Photographs printed in national newspaper without credit

Kdesign

Hey folks,
I know there's a few threads about this kind of thing but haven't seen any with this particular problem.

A friend asked me to supply a few photos I had taken of various gigs in a bar I do a bit of work for. They were for an article to be published in a well known, national newspaper. I sent the photos along with strict instructions regarding accrediting the photos to me as I have been burnt before by newspapers not giving me credit.

My mate then passed on the images and says he supplied my name for the credit also. However, when the article appeared online, there was no photo credit. When I picked up the physical paper there was 2 of my images used, neither accredited to me.

I contacted the journalist in question who has since added a credit to the image used online but I guess what I want to know is can I charge the paper for using my images? If so, what's the going rate?

Obviously, I'm pretty annoyed that they would just print them without mention of me. Other photos used int he piece are credited to a local press agency.

If anyone can offer me any advice I would be very grateful indeed. Kinda don't know what move to make.
Thanks folks,
E

DotOrg

if you gave them to be used freely, then no, there's pretty much zero chance of you getting any money out of them, for not putting credit lines.

best thing to learn is to correctly caption your images with IPTC data which has all the details about crediting you etc, which is what most picture editors use to sort and categorise their photos

Borderfox

I had this happen loads of times even on papers I had accounts with, double check that your mate sent in your credit with the images. Mostly what I do is put my credit line in the image properties and they read them from their, copyright/contact details and such with a caption of whats in the image. You can always chuck in an invoice, pcphoto can advise you better than me. It depended on the size of the image

Kdesign

DotOrg wrote: »

if you gave them to be used freely, then no, there's pretty much zero chance of you getting any money out of them, for not putting credit lines.

best thing to learn is to correctly caption your images with IPTC data which has all the details about crediting you etc, which is what most picture editors use to sort and categorise their photos

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by "gave them to be used freely" because I wasn't dealing with the journalist directly, I guess some things got a bit lost in translation. I was however under the impression there would be some manner of payment for using them.

In retrospect, I should have embedded the copyright info in the image props. I'll be doing this from now on!

Might risk firing on an invoice to see what happens. Any idea of the going rate for this kinda thing?

ronanc15

Kdesign wrote: »

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by "gave them to be used freely" because I wasn't dealing with the journalist directly, I guess some things got a bit lost in translation. I was however under the impression there would be some manner of payment for using them.

In retrospect, I should have embedded the copyright info in the image props. I'll be doing this from now on!

Might risk firing on an invoice to see what happens. Any idea of the going rate for this kinda thing?

Going rate would depend on the size of the image printed Im guessing! Can you give some kind of idea?

Borderfox

Starts at about €30 and goes up from there

Paulw

A lot of papers never credit the photographer, even when you specify. It really depends though.

There is no "going rate". It depends on the paper, the section, the size, etc.

Basically, you gave the images to someone. They passed them on to the paper. I guess the paper assumed that they had the right to use the images and provide them to you.

You can try contacting the paper Editor, but you may not get very far.

Kdesign

Trying to find the paper there but think it's been recycled. Pics were only approx 2"x4" I'd guess.

Kdesign

Yeah if they hadn't credited the other photographs I may have just let it slide. Annoyingly Irish is all. Surely if you're printing someone else's work they should have no choice but to credit the owner. In any other industry that's called plagiarism.
Anyway, spilled milk and all that. Thanks for the feedback lads!
Appreciate it!
E

DarraghCorrigan

Sorry to hijack this thread, but...
I recently photographed a football match, originally I did it for myself, but then one of the teams drew me in and got me to take some after game shots etc. and recommended I pass them on to the newspapers local to both teams.
I emailed a set of low resolution (800x1000 px, so I could send them all in one email) samples to the papers, requesting specifically that if they wanted to print any of my pictures, to get back in touch with me and I would send on a high resolution version of the photo. My phrasing left no doubt that the images sent were samples only, not to be printed.
"I have attached a set of low resolution samples to this email. If you would like to print any of these pictures, please let me know which ones and I will send you on the high resolution versions." -Quote from email.

I have since heard nothing from any of the papers. BUT, when I went on to one of their websites today I saw right there on the front page of the site was one of my photos, a poor quality low resolution version.
So now I don't know what to do, do I just leave it, do I contact them looking for payment (I didn't mention payment but that's not to say I wouldn't have in the follow up email), do I look for a credit?
I don't think I'm bothered looking for a credit for a low quality picture, which was already not one of the best of the bunch, but it bothers me that despite the clear wording of the email, there was no correspondence from the paper at all, even to acknowledge receiving the photographs.

EDIT- This was a League of Ireland match, not an amateur club level game.

Paulw

Just send them an invoice. Pick an amount. Anything from €60-90 would be realistic.

DarraghCorrigan

I've emailed the sports editor voicing my concerns and telling him that the few is €50 per photo, I CCed the editor of the paper as well. I'd imagine they'd be unwilling to pay €100 now, but I'll see how it pans out.

ValueInIreland

As mentioned earlier, learn how to do a proper caption in the IPTC header. Fill in the Caption / Description field with a full caption, the Copyright field with your name and contact details (amazing how many people don't include these). Also include your byline / credit at the end of the caption (If you don't put it there, don't expect anyone else to bother).
Newspapers take it for granted that any images supplied to them by somebody looking for publicity (Club or business) will have paid the Photographer for any use. Newspapers never pay for "PR" images.
Also experienced Photographers will not send loads of low res images with "instructions", but will do a carefull edit and send a handfull of suitable captioned images.