Long time, no post - Getty $49

It's the final nail. With price expectations at a new low it's simply not time efficient to sell images for this sort of use; with web use being one of the main markets I have to wonder whether its time efficient for me to put images on my own website!

Translating into £25, it just about justifies the time taken to prepare the image, deliver it and invoice it. A personal service. It does not pay for the time taken to take the image, keyword, get on the site. It does not pay for the time taken to get the many other images put onto the site that have not sold. And it pays nothing for the little element of art and expertise put into getting the image.

So when I quoted £30 for web recently and was told "That's rather more than we have previously page for a stock image" I did not bother to reply. I should have said "Well, go to Getty and spoil yourselves". But that would have been helping 2 companies that did not deserve it.

A guide to RM pricing

RM price calculators are, I have no doubt, a reason that photographers and buyers gravitate towards RF. These devices that once propped up the wallets of a few photographers ought to be consigned to dustbins, at least for most of us. I for one have had enough of the complexities of RM pricing. The sort of buyer that comes to photoconnect simply does not understand it.

This is what I do when I get an enquiry on photoconnect:

When I get a call for a photo I listen to the buyer and try and work out what their background is. Do they have big money to spend or not? I look at the image - is it special? I ask them how they want to use it, and how big. I then pluck what I think is the best price that I will get for that photo from that buyer out of the air and ask them to pay up front by paypal. I do not mention the word license. On the invoice I stipulate the use they mentioned.

It's traditional licensing without the agony - except the occasional haggle!