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

Now over the years I have purchased photos and downloads from various photographers over the years but now its mainly a download of hi-res pic , but is it just only me in thinking that its a tad steep £5.99 for a pic and surely they would get more custom at say £3, as most of the pics you see on FB and twitter are with the copyright mark across the pic.
Would like this pic but its 2 pints of beer!
I take the point that some are professional photographers and are there to make a living but If i knew that a certain percentage of the sale of the download was going to the charity that was running the event I would be more inclined to purchase!
Your thoughts!
Never got so much air 🙂
http://www.sportsunday.co.uk/sam10551?fb_action_ids=10153430002786474&fb_action_types=og.likes

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

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

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

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

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

+1

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

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…

£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?
DSC01032 by 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.