Photo Usage and License Fees Explained

The majority of a commercial photographer's income does not come from their day rate, but from their license fee and usage. Let's explore this.

When I started out in photography, I had no idea how professional photographers could ever even consider buying exotic glass, digital Hasselblads, and Broncolor lighting. The numbers just didn’t seem to add up. I knew what some of their day rates were, but what I was missing was the license fee, which is also often referred to as usage. 

In this video, I go over how I came to the realization that I was grossly undercharging for my photographic work by asking for a day rate only. I also go on to give the link to the calculator that I use for all of my commercial work to give quotes from as well as showing you exactly how a common usage quote would be made and what it would be worth.

What is worth noting is that a lot of photographers complain about the clients refusing to pay this additional fee. A license fee is something that is only applicable in the commercial world, and a lot of smaller clients simply wouldn’t have the budget to pay such fees. This leads to the tricky point that your work therefore has to be of a high enough standard for the larger companies to justify paying such a sum of money. 

How do you calculate your usage fees?

Scott Choucino's picture

Food Photographer from the UK. Not at all tech savvy and knows very little about gear news and rumours.

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4 Comments

Great and useful content as always, Scott.

It makes from a refreshing change from "why I changed from..." and "5 reasons you should..."

haha, sadly these don't get as many views.

Truth. On a related note, I miss Ted Forbes' Artist Series.

Anyway, keep it up (please) some of us appreciate your efforts.

Yeah his videos are great.