FAQ
Most frequent questions and answers
Frequently Asked Questions
"Without a good question, a good answer has no place to go." – Clayton Christensen –
Pricing
What are your rates?
For architectural photography we operate using three basic fees: Creative Fee, Post-Production Fee, and Image Licensing.
Creative Fee: This component reflects the time and skill on location it takes to complete the project as well as preproduction tasks like client meetings, advance site visits, and other site-specific preparation.
Post-Production Fee: After the initial shoot, we spend a significant amount of time editing your images or videos to make them perfect. This can include color correction, retouching, compositing, and preparing master files for final delivery. It is not unusual for the post-production work to consume as much time as shooting, if not more.
Image Licensing: This includes a boilerplate set of standard licensing rights for in-house marketing collateral (Trade Show Display, Corporate Brochures, Website, Social Media, Professional Competitions, Trade Magazines, and Wall Display).
Rate sheets are available upon request. Send us an email and we’ll get it to you ASAP.
Do you offer discounts?
By the time we pack up our gear, head to a job site, unload our gear, walk through the space, set up, deal with people and or other challenges/delays on a shoot, tear down our gear, return to the studio, unpack our gear, and download the images and/or videos, there really isn’t enough time to schedule another client in a day. What we can do is capture multiple spaces/locations for a single client in a day if they’re within close proximity of one another.
Cost Sharing
What is cost-sharing?
Sharing the cost of a project is a common and valuable practice. It is very beneficial to consider other parties who might benefit from photographs or videos of your project: The owner, interior designers, landscape architects, contractors, consultants, tenants, product manufacturers, engineers, etc. We charge a licensing fee for each additional party, then divide the total fee by the number of parties involved, which can lead to huge savings for each client.
Who is in creative control when multiple parties are cost-sharing?
The organization who brings us a project is considered the creative lead, unless they prefer another vendor takes the lead. If another member of the cost-sharing group wishes to add an image to the shot-list, we ask that they go through the creative lead. The creative lead is given the final say in what will (and won’t) be photographed and how many images will be delivered.
When do I need to get involved in a project to benefit from cost-sharing?
Prior to the shoot day. Cost-sharing opportunities close once a project is captured.
What if I only need a few of the images from a shoot?
If you want to benefit from the savings that come from cost-sharing, it’s all or nothing. But you can still license images from a past project at a per-image rate. Or we can do an entirely new photoshoot for you.
I missed out on cost-sharing a project, can I get a few images from a completed project?
For sure! Send us an email and we’ll get you a gallery of images from the shoot for you to select from.
Licensing & Usage
Who owns the rights to images and footage after a shoot?
All of our images are our intellectual property and registered with the copyright office. We retain the copyrights to all the visuals we create. Images are licensed to clients for specific use and duration. Here is a link to a video that explains it well.
Think of it like software. If you “buy” Microsoft Office, you don’t technically own it, Microsoft does. You’ve simply purchased a license for use on your machine. This doesn’t mean you can install it on every computer in your workplace (without buying additional licenses) or share it with other people to install on their machines (like friends, family, neighbors, etc). Each of those other people would need to license their copy from Microsoft.
Is there a standard license included with your fee?
Our standard licensing for AEC projects is indefinite in length for the following rights: Trade Show Display, Corporate Collateral, Website, Social Media (photo credit required), Professional Competitions, Trade Magazines, and Wall Display.
Is there anything that is not included I might want?
Quite possibly. We’ve tried to cover 90% of what a typical firm needs an image for, but if there is something that isn’t listed, let us know, and we can discuss adding it to your invoice.
For instance, using one of our images on a paid billboard or ad campaign would fall outside our standard license and would cost extra.
Can I share the images with others, like my client or subcontractors, to use?
Third-party usage is not included with our standard licensing. Others interested in using the images must obtain an appropriate usage license from us to avoid infringement.
Can I purchase a license for my client or another 3rd party to use?
Absolutely. Gifting the images to your client or subcontractor is a classy move. We take care of generating a unique image license agreement for them to sign and then send them the images directly.
Can I post the images on social media?
For sure! We want your project to get as much exposure as possible. Social media usage is included in our standard license. However, we do require photo credit (@517visuals) for all social media posts.
What if I want to own the intellectual rights to the images?
For some projects (like headshots) we actually recommend this, but it depends a lot on the project. So this might be an option, but it’s on a case-by-case basis. We’d be happy to discuss it with you.
Other Questions
Where are you located?
In Lansing, the capital city of Michigan. #lovelansing
Do you travel for shoots?
Indeed. Give us a call and we talk about scheduling.
What gear do you use?
We’re working on a gear list, but we are #teamcanon and #teamdji
How do you deliver images, and what is your data retention policy?
We send a link from Google Drive to your images. This link is kept live for a couple of months. After that, we move files to our archive server for at least one (1) year from the date of your shoot. We recommend storing your images in a safe place, as we can’t guarantee they will be available after a year.
