Contract Terms for Licensing
Brooke Shaden
Lessons
Class Introduction
19:06 2Storytelling & Ideas
27:34 3Universal Symbols in Stories
03:19 4Create Interactive Characters
02:16 5The Story is in The Details
04:13 6Giving Your Audience Feelings
05:49 7Guided Daydream Exercise
04:20 8Elements of Imagery
02:19The Death Scenario
01:47 10Associations with Objects
03:01 11Three Writing Exercises
06:39 12Connection Through Art
30:35 13Break Through Imposter Syndrome
07:40 14Layering Inspiration
23:13 15Creating an Original Narrative
07:42 16Analyze an Image
04:12 17Translate Emotion into Images
04:31 18Finding Parts in Images
06:02 19Finding Your Target Audience
04:05 20Where Do You Want Your Images to Live?
12:01 21Create a Series That Targets Your Audience
32:43 22Formatting Your Work
06:08 23Additional Materials to Attract Clients
07:24 24Which Social Media Platforms Will be Useful?
04:17 25How to Make Money from Your Target Audience
11:27 26Circle of Focus
07:55 27The Pillars of Branding
06:18 28Planning Your Photoshoot
09:05 29Choose Every Element for The Series
07:38 30Write a Descriptive Paragraph
09:37 31Sketch Your Ideas
17:27 32Choose Your Gear
02:50 33How to Utilize Costumes, Props & Locations
26:18 34What Tells a Story in a Series?
13:06 35Set Design Overview
01:43 36Color Theory
19:50 37Lighting for the Scene
12:05 38Props, Wardrobe & Time Period for Set Design
06:00 39Locations
04:31 40Subject Within the Scene
07:26 41Set Design Arrangement
05:46 42Fine Art Compositing
03:46 43Plan The Composite Before Shooting
10:29 44Checklist for Composite Shooting
18:52 45Analyze Composite Mistakes
12:11 46Shoot: Black Backdrop for White Clothing
10:42 47Shoot: Black Backdrop for Color Clothing
08:36 48Shoot: Black Backdrop for Accessories
08:17 49Shoot: Miniature Scene
09:59 50Editing Workflow Overview
01:57 51Add Fabric to Make a Big Dress
08:35 52Edit Details of Images
08:09 53Add Smoke & Texture
10:47 54Blend Multiple Images Into One Composite
24:58 55Put Subject Into a Miniature Scenario
17:55 56Location Scouting & Test Photoshoot
22:10 57Self Portrait Test Shoots
22:30 58Shoot for Edit
04:21 59Shoot Extra Stock Images
10:01 60Practice the Shoot
25:07 61Introduction to Shooting Photo Series
03:33 62Shoot: Vine Image
10:40 63Shoot: Sand Image
09:50 64Shoot: End Table Image
04:59 65Shoot: Bed Image
06:18 66Shoot: Wall Paper Image
05:54 67Shoot: Chair Image
08:02 68Shoot: Mirror Image
06:57 69Shoot: Moss Image
05:48 70Shoot: Tree Image
07:33 71Shoot: Fish Tank Image
04:09 72Shoot: Feather Image
09:00 73View Photo Series for Cohesion & Advanced Compositing
07:35 74Edit Multiple Images to Show Cohesion
36:55 75Edit Images with Advanced Compositing
29:33 76Decide How to Start the Composite
09:35 77Organize Final Images
21:37 78Choosing Images for Your Portfolio
08:19 79Order the Images in Your Portfolio
16:28 80Why do Some Images Sell More Than Others?
16:03 81Analyze Student Portfolio Image Order
11:42 82Framing, Sizing, Editioning & Pricing
02:19 83Determine Sizes for Prints
16:44 84How to Choose Paper
13:56 85How to Choose Editions
07:18 86Pricing Strategies
18:59 87How to Present Your Images
13:26 88Example Pricing Exercise
09:39 89Print Examples
08:23 90Licensing, Commissions & Contracts
04:44 91How to Keep Licensing Organized
06:07 92How to Prepare Files for Licensing
07:28 93Pricing Your Licensed Images
12:33 94Contract Terms for Licensing
12:07 95Where to Sell Images
04:55 96Commission Pricing Structure
08:23 97Contract for Commissions
12:17 98Questions for a Commission Shoot
08:45 99Working with Galleries
08:58 100Benefits of Galleries
07:39 101Contracts for Galleries
10:32 102How to Find Galleries
05:22 103Choose Images to Show
08:53 104Hanging the Images
03:38 105Importance of Proofing Prints
08:04 106Interview with Soren Christensen Gallery
21:59 107Press Package Overview
04:35 108Artist Statement for Your Series
18:20 109Write Your 'About Me' Page
09:04 110Importance of Your Headshot
03:55 111Create a Leave Behind & Elevator Pitch
20:19 112Writing For Fine Art
04:44 113Define Your Writing Style
14:49 114Find Your Genre
06:41 115What Sets You Apart?
02:25 116Write to Different Audiences
05:10 117Write for Blogging
39:57 118Speak About Your Work
14:21 119Branding for Video
07:37 120Clearly Define Video Talking Points
14:27 121Types of Video Content
31:45 122Interview Practice
13:22 123Diversifying Social Media Content
22:32 124Create an Intentional Social Media Persona
24:48 125Monetize Your Social Media Presence
18:46 126Social Media Posting Plan
04:01 127Choose Networks to Use & Invest
02:57 128Presentation of Final Images
19:13 129Printing Your Series
09:16 130How to Work With a Print Lab
13:39 131Proofing Your Prints
10:11 132Bad Vs. Good Prints
03:32 133Find Confidence to Print
10:50 134Why Critique?
06:55 135Critiquing Your Own Portfolio
10:39 136Critique of Brooke's Series
16:18 137Critique of Student Series
40:07 138Yours is a Story Worth Telling
02:09Lesson Info
Contract Terms for Licensing
Okay, y'all, contract terms. You guys are like, "I don't want to do this." I don't either, but nobody does, that's the thing. Nobody wants to write contracts. Well, this girl does. See? She's writing a contract. That's the whole point of this picture that I made. She's writing a contract. Just kidding. Okay, so contract terms for licensing. Who is the licensee and the licensor? Who is licensing it, and who is buying it? Make sure that that's really clear right up front in your contract. What image is it? I can't even tell you how many times I have almost forgotten to say what image I'm licensing in a contract, which sounds really silly, but I'm writing it here because someone out there is bound to do the same thing. I usually put the title of the image, and I attach the image as well to that contract because, if you have simply a title in there, then I just try to think of worst case situations, like, in my wildest dreams, I can't imagine this happening, but if it did, what if somebody...
was like, "You didn't show the image reference, "and there are tons of images with this title"? Or maybe, what if I go and I accidentally name two images with the same title? Which I have definitely done before by accident without realizing it. There are just things that can happen. Always attach the image. What project it is associated with? If you are licensing for, let's just say, an album, make sure that you know what album it is, or at least the artist that it's associated with, and the year that they're going to be using it just so that there's some association so then they can't say, "Well, it just says that "I get to license this image," you know? And then, all of a sudden, it's on every album cover or something like that, which would be not good marketing on their part, but nonetheless. Are there digital limitations? If you're going to give them that digital file, what are the limitations of how they can use that file? File sizes, just that all the expectations are up front. Copyright, make sure that you retain that copyright. I don't ever work in the way that I give my copyright to somebody for any reason whatsoever. I just wouldn't do it. You might do it. You know, that's okay, it's just your choice, and if you're giving away your copyright, you no longer have any claim to that picture. You can't sell it as a print. You can't do anything with it, so just keep that in mind. That's a very extreme way of licensing that I tend to find doesn't happen. Nobody has ever asked me for the copyright of the image. That would be above and beyond. How you like to receive photo credit. How is it that you want to be credited for this image, and where? So if I've got this book, I usually ask, I'm really flexible about this, 'cause I just genuinely don't really care about these things very much, but you might, and I think it's worth caring about. Every once in a while, I'll flip a book open, and I'll find my name inside somewhere. For example, on this one, it says a word that I can't pronounce 'cause this is in Dutch. (speaks in foreign language) That was probably terrible. Then it says, "Copyright Brooke Shaden, brookeshaden.com," and it lists my website. I usually ask that they list my name and website, and I've changed my mind over the years, so my contract has shifted where, sometimes, I say it has to be in the book. Sometimes, I say it has to be on their website. I just don't care, but make sure that, if you do care, you do put it in your contract, how you want to receive photo credit. If these people are allowed to transfer the license. Now, what this means is, maybe you have a publishing company who has a bigger parent company, you want to say if they're able to transfer the license to that bigger company for use in different materials and things like that, and this is often something that you can either just have a standard line in your contract that says the licensee may not transfer the license. Then, if they read that and they're like, "Oh, wait, I want to be able to," they'll probably tell you. It's not something that I bother asking about because it doesn't affect me very much. I can just say, "Don't transfer it," and if they sign that, then good, and if not, then we'll talk about that. If they can alter the image. I bring this up because I've had very unsettling experiences with people changing my images, where my contract just wasn't concrete enough, and they were able to do that 'cause I didn't stop them. The last time that that happened was this book, and I want to first and foremost say that the experience of creating this was not a bad one, and I take responsibility for this cover, which I think is generally a beautiful cover. What happened was, I didn't say that they couldn't edit this image after I sent it to them, and they ended up putting wallpaper in the background of this room, which they ended up doing in such a way that I would not have done. I would not have put my name on this if I had known it would look like this in the end because there is sort of like a halo effect around my subject where the wallpaper, they didn't quite edit it in far enough. That hurts me, so when I look at this, I cringe a little bit just because, from far away, I really like it, but then, when I get close, the artist in me is saying, "But I wouldn't have done that, "and now my name is on this, and I wouldn't have done that." I want to explain to people. That's just a cautionary tale. Make sure that you expressly say how they can alter the image, if at all. Sometimes, artists will maintain the right to put the text on the book, even, to design the book, which, for me, is going too far 'cause I can't design anything to save my life, but I let people know that they can add text to my images, and they can crop my images, and those are the two things that I let people do. If they want to change the colors, they have to have me change the colors. If they want to add something to it, I need to do that, and I maintain that because, if I don't, then this kind of thing happens, where everyone had the best intentions, and it just wasn't how I would've done it, but my name is on it. You know, no one's gonna open this book, and it's not gonna say, "Copyright Brooke Shaden, "except for the wallpaper." It's not gonna say that, so I have to be really clear about that. Oh, yeah, go ahead. If they come back and say, "We would like you to alter this," how much do you charge for that? That's a great question, how much do you charge? Two answers to that. One is that I will not charge anything, generally, if it's a simple edit. This is where my terms go a little bit wonky because I'm not very good at this part of the whole deal. If I were really on top of things, I would already have this written into my contract, of you get two edits to this picture, and outside of that, it'll be this much money. Because so few people have asked me to change anything in my images, I just don't think about it very often anymore. However, I would charge something if I were you. If I were starting fresh and making this contract, in fact, I'll probably go home and change it for myself, now that you say that, I would say a reasonable amount might be, you know, $100 per change to the image. The issue starts out where maybe that price is really low to somebody, and then they ask for another change, and another change, and another change, and it goes on forever, and then all of a sudden, your price is too low, and you're like, "This is way too much work." It also depends on how much work it is. If, for example, these people had come back to me and said, "Can you change the color of her shirt?" I would've said, "Yeah, that's a simple fix. "I can do that really fast." If they had come back to me and said, "Actually, I want this scene to be in a palace," I'd be like, "Uh oh, that's a really big change, "which is going to require a higher price." That's where it becomes a little bit tricky to add that into the contract. I think that there are ways of doing it. There's one way of just saying no, the picture is how it is, take it or leave it. Another option is putting two different price ranges in where you say, if you want things from color, lighting changes, for example, to be made, that'll be this price for additional changes, or if you want a really big edit, like a compositing change, that'll be this price. I'm just kind of thinking out loud 'cause I haven't done this yet, but that's what I would do. It's an interesting question 'cause we're about to talk about it with commissions, actually, 'cause I do do it for commissions. I'll let you know more in a second, yeah. Exclusivity, which is what we've been talking about, make sure that's in your contract. That's, like, why you have the contract, is for exclusivity, rights to be maintained within your exclusivity. How they're going to pay you. These are normal contract terms. How you're gonna be paid, when you're going to be paid, when you deliver the image versus when you get paid. I'm still waiting for a payment from four years ago that I'm sure is never going to come because I didn't have that written into my contract at the time. Artist delivery, how are you going to deliver the image, and I think it's important that you, as the artist, are upfront about that. Are you going to send it on a CD? Do people still do that stuff anymore? Probably not 'cause computers don't even have CD players anymore, do they? Generally, you'll upload it to a website, maybe your own server, maybe to Dropbox, WeTransfer, whatever it is, send it on over. Just make sure that you explain how you're gonna deliver the image. And damages, so you have this contract, they break the contract, what do you get because they've broken the contract? What do they get because you've broken the contract? Just make sure that you lay out what the damages are going to be. These are just a few examples of book covers that I've done, album art as well, and these were all images, as you can see, the original image there used in exactly the same format on the book cover, and not a lot of changes, in fact, no changes to this one. They decided to maintain the original image, and then just put a solid color below, which is great for me because nothing has to happen, and this is an option for book covers. Like we talked about earlier, we talked about images that might not be good for a book cover, and I would've probably said that this image is not good for a book cover because I'm taking up most of the frame, from top to bottom, so where are they gonna put the text? So it makes sense that they did this because, where would they have put the text? Right over my face? You know, that would be kind of funny, if it said, "Boom!" over my face, I don't know, but weird. Things to consider are that, even if an image seems unmarketable, it might actually work really well for their design concept. This is another image that I totally laughed at because I did not realize until maybe one week ago that I wasn't on that book cover. I thought that I was on that book cover the whole time, and this was, like, years ago that this book cover came out. I was just laughing. I was like, "Oh, the bird made it, that's good." (laughs) But hey, who knows? I licensed this image. I had no idea it would look like that, and that's fine with me, I don't mind that I've been cut out of their lives. Here we have another one, and this was an example of a much earlier one where they added smoke to the image that wasn't there before. I did not anticipate that. I am okay with it, but that should've been in my contract, and was not when I created this book cover with them. Just things to keep in mind, original versus how it ends up looking. Sometimes, it can surprise you.
Class Materials
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.