Copyright law is pretty complicated. But as it relates to photography what it says is that it basically states that somebody who takes a photo that person is the exclusive owner of that photo immediately. They own the copyright. They have the right to reproduce and redistribute that photograph however, they want and they can display it. However, they want as well now to avoid copyright infringement
The way they would allow people to use your photos for commercial purposes such as a real estate listing is through licensing. Now this all gets pretty complicated and I’m going to start off by using an analogy like music. It translates pretty well so now when you purchase a song on iTunes for $0.99. You’re not buying that song. You don’t own the song you’re buying a license to download and use that song for personal use. When I make a video for real estate, I have to license that song each time and there’s going to be a fee associated with that each time that I pay for. Another example, you’re a car company and you want to use 30 seconds of that song “Like a Rock” to sell your trucks, you have to license that 30 seconds of that song for that specific use and at that point you’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees. Basically, the same principles apply to photography. If you hire a photographer to photograph your family, for example you’re going to pay a relatively low fee like a hundred to five hundred dollars depending where you’re at just to be able to hang those photos in your home or share them on social media. But you wouldn’t be able to take those photos and sell them to a company like Starbucks for example for an ad campaign. They’d actually need to license those photos from the photographer. And of course, the photographer would have to get your written consent, but legally the photographer owns the copyright and not the family.
When it comes to Real Estate Photography, it’s very similar and it really all boils down to the number of images and the use or distribution, and ultimately the value of those images or the potential return on investment of those images.
Now on the higher end you have commercial marketing campaigns for larger brands where the images are going to be used for magazines, large print etc. Typically, those shoots are thousands to tens of thousands of dollars depending on the photographer and the distribution in most cases you’re looking at. Tens or hundreds of thousands if not millions for the return on investment of those images which is why there’s a higher rate for photographers and their shoot fee and their licensing. Now if we go down a notch to say a residential designer or a builder or an architect the licensing fees associated with that are often determined by the number of images and their use. Typically, only a handful of images might be needed and it’s going to be for social media website and possibly some print ads. Most designers are national, so you’re likely not going to be dealing with a national campaign meaning that the distribution and the eyeballs on that are going to be very limited and the licensing tends to be on a per image basis plus the shoot fee. Now on average design shoot could range anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars depending on all the variables. With these you can expect a long-term return on investment of thousands If not tens of thousands from new clientele. Check out Getty Images for a free price calculator.
Now we have real estate listings. These are a very limited use, they are very limited distribution and there’s a very limited amount of time spent on location and in editing for the photographer. So for real estate, the photos aren’t selling the Realtor or a service or selling a home and typically the listing agreement only lasts for about six months to a year and then the images really aren’t used again. This is why you can hire a photographer over just a couple hundred dollars you get 25 images for a real estate listing. With professional images you’re often going to see thousands of dollars as a return on your investment because of your commissions. Now remember we’re talking about licensing here.I just want to remind you’re not paying for the photos themselves. You’re paying for the license meaning you wouldn’t own the photos. You really can’t do what you want with them. You’d have to your licensing the use of the images for the sale of that property. The images can’t be given to the Builder, a designer, property management company. They can’t be sold to another agent to be used if your listing expires. All of those things would legally be considered copyright infringement. And those images would actually need to be relicensed through your photographer and there’s typically a cost associated with that. It’s really a standard across the industry and the main reason is because if you’re using a professional photographer work to potentially earn thousands of dollars that photographer should be compensated for that.
I hope this helped to shed just a little bit of light on this subject if you weren’t already familiar with it. I just wanted to be sure to cover this topic as best as I could
Please let me know if you have any questions on this topic. I’ll be happy to answer them.
