the requests that I get, which, I don't know why, but I don't think I've ever had somebody license an image and say that they wanted exclusive for two years or four years. It's always one, three, and five years, for whatever reason. Maybe that's like a publishing thing that I don't know about or something. So that's how I do my pricing. So I have different pricing based on within a certain country, within a certain medium, for different years, and then in conjunction with one another. This is torture. This is torture pricing. I mean, I feel like nobody should have to do this for themselves, but we're doing it for ourselves. Okay, so this is an example of what I might add on to my pricing based on exclusivity. So for example, if my base price is $500, and then they're going to be exclusive for one year with a certain company, maybe within the country and the medium, then maybe I add $200. For three years, maybe I add $500. For five years, maybe $800. And forever, maybe $2,000. And this is just my general pricing personally. I do not know what everyone else sells their images for, okay. So, I do have a few of my images with an agency, and I sell through an agency in a very limited way. And mostly I sell by myself. So I'm representing myself, I'm giving prices myself, I'm sending the image myself, and this is simply what I have come to sell at. And so far it's working! I mean, so far I am selling images, and so far nobody has yelled at me too much. Just once, and they were mean, so it didn't count. Isn't that true, if someone's really mean, it doesn't count?! Yeah. Everyone be nice. Okay. So then here's a pricing structure with exclusivity, perhaps one year. And this is with exclusivity in every country, worldwide, exclusive rights for one year: a thousand dollars, $1500, $2000, and forever. Just examples, just guidelines that you might wanna use for pricing your own work. And if that looks really high to you, it might be for where you are in your career. If it looks really low, it might be for where you are in your career. It totally depends. And my pricing also changes a lot based on the image itself. For example, I've had a number of requests to license this image so far since creating it, which it's about a year old now. Maybe a little bit longer, but around a year old. And that's kind of a lot for me, to have a number of inquiries about a single image in just the year since it's been created. So I wanna think about this image and its sellability, you know. If I've got an image that I think no one's gonna ever want to buy for whatever reason, then maybe I would sell that at a lower price than this image, which I would be more hesitant to give exclusivity to, because I know that there are other people interested in buying this picture. So if I've got this image and someone says "I want exclusive rights forever, and ever, "and ever worldwide," I'm probably gonna put a really high price tag on that because I know that there is more money to be made from selling this image digitally versus some other creepy picture that I've done that almost nobody will wanna buy for whatever reason. I don't know why more people aren't into creepiness, but K. So optional pricing considerations, things that you might wanna consider. The quantity of the print run, so how big is their budget for printing, which is not always, I should say, an indication of how much they can pay their artist. You know, if you think about yourself putting a project out there, maybe you put all of your budget into just printing it to get it out there to as many people as possible, but you don't think about the artist and who you're gonna pay for the cover. I totally get that. I mean, if I were doing that, I would probably do it the same way, without really considering oh my gosh, I have to pay the artist. Which is terrible, 'cause I am an artist and I like getting paid. But I still probably wouldn't consider it. The personal value of the work, not just sellability of an image, such as this one, but how personal is it to me. I mean, where do I want to see that work go? There are certain images of mine that I won't license to people because it has really significant personal meaning to me and I just don't want it out there on a book cover, or album art, or something that I don't feel really good about. So I'm always thinking what does it mean to me and what is my sale price on that emotion, which is terrible, right! Like, okay, this means a lot to me, but what price will I give it up for?! But generally, the answer is nothing, you know. If it's really, really important, then I won't sell it. And if it's something that I can let go of, then I let go of it. So personal value. Value of the product. Kind of an interesting one to consider. So, you know, you sell a book, and this book probably has a price on it somewhere. Of course not! But you know how books usually have prices on them? That's what I was hoping to see. Oh, this one does, okay. So this book retails for $17.99, 17 dollars and 99 cents, so we'll say $18. And if that book is selling for $18, then you can imagine, once you break out that price, who gets what. Probably the people who put this book together are not making a lot of money per sale of book. They're hoping for large quantities of book sales so that they can make their money back. Now, if you take that versus, let's say, (humming) let's say that someone's using your image for an opera show that's just come out, and it's going be the poster image for that show. Well, they're not selling the poster. So the price of the product itself, the physical poster, is nothing. But the price of the experience is quite high. You know, you'll have people paying hundreds of dollars to go to that opera, and you have to think about that in terms of pricing your work. What is the value of the product, and how is that money being split up among the people who are involved in the project? So just something to consider, value of product. This is probably my favorite thing that I have written up here to date. (laughing) How difficult is your client? And I hate talking about difficult people, because I really am empathetic to people's situations, how they work, what they want out of the experience. But let's just be honest. If someone's really hard to work with, I'm gonna put a higher price tag on that experience for them, I just am! Because I don't like working with difficult people! I want everyone to be really nice, and kind, and gentle all the time. That doesn't always happen. So first of all, client status. If somebody, let's just say that Beyonce e-mails me, and Beyonce is like Hey, Brooke. This is what she would say to me, obviously. I would like to buy this image for my next album. What's the price? Am I going to say $500 'cause that's my base price? Probably not. Because there is going to be, first of all, a huge distribution, huge distribution, very big money being made by everyone around. So I'm going to take that price to an appropriate point for that client, just like with galleries. You know, if you have a certain gallery that doesn't have a lot of art buyers coming in, where they're not really gonna sell a lot of work, you might start out pricing your prints lower. But when you get into a much better gallery that has art buyers come in, you're gonna wanna price your prints for that market, because they expect that price when they walk into a gallery. It has to do with how your art is perceived, you know, and then getting paid appropriately for that circumstance. So what is the status of your client and how difficult are they to work with. And I'll share some horror stories later, but not yet. If you're going to extend the license. So if your license that you initially agree on is for three years, you can always give that person the option to come back after three years, pay more money, and extend the license. Something that you wanna think about, maybe in terms of offering to your client, just letting that be known up front, especially with clients who don't have a big budget. I would say that 90% of the licensing e-mails that I get are from people who flat out say I don't have a big budget for this. And it's kind of good that they do that, because now we're all on the same page. Like, we know that this might not work out, and maybe my prices are too high. But I love being able to go to those artists. Because I have a lot of respect for artists who want to make good products, you know, and I wanna be a part of that experience for them. So if this person comes to me and says "I would love this image. "I don't have a big budget. "What can we do?" Then I might say to them "Okay, well, "how about I sell it to you for this price for one year. "And then if after one year you wanna continue distributing "that work, then you can pay the next license fee." And then that's easier for them, 'cause they have a whole year to work on getting that money together, they can see how successful that album was. I might do it not just in terms of year, but in terms of region, in terms of... The medium, you know. And there are all different ways that you can work with artists to lower the price, or extend the price, extend the license, so that's always a good thing to do.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Guided Daydream & Writing Exercises Workbook (Lessons 1-11)
Creating an Original Narrative Workbook (Lessons 12-18)
Finding Your Target Audience Workbook (Lessons 19-27)
Planning Your Series Workbook (Lessons 28-34)
Set Design Workbook (Lessons 35-41)
Compositing Workflow Checklist (Lessons 42-49)
Editing Workflow Checklist (Lessons 50-55)
Location Scouting Workbook (Lessons 56-60)
Stock Image Downloads for Practice (Lessons 61-72)
Organizing Your Portfolio Workbook (Lessons 77-81)
Pricing & Editioning Your Work Workbook (Lessons 82-89)
Writing Contracts & Licensing Images Workbook (Lessons 90-98)
Gallery Best Practices (Lessons 99-106)
Pitch Package Workbook (Lessons 107-111)
Writing Your Brand Workbook (Lessons 112-117)
Marketing Workbook (Lessons 118-122)
Social Media Workbook (Lessons 123-127)
Printing Methods Checklist (Lessons 128-133)
Self Critique Workbook (Lessons 134-137)
Bonus Materials Guide
Syllabus
Image Edit Videos

Ratings and Reviews

April S.
 

I tuned in for most of Brooke's lessons in this course and watched some of them more than once as they were rebroadcast. First I want to say that Brooke is a very good instructor. Her easy-going, friendly, down-to-earth, somewhat quirky manner cannot be mistaken for unprofessional. She is very prepared, she speaks well (not a bunch of hemming and hawing), she is thoughtful, she is thorough, she is very relatable and at ease, and she is definitely professional in her presentation. I really thought when I first tuned in that it would mostly be background noise while I was at work, sound to keep me company. Not because I didn't like Brooke but I really didn't think I was into fine art photography nor did I think I cared about the business side of things much. Not now anyhow. I was really wrong. Brooke sparked a deep interest in me to delve into fine art photography, to consider creating images for myself, from my imagination. In fact, I realized that this was something I'd been thinking about for a couple of years though I hadn't put a name to it (the idea of creating pre-conceived images based on my own creative goals). I gleaned many little treasures from her about image sizes, working with printers, different types of paper, selling, interacting with galleries, and so much more. I may not need all of what she taught right now because I'm definitely headed in another direction at the moment, but she planted ideas and information in my head that I know will be useful at some point. Things I may not have thought of on my own, but that seed is in my head now so when the time comes, I'll know. I'd really like to buy her course but at the moment, with the holidays right around the corner, it's not in my personal budget. I'm grateful to have caught the live and rebroadcast lessons though, and her course is on my list to own. I think it's a great reference to be consulted over and over again, not watched once and forgotten. Kudos Brooke for really putting together an excellent course.

Ron Landis
 

I'm retired now, but spent decades in the people and training business. Brooke is extraordinary! Even though this course is extremely well organized and she's left nothing unattended, she moves through it with friendly conversational manners and without a sense of it being stilted. It's as though we are all her friends, not students, as she shares her heart and passion with us. What a joy it is to listen to her. And what a clear, unambiguous command of her subject. Wow! She explains it with such ease using explanations and techniques that won't overwhelm artists just starting their portfolio or the Photoshop-squeamish among us; but despite its simplicity her resulting art is breathtaking and beyond original. I wish more of my professors at school were as engaging. This was by far my best buy at Creative Live yet.

Angel Ricci
 

When the title says comprehensive, it means comprehensive! I loved every part of this course. It's inspirational, motivating, and insightful towards creating art work. Even if you are not necessarily considering a fine art specialty, the concepts discussed in this course are applicable to many areas! I find this super useful as a videographer and photographer and look to apply all of these exercises and concepts for my personal and business work moving forward. It is lengthy, but you will not regret a single minute. Brooke Shaden is an amazing artist and educator. I recommend keeping up with her work, presentations, and any future courses that may come in the future.

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES