Sign Product Photography Contract Made Easy

E signature commercial photography contract

hey guys Rachel break you from the law tog is going to talk a little bit about commercial contracts in commercial photography being very clear upfront this is commercial in nature I know that it sounds like why are you repeating this to me but I have so many people don't truly understand the difference between commercial and portraiture portraiture is typically only used in my context of anything on the law tog and all the articles that I write and in my communities talk about things of a personal nature that the end use of the images are not going to be you use in any commercial type of context that's what the commercial category is for on the law talk and that's what we're referring to today this video is just going to give you a little context of the documents that you need to have whenever you're shooting for a commercial style photography and let's just take off the very first thing non-negotiable that you need to have is a commercial photography contract it does a couple of things it creates be legal relationship of you and the client that you are getting into a relationship with it's gonna outline also expectations for spots abilities it's also going to make sure that it protects you legally it's going to give this legal foundation should an issue ever arise one of the things that I also love the way that contracts work is that it allows for you to be able to use it as a backbone if you ever have a client who's overbearing and trying to making change your business policies doesn't mean you don't have the autonomy to make the decision to do so but sometimes you just want to have a little pressure on the bag holding up that backbone so you can stand your ground and that's what a commercial photography contract can do this is sign to get booked do not shoot without this it's gonna outline things such as payment terms you know how you're gonna shoot what you're going to shoot all those sorts of things that you need to have included our contracts are written for commercial style photographers if you're a reporter photographer who's coming over here because you want to do commercial photography it may look a little scary but don't worry this is fairly normal in the commercial photography realm the second document and I do include this typically in the commercial photography contract is the commercial photography license what this is by default doesn't mean you can't change what by default you the photographer is retain the copyright ownership of the images and your licensing images for use in commerce by another brand or a business or a person right it doesn't necessarily have to be a leak separate legal entity so my photography license is essentially doing that it's going to acknowledge who has the rights and what exactly is being transferred how can they use the images because remember you're the copyright holder right now that's what we're talking about you get to call the shots and how those images are use so this is where negotiations really come into play in commercial relationships there's way more negotiation in commercial relationships then there are for the personal portraiture so if you've never done or dealt with commercial photography before don't be scared also don't be scared as I ask for copyrights to the images that is also fairly common in commercial photography as well you just have to consider how much are you willing to sell them for or if you're even willing to sell them at all in that case you want to have a written language to transfer over the intellectual property over to net but keep in mind the way that we have the documents written on the log is by default make any change remember these just templates for you to work off of they are for you to retain copyright ownership in license out the use from the uses that you define the last document you guys no-brainer you heard a lot about this is a model release this is typically only signed by the people that are in the images that actually can relatively only be unless maybe the client the business has gotten the permissions to sign on behalf of this employee or in the model of whoever's in the image but typically the contract itself is going to be signed with the business and whoever is in the images the person needs to sign the model release because what do mono releases do is giving you permission for use of these images in marketing but it does a little bit more than that when people are in images even if you retain the copyright ownership of the images that were created the models and the images retain the public city rights to the use of their face so if you're going to go use those images on social media website or any of those other places in effort to market your business you need permission by the clients or I'm sorry by the person in the image again remember that doesn't necessarily mean that's your client you could have the business as the client and somebody else is in the image or they can be one in the same but the second thing that it does not only with the permission for the use of their face but it's also the way that I've drafted it here at the law tog is going to waive any claims of compensation that the person and the image may have for when you use it in marketing and that's about what it is there's a rights claim that they have so really important for you to have that three documents we just talked about commercial photography contract creates and manages the relationship the commercial photography license which is retaining copyright ownership giving the license and defining the uses to the individual using the images in the model release which is signed by the person in the images or someone that has permission to signs of the person in the images to manage the publicity rights claims if you guys have any questions at all when it comes to the commercial photography or how that works please feel free to submit that the contact for myself or my team is more than happy to help you out wish you best of luck and please make sure you're setting out these expectations in these documents because you never have an issue until you have an issue