what do I need before I start to sell photos online?

Things I have to do before I start to sell image online.

[as_is]

Collecting for about 3 years, we now have lots of photoes, and serveral video clips.
We want to sell them to people who interested in it.

What should we do before we put them online and sell them?
should we copyrighted them? Someone told me that if I want to sell those images, I also need to file documentations to declare transmission of copyright...

Would you please give me some advice or suggestion on how to handle it?

Thank you very much.

[Jenstar]

You didn't make it clear if you just "collected" the photos and video clips or if you actually took them or made them yourself. This will make a difference in whether you can copyright them or not.

[as_is]

I am sorry I didn't make it clear.
we make most of them, for those not made by us we brought them.

Thank you very much.

[peewhy]

Why not watermark each image?

[as_is]

hi, we've thought of that.
But that's too expensive. Digimarc would cost thoustands of dollars to watermark all the them for one year.

I think that's too much for our budget.

Besides, we are not familiar with the precedure to sell a image online. should we copyright in our or in our targetted market? Which kind of law is our best choice?
And if we sell one image, which formaility should we follow to transmit the ownership of photo?

Dont have any idea.

Any help would be highly appreciated!

[Jenstar]

It is $30 to copyright each individual photo in the US. Here is the link to the US copyright office.

copyright.gov/register/visual.html

There is a lot of information there to help you as well. Depending on the number of photographs, it could be costly though.

If you aren't located in the US, though, I am not sure about how to go about copyrighting photos in many other countries.

You can also do you own digital watermark yourself - if you go to some of the big name stock photography sites, you can see what they do to show you their photos, without worrying about people using them without paying.

Are you looking to sell digital photographs, or the actual photographs themselves? You will also need to consider if you are selling the photo to only one person, or if each will be available to as many people as are willing to pay $X amount for the use of the photo.

As for transfering the ownership, I am not sure on that one. I know we have a few photographers here, maybe one of them can help out. But you should probably consult a lawyer on this issue as well, and who can also provide you with a sample contract you would need to use for this.

[peewhy]

Instead of using something as sophisticated as Digimark, why not create - semi transparent/faded logo to place in the centre of the image. Or a thin red X from each corner.

Play with ideas where the image can still be seen by prospective clients but useless for any other reason.

Peter

[as_is]

Thank you very much,Jenstar and peewhy.
I was just thinking maybe I made it too complicated myself.
That's true, why should I bother Digimarc while I am as small as nil?
:)

[as_is]

I am sorry to split the post to two.

Is here anyone would point me some famous website that sell digital photoes online?
I only know photodisc.

I think maybe I could learn more from their website.

Thank you very much.

[peewhy]

I would suggest you search away :)

[Jenstar]

Search in Yahoo for "Stock Photography" - you will find the biggies in their category listings.

[peewhy]

Actually Jenstar just jogged my memory, there is a UK based firm called Stockphotos - They'll be worth a look.

[as_is]

lot's cool site. will dig more into it later.

You two are really partners work together to solve problems :)

Thank you very much.

[peewhy]

my pleasure .... please call again:)

[universetoday]

Take a look at Shutterfly's Pro Galleries. You pay an annual fee but then you get a steep discount from them. You create albums that your customers can look through and purchase photos at various sizes up to 20x30. The cool thing is that you get to set the price on the prints.

It's a good way to sell photos withough having to do all the photolab stuff.

[as_is]

Thanks,universetoday :)

Shutterfly's Pro Galleries seems to concentrate on print image.

I found other image stock like lonelyplanet iamge, indexstock,comstock and photodisc, they all accept photo submission, although their criteria is comparatively high.
Don't know if submission would succeed. But will have a try.

Thank you very much.

[moltar]

As far as I know, everything that you've created is your intellectual property right away. You can claim in court that it's yours.

To prove it, there is a pretty cheap solution to this.

Take all your photographs, put them all in a big envelope, seal it, go to a judge, make him/her sign it (stamp, seal), then send it by mail to yourself. Post office will put a date stamp on it. Whenever you will have trouble you will have proof of ownership.

PS check out ComStock

[mack]

I recently tried something like this myself. What I did was enable users to download the images with a small url on them. If however they wish to download the images without this then they can purchase the album as a zip file. Once purchased the photo belongs to them.

This can work in 2 ways. The free photos will help promote your site. People may then choose to purchase the photos because they like the low quality "demos".

Mack.

[luong]

Selling photos means either physical prints, or licencing rights, which is stock photography. This is a rather complex business, and if you'd like to get into it, I would advice checking out photography related sites to educate yourself on issues such as type of licences and rights granted, model releases, and pricing.

You automatically own the copyright of any picture you take, however registering images make it possible to enforce it by letting you sue for punitive damages in case of infringement in the US. If the work is unpublished, you can register a whole collection for $30 (and not $30/image as mentioned by another respondant). Check the "Editiorial Photographers" website for a lot of information on copyright.

Last, in the best of my knowledge, the two photographers who are the most successful at using the web as a selling medium are Dan Heller and myself. In particular
Dan has a series of very informative articles on his online business.

[edited by: engine at 7:19 am (utc) on July 1, 2003]
[edit reason] formatting & domains [/edit]