Advice on festival pics.

Hi all, new to these forums. Have been reading lots and have ingested lots of info.

I have a photo pass for a smaller sized metal festival in the UK next summer which obviously I'm looking forward to.

The advice I'm looking for is on what to do with the photos afterwards. I was able to get the pass from band management. I have covered some shows for them in my local venue and they have said it won't be a problem to get a pass for the festival. So as I'm not shooting for a publication/magazine or agency I'm thinking how to push this opportunity to a positive outcome.

Should I contact national magazines that cover this music to see if they would be interested in photos or see if the band management would like photos for publicity.

I am aware of the issue of not giving away photos for free but don't know if there's much money going around.

I plan on having a website up and running before the summer of 2014 too.

Thank you in advance

Contact national magazines and others to see if they are interested, in no way give them to band management unless they pay you

If you should pass them on to magazine, make sure they are invoiced for their licencing of photos

Thanks for the advice. Any other options if magazines or management are not interested? Should I be upfront with magazines about wanting payment for photos or is better to see if they want to use them?

This is hard because "credit" for photos doesn't guarantee you paid jobs in the future does it? Maybe it will, so far I've done a few publications in the past for nowt, hasn't guaranteed me any agency or other paid jobs from band management or paid assignments from magazines

If they keep saying that they have no budget,they have a website and/or have a print run, they obviously have the budget, it's just they don't want to pay for someone they don't probably need it, or the fact there are a lot of photographers willing to give it for nothing because they feel a certain warm glow that management want to use their photos or a magazine is willing to give just "credit" for your photos to appear in their magazine online and/or print

But, the call is yours, if you want to do that, I can't stop you

Well done on getting the festival shoot first of all. I'm in the same boat regarding getting photo passes for gigs but not getting much joy with publications. However a friend of mine who shoots photo journalism recently advised me to try subbing the shots to a photo agency instead. The theory being that they will then approach the publications with the shots on my behalf and they may already have a relationship with the publications ( rather than an email from me who they don't know from Adam ).

I'm still working on the Agency part though so I'm not sure if it will work out. But it can't be any worse than getting no replies from web/print magazines all year.

For a couple of bands/acts I shot in 2013 I did give some images for free for them to use on their websites, but they were acts that don't have record deals and financed their tours themselves. They were kind enough to get me a photo pass and and few plus ones so I took that as payment.

I will go against the grain here. GIVE the band that gave you the pass permission to use your photos. That is the polite thing to do. They are in fact giving you the press pass which will allow you to shoot all day. I personally hate shooting festivals, but when I do, I usually will try to help the local smaller acts. That approach has paid off in dividends for me many times.

Now, the national and interactional acts, that is a different story. What I would recommend is what others stated and try to see if any other publication could use them. Probably will not get far, but it is worth asking. Display them, share with fans, etc.

What you should do, is build a proper site to display your work. While you likely will not be able to sell or make money of the festival, if you can show that you have a good eye and can shoot, you may get other opportunities if you have a professional presentation. If you have a good enough portfolio and can create a solid brand, the publications/bands/ven​ues/events will find you.

Thanks for the advice there.

Can anyone share their process of contacting publications from initial contact through to final sale of product.?

It's not a sale, its a licence to reproduce photo(s) on website/print

Just give them an email/phone call to the editor

Ok, so say I get some good shots of a band who've given me a pass to their show, do I then approach them and ask if they're interested in buying those photos?

Just wondering about the process. I've got the chops, just need to know what to do about approaching bands/managers.

It's not buying the photos, it licensing photos for publication(s) and yes you do approach them

I shoot quite a number of shows for media, and when I shoot a local band I'm happy to give them photos for their FB pages etc. Just last week I had a request from one of their instrument manufacturers, and for rights to that photo, someone will pay.

Whuband, so how do you work out how much to charge for licensing?

Don't know why you're asking whuband

But here you go, mind you, this is only a guideline, i.e. no law set in stone
http://www.londonfreel​ance.org ….php?§ion=P​hotography