MRomine Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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The problem here is that the horse is already out of the barn. Live and learn. This should have all been talked about at the time of the estimate and booking. Since it wasn't this tells me that you are fairly new to the world of new construction and commercial photography in general. The original company that hired you should have been made aware that the photos can be made available to everyone else who worked on the project but for a fee or for a license. What your client's is asking for is very typical in the construction industry. Everyone who has a part in a construction project is a potential customer, the most obvious are the architect and general contractor, but window manufactures, lighting contractors, flooring, etc they can all be interested. If the project is high-end or unique enough then the greater the potential for others being interested in the work that you have produced.
In commercial photography never ever give away your copyrights, spell out from the very beginning exactly what they (the client) will be receiving and how they can use them. This should all be spelled out in the estimate and then again in the final invoice. Before doing weddings, I used to do a significant amount of architectural interiors and exteriors and I often made a nice additional amount of change selling photos to the general contractor as well as the other contractors involved on the project. In most cases my original point of contract was the architect. Photos are extremely import to everyone in the construction industry food chain, it plays a significant role in their efforts to acquire future work. They make big money when they land new work based upon your photos. Therefore, everyone should wants to use them should have to pay to use them. For this reason I totally disagree with the thinking that since the original client paid for all the expenses to produce the work that they should be entitled to do what they want with the photos including give them to other business to use in their marketing and advertising products. That is totally bogus thinking and the very reason why so many commercial shooters are no longer in business. Too many photographers have been too eager to get the quick check and more on.
Depending on your market size you may not want to try and limit usage via licensing but if you are working in markets of 1 million or larger where there are construction projects that are multi-million dollar or larger then you are seriously leaving money on the table by not licensing usage to your work. It can have deep monetary rewards. It does take good paperwork and a knowledge of the industry but it can certainly be worth the effort. This has been the problem for many genre's of commercial photography over the last 10-15 years. Photographers either don't know how or are too lazy and don't want to put in the work. Thus they leave money on the table. In turn this has had a negative effect on everyone's earnings. They just want the quick check and be done with it. But even if you are in a small market, 500,000 or smaller where the photo buyers don't get or understand the whole licensing thing, you should still have no problem charging others in the construction food chain who want to use your photos.
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