BEYOND THE LENS

Chapter 5: Advertising Photography

Published by The Association of Photographers Limited
81 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4QS, UK. Tel +44 (0)20 7739 6669.
Website: www.the-aop.org Email general@aophoto.co.uk

© Max Forsythe & the AOP 2003

All rights reserved. Making copies for distribution in any form or by any means is strictly prohibited. The subscriber is licensed
for personal use only.

This book is intended as a guide for those people involved in photography and it is not intended to take the place of legall
advice. The authors, publisher and consultants can take no responsibility for the consequence of any reliance placed on its
contents. The editorial content of the section in this chapter on Working as an Advertising Photographer does not necessarily
reflect the attitude of the AOP Board or the membership.
PART 2: MAKING A LIVING
ABOUT THE AUTHORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

CHAPTER 5: ADVERTISING PHOTOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Working as an Advertising Photographer . . . . . . . . . . ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... . . 111
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... . . 111
Why advertising? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... . . 111
Getting your foot in the door . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... . . 111
The brief. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... . . 111
The photographers’ role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... . . 112
Negotiating Licences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... . . 112
The initial Licence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... . . 112
Exclusivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... . . 113
Negotiating Re-usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... . . 113
BUR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... . . 113
Additional media and licence extensions . . . ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... . . 113
Re-usage Guidelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... . . 113
Different geographical areas . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... . . 113
Re-usage Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... . . 114
Additional territory guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... . . 115
Don’t assign copyright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... . . 117

Beyond the Lens: Contents iii

iv Beyond the Lens: Contents
ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Author & contributor credits

Chapter 5 Working as an Advertising Photographer: Max Forsythe
Negotiating Licences: Gwen Thomas

Author & Contributor Biographies

Max & Jane Forsythe
Max Forsythe has been a photographer since the early 70s working mostly in advertising location. His wife
Jane joined him in 1984 and has produced all his shoots in different parts of the world since then. Max is a
long standing member and former chair of the AOP, and is currently chairman of the Standards Committee,
addressing members’ problems in the advertising world. Website: www.maxforsythe.com

Gwen Thomas
Gwen began working at the AOP in 1987. Currently the Executive Director of Business and Legal Affairs and
Company Secre t a ry of the AOP, Gwen has been advising members on copyright, contract and ethical
p roblems; negotiating on behalf of members; campaigning for photographers rights; responding to
Government papers on proposed legislation affecting photographers; and lecturing on copyright and ethics
since 1992. She is also Vice-Chairman, representing the visual arts, of the British Copyright Society; board
member of the Design and Artists Copyright Society; Secre t a ry to the British Photographers’ Liaison
Committee; Company Secre t a ry of Pyramide UK & Ireland; and sits on the Creators Rights Alliance
committee.
As General Manager and Company Secretary of Pyramide Europe Ltd. Gwen is involved with ensuring that
the European Commission are aware of the needs of visual artists when legislation is discussed and prior to
directives being issued. Gwen was a contributing author to the first two editions of Beyond the Lens and is
co-editor of this edition with Janet Ibbotson.

Beyond the Lens: About the Authors v

vi Beyond the Lens: About the Authors
CHAPTER 5: ADVERTISING PHOTOGRAPHY

Working as an Advertising Photographer

Introduction
There is no justice, as I have remarked to students at art and photography colleges. The best people are not
always the ones who are most successful. It is the ones who want it most who will come out on top. That is
not to say that determination is any substitute for talent, but given two embryonic photographers with good
potential, the one with the most fire in his/her belly will succeed.

Why advertising?
Advertising location photography is the area I know about, so what follows may not apply to other areas, but
the rewards for success are sufficient to attract lots of photographers and the resulting competition is ferocious.
First the bad news, due to the proliferation of TV channels the number of good press and poster campaigns
has diminished and the number of good photographers has increased, on top of this the international nature
of advertising has meant that most campaigns now run across several countries if not several continents.
Naturally a campaign shot by a French photographer, which runs across Europe, denies a lot of others the
opportunity to shoot national campaigns. The result is that there are more photographers chasing less work.
The good news is that the jobs are bigger and if you are using your AOP guidelines and paperwork you can
benefit from lucrative usage fees.

Getting your foot in the door

So how do you get a slice of the cake? The critical thing is your own work, you have to develop your own
individual way of seeing things and this has to be more than just a technique. The trouble with a technique is
that, as soon as other people find out how you did it they can do it too and you’ve lost your edge. Your work
should show an individual way of looking at things that clients can’t get elsewhere.
Folio, it shouldn’t be too heavy, it should be well produced and continually replenished and updated, it is
also worth, in my opinion, not designing it to look like it was found in a vault in the British Museum - avoid
tricks and gimmicks. How many pictures? 50 good pictures is not enough, 10 dull ones are too many. (See
Part 1 Chapter 4 Marketing and Representation for more information on Portfolios.)
Get to know the business you want to get work from, read Campaign, and find out the role of art directors,
art buyers, and how they relate to each other. If you just regard advertising as a distasteful “milk cow” then
you will not enjoy it and you will not get the best out of it.

The brief
Most art directors are as devoted to producing good and exciting work as you are, but they have clients and
internal agency requirements to cope with. As photographers we are largely shielded from all this by the art
director, who wants a good picture as much as we do, but is nevertheless the custodian of the brief.
When you get a layout you have to see it as a starting point. First you have to understand what the ad is
trying to communicate - talk to the Art Director about this. Then work on what you can bring to the party,
how you can develop it visually, how you can make it an interesting picture without losing the message. The
layout should be regarded as telling you what the photograph has to say, not what it has to look like, and
don’t get offended if the art director doesn’t agree - keep thinking about it.
The more experienced you become the more weight your opinion will have, and the more likely people are
to accept it when you say ‘this will look good’. Get yourself a good producer to put the estimate together so
you don’t lose your shirt, and make sure you are both fully briefed (e.g. How many different formats? Where
will it run? etc, etc). If you have an agent they will help you a lot with this, but the Catch 22 is that getting an
agent before you have done any work is difficult, and getting one when you have lots of work is irrelevant.
(See Part 1 Chapter 4: Marketing and Representation for more information on getting an Agent.)

Beyond the Lens: Advertising Photography 111

The Photographer’s Role
P re - p roduction meetings… this is where you get to meet the client, the account team, the production team
and lots of other people whose function escapes you. You will be expected to say how you are going to
tackle the shoot; where you are going to shoot it and when; go through the casting explaining why certain
people are right; show the chosen location pictures and say why they are right; and generally persuade the
client that you know what you are doing.
Remember they are agreeing to hand over to a complete stranger a large sum of money to go and shoot a
picture which they can’t see beforehand. You wouldn’t buy a TV that way, so be sympathetic to their worries
and concerns and try to put their mind at rest. Don’t pick a fight over some tiny detail that will be forgotten or
fade into insignificance when they see the shot.
On the shoot remember the art director is on your side and you will get the best results by working with
him/her. On location shoots you will spend a lot of time with the crew and it is essential to get on with people
to get the best out of them. The atmosphere of the shoot largely depends on the photographer; if you are the
sort of person who shouts at your assistant, gets uptight, and behaves like an asshole, you will have a bad
shoot and may never hear from that client again. Deal with problems calmly and don’t worry about the
weather - it won’t do any good.
It is always good to process film before you leave the location and with Q-labs everywhere this is often
possible. If it isn’t, then beware of airport X-rays machines, divide the film between you and your assistant, try
to get a hand search (claiming it is high speed usually works) and never put your film in the hold - on the way
out or on the way back. I always use a security wire to attach the film bags to my and my assistant’s belt.
Disaster is when all the film gets nicked at the airport.
Once the film is processed I go through it and select a few images which I am happy with, I normally scan
these and take them to the agency as prints - they are just easier to look at. But if you can’t, then take a
small lightbox and lupe.
Always get involved in the post-production, insist on sitting in at the retouching - you will not be unwelcome
and you will be able to greatly affect the final result.
And lastly, you may often be asked to shoot an alternative just to prove to everyone that it doesn’t work, the
inevitability is that this one gets picked. There is no point in complaining that they ran the wrong transparency
if you’re the one who gave it to them… Good Luck.

Negotiating Licences
When the photographer is originally approached with a possible commission, great care needs to be taken in
assessing the exact needs of the client, because the costing is dependant on this information. Many clients
still want to obtain copyright from the photographer for a variety of reasons, the main ones being a lack of
‘copyright’ understanding and the fear of having to spend more money for further use.

The Initial Licence

The original negotiated commission fee would normally include the following:
• 1 Year UK or any single country - any two media (3rd media may be included depending on its proportion
of the media spend)
• 2 Years UK or any single country - any one media
The licence begins on 1st insertion and 1st insertion can be expected within 6 months of the delivery of the
finished job to the agency/client.
It is suggested that work should be licensed for a minimum period of 6 months at a negotiated day rate.
Less than 6 months in an advertising context is not realistic.
In the UK, the photographer’s fee normally includes the first use of the photograph/s, but the duration,
media and terr i t o ry are frequently negotiated within this fee. Factors such as the experience of the
photographer and the desirability of the commission may affect the negotiated day rate.

112 Beyond the Lens: Advertising Photography

Exclusivity
S t a n d a rd trade practice, with re f e rence to the original commission, will give the client exclusivity for the
period of time, in the specific territories agreed, included in the shoot fee. Clients and advertising agencies
a re concerned that the photographs which they commission, and for which they pay the origination
expenses, should not fall into the hands of competitors or become associated with other products after the
initial licence period has finished. To prevent this, it has been suggested that the photographer should not sell
the photographs, for example through a library, without client and agency permission, for four years after the
end of the licence (unless otherwise agreed). This should be negotiated with the individual agency/client
before the shoot takes place, as should other related issues such as confidentiality. The sensitivity of the
subject matter should always be taken into consideration, for example, an image which could be used to
good effect by a competitor of the original client. Where material is not sensitive, it is unlikely that an agency
or their client would withhold this permission. On expiry of the initial exclusivity period, the commissioner
should be offered first option to extend the exclusivity clause at a negotiated rate.
It is expected that, once the confidentiality period is over, the photographer and agency can use the image
for their own PR purposes. This use should include entry into competitions by the photographer and the
agency with credits to the photographer, client and agency.

Negotiating Re-usage
BUR (Base Usage Rate)
To prevent misunderstandings when negotiating additional usage fees, and to enable the client to budget
accordingly, it has been suggested that a Base Usage Rate (BUR) should be established. The BUR is the
starting point for negotiating use of the work over and above the initial commissioned media and time period
and should be clearly stated on the photographer's original estimate. It is the figure to which the percentages
in the following guidelines are applied.
It is suggested that the BUR should not be less than the negotiated day rate, and could be pitched
according to the amount of input and involvement required from the photographer.
When a photographer is doing a ‘budget’ job for the client at less than their normal day rate, then the BUR
could be set at their normal day rate for that type of commission
Example: The client has commissioned a shoot for use in the UK, press and posters for 1 year, they now
want to include point of sale. BUR has been negotiated at £2000, a licence for point of sale
should be 25-50% BUR – cost of additional licence £500 - £1000.
When several images from a single day’s shoot ie. the same subject or variations from a single shoot, are
used by the commissioner, then each individual image should be subject to a negotiable BUR, at less than
the original commissioned day rate agreed.
Additional media and licence extensions
The guidelines shown on the following pages are for use where the photographer has issued, or is issuing, a
licence and were produced as a result of discussions between art buyers, photographers and photographers’
agents. These are not recommendations, but are provided as guidelines for negotiation based on current
trade practice.
The Re-Usage table is not exhaustive and requests for media not shown can be negotiated by using a
similar media with the same style of distribution or viewing. Merchandising should be negotiated separately
and the licence cost could be based on a percent of each sale (royalty).
D i ff e rent geographical areas
For all secondary and subsequent use of photographs, it has been agreed that the percentages given on the
Additional Territories usage chart are reasonable and fair. However, it is impossible to cover every eventuality
and it is for the photographer and/or their agent and the agency or client to negotiate an arrangement which
both parties find agreeable.

Beyond the Lens: Advertising Photography 113

114 Beyond the Lens: Advertising Photography
Beyond the Lens: Advertising Photography 115
Countries included in continents are as follows:

Africa Nigeria Kyrgyzstan* Oceania Lithuania

Algeria Rwanda Laos Australia Luxembourg **
Angola Sao Tome Lebanon* Fiji Macedonia
Benin Senegal Malaysia Kiribati Malta Moldova
Botswana Seychelles Maldives Marshall Islands Monaco
Burkina Sierra Leone Mongolia Micronesia Netherlands**
Burundi South Africa Nepal Nauru N o rw a y
Cameroon Sudan Oman* New Zealand Portugal **
Cape Ve rd e Swaziland Pakistan* Palau Poland
Central African Tanzania Phillipines Papua New Guinea Romania
Republic Togo Qatar* Samoa Russia (European)
Chad Tunisia Russian Federation Solomon Islands San Marino
Comoros Uganda Saudi Arabia* Tonga Yugoslavia (Serbia)
Congo Zambia Singapore Tuvalu Slovakia
Congo Dem Rep Zimbabwe Sri Lanka Vanuata Slovenia
Djibouti Syria* Spain**
Egypt Asia Taiwan Europe Sweden**
Equatorial Guinea Afghanistan* Tajikistan* Albania Switzerland
Eritrea Armenia* Turkey* Andorra Turkey
Ethiopia Azerbaijan Turkmenistan* Austria** Ukraine
Gabon Bahrain* United Arab Belarus UK **
Gambia Bangladesh Emirates * Belgium**
Ghana Bhutan Uzbekistan* Bosnia-Herzegovina
Guinea B ru n e i Yemen* Bulgaria
Guinea-Bissau Burma Vietnam Croatia
Ivory Coast Cambodia Czech Republic
Kenya China South America Denmark**
Lesotha C y p ru s* Argentina Estonia
Liberia East Timor Bolivia Finland**
Libya India Brazil France**
Madagascar Indonesia Chile Georgia
Malawi Iran* Colombia Germany**
Mali Iraq* Ecuador Greece **
Mauritania Israel* Guyana Hungary
Mauritius Japan Paraquay Iceland
Morocco Jordan* Peru Ireland (Eire)**
Mozambique Kazakhstan Suriname Italy**
Namibia Korea Uruguay Latvia
Niger Kuwait* Venezuela Liechtenstein

* Part of Asia, but often referred to as being a part of the Middle East
** Member of the EU

116 Beyond the Lens: Advertising Photography

Don’t assign copyright
In principle, we are opposed to the assignment of copyright. However, we recognise that agencies
sometimes need to negotiate a fee covering any future use of the photographs without continuous
reference to the photographer. In such cases, the Licence to Use will specify "All Media" under Media Use,
the Territory will be "Worldwide" and the Time Period will be "Unlimited".
The licence will be exclusive to the Agency/Client and will cover all uses of the photography in relation to
the product named on the licence. The photographer retains the right to use the photographs for
promoting his/her own work.
The All Uses licence is subject to the general Terms and Conditions and therefore does not permit use in
relation to another product or sub-licensing, for example to a photo library.

Beyond the Lens: Advertising Photography 117