One frame, three licenses
What you are buying is a rectangle, not a photograph
The three shapes below are the three ways this frame has been licensed. They come out of one exposure, they cost different amounts, and the reason is drawn rather than argued.
LH-002Kitchen and garden roomArgyll
- Cover
- 4:5 · 35.7% of frame381 mm on the long edge @ 300dpioverhang 2.293× wide · 1.223× tall£450 · 24 months · United Kingdom and Ireland
- Double-page spread
- 2:1 · 39.6% of frame508 mm on the long edge @ 300dpioverhang 1.376× wide · 1.835× tall£320 · 24 months · United Kingdom and Ireland
- Web lead
- 3:1 · 21.4% of frame457 mm on the long edge @ 300dpioverhang 1.529× wide · 3.058× tall£260 · 36 months · Worldwide
- Sensor
- 8256 × 5504
- Cut
- 3600 × 4500 · 4:5
- Margins
- 2304 · 300 · 2352 · 704
- Overhang
- 8256 ÷ 3600 = 2.293×
The hatched band is the frame you keep.
The sensor is 8256 by 5504 pixels. The delivered rectangle is 3600 by 4500, set 2304 pixels from the left edge and 300 from the top, which leaves 2352 on the right and 704 at the foot. Dividing the sensor's width by the cut's width gives an overhang of 2.293 times.
How the overhang is worked out
Every figure on this site divides the sensor by the cut. The license buys the rectangle in the middle; the hatched band around it is frame that was shot, paid for on the day rate, and never granted to anybody. It stays here, and it is why the same frame can be licensed again as a different shape.
Usage fees
What each license costs
Four forms, four fees. The term runs from the day the license is granted. Renewing is the same fee again for the same term.
A frame can carry more than one license at once. Every grant against every frame is listed on the register.
| Usage | Aspect | Term | Territory | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Press singleOne frame, one story, print and the online version of the same story.LH-007 whole frame, nothing cropped | 3:2 | 12 months | United Kingdom | £180 |
| CoverThe front of one issue, plus the contents thumbnail and the issue's own promotion.TB-004 28.2% of frame | 4:5 | 24 months | United Kingdom and Ireland | £450 |
| Double-page spreadOne spread inside one issue, across the gutter.SM-003 42.3% of frame | 2:1 | 24 months | United Kingdom and Ireland | £320 |
| Web leadThe lead image on one page of your own site, and the card that links to it.HC-001 16.9% of frame | 3:1 | 36 months | Worldwide | £260 |
Shooting rates
What a day on site costs
Shooting buys the day and the files. It does not buy the right to publish them. Usage is charged separately and always, from £180 to £450 a license.
A quote is the day count plus the licenses you want. Both halves are on this page, so you can add them up before you write.
| Rate | What it covers | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Shooting day | On site, plus the edit and the delivery of the keepers. | £1,150 |
| Half day | One site, one visit. 60 per cent of the day rate. | £690 |
| Mileage | Per mile beyond 40 miles of Glasgow. Inside that, nothing. | £0.45 |
Delivery is inside the day rate. 2 to 5 days from the last shoot day, median 4, across 6 commissions and 11 shoot days.
Not granted
What a license does not cover
Six things every tier above excludes. They are here rather than in a terms document because you would sign the terms document without reading it.
You cannot resell it or license it on
1 of 6The license is yours to use, not yours to pass on. If a partner, a contractor or a magazine you work with wants the same frame, they take their own license and I quote them the same rate as anyone else.
This is the one that catches people out, usually with a supplier who put the picture in their own brochure. Send them to me and it is a five-minute conversation.
You cannot use it as a logo or a trade mark
2 of 6A photograph can carry an identity for a campaign. It cannot become the identity. Registering any part of a frame as a mark, or using it as one, is outside every tier on this page.
If that is what you want, say so at the brief stage. It is a different piece of work with a different fee, and it is worth doing properly.
You cannot use it to train a model
3 of 6No frame licensed here may be used as training data, and none may be handed to a third party for that purpose. That holds whether the license is live or has run out.
I am not making a point about the technology. I am saying that a frame fed to a model leaves the register, and the register is what the whole of this site is built on.
You cannot alter what the picture shows
4 of 6Crop it to fit your page, correct it for your press, put type over it. All of that is normal and none of it needs asking.
What is not allowed is a change to the fact of what was photographed: adding plant that was not on site, removing a defect, compositing two visits into one day. These are records of construction, and people rely on them being records.
The license does not move if the company is sold
5 of 6A license is granted to the client named on it. It does not transfer with a sale, a merger or a change of name, and a new owner does not inherit it.
Re-issuing one to the new entity is routine and I have never refused. It just has to be asked for, so the register stays true.
Exclusivity is not included unless it is written in
6 of 6By default I can license the same frame to somebody else, including within your sector. Most clients never mind; the frames that go to a trade title are usually the ones the client wanted seen.
If you need a frame held back, that is an exclusivity term and it is priced separately, by the length of the hold. Ask before the shoot rather than after, because the answer is cheaper then.
Have a job in mind
Tell me the site, the dates, and what the pictures are for. You get a day count and a usage figure back.
Delivered in 2–5 days · median 4 · 6 commissions