I recently shot a MTB race, and I was expecting to make a little cash on the side by selling photos to the racers. Well, I didn't expect to have the local small newspaper call and ask if they could use one of my shots, and now I just had one of the big name MTB parts manufacturer (WTB for you MTBers out there) call me and ask if they could use a few of my shots in a movie for their website and using some images on their website.

They already mentioned they are willing to compensate me for the images, probably in the form of bike parts (which I wouldn't mind) or money (which the wife wouldn't mind). Tomorow I'll be heading out to the bookstore to start reading up on image rights and everything else. I didn't expect to get this type of exposure (Which I don't mind) and so I haven't even started to figure out how much I should charge for the images as well as the usage rights and everything else.

Anyone have any tips/ideas to help me out on this? I've dealt with the company before since I use some of their products and I've been very happy with dealing with them.

Thanks!

If there are people or company logos in the images then you can't do anything without model releases from the subjects or companies.

Well they are actually looking at using images I took of riders they the company sponsors. So the nice thing is that part is already covered :)

Ok, then talk to the riders and get releases from them as well. Agreements they have with the comapnies have nothing to do with you taking pictures of them and selling them for profit, they still need to permit you to do that or else it could backfire on you legally.

As for pricing, check out a program called FotoQuote. The most important factors you will need to know for pricing editorial content is the usage. Find out what right they want, it's the rights that dictate how much exposure the images will be getting, and in turn how much money they might be making them, which then gives you an idea of a fair price to charge.

Cool, thanks!