TOP 10 Questions #2. What is this Licensing or Usage thing?

us·age [yoo-sij, -zij] –noun. Any manner of doing or handling something;

MYTH: Just because you have the physical image in your hands, or the file on the computer does NOT mean you own it and can do whatever you want with it, forever.

Just as it is with your designs, images are the intellectual property of the creator.

Usage is typically broken down into four main categories:

• - Commercial-refers to images that are used to sell or promote a product, service, or idea.
• - Editorial-refers to photography used for educational or journalistic purposes.
• - Advertising-any instance where you have paid to have your ad (and the image in question) placed in a magazine, journal,
• - Retail-refers to photography commissioned or purchased for personal use.

The difference between these categories is not in the type of photography, but in the use of the images. For example, suppose you hire a photographer to document project ground breaking event. For you, the type of photography being commissioned is event coverage, and the use is commercial because the corporation will use the photographs to promote your new project. However, if a local newspaper covers the same product launch, the use would be editorial.

Retail photography is for photography clients that are only desiring the images for their own personal use, such as a family portrait or a wedding. The client isn’t using it to promote themselves for monetary gain.

Regardless of how they are used, photographs are intellectual property, the same as an architect or designer’s creative designs.

Though your General Contractor physically has copies of your building design documents, you would never, ever consider letting them go to the local blueprint copy place, make as many copies as he/she likes, and then build additional building for client of their own with those plans, or resell those plans to other GCs. Well, at least not without compensating you significantly anyway.

It is the same for the images created by your photographer.

Whether you were there or not, and whether we are your photographer on a project or not, if you have any questions or comments about commissioning architectural photography, please feel free to drop us a line anytime. We'd be happy to help!

Kimberly Blom-Roemer
Photographer
R2 Photography, LLC
r2-photography.com
866-722-9506