What should be in a commercial photography contract?

In the case of commercial photography, your “contract” is actually the terms of use that you attach to the offers or quotes you send to your customer. To create the offer or budget, you must include the job description, license information, and a detailed estimate of all charges and expenses. Each commercial photography contract keeps Kim on her toes, testing her ability to adapt quickly to new scenes and subjects. Whether you're hiring commercial photography clients or are simply considering commercial photography as a new source of income, you probably have some questions.

In general, even if you think you'll never use the images for your own commercial purposes, it's always a good idea to get releases in advance. AIGA defines specified (or speculative) work as “work done before hiring a commercial photography client with the expectation of being paid”. Kim began contracting her own commercial photography contracts when, after more than a decade as a staff commercial photographer, her employer closed her business and encouraged Kim to take charge of her accounts. The art depends on you, but your business is strengthened when you partner with the right commercial photography solutions for managing teams, galleries and studios.

Some commercial photographers end up shelling out their own money because they don't include fees for things like transportation or additional equipment. Also, understand whether the customer will make commercial use of the photos for online advertisements, billboards, flyers, or other retail outlets. Since these images are going to be used for advertisements, it is important to have clauses that indicate how the images can be used, for how long and if they can be edited. If the event you're covering is a personal event, in most cases your customer will be a natural person, but in the case of business sessions, it's very likely that your customer is a company and not the contact person you've been dealing with.

This way, any member of the hospital staff, at any time, can access all the portrait photo ads of doctors they have made for the hospital. Free yourself to hone your technical skills, care for your customers, and stay engaged with your commercial photography community. We contacted photographer Kim Fetrow to talk about her foray into the commercial arena, the importance of using a commercial photography contract, and how ShootProof helps ensure that its commercial customers return time and time again. For example, you may have a stipulation for people who request portrait or wedding photographs that your images cannot be used for commercial purposes.

Good commercial photography can include portraits, lifestyle images, landscapes, architecture, fashion, food, and any other type of photography you've seen used to advertise or sell photographs of services or products. Once this template is complete, you can send the final commercial photography session to your customer for electronic signature.

Laurie Cullins
Laurie Cullins

Hardcore internet guru. Typical web maven. Passionate food trailblazer. Wannabe web fan. Avid beer guru.