Guide to Licensing Photos: What You Need To Know

Guide to Licensing Photos: What You Need To Know

October 17, 20246 min read

FlyingLenz is a drone photography and aerial video services provider based in Atlanta, Georgia. We offer professional drone photography services for small businesses, real estate, construction, developers, and video production companies requiring A-roll and B-roll footage. We serve all areas in Georgia and are available for travel.

Why Use Drone Photography?

High-quality photography and videos provide a different perspective from traditional photography. Although most drone photography is associated with luxury homes and high-value commercial businesses, aerial photography can help highlight small businesses by creating eye-catching, often overlooked features and amenities of many properties – regardless of value.

In Atlanta, you will often find foliage obstructing the view of the property. A drone can be maneuvered into locations providing a unique view of a residence or commercial building. Drone photos are often used to show proximity to other points of interest, as discussed in the next section.

Guide to Licensing Photos: What You Need To Know

Sports Venue Aerial Photography

Aerial photography of sports venues can assist owners in improving the impact they have on surrounding areas.

Guide to Licensing Photos: What You Need To Know

Photogrammetry and Traffic Accident Reconstruction

Photogrammetry and traffic accident reconstruction benefits from high resolution photos and videos provided by licensed drone pilots.

Guide to Licensing Photos: What You Need To Know

Construction Documentation

Aerial documentation of construction projects by an FAA Part 107 licensed drone pilot.

Guide to Licensing Photos: What You Need To Know

Aerial Night Photography

FAA Certified Pilot with an approved Part 107.29 waiver for NATIONWIDE night operations can document scenes before dawn and after dusk.

Guide to Licensing Photos: What You Need To Know

Aerial real estate photography

Aerial real estate photography documents property size, condition and location. It is also useful for property dispute resolution.

How drone photography and video services work

Decision #1: Do you need photos, videos, or both?

Photos – aerial photographs are a great choice if you want an overview highlighting the proximity to downtown Atlanta, Lake Lanier, Ponce City Market, or access to a nearby highway in Roswell or Alpharetta.

Videos – A video may be better for an eye-catching overview of residential or commercial property, to show driving directions, or to demonstrate how a buyer or renter may see themselves on the property.

Now that you have decided what you want, you must also decide how you want them. If you are going to edit the photos and videos yourself, you can save some money. But, if you don’t know how to do it or don’t have a staff to do this for you, outsourcing the editing should be considered. Keep this in mind when you get pricing for drone photography and any package pricing that might be available.

Decision #2 – What is your budget?

Pay a professional drone photographer based on their time and skill – not the size or value of a property!

Drone photography and video pricing should not be based on the value or size of the real estate parcel. When you hire a professional drone photographer, you are paying for their time and skill to do the job you hired them to do. As a homeowner or realtor hiring a drone photographer, you should budget to pay a drone pilot for at least one hour per home (single-family residence). The same can be said for smaller commercial property locations, out parcels, or land up to approximately 5 acres.

The rate for qualified, certified, insured drone pilots in Georgia is $200 per hour.

Qualified:

First, you must hire a qualified photographer with experience behind the lens. If everyone bought a $3,000 camera, does that make them qualified to use it? Do they know anything about composition and lighting? As you can tell, simply buying an expensive drone for photography does not make anyone a professional. We strongly recommend hiring a drone photographer with verifiable photography experience.

Certified:

All drone pilots producing images for you must have a drone pilot certification issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Make certain that the certification looks like the one shown below, and take a moment to check its validity on the FAA web page. Hiring an unlicensed drone pilot puts you at risk for fines and liability. You can be liable for property damage, personal injury, and privacy rights claims. The FAA has issued civil fines of over $25,000 and criminal fines of up to $250,000!

Guide to Licensing Photos: What You Need To Know

Example FAA Part 107 Certification

Insured:

Buyer beware! You should ask for a copy of the drone flight liability insurance and ask them if you could be named as an additional insured, too!

  • Would you go to a doctor knowing they did not carry malpractice insurance?

  • Would you hire someone to do work in your home that does not carry insurance?

  • What happens if someone gets hurt or property is damaged?

FlyingLenz provides verifiable general liability and property damage insurance for all photography assignments. This not only protects us, but it protects you as well. We can also issue a certificate of insurance (COI) if required for your assignment.

Guide to Licensing Photos: What You Need To Know

Be careful who you hire!

When you hire us, you are not just hiring an Atlanta drone photographer, you hire a professional. The principal drone pilot at FlyingLenz has over ten years of photography experience and has been flying drones since 2013. He has created drone photography and video all over the US and in several foreign countries, including Singapore and New Zealand.

Decision #3 – Usage Rights (Licensing)

Generally, you can post the content created for you to the web, social media channels, real estate websites, etc. The terms of usage rights (licensing) should be clearly defined in your licensing agreement and invoice. As a point of reference, we have general terms available here, but the license for your footage is negotiable for every assignment.

Professional photographers issue licenses for you to use the photos and videos they capture for them. For example, let’s say you want to use drone photos in print advertising. We will issue you a usage license for this. Let’s say you also want to use the photos on a website – we will issue you a usage license for this as well. In the case of a video tour of a property, we can also license the video and music for you.

How soon can drone photos and videos be done?

With the way the real estate market is moving, we understand you need photos and videos quickly. For Atlanta Real Estate Drone photography, absent adverse weather conditions, a restricted flight location, and other factors, we can turn around unedited photos and videos within a few hours of the drone flight. The turnaround time for edited photos and videos varies with each assignment, but we can usually deliver within a few days of a scheduled photoshoot. It is best to discuss your deadline with us when booking to ensure on-time delivery.

When you are ready for a drone photography and video services quote, answer a few questions, and we will get a quote on the way!

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