Fine Art Photography: The Complete Guide
Lesson 91/138 - How to Keep Licensing Organized
Fine Art Photography: The Complete Guide
Lesson Info
How to Keep Licensing Organized
So we're gonna talk with licensing about organization of those files, organization of the whole spreadsheet keeping track of all these things that you have to remember when you're licensing an image, which gets highly complicated, where to license your images, where you might wanna upload your pictures to and have somebody sell them for you, or that you might want to sell yourself, and then how do we price licensed images? And I'm excited to talk again about pricing, because it is something that people really struggle with, that I have often struggled with, and I wanna try to just break down what it means to price a licensed image, as much as we can. And I'm gonna tell you right up front, it's a lot more complicated than pricing a print for a gallery. So just prepare yourself mentally right now. Okay. Organization. When we're talking about organization for licensed images, I don't necessarily mean where you keep them in folders on your desktop or anything like that, or how to back them...
up. What I mean is how do you keep track of which images have gone where and for how long and for what projects and things like that? So the title of the project is good to have, as well as the title of the image that you're licensing. Who is licensing it specifically? And I mention that because there are a lot of publishing companies, for example, that work with other publishing companies and they might, you know, totally innocently, give that image to this other publishing company that they work with for this other thing that they wanna do and it's not really meant to go to that person. So who exactly is the licensee? What region are you licensing within? When I say region, I mean what country? What part of the world? For example, this book is in a language that I don't know but it's in another language. Can anybody read that? No? That's okay. It's in a language that I don't understand because I have a lived a sheltered life and I don't know languages. But this was, let's just say, it looks like maybe the Netherlands or something like that. Netherlands! It is. Okay. So this was from the Netherlands and this image was licensed for this book cover so when I created this contract, one thing that I might have said was, "do you want this image to be sold anywhere else? Are you okay with that?" The price will change based on their answer. So they might have said, "please don't sell this image to anyone else in the Netherlands." Okay? So that would be restriction by region by saying, well, I don't mind if you sell this picture to somebody else other places in the world, but not in the Netherlands because that's where we're based, that's where this book will be distributed and that's what's most important to them. Alright, so aside from region, duration. How long is the license going to last? Will this be a worldwide exclusive forever license? Or are you going to limit the duration of the license? So you might, I might tell these people in the Netherlands you can have this picture for three years with exclusivity in the Netherlands but after three years is up, I can still sell that picture to anybody else that I want in the Netherlands. Just an example of how you would use duration to limit or expand your license. And then the medium. So maybe... I'm just gonna keep holding this book instead of putting it down. Maybe if this person came to me and they said, "I want to license this image, it's for this book, I need exclusivity in the Netherlands, but also on all book covers worldwide," then that would be exclusivity by medium and that's something that we have to think about. They might say you can still make prints of it, you can still, you know, sell to bands for album art, you can do movie posters, but just not books because they want the rights to the books. Something to think about. And then price is what you'll also organize into your spreadsheet. How much did you sell for? What are the terms and conditions? And I've already showed this to you a little bit and I just wanted to run through this one more time because I think it's very important that we're really clear about organization here with licensed images. This can be an extremely difficult thing to untangle if you haven't kept track of who you're selling your images to. So I've got here the title of the image, the licensee, the amount that I sold it for, if it's exclusive or not, what the terms are, terms and conditions, how they paid, what format it's in, digital versus print, the print run of it. So if they did sell it, how many copies are out there? Things that you might want to know. I tried to make these spreadsheets with every piece of information I can think of, even if I can't even see how it's relevant right now. If I just think one day down the road I'd really like to know how many copies of this book are out there, I'm just gonna ask right up front and figure out what their print run is. The other really good thing about doing that, about asking about their print run size, is that you know then, and let's say they can't afford a really expensive license, then you might say, "you know what, if your first print run is 5000 copies, then I'll sell it to you for this print run. But if you do another print run, you'll owe me 300 more dollars," let's just say. So it's good to know the print run. Invoice, medium, what is it on? So is it a book or is it a CD or is it a movie poster? The working title, and any notes. And so we've already gone over this so I'm gonna skip right past it, but just really emphasizing how important each of these categories are.
Class Description
Creating a great photo for a client is one thing - but turning your passion and ideas into a series that is shared, shown, and sold is a whole different business. If you do it right, you’ll be shooting what you love all the time. Learn how to choose which ideas to create, how to turn your concept into a production, and steps to getting your work seen and even sold in Fine Art Photography: A Complete Guide with Award-Winning Photographer, Brooke Shaden.
This is an all-inclusive workshop that provides the tools you need to run a successful and creative business as a fine art photographer. You’ll learn creative exercises to find and develop your ideas, how to create an original narrative, how to produce your own photo series, post production techniques and skills for compositing and retouching, how to write about your work, ways to pitch to galleries and agents, and how to print your pieces so they look like art.
This workshop will take you on location with Brooke as she creates a photo series from scratch. She’ll walk through every step for her photo shoots including set design and location scouting, she’ll cover techniques in the field for capturing your artistic vision, post-production and compositing techniques, as well as printing and framing essentials.
She’ll round out this experience by discussing all of the details that will help make your career a success like licensing, commissions, artists statements, social media plans, gallery prep, and pricing your work.
This comprehensive course is a powerful look into the world of fine art photography led by one of the world’s most talented photographers, Brooke Shaden. Included with purchase is exclusive access to bonus material that gives exercises and downloads for all of the lessons.
Lessons
1Class Introduction 2Storytelling & Ideas 3Universal Symbols in Stories 4Create Interactive Characters 5The Story is in The Details 6Giving Your Audience Feelings 7Guided Daydream Exercise 8Elements of Imagery 9The Death Scenario 10Associations with Objects 11Three Writing Exercises 12Connection Through Art 13Break Through Imposter Syndrome 14Layering Inspiration 15Creating an Original Narrative 16Analyze an Image 17Translate Emotion into Images 18Finding Parts in Images 19Finding Your Target Audience 20Where Do You Want Your Images to Live? 21Create a Series That Targets Your Audience 22Formatting Your Work 23Additional Materials to Attract Clients 24Which Social Media Platforms Will be Useful? 25How to Make Money from Your Target Audience 26Circle of Focus 27The Pillars of Branding 28Planning Your Photoshoot 29Choose Every Element for The Series 30Write a Descriptive Paragraph 31Sketch Your Ideas 32Choose Your Gear 33How to Utilize Costumes, Props & Locations 34What Tells a Story in a Series? 35Set Design Overview 36Color Theory 37Lighting for the Scene 38Props, Wardrobe & Time Period for Set Design 39Locations 40Subject Within the Scene 41Set Design Arrangement 42Fine Art Compositing 43Plan The Composite Before Shooting 44Checklist for Composite Shooting 45Analyze Composite Mistakes 46Shoot: Black Backdrop for White Clothing 47Shoot: Black Backdrop for Color Clothing 48Shoot: Black Backdrop for Accessories 49Shoot: Miniature Scene 50Editing Workflow Overview 51Add Fabric to Make a Big Dress 52Edit Details of Images 53Add Smoke & Texture 54Blend Multiple Images Into One Composite 55Put Subject Into a Miniature Scenario 56Location Scouting & Test Photoshoot 57Self Portrait Test Shoots 58Shoot for Edit 59Shoot Extra Stock Images 60Practice the Shoot 61Introduction to Shooting Photo Series 62Shoot: Vine Image 63Shoot: Sand Image 64Shoot: End Table Image 65Shoot: Bed Image 66Shoot: Wall Paper Image 67Shoot: Chair Image 68Shoot: Mirror Image 69Shoot: Moss Image 70Shoot: Tree Image 71Shoot: Fish Tank Image 72Shoot: Feather Image 73View Photo Series for Cohesion & Advanced Compositing 74Edit Multiple Images to Show Cohesion 75Edit Images with Advanced Compositing 76Decide How to Start the Composite 77Organize Final Images 78Choosing Images for Your Portfolio 79Order the Images in Your Portfolio 80Why do Some Images Sell More Than Others? 81Analyze Student Portfolio Image Order 82Framing, Sizing, Editioning & Pricing 83Determine Sizes for Prints 84How to Choose Paper 85How to Choose Editions 86Pricing Strategies 87How to Present Your Images 88Example Pricing Exercise 89Print Examples 90Licensing, Commissions & Contracts 91How to Keep Licensing Organized 92How to Prepare Files for Licensing 93Pricing Your Licensed Images 94Contract Terms for Licensing 95Where to Sell Images 96Commission Pricing Structure 97Contract for Commissions 98Questions for a Commission Shoot 99Working with Galleries 100Benefits of Galleries 101Contracts for Galleries 102How to Find Galleries 103Choose Images to Show 104Hanging the Images 105Importance of Proofing Prints 106Interview with Soren Christensen Gallery 107Press Package Overview 108Artist Statement for Your Series 109Write Your 'About Me' Page 110Importance of Your Headshot 111Create a Leave Behind & Elevator Pitch 112Writing For Fine Art 113Define Your Writing Style 114Find Your Genre 115What Sets You Apart? 116Write to Different Audiences 117Write for Blogging 118Speak About Your Work 119Branding for Video 120Clearly Define Video Talking Points 121Types of Video Content 122Interview Practice 123Diversifying Social Media Content 124Create an Intentional Social Media Persona 125Monetize Your Social Media Presence 126Social Media Posting Plan 127Choose Networks to Use & Invest 128Presentation of Final Images 129Printing Your Series 130How to Work With a Print Lab 131Proofing Your Prints 132Bad Vs. Good Prints 133Find Confidence to Print 134Why Critique? 135Critiquing Your Own Portfolio 136Critique of Brooke's Series 137Critique of Student Series 138Yours is a Story Worth TellingReviews
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.
a Creativelive Student
What an amazing 20 days this is going to be! Brooke is so enthusiastic and has such a lovely manner. What a bargain for all of the information Brooke will be sharing with us. So excited. Thanks Brooke and Creative Live. :)