I have a situation I'm trying to figure out how to deal with. I have a long-time client (also a friend) who has a small retail business. I have shot for her for years and given her generous usage/rights for the images. The type of merchandise she has, she can sell for years, so I have given her essentially unlimited usage. Over the years, she has decreased her photo work significantly. She used to do a couple of catalogs a year, but now primarily a few ads in niche publications, her website, and social media.
Recently, she has discovered she can take product photography I have done (garments shot on mannequins, flat products, etc.) and uses AI to dress a "model" in a jacket, or place a coaster on a table in a different setting than I might have shot, whether studio or location. I admit, this aspect has really bothered me. I feel this is taking my photography and manipulating it. Since I shoot fashion, I'd be happy to shoot her merch on a model, but she doesn't have the money for that. (I used to do larger shoots, cranking out many shots in a day, using real people.) But for $12/month, she can manipulate the hell out of the original images, which needed to exist before she could change them with AI.
Are any of you dealing with this? Are you charging the client? I was going to tack on a comparatively small fee per shoot, which would cover whatever I photographed during that session. The compensation is a small part, but also a reminder that the AI photo would not exist without my original work.
Any thoughts?
