RM or RF

[Wawa]

At the risk of flaunting what a novice I am, when filling out the "Attributes" section why would you want to choose Royalty Free when given a choice?  I thought you're more likely (though not guaranteed) to make more from Rights Managed sales than Royalty Free sales.  Thanks.

[Ed Rooney]

Wawa, the reasons for choosing RM or RF are many. How much you might be paid for one or the other is not part of the equation. Alamy makes the deals for price, not contributors. I've been paid high and low license fees with both RM and RF. My biggest fee was for an RF sale . . . but so was my smallest.

 

Most of my images are RM because they have to be. I see you have many people (or parts of people) playing sports. They would have to be RM unless you have a model release. You need a model release for each person -- even if you show just a toe. No model release? The image must be RM. 

 

And . . . if you photography a recognizable piece of property (a landmark building, a car, the inside of a restaurant), you'll need a property release. Or again the image must be RM. 

 

So why would we make anything RF? If I shoot cooked food on a dish, in a pot, I make it RF. I make that choice because these are common place subjects. 

 

You're lucky you haven't made the mistake many newbies do and make everything RF.

[Wawa]

"You're lucky you haven't made the mistake many newbies do and make everything RF."  Actually, I went the opposite extreme route.  There's a few images I made RM when it probably would've been wiser to go RF.  Not a lot, just a few. 

[AlessandraRC]

When there is no property or model to release, or when I have the releases, I am never sure which way to go, particularly with photos of places that are not well represented in the database or those that I work really hard to  take. Photos of family, friends, I prefer trying to sell as RM, even though I have a release for them. I suspect that it gives a more controlled setting under which the image can be used, each time. But this is a suspicion based on what I have read.  On and off there are discussions here about RF versus RM, but when there is no release missing or no need for one, the choice is mostly based on personal beliefs that might, or might not, hold true.

 

I have a few photos of models, for instance, that are model released, but in those photos sometimes there is a logo, or the model is holding a particular phone etc, which is recognizable, in those cases I chose RM.

 

Hypothetically as I understand it the only real difference is that when a customer buys a RM image he/she pays for one particular use of that image, and if another use is needed, he/she has to license it again. This may mean that you get more for an image overall, but it also may mean that the customer will pay less for a casual use and then you will also get less overall.

 

My two cents.

[Foreign Export]

Thank you for asking - don't be one of the amateurs on here who just blindly labels everything RF - even though they are not eligible for RF