On Thursday, October 2, 2003, at 07:45 pm, Richard Kenward wrote:
Dear Bob
There is still time to pull back from the brink and to demonstrate that professional photographers are worth paying a decent fee to for their work.
Dear Richard
My objections to RF are not about the money. What do you call a decent fee? �1,000? �5,000? �10,000? Would you do RF for a decent fee? Many of the photographers shooting RF are paid highly for their efforts.
Dear Bob
I side tracked myself there! This was a general comment and not specific to RF. My objections to RF include the notion that photography is cheap/free, sold like cans of baked beans, stack it high sell it cheap. IMO it brings it into the realms of buy one get one free. It takes photography away from the concept of someone applying their own particular creative abilities to produce something unique to suit a particular need. It also could tend to promote the idea that it does not really matter what image one uses as long as its near. Whilst I would agree that this works for some people's needs, I suggest that it is another factor that is responsible for the progressive devaluation of a professionally executed image, digital or otherwise.
I will re-tell a story told to me a couple of years ago by someone well respected here. An ad or design agency told this photographer that they could no longer afford to use him and they were in the future going to be using RF wherever possible. Fine you may think, but it turns out this agency continued to charge good professional photography rates but used RF instead! This of course meant apart from the dishonesty, the photographer lost out, the client lost out in not having pictures that were uniquely created for his specific needs. I may have the detail a little wrong but that was the jist of it.
Regarding your question as to would I shoot RF and what would I consider a decent fee? I would not entertain the idea....not at any price thanks.
What I object to is the short sighted nature of RF and the way it is educating clients into the idea that copyright can be bought outright and exploited. Many photographers worked hard over the years to establish photography in the same league as other arts regarding copyright. RF throws much of this work away for short term gain.
I agree that it's the thin edge of the wedge.
However there is another way. Think of it as digital delivery. It is one pricing method among many. Digital delivery can also be used to sell Rights Managed images on a usage basis.
True.
Cheers
Richard -- Scanning?.....Forget it! For Quality Drum Scans for Professionals that are really right see Labs section at www.prodig.org (and email Richard for pdf)
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