Pro-Imaging

An Individual Decision

Each individual needs to clearheadedly assess the “deal” being offered by the stock business models and assess whether it works for them. Many successful Rights Managed shooters have made the decision against shooting RF - regardless of income potential and distributor pressure to engage - because they object to the terms of the business model. Some have been fortunate as they are in a financial position that makes that decision easier to make. One Rights Managed shooter with a successful business responded this way:

“My reaction to their offer was why should I take LESS for shooting RF than RM? I am delivering the same caliber of shooting, I have the same overhead and they want me to work for peanuts. When I asked why, the response was ‘it’s a different business model’. That made zero sense to me.”

Other photographers, looking for new revenue sources, feel compelled to carefully consider whether the RF business model presents a viable business opportunity for them. For those new to photography or new to stock, any offer may sound like a good offer. Even those who prefer the Rights Managed business model may be considering RF as a “next best” means to establish relationships, get images into the marketplace and gener- ate income.

To a student or new photographer with minimal cash flow, it’s hard to walk away from anyone offering you an entrée to the stock business. As one photographer who had been recruited for RF shoots in the late 90s observed:

“I think the RF deal is a lot more appealing to those new to stock. That could mean new to photo biz (students) or coming from assignment side. When I try on what you were offered, I can see it clearly when I imagine a primarily assignment shooter evaluating the biz proposition (especially 5-10 years back).”

Coming from the assignment business, a day rate and small share of royalties may sound like a good deal. One assignment photographer, a newcomer to stock, described his experience of being recruited to shoot an early collection of business images:

“Back when RF was first emerging on the scene, I was mostly doing assignments and happened to be asked to shoot quantities of images for what was then an unknown entity. Triple day-rates for weeks on end and all I had to do was show up - it was an offer I couldn’t refuse at the time. Truth be told, I couldn’t have afforded to set up the shoots with numerous locations and countless models. I grappled with the offer, but justified it as a buyout with a small royalty rate as incentive. I tried negotiating a higher royalty in lieu of higher day-rates, but they weren’t interested. Given I was new to the stock industry, I never imagined the potential this new model held - at least for the agency. After a couple discs, they moved on to other, cheaper means to fill their library. Hiring an employee was their logical next step.”

RF content developers have continued to economize their production models by reducing the fees, expenses and percentage terms offered to photographers. Some have hired staff shooters to develop image inventories on a work-for-hire and/or minimal royalty basis. One major RF brand has well over 10,000 RF images online by a single prolific staff shooter. As the wholly owned RF content continues to grow, it will increasingly dominate the inventory and individual contributors will start to be squeezed out.

With the “easy money” days of RF production long past, photographers considering the RF proposition are looking at a very different profit equation. Fewer images are accepted, production costs are rising, competition has intensified, and the terms of the deal are set up to maximize the payout down the road for the content developers and distributors and not for the photographers.