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Image banner for the February 2024 PFRE Photographer of the Month Winner Art Ibewuike, with a featured image of his winning photo titled "Living Room or Family Room""

Congratulations to Art Ibewuike, February 2024 PFRE Photographer of the Month! The theme this month was "Living Room or Family Room". Art Ibewuike - #895 Paul-Dan Dragoman - #898 Peter Wingfield - #900 Here's what Art has to say: Thank you so much for ...

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How to License Your Photo: Photo Usage Rights Guide

Published: 11/07/2022

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

No matter what kind of photography you do, learning how to license your photos is essential to growing and increasing revenue for your photography business. 

In today’s internet era, it’s easy for anyone to illegally download and use images both online and in print, making an airtight photography license agreement your best tool to get fairly compensated for your work.  

In this article, we’ll share everything you need to know about licensing your real estate photos. 

What Does Licensing a Photo Mean?

To license a real estate photo means that you’re stating that you’re the author of the image and outlining exactly how your client can use your images and how long they can use them. 

Additionally, if you’re not the author of the image, you need to be an agency or otherwise authorized to license images. For example, your image license agreement will determine if your photos: 

  • Can be used commercially
  • Who can use your images and if there are any exclusive rights
  • How long they are allowed to use your images
  • Or if there’s a limited timeframe for using them 
  • Also, when you are allowed to re-sell them

Consider your image licensing contract as your way of making sure you’re images aren’t used in a way that wasn’t agreed on and would prevent you from getting fairly paid.

An image of what a photo with license looks like

What Is the Difference Between Copyright and Licensing?

The difference between copyright and licensing is that when you have copyright you own the actual photo and decides what to do with it. While licensing means that you're leasing out the rights to use your photo.

Consider this:

  • A photo/image license is like leasing an office building  
  • A photo/image copyright is like owning that building 

This means that the copyright owner always has the right to decide where and how the image can be used. Typically, consumer photographers never sell the copyrights to their images. 

Royalty Free vs Rights Managed Licensing

Let’s now take a look at the difference between the legal terms royalty free licensing vs rights managed licensing, as well as commercial use. 

Royalty Free Licensing 

Royalty free licensing means that you give the person who purchases the license the right to use your real estate images as much as they want without having to pay any additional costs.

However, you can restrict this to a certain size of the image. For example, you can license it such that your client can use and print as many copies as they want of a 10x12 inch size image, but has to purchase a new license to use a larger version of the image.

Rights Managed Licensing 

On the other hand, rights managed licensing means that the client who purchases this type of license has exclusive rights to an image. The real estate photographer can’t license that specific photo to another client.

However, you can make the agreement time-specific by outlining that the client can use it exclusively during a period of time. And if they want to extend this period, they’d have to purchase a new license.

Other possible agreements may include giving your client first rights but allowing you to resell the image after they have used it. Or, one-time usage rights if they need a photo for a particular purpose. 

With any of these licenses, it’s up to you to be as clear as possible about the terms of the license on how the client can use your images. Remember that this doesn’t mean that you’re transferring the copyright or ownership of the photo.

Commercial Use Licensing

Commercial use licensing is needed If your client is intending to use your property photos in an advertisement, catalog, brochure, or any other commercial marketing or sales channel. If so, your contract should outline that they can use the licensed photo for commercial purposes. 

Additionally, this licensing agreement should also include possible limitations or further details that you want to add to the commercial use.

Common Terms of a Photo Licensing Agreement

Depending on the scenario and client you’re working with, an image usage licensing agreement for real estate photography` can be simple or contain elaborate terms and restrictions.

For example, here are some of the common terms that should be included in the contract:

  • The parties, including their legal names and the name of the company 
  • Whether the agreement is exclusive or non-exclusive
  • The licensing fee or total payment
  • Permissions i.e. how and where to use the image 
  • Timeframe of how long the client is allowed to use the photo
  • And if there are any limitations

You can find more information and a free template for a photo license agreement on LegalTemplates.

Other Ways to Protect Your Images Online

If you have an online portfolio or are posting your images on other websites, here are some other ways to protect your interior or exterior photos from illegal use:

  • Add watermarks to your photos
  • Never share a high-resolution file, instead always upload compressed images
  • Use advanced barcoding
  • Add your copyright to the metadata
  • If you have an online portfolio, include a terms of use page
  • Also, read the terms of the websites you submit your images to
An image of real estate photos with license

As a real estate photographer and business owner, make sure to stay updated on the new Google Images updates. Google makes changes to its algorithms frequently, so it’s good to make it a routine to check for new updates. 

For example, in its 2020 update, Google Images started adding a “Licensable” badge on images in image search as long as the photo includes the right information.

That way, people will know that license information is available for the image and they can click on the link to get more details on how to use the image. For more details, check out the Google Images SEO documentation.

Conclusion

I hope this article made it clear how to license your real estate photos and what type of licensing agreement to use. 

Overall, the more rights you grant clients who purchase your images, the more you can charge. Although you may want to adjust your pricing depending on if you sell to a large corporation or a smaller business.

Remember that your image licensing is separate from your creative fee or hourly rate as a real estate photographer. Your creative fee compensates you for your time, preparation, travel, and equipment, while your licensing fees are for using your photography.

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