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Somebody stole my photo!

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1080ski
Posts: 4424 - Karma: 191
so a while back a tourism website wanted to use one of my photos for a town page on their website. they contacted me and asked to use it. They offered money and we decided on 55 dollars (US). They gave me a license agreement to sign and told me to make up a bill for them and then fax both to them. I tried to send it and got an error with the fax number they gave me. I emailed them a few times about it and never got a response. I never got paid for anything and never sent them any type of agreement. The other day my photo popped up on google images when i was searching for something. I clicked it and there it was on the companies website. I called them and left a message about it and got a call back today (missed the call) and they wanted to know how much they need to pay to use it forever on their website.

My question is this: do I charge the original 55 dollars (I am aware that this is low but the company is non profit and cant afford to pay a ton of money for photos) or charge them more? What would you do and why? I am inclined to just charge 55 and be done with it but I have never dealt with something like this and don't know the proper way to deal with it.
Nov 12 2009 4:09PM
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*Fujative*
Posts: 8554 - Karma: 183
You got screwed over, in both ways. They took your photo and never paid, and asked for $55. However did you know what they were using it for/how long? $55 for lifetime is super low, like really really low. Now you basically agreed to $55, that kinda effed you over. Try to get more... if you can....
Nov 12 2009 4:52PM
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KarmaInitiative
Posts: 2028 - Karma: 174
by non profit, is it like a charity?
Nov 12 2009 4:52PM
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1080ski
Posts: 4424 - Karma: 191
no. its a maine tourism website. I know that 55 is low but maybe I can bump it up now that the company had it on their website. 70 bucks?
Nov 12 2009 5:11PM
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Elife
Posts: 2829 - Karma: 44
for permanent license of a photo, especially if they display it with any sort of prominence I'd charge more like $100+ especially if they want exclusive rights to it
Nov 12 2009 5:20PM
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*Fujative*
Posts: 8554 - Karma: 183
Exactly. Like a few hundred depending on where on the site being used, main page, how large, etc...
Nov 12 2009 5:27PM
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connoroh
Posts: 2333 - Karma: 246
Yeah.

And seriously, don't low-ball your OWN work. It's people like you who make it impossible for professionals to make any money in the field anymore.
Nov 12 2009 6:12PM
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*Fujative*
Posts: 8554 - Karma: 183
That and Stock photo.... its crazy! People making a quick buck and low ball the shit out of them...
Nov 12 2009 6:16PM
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RileySnyderPhoto
Posts: 688 - Karma: 1,451
apply for the copyright!!! and then you can try to charge monthly or something
Nov 12 2009 6:39PM
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Elife
Posts: 2829 - Karma: 44
bingo
Nov 13 2009 4:24AM
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KrazyistKarl
Posts: 1725 - Karma: 599
pics or it didn't happen. just kidding, but seriously post the pic up
Nov 13 2009 1:07PM
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1080ski
Posts: 4424 - Karma: 191
Click for larger image
Nov 13 2009 9:23PM
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.jr
Posts: 5313 - Karma: 356
about to steal that shit and put it in my magazine.. gotta protect your images somehow if your going to give us a decent res like that..
Nov 13 2009 9:59PM
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PeterWojnar
Posts: 3937 - Karma: 678
Come on man. Respect yourself, and respect the industry. Once you sell some pictures for a far, far lower price than they're worth, potential buyers will only offer you lowball prices. Not only are you screwing yourself over, any company you sell photos to for far too cheap will expect the same low prices from all photographers, so you're fucking the whole industry right in the ass.

If you are really serious about becoming a pro photog and selling lots of work, to magazines, advertising companies, and the like, you should pony up and buy fotoquote. It's the standard for pricing among pretty much all the pro photographers out there.http://www.cradocfotosoftware.com/fotoQuote-Pro/index.html

If you're too cheap for that, don't think you'll be selling all THAT many photos, or just don't want to, use this stock photo price calculator. http://www.cradocfotosoftware.com/fotoQuote-Pro/index.html

It offers a better solution to figuring out prices than just making them up.

One other thing you should keep in mind, is that it is always better to price too high and then let them fight it down than it is to propose a price too low and try to barter it up.
Nov 13 2009 10:05PM
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salomonskiier12
Posts: 2862 - Karma: 19

at least put a watermark or something on it...your name, a date...something.

you're real good at this, take pride in your stuff

Nov 14 2009 12:06AM
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PeterWojnar
Posts: 3937 - Karma: 678
And another thing- when you are selling a photo, DO NOT show them a full-resolution photo. Show them something just big enough to convince them they want it really bad, but make sure it is a small enough resolution that they wouldn't think to use it.
Nov 14 2009 1:20AM
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cobra_commander
Posts: 16909 - Karma: 4,682
wow, all the quotes on this site are jacked.

$100 is way too low. $55 is way to low (even for temp use on website)

Call them up and say that for life time use the price is $xxxx then find a fax machine that works and fax them the bill or mail it to their office --> Accounts payable.

Faxing is better since you have a date and time stamp of the notification. Then when they are late on paying you can remind them.
Nov 14 2009 1:24AM
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Elife
Posts: 2829 - Karma: 44
why must you hate... almost every single person in this thread pretty much said the exact same shit as you.
Nov 14 2009 1:47AM
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PeterWojnar
Posts: 3937 - Karma: 678
Shit, just realized I linked to fotoQuote twice in my first post. The second link to the free stock photo price calculator is as follows: http://photographersindex.com/stockprice.htm
Nov 14 2009 1:26PM
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