[Closed] Sports photographers at events high prices for downloads of pics! your thoughts

It is a tad steep - particularly as most of the photo's of me are complete crap!

...maybe that's my fault 😳

But I see so many pictures of other people that are also crap - so maybe it's the photographers fault and they charge too much 8)

My guess is they know the market and there's always people who will moan about prices.

Over time it was much more expensive, £6 seems good for a high res image especially as the guy is hosting it all himself.
https://www.rootsandrain.com/ Made a big difference by bringing lots of photographers work into one place, gets a much higher amount of traffic for each the work and it points you to your pics, means more likely to buy and pices can be lower.

It would take a lot of £6's to buy decent camera equipment and earn a living.

Even if they are doing it as a sideline, i hardly think they'd be raking it in.

They stand for hours and spend at least as long sorting, hosting, advertising etc. Wonder how many they sell?

Been that price for years. I doubt it makes them much money!

I,m not saying they are raking it in and appreciate that equipment costs £££ but `i reckon they would get more purchases if they dropped the price to a reasonable level Have purchased pics off Joolze Dymond and various others before and she actually sent me the photos for a couple of quid more !!!!

£5.99 sounds cheap to me. I think I paid lots more than that for Manchester Great Cycles ones (probably a bundle) a couple of years ago.

It's the cost of 2 beers, knock of pay pal merchant fees, hosting fees and time to mail out the image then your down a bit more, what is "a reasonable amount"? What would you charge for a pic? I agree it's a balance between price and sales but the about 2 beers mark is about right for me if you like the pic.

But the market wouldn't be any bigger if they charged less - the only person likely to buy a picture of you is you. And you are just as likely to pay £6 as £4. You won't buy any more pictures if the price was lower.

sounds good to me, if it is actually a professional quality photo.

But the market wouldn't be any bigger if they charged less - the only person likely to buy a picture of you is you. And you are just as likely to pay £6 as £4. You won't buy any more pictures if the price was lower.

I think this is true. Also, it's a novelty thing - regular competitors are very unlikely to buy more than occasionally. There is probably much more money to be had at events targeted are one off charity participants or those 'team' corporate event bobbins.

Worth every penny to me if I am in a race, as a momento of the event. 2 pints is pissed down the pan in a night. Remembering an event you took part in and trained for ages for is worth paying for IMO if someone is willing to drag their camera gear out and get some decent shots and host them.

Cost 25 Euro
[img] [/img]

The people who would knick a (C) £6 photo are the same people who would knick a (C) £3 photo.

[i]but is it just only me in thinking that its a tad steep £5.99 for a pic[/i]

Yes, as pointed out only you'd want the shot and this is their job.

[i]sounds good to me, if it is actually a professional quality photo. [/i]

+1

I actually paid £13 for this one, as it's bloody brilliant IMO (got it as my desktop).

[URL= http://i992.photobucket.com/albums/af45/bruce_nikki/GT7%202015%20water%20pic_zpsg4hbhm4w.jp g" target="_blank">http://i992.photobucket.com/albums/af45/bruce_nikki/GT7%202015%20water%20pic_zpsg4hbhm4w.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL]

It's not to steep for me as I don't always buy one but I do want them to be there.
Cheers photy folks it wouldn't be the same with out the pics on roots and rain

School kids print £6.50.
Rather have a hi res digital download.

I think £6 is reasonable for a high resolution image. If its a nice photo of me and/or a particularly special event, then I might buy one.

There are others which are much more expensive, eg Marathon-photos.com charges £18 for a digital image. No chance I am going to pay that much.

Did loads for photography for British Cycling, never really earned much out of it, often use to send high res copies for nothing if people asked for them 🙂

I think £6 is not much to ask for when you get a high-res image.

Nothing quite says tight-arsed git like someone posting a picture of themselves up, with a great big photographers watermark across the middle of it. Its 6 quid FFS! 😆

I've no issue with the cost, its that so many photographers place themselves in a crap location.

You still do not own the pic after buying it no reproduction!!! now thats a bit tight 😉

Worth every penny to me if I am in a race, as a momento of the event. 2 pints is pissed down the pan in a night.

Absolutely. £6 is nothing for something that you'll likely keep for many years. You could be sat here, 50 years from now, showing your grandchildren... Photographer could halve their prices, but would they sell twice as many copies? I doubt it.

It is a tad steep - particularly as most of the photo's of me are complete crap!

Problem is with these events is that the photographer will probably get one chance as you're passing. Photography requires equal amounts of skill and luck, and for the average photographer, out of the whole day's shoot, you might get a handful of really good ones. The others will be mediocre at best...

If the photographer is really good, the balance might be more in your favour. But at £6 a pop it's not going to attract many really good photographers. I'm pretty sure most people do this more for their passion of photography than for the money. Personally I think it would be reasonable to pay anywhere up to £40 depending on quality. I mean if you had a photo that wouldn't look out of place on the cover of Singletrack, you'd pay for that, right?

At a recent short running race there were numerous options going up to nearly £90 of your photos (I had 2 pictures captured within a second of each other if that), the cheapest were a 5 x 7 picture or £9.95 single image download.

Just waiting for the email with reduced/realistic prices

Doubt you will still have that hi res download to show your grandchildren bit like music unless you have a cd it will just get lost ,i,m really bad for it taking pics of my family but not getting them printed!

They've got to make a living and I reckon £6 is reasonable.

£6 is really cheap given you can print them it out as many times as you want and to probably a decent size.

It's your decision.
I was offered the opportunity to pay for photos from an event last year. They were crap and I felt quite insulted that they were charging, in no way could they have been considered to be of professional quality.
Some of those posted above are worthy of paying for as the photographers appear to know what they're doing.
At the end of the day it's your money and your choice. The image you linked to is nothing special, it's not bad. I wouldn't pay for it personally. You might have other emotional reasons for buying it.

Wherever it is that does 2 pints for 6 quid is protecting you from real world prices. It isn't a lot of money for a memento...if the pics are crap then it isn't as good value but if you are bean counting for that, then you are spending too much on other things.

2 pints 'here' is closer to a tenner...

You only dont own it as far as the rights to use if for advertising etc to make money from, other than that its whatever usage usually.

Some photos end up shiz hot, some mediocre I just asked for a fair donation last year when I did the EWS, ranged from £4.50, average was £7, most paid was a tenner.

So the average STWer thinks a good pics worth £7. Yeah maths!

I also did the Sam Houghton yesterday. I wouldn't mind paying that price for a good photo, but the versions on the Sport Sunday website are so blurred that you can't tell if they're any good or not!

Did an organised ride the other week and looked at the pictures. I was put off buying at £5.99.

Having read the thread I must be a bit of a tight git!

Depends on the quality but I reckon £4 is closer to the mark for the ones you've linked to.

Have happily paid £6 or more for good pics though. This was my fave, sorry about the chest rug...
[img] [/img]

£6 is good value. As said above if it's a momento of an event. The last thing I did that had photographers at each image was £25.

Up till the end of last year i used to attend a lot of cycling events, and take pictures and post them on Picasa, and on here for the links, people would email me asking if i had their pic eg number which i would email back for free, i found it was intresting taking pics as i was attending the race and just chatting to peeps.

This year due to other commitments havent been to one race so far.

Doubt you will still have that hi res download to show your grandchildren bit like music unless you have a cd it will just get lost

How would it get "lost" though ?

I could throw my phone/PC/Tablet in the river. Nip off and buy a new one, sign in and all my music and pictures are downloaded to it automatically.

I'm far more likely to lose a CD to be honest.

If it's a good enough picture £6 is buttons. I'm amazed anyone would quibble at it actually. It's a bit ****ish. I got a new camera and lens just before heading off to the EWS in Ireland. I was going anyway, but thought it might be an opportunity to play with the camera, take some good pics, maybe even sell a few. 240 mile round trip. Fuel. Parking. Food. Beer. Toll roads. 13 hours running around the mountain. And on top of it you basically miss the race. Not including the cost of my camera, lens, laptop, broadband I probably spent £60-£80.

I missed practice so only saw race day.... I still had 2290 photos. So they needed sorting through. Plus I almost never upload straight out of the camera without some tweaking. I think I took some good shots but at the end of the day I was underwhelmed by them as I didn't have time to put any thought into them. Just run and gun. So I didn't upload them to R&R.

Even the amateur photographers who put in the effort were there for 3-4 days, taking tens of thousands of pictures. Multiple cameras, batteries, lenses, flash guns, packs etc. It's a serious amount of work that goes into a good shot. A top of the range slr and fast glass isn't essential to taking a good shot, but to consistently getting perfect shots of fast moving subjects in low or variable lighting conditions they really help. You're talking the guts of £1000 minimum.

The top pros work in teams and reccie the track days before the riders. One will do practice runs on a corner or section so they can work out composition, exposure, shutter speeds, focus distances etc etc etc. Then spend the remainder of the weekend chasing the riders around.

So, no £6 is not a lot of money.

Here's one I took that I'm happy with. Wonder how much the op would pay if he was the subject?
[url= https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5328/18064453002_8117ed2298_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5328/18064453002_8117ed2298_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/twi3wf ]DSC01032[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/132770706@N05/ ]James Doherty[/url], on Flickr

Yeah £6 would be very reasonable for an excellent picture of someone riding a technical feature in the EWS.

But it's not quite such a bargain if it's an unremarkable shot of a local XC race, taken at a boring spot on the course.

I would have been happy with that pic above it would have made me look rad for once!
I,m not saying £6 is unreasonable but just saying a lot more photos i reckon would be sold at a lower price.
Here is one I have purchased and was happy with not sure how much I paid 🙂
[url= https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5327/17293822240_8c393f5468_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5327/17293822240_8c393f5468_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/smcmQY ]_DSC1498_1700x1130[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/nzrich/ ]Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr

It's entirely subjective. If you've never raced you might be glad of any picture and happily pay. Or a seasoned racer might not be interested in something unless it's amazing.

Subjectivity aside (assuming it's good enough that you want it) then I think £10-15 pounds is a reasonable price for a reasonable pic. I rarely race but I've paid that a few times for shot's I've liked. If it was an absolute cracker I think I'd dig deep, and the better the shot the more I'd pay.

As someone above has stated the market for a picture is exactly one person. If someone isn't willing to pay £6 then I'd have to assume it's not a particularly good picture.

Another point to consider is that people wold buy a lot more pictures were it not possible to copy/printscreen/tag etc and otherwise get images for free.

I would buy a photo if it was good, the stuff I see on the site with the word Sunday in are at best boring and un exciting taken with the minimum in effort and the result is worth very little imo.

I charge £5 always try and get unusual angles. Look out for me at mayhem 😉

Well I've actually read all of the posts with interest, myself and Mrs Dropoff have spent several years (untill this year when we decided to call it a day) taking pics of you lot doing your thing.
I'm not going to try to justify costs, but heres some of our expenses over a typical weekend,
Travel + accom £100
Food £30 (2 days)

Kit we woould use
Canon
1Dmk3ds
1Dmk3
5Dmk3
70-200 2,8
8-15 4
24-70 2.8
300 2.8
35 1.4
580 exii flash guns (3)
Remote triggers

All that lot adds up to quite alot 🙂
It also weighs a fair bit and after a weekends lugging it around you know it.
As for not positioning ourslves correctly, well its sometimes down to the riders, some people get off and walk the technical sections so its often pointless locating yourself at those points.

After the events its a mad scramble to get home, get the pics rush processed and up online before Monday morning, when everyone wants to see them.
As for pricing, after paypal fees and website owners cut (20%) we decided that it was no longer worth doing.
Still enjoyed it but definately not a money maker.

Don't be a tightarse OP you could buy a photo or a 12 pack of bog roll, the choice is yours.

it's alright i think if you are going to put it in a frame or get a big canvas printed up to put on your wall or something like that

Oooh, even better, get mugs and keyrings made and give them to the relatives at christmas

Bloody hell I've done loads of type of photo gigs but I'm glad I never tried to make money out of you lot 😀

At equestrian events we used to charge £10.00 - £15.00 or a 9x6 Print in a slip in frame.
Some times we made no money sometimes we made a bit, taking into account travel, staff insurance, kit you have to sell A LOT of prints to make any real money to be honest.

I did start to look into biking events once but looking at the OP glad I did not bother. 🙂

Thing is, persuading someone to spend any money at all is the hard bit. But if someone's willing to pay £4 they'll probably pay the extra £2.

Prices in UK are far better than those in Europe. Looking at twice, three times as much at Alpine events, and they're not always that amazing photos.

As a very amateur photographer I know how devalued the business is now. Had an approach for stock air show shots to use by the company that ran it for flyers, and as an amateur I looked up typical prices (around £100 at least for the usage they wanted), and thought to get started I'd price at a fraction of that, more around £25 with door open to negotiating lower. Never heard back and then they stole the photos. Despite my efforts other than taking them to court, no money. Okay it was nice seeing photos in print but it was theft.

Since then I get approaches on Flickr for using my photos, "sorry, we can't afford to pay but you get your photo in print", yeah, screw that. That's how much businesses are prepared to pay, i.e. nothing. Average consumer wants to pay nothing really also.

So I appreciate the charges as a photographer, but I'm conflicted as a consumer that event photos with thousands shot of meh quality are charged so much.

>jimjam

[img] [/img]

I think I'll start offering a £3:99 retouch service. Send me the watermarked pic of you bimbling a sportive or doing a walk of shame on a little hill and I'll remove the watermark and make you look fabulous for your mousemat/key fob/desk calendar

I've bought a few, for a really good shot it's a bargain imo, I've got pictures I'll probably be showing the grandkids. Then again, my favourite riding shot is a selfie still I pulled from a gopro video, it's my desktop 😆

Roots and Rain is a bloody brilliant resource- I'd have bought a lot more pics but I don't have the patience to go through a thousand unsorted pics. I don't resent spending £6 or whatever though.

I think I'll start offering a £3:99 retouch service. Send me the watermarked pic of you bimbling a sportive or doing a walk of shame on a little hill and I'll remove the watermark and make you look fabulous for your mousemat/key fob/desk calendar

Approach it from the angle of de-constructing the base costs for producing the pic >>

Time spent at an event with the number of photos taken and edited (easy with digital but post prod takes some time) + cost of travel to said event + depreciation on equipment + website running costs + card transaction fees then divided by the subset of riders who purchase the pics, I'd guess 1 in 10 is prob a generous ratio, add in the usual taxes and business running costs, nat insurance, pension, bit of fat to cover having some time off from the business to have some hols in the year and so on. All of a sudden the price starts to look cheap.

Not a pro, but do teach Photography so have some vague idea.

More than happy to pay up to a tenner for a decent res download as a memento of an event or a day's riding at somewhere like BPW, Antur or Chicksands.

As has been said, bit of a bargain considering time, gear, hosting, etc.

I personally wouldn't pay it.
Photos taken from the outside looking in don't intrest me. I can't relate to them.

I absolutely love having a decent picture from an event, and will happily pay quite a lot for a good 'un.

I've also been known to buy pictures of other people for them, as the practice of linking a water-marked picture on Facebook annoys me. Event photographers have to make some kind of living: if you like the picture enough to show your mates, just pay the price of an inner-tube for it already....

Photos taken from the outside looking in don't intrest me. I can't relate to them.

I've read this 3 or 4 times now and I still have no idea what your on about?

Incidentally, for any of the photographers reading:

I would pay quite a large amount for imaginative and amazeballs photoshop work with a race photo.

If jimjam's awesome piccy up there ^^^^^ was me, if he could get rid of the spectators and add some pterodactyls, or dark thunder-clouds and lightning and a massive dust-cloud to indicate my speed and awesomeness, I'd cheerfully cough up GBP40 for a hi-res digital file.

If anyone is up for this, email me: I've got a nice-ish one from last year to play with....

😀

Photos taken from the outside looking in don't intrest me. I can't relate to them.

I've read this 3 or 4 times now and I still have no idea what your on about?

He bought the pictures from his colonoscopy. 😉

like this BigDummy?
http://twistedsifter.com/2015/05/can-someone-photoshop-the-eiffel-tower-under-my-finger/
[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

Almost any picture can be improved by adding more pterodactyls.

😉

I don't buy many images these days, but after Roc Ardennes I bought a set of about 12 for 20 euros. High res, decent images. They even came with a map to show where each one was taken. As this is such good value, loads of people buy them and so they make decent money...

I haven't bought a cycling image but I'd certainly pay for something like that enduro one, with or without pterodactlys. I think there are two issues with cycling ones, firstly a lot of the xc ones don't exactly look spectacular so once you've seen one photo of you slogging along some flat singletrack you've seen them all, I'd be much more keen to buy if the photo was on an a-line making it look difficult! Secondly so many get uploaded onto facebook to look at for free which reduces the percieved value.

Running event yesterday. £19.95 for one image; seemed a little pricey...

£10 for 3 pics from the QE Enduro. Only time anyone has ever made me look decent on a bike, so I paid him a tenner. Wish I'd had my tongue in my gob though.
[img] [/img]

If it's their job/business I think paying a bit is ok.
If they're a hobbyist, like me, they should be free. I let parents download the rugby ones I take for nothing.

I buy pics at £6ish and TBH I don't really care all that much how 'good' they are - they're not for other people, they're for me and act as a memory jog - when I look through old pics, the pic is enough to remind me of the days/event/whatever and I don't particularly need it to be good for that.

Of course, if they do have pterodactyls or make me somehow look gnarcore then I'm not going to complain about that.

I quite like this one though - CX radness 🙂
[img] [/img]

one of my favourites
[url= https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8529/8589132546_002854ed0f_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8529/8589132546_002854ed0f_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/e5ZxSb ]Stonefly, Mt Buller (Stage 1 Bike Buller)[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikewsmith/ ]Mike Smith[/url], on Flickr

I think £poorly-octopus is a good price for a pic. IIRC it was about £10 for one from Antur and £2.99 from BPW.
I'd happily pay £10 for a decent pic of me somewhere I'd never get a photo of me riding normally..it all adds to the day I think

Interesting range of views skimming this thread.

I tend to view Event's photographers as being in a similar category to most of the people taking part in a race; enthusiasts doing what they love for personal enjoyment rather than financial gain. I don't think the vast majority expect to turn a profit for their weekend's work, TBH if they did then they'd be snapping Weddings instead.

Are the prices fair? Who knows I tend to look at the shots, decide that I might like the pic' but I'm not really that bothered and just leave it. I'm sure if I was further up the results I might fancy a picture and the prices I tend to see would be acceptable to me then.

I don't think they're taking the piss at all, it's a completely discretionary purchase at the end of the day...

I have some excellent race photos,considering how much photoshopping they needed to make me look good,I think they are worth every penny.

My brother paid £40 for a couple of photos and a video of him crossing the line at a marathon, and didn't think it too expensive...

I think the point though was more "maybe you'd make more money by selling more, for less". I suspect round here, if you started selling photos for £3 Ian Linton would put a horse's head in your bed though.

if you started selling photos for £3 Ian Linton would put a horse's head in your bed though

that's what pisses me off about photographers, its none of any ones business what you charge.

Surely Ian Linton wouldn't be fussed if others sold pictures at £3 as his are usually far superior pictures and well worth the money in my opinion.

Some of the conditions the photogs sit out in all day and the kit they risk wrecking means I'm usually happy to pay a few pounds for a decent picture. For the photogs who take multiple pictures of each rider perhaps a 'volume discount' could be a nice touch.

At the end of the day, at events you're £30-£60 entry, tank of fuel for travel, accommodation, multiple thousand pounds bike. If there's a picture which captures your good side and reminds you of a good weekend I don't think £6 is unreasonable.

cookeaa

Interesting range of views skimming this thread.

I tend to view Event's photographers as being in a similar category to most of the people taking part in a race; enthusiasts doing what they love for personal enjoyment rather than financial gain. I don't think the vast majority expect to turn a profit for their weekend's work, TBH if they did then they'd be snapping Weddings instead.

Yes, but just like the competitors there will be some who are there just for a laugh, and others who take things rather more seriously. Whilst it's true that there's not much money to be made, that doesn't mean quality shouldn't be rewarded. The old "you love it, so why should I pay you a decent wage" excuse is one that a lot of people who've been to art college or do anything creative will have heard a lot, and quickly learned as an indicator that someone is a **** and best avoided.

poah - Member

if you started selling photos for £3 Ian Linton would put a horse's head in your bed though

that's what pisses me off about photographers, its none of any ones business what you charge.

I think you'll find that most people who are self employed professionals take a dim view of being undercut by cowboys/enthusiastic amateurs etc etc, not just photographers.

jemima - Member

Surely Ian Linton wouldn't be fussed if others sold pictures at £3 as his are usually far superior pictures and well worth the money in my opinion.

I think so- I probably have more of his than anyone else's- but there'll always be people who think it's a bargain to pay half as much for a job a tenth as good. And in a small market that's trouble for the people who do a good job.

I think you'll find that most people who are self employed professionals take a dim view of being undercut by cowboys/enthusiastic amateurs etc etc, not just photographers.

and? my feelings are the same. when I was a self employed photographer I couldn't careless what other people were charging. Never understood why others would get so worked up about it what with it being a free market.

The old "you love it, so why should I pay you a decent wage" excuse is one that a lot of people who've been to art college or do anything creative will have heard a lot, and quickly learned as an indicator that someone is a **** and best avoided.

which is why it’s best to avoid selling to the general public, they generally want everything for nothing, at least with B2B you are less likely to offend more likely to be paid a proper rate and more likely to avoid idiots (though not always)

I think you'll find that most people who are self employed professionals take a dim view of being undercut by cowboys/enthusiastic amateurs etc etc, not just photographers.

the tools are readily available and lets face it event photography isn’t exactly difficult, which is why so many dabble in it. the fiscal rewards reflect the market (tight fisted public) and the skill level. cant really take a ‘dim view’ on somebody taking their DSLR are shooting an event if they produce decent enough results. if that erodes your business offer better quality or change your business.