Buying photos

[murdaki11]

Recently i went to an event. And there is a magazine that wants my photos. This will be the first time i have sold the rights to anything. They say that they want all my photos and i would have to take them off my website. Does this sound correct? As i see many other people still keep there stuff up after selling it.

[robertwgross]

If you sell them exclusive rights, then you would take them off your web site.

If you sell them non-exclusive rights, then you can continue to do what you want with them.

---Bob Gross---

[defordphoto]

Most mags do not want to buy lifetime rights to photos, unless they happen upon a photog that doesn't realize what photo rights are worth. When I sold limited rights to a mag last year the only restriction they had is that I do not display or sell them to anyone else for 90 days. Not sure, but you may be misunderstanding them or they're trying to get a killer deal from an unexperienced photog.

[Levon]

Yeah, make sure that you know what the deal is.

To be honest, a magazine asking you to buy all the photos on your website sounds a bit strange, to say the least. What kind of rights do they want on your photos, and if they want exclusive rights for what period of time and what geographical boundaries (if any)?

As a photographer, no matter how inexperienced, you should never let any client take advantage of you. You would not only sell yourself short, but you would also seriously undermine all the other photographers market positions, and in the long run that is very bad for everybody.

[PhotosGuy]

Yeah, make sure that you know what the deal is. And, thats the deal as it's outlined in the contract, NOT what they tell you it is! ;)