Evening star., 1951-04-08
Camera Angles
Business Methods in Free-Lonce Work
By Alexander J. Wedderburn
cusu.or Of Photography p
The Smithsonian lnsiitvsion
/T.nef of N Ceries

.By Alexander J. Wedderburn
cusutor Of Photography
The Smiihsenian lnsiitvsion
(Last OF a Series.)
| Last week we began a discus.
sion of free lance photography
We listed a few Of the things re-
lquired Of the photographers who I
Ito make a success of selling pic
lures ON the open market. eithel
| as full time profession or al
part time work. Today we viii
| 60 on with the story which, thi!
time, consists mainly Of the do.
and don'ts that are important II
free lance photography.
Here's a suggestion that we fee
is good and that will be Of i'm
measurable help to you in years
to come. Treat your photography
sales business like any other bust.
ness and run 1t on an orderly
basis. The very first thing you
should do is to keep all negatives
in numerical order and filed away
In dust jackets. Then index and
cross index these shots according
to subject matter so that you will
be able to put your hands on any
picture on an instant's potice. ]
have seen photographers rum
mage around through piles OF
negatives and prints and know
how discomforting it can be to
have to refuse an order because
the film is ''lost" among hundreds
of others.
Each negative should have its
own jacket. This will not only
keep it clean and free from
scratches but will permit you to
tell at a glance just what you
have at hand. To make things
even easier you can make o con-
tact print from the negative and
paste 1t ON the front Of the jacket
for quick Identification and to save
the Aim from too much handling
The jacket should also have all
the pertinent information on front
or back that will be needed for
preparing q caption when print
is sold.
File Only the Good Ones.
We do not suggest that you
file all your negatives In this man
ner-only those that you feel are
good enough to attract an order.
There will be no point in clutter
ing up your files with unstable
shots or those that were made for
some other purpose. It's a fine
idea to keep all your negatives in
the above described manner but
keep your personal shots separate
from those that are for sale.
Your index files should not only
contain caption and technical in
formation but also a record OF
sales and receipts. This is an i'm
portant point because without this
information you may easily get
into hot water with the editors
who are your customers. For ex-
ample. an editor may like one Of
your shots very much but may also
insist that he obtain exclusive
publication rights to it. A we'll
kept record will inform you If a
copy of the picture has already
been sold to some one else and
save you the embarrassment of
unintentionally crossing up a good
customer. Once this happens you
will automatically go on the black
list of that editor.
If you sell exclusive rights to an
editor 1t means that you have sold
him that picture with the under
standing that no one else has used
it and that you will not release
1t to another. As a general rule
1t is not advisable to sell exclusive
rights to q picture If it is out
standing enough to be picked up
and used by a number Of buyers.
If you do sell exclusive rights you
should get a much higher rate for
it than II sold on a non-exclusive
basis. It is also common practice
to sell first publication or maga-
zine rights where you warrant that
the picture has not been published
before but reserve the right to sell
it again after 1t has been published
by the original purchaser.
Repeats ON Stock Shots.
It often hapens that a picture
will sell over and over again
through the years. You may seq
it first to a magazine, then to one
or more newspapers or a picture
service. and subsequently to an
advertising agency or still another
magazine in q field entirely dif-
ferent from that of the first. Pic