Electronic Signature Portrait Photography Contract Made Easy

Electronic signature portrait photography contract

hey guys Rachel Brinke from the law tog this is the go-to legal resource for photographers right now you're sitting on the general portrait page and probably wondering what the heck you're supposed to do with all these contracts or try to figure out what it is that you need never fear I am here to help you if you're one of those people that's thinking I don't really need one of these I'm not really sure I want you to consider that you never have initiated to you have an issue I work with photographers on the law firm side all the time who don't get contract protections in place and they end up spending ten times what it would've been if they had just invested to begin with as a lawyer and photographer myself I understand what you guys need so let's just start off with the legal client timeline we're gonna go in a chronological timeline for when the client comes to you consult to get booked all the way through the very end when basically all your responsibilities have been fulfilled to them I want you to keep taking the consideration that these are all considered contracts right these are all legal documents that you want to use in your business there are two main ones though to kick off the relationship this is the general portrait contract which it's what it says it is for general portraiture this is the most general document that we have on the site it can cover a variety of different types of genres or niches of photography but it really is intended for just simple portraiture it may not have the specifics that are needed for new more birth or wedding that's why we have those categories for you to check out but this main portrait contract which is the first really important document that you need to have is the one between you and the client that gets them to become your client this is so that you were legally bound to one another it creates a relationship it sets expectations about the responsibilities of you together from one to the other it also sets the stage for everything that's gonna be happening unless the clients know the expectations it helps them feel comforted in knowing what the timeline is going to be and what they're gonna get out of this as well as what they need to do for you it's also going to provided legal foundations so if you ever need to enforce a contract on a client or vice-versa then there is some direction and guidance to the legal methods in order to do that like menu jurisdiction all the little legal miscellany that I want you to leave to me so this you guys should not ever shoot without a contract because it covers so much it regulates so much of the relationship and helps to hopefully prevent issues happening in your business the second main document contract that you need to have is a model release what this does is it allows for the client to give you permission for use of the images in marketing now don't confuse this with the fact that you may have the copyright ownership to the images and so you're thinking well I don't need a model release typically well you do need a model release if you're using the images even if you unknown in the course of soliciting your business or marketing your business with the use of the clients face there are publicity rights and claims that your clients may have for the use of their face and commercial marketing that you don't want end up having to pay them for and you want to get permission you don't ever want them to be able to come back and say you can't use that image because you're using my publicity rights you know and you don't have permission that is what the model release is for you probably heard the myth it's not really so much a myth but stick with me on this real quick people will say well if you're just using the images in a portfolio you don't need to have a model release this day and age because of the way that technology is we don't really have just portfolios anymore the social media platforms that we use are for seeking commercial gain the websites that we have have investment information and their marketing and it got blog post we've got all sorts of these other elements that pull do what a simple portfolio would have been out of that not needing a model release into this realm of needing one because publicity rights are being used of your client another thing to consider too is if your model release is drafted properly which we do this at the law table I know because I wrote it but you can also have in the model release not only get the permission from the client for use of their face image in marketing but also if they can get you can get rid of any claims that they may have for compensation for use of that you don't want to have Payne your client for you to be able to mark it with your own image right so that's what the model releases do now my suggestion is to keep these two documents separate for multiple reasons one just best legal practice each contract or document has its own specific purpose and endgame right if there are so many purposes you want to try to keep them separate if one ever gets thrown out the other will still end up being intact but if they're all together there's a good chance that the whole thing can be found invalid and we don't want that but for more a practical standpoint we want to make sure that our clients are reading and understanding it and also we want to be able to waive a lot of release in any of our clients tone with their images used in marketing specifically online I'm of the camp that in this is completely up to you guys with your business policies but I am in the camp that you should honor the clients if they don't want to be used in marketing and I'm referring to pay clients I'm not talking about model calls so just keep that in mind but I would rather have one happy client a lot of referrals from them rather than never even getting a client at all simply because I did want to waive the use of a model release so portrait contract and model release these get the entire relationship started these should be signed and done in order to even get them on your calendar I also recommend payment you guys can check out information about that over on the blog at the law chong kham but just keep in mind that portrait contract in the model releases need to be signed and before you do anything at all so moving forward we have this session everything is gravy you had such a wonderful time and maybe now you're selling products or maybe they were included in that initial contract one of the top products that's being sold these days and stick with me even if you're an in-person salesperson who doesn't like selling digital's stick with me because I've got a couple more documents that will specifically apply to you but print releases are imperative to have if you are selling digital files to your clients release is kind of a misnomer it's actually a personal use license that you are giving to or selling to your clients for the images from their session this allows for you to read the copyright ownership of the images and your licensing them a use in a personal type of relationship because this is a personal portrait session that you're doing for them to use on a personal level for personal activities printing for in their house putting on a sweatshirt for green Aunt Sally in Seattle but within that release within that license you can identify how many times it's reproduced how you want it done where you want them to print all these sort of things okay so print release is super important to have now one thing I want you to consider here is what's called a permission to sell to a third party I do not include these standard in the general portrait contract but it's not necessarily wrong if you don't many times people don't want their images soul to someone else now when I'm referring to the permission to sell to a third party document this is typically so that you can sell to family members or friends just keep that in mind I have this separated out you can include it in the general portrait contract I just found through my practice that I would rather focus on getting the general contract in the model release upfront because that was more important to get them booked and then along the process I could ask them if they want me to be able to sell to Grandma and so forth and then get the permissions it was too much of a hurdle putting it at the very beginning of the relationship again that's just what I have found in my practice you can change up however you want to do it but that is why I have it separated out all right so we've gone through this whole relationship we got created with the portrait contract the model release we have the print release in order for selling digital files we got the permission to sell to a third party if we're doing that but we also have to take into consideration what happens if our clients want to purchase more items than what was cover necessarily in the general portrait contract the general portrait contract does mine at least the way that I drafted it's in a chronological fashion much how I'm talking about to you guys here identifying all the steps and it does identify in my priceless and all the inclusions there but I want you to consider something here say that you sit down to do an in-person sales session or they decide to come to you and they want to beat make a big order listen closely I don't want you to jump to offering what I'm about to say but keep it as an ASIS lee a sinlessly so that you can keep the relationship and preserve that wiktor clients what am I talking about talk about offering of payment plans again a lot of people don't purchase and have these documents ready to go because they think they're never going to use these with their clients but it is good to have one in your purse on your camera bag on your online contract signing system whatever it is ready to go so then in case you do have this large order and you want to try to save the cell you can get them into this installment contract the payment plan the reason that it ends up being a separate document not only just the best legal practices like I explained to you guys a little bit ago but it is also because your initial contract didn't contemplate a payment plan for any additional purchases you really couldn't because you didn't know what your they were gonna buy you didn't know what the orders gonna be how much each payment was gonna be when it was going to be do any of those so when you get to after the session maybe you've delivered some products and it's time for them to make this big order you want to have this in place so I recommend having a payment plan contract ready to go credit card authorization forms if you're doing that by hand you're gonna run it later an invoice invoice form and I also have payment plans scripts so if you haven't offered them before makes it really comfortable for you guys to do that as well so we've gone through all the timeline now let's deliver the products okay my recommendation here is to have what's called a product delivery agreement can call it whatever you will essentially it is a document that your client is signing and saying I have inspected all the - all the products the digital files really important especially if you're selling digital files they're high-dollar products but I've inspected all of them and I accept them in the condition that they are this is not necessarily an integral piece you need to have it's kind of one of those good to have documents but I still strongly recommend you have it especially a traditional files so there's either you have that if you ever have a client come back later and say that you didn't fulfill all your responsibilities or that the products were damaged trying to save you safeguard you and protect you this isn't to beat up the client with and I don't want you guys to beat up your clients with any of these documents or any contract they should be there to give you a backbone they should be there to set expectations but also to legally protect and I'm here to look out for you so that's why I recommend one of the very last documents that you have in play and this is all just for the legal client timeline from beginning to end start with the general portrait contract model release print release permission to sell a third party payment plan bundle if you need to have payment plans always good to have because you never know what's going to occur and then finish off with the product delivery agreement now I know that sounds like a lot start in priority order is essentially just also how I outlined it for you if you guys have any other questions please feel free just to submit through the contact form myself or my team are more than happy to help you out and we're thankful that you have found the go-to legal resource and we hope to continue helping you protect your business