Chapter 35 — Quiz

Twenty-five questions to check your grasp of the business of photography: the four models, pricing from the cost of doing business, licensing, copyright, contracts and releases, and finding clients. A few are "what's wrong with this deal?" seeing-questions — the business equivalent of diagnosing a bad exposure. Try them all before checking the Answer Key at the end; aim to explain, not just pick a letter.

Part 1 — Multiple choice

1. A company emails to use one of your existing landscape photos for a national ad campaign. The single biggest pricing mistake you could make is to: - A) Charge a small flat fee - B) Quote "your day rate," as if you were being hired to shoot it - C) Ask what media and territory they need - D) Decline because you're not a commercial photographer

2. Your "three-hour" portrait shoot is, in real working time, usually closer to a ten-hour job. The single largest hidden chunk of time is most often: - A) Travel to the location - B) The initial inquiry emails - C) Culling and editing - D) Delivering the gallery

3. "Cost of doing business" means: - A) The gas and parking for a specific shoot - B) Everything it costs you to operate as a working photographer, billed or not — gear, software, insurance, taxes, marketing, slow months — plus a livable salary - C) The price your competitors charge - D) Only the equipment you bought this year

4. When a client pays to "use" your photograph, in almost every case you are selling them: - A) The copyright - B) The original file, permanently - C) A license — permission for a defined use — while you keep the image and the copyright - D) An exclusive worldwide buyout by default

5. Which set of license terms is worth the most money, all else equal? - A) Web only, one country, one year, non-exclusive, small inline - B) Editorial, one magazine issue, one country, non-exclusive - C) All media, worldwide, in perpetuity, exclusive - D) Internal use, one company, one year, non-exclusive

6. You acquire the copyright to a photograph you make: - A) When you register it with a copyright office - B) When you first publish it - C) The instant you create the original photograph (press the shutter), automatically and for free - D) Only if you add a watermark

7. The one common situation in which the photographer does not own the copyright to images they made is: - A) When the client paid for the shoot - B) A work-for-hire arrangement (e.g. an employee staff photographer, or a contract written to transfer copyright) - C) When the subject is a recognizable person - D) When the image is posted publicly online

8. A client buys a framed print of your photograph. They now own: - A) The copyright - B) The right to reproduce and sell copies of the image - C) The physical object only — they may display it but not reproduce or resell copies - D) Both the print and a license to use the image commercially

9. A model release is primarily what lets you: - A) Prove you took the photo - B) Use a recognizable person's likeness, especially for commercial purposes (advertising, products) - C) Register your copyright - D) Charge a higher day rate

10. For a high-stakes shoot like a wedding, the professional rule about money is: - A) Collect everything after delivery, to be polite - B) Take a deposit to book and require final payment before delivering the images - C) Never take a deposit - D) Bill monthly in installments after the wedding

11. The photographer who actually gets hired is usually: - A) The most technically talented in the abstract - B) The one with the most expensive gear - C) The one the client could find, trust, and remember - D) The cheapest available

12. "Free for exposure" is worth accepting mainly when: - A) The other party has a large following - B) You would choose to do the project on its own merits even with no exposure promised - C) Any time someone offers it, since exposure always helps - D) Never, under any circumstances

13. Quoting a package/project price instead of an hourly rate mainly protects you because: - A) It's always a bigger number - B) It keeps the conversation on the outcome delivered rather than letting the client negotiate the clock - C) It's legally required - D) It hides your costs from the client

14. Registering your copyright (where available) is best described as: - A) Required to own your work - B) Optional, but it strengthens your remedies if you ever have to sue an infringer - C) The only way to license images - D) A substitute for a contract

15. Which income model is most weatherproof — least dependent on your physical stamina, the economy, or a given client's budget on a given day? - A) Service - B) Print sales - C) Teaching (workshops, classes, books) - D) Licensing a brand-new image each time

Part 2 — True / False (with justification)

For each, mark True or False and write one sentence defending your answer.

16. "If a client pays me for a portrait session, they automatically own the copyright to the photos."

17. "A non-exclusive license means I can license the same image to other clients as well."

18. "A contract is a sign that you don't trust the client, so with friends it's better to keep things informal."

19. "Owning the copyright to a photo of someone means I can use it however I like, including to sell a product, without any further permission."

20. "Editing time on a typical shoot is a minor add-on, usually much less than the time spent shooting."

Part 3 — Short answer

21. In two or three sentences, explain the difference between a license and a copyright transfer (work-for-hire), and why a client who only needs to use an image should be granted the former, not the latter.

22. List the six dimensions every usage license must specify (Figure 35.3), and name the one that, taken to its maximum ("in perpetuity"), most permanently affects the image's future value to you.

23. Name the two contract clauses §35.5 says beginners most often omit and then regret, and the specific disaster each one prevents.

Part 4 — "What's wrong with this deal?" (seeing-questions for the business)

24. Diagnose this deal. A local boutique messages you: "We love your photo of our street! Mind if we use it?" You reply "Sure, go ahead!" Six months later the photo is on their website, their printed catalog, a billboard, and a competitor's lawyer is asking who licensed it. Name at least three things that went wrong and what you should have done instead.

25. Diagnose this deal. You shoot a wedding for a flat $1,500, paid in full a week after you deliver the gallery. You spend 12 hours on the day, 30 hours culling and editing, plus travel and emails. The couple loves the photos but takes four months to pay, then asks for "all the RAW files" and posts an edited version with a heavy filter for their new event-planning business's ads. Identify the pricing problem, the payment-terms problem, the licensing/usage problem, and the release/copyright problem — and the single contract that would have prevented all four.

Answer Key

Topics to review by question