I'll go first even though I'm not eligible, this image was taken during my Stun Gun Photoshoot personal project I did a few years ago.
I probably licensed dozens of images from this set to newspapers and television shows for around $200 - $500 depending on the publication and number of images used. In this instance, this particular image was licensed by the French automotive company Citroen for their internal revenue reports. The licensing on the invoice I pulled up listed it as "Institutional brochures and pdf documents (available on the Citroen website), worldwide, 3 years, B to B without medias buying." Unfortunately I never did see the final creative published but I've included the mockup their advertising agency sent me when negotiating the deal.
This image was licensed for $1800 Euros which at the time was right around $2000.
All in all, this personal project which I did just for fun, cost me about $1000 to produce and when it went viral, made me somewhere around $6,000 net profit with all the news licensing and commercial usage like this one with Citroen.
Funny thing is I don't think they wanted this image because of it's connection with the original Stun Gun Photoshoot but rather they just liked the girl and expression...go figure.
That's the smile the C-suite made when viewing the quarterly report.
In my experience, good work always finds a home
When you license your images, how are they usually discovered? Do people reach out because the video was a hit, or do you post on sites that license images for stock, etc?
Most of my work has been discovered through Fstoppers or through my personal projects posted on my personal website. I recently took my commercial site down (well let it expire since I"m wanting to redo it). Since I'm focusing hard on Fstoppers at the moment, and living in Puerto Rico, my priorities aren't commercial work at the moment. I've had a few companies find previous work from my website and want to use something I've already shot. Most of my licensing has come from viral shoots that gain attention from news outlets and online publications but you should also have licensing attached to any normal direct to brand shoots you booked. I recently did a black friday clothing catalog shoot and had a license fee attached to the day rate.
Thanks for the feedback! I'm always wondering if I should be trying to monetize my actual images beyond the rates for gigs, headshots, etc. I don't really shoot much that seems super "stock friendly" but always interested to hear how other people are doing it.
As an aside, we live in Boston and love getting down to Puerto Rico every now and then, maybe we'll run into you guys sometime! Sounded in a recent video like you guys are out east somewhere overlooking Vieques?
Yep, we are in Palmas Del Mar in Humacao. I just moved my girl friend down from Boston (Brighton) and have had an amazing time visiting up there the last year and a half. That Jet Blue flight from Boston to PR is amazing! Let me know if you make it down this way (must bring a box of Mike's)
No doubt! It's a hidden gem for the east coast. Last time we were there was the night before Maria hit, which was eerie. Everyone knew what was coming and our flight left an hour before they closed the airport. The next day, all the places we had stayed were underwater on the news.
The coloring to the mouth they did keeps cracking me up! The did a good job with the eye color but is it really necessary?! Love the original and the color grade you had on it.