What Should Be in a Photography Contract?
Are you a freelance photographer? You have a unique job, especially when it comes to the event oriented nature of the jobs. Freelancing jobs are usually project oriented and can last weeks or months. Many of your jobs are going to be for about a day (maybe 2 or 3, depending on what you’re taking care of) and then your contract is over. Because of that, your contract is going to end up being a lot different than that of other freelancers. Let’s take a look.
What Does a Freelance Photographer’s Job Look Like?
One day, you could be at a rehearsal dinner and then a wedding the following day. You could be doing senior pictures for weeks on end throughout the month of August, or you could be doing anniversary pictures for couples who are reaching their golden years. Every day in the life of a freelance photographer is different, and so it’s important that your contract is flexible and can accommodate all of the different types of jobs that you may be performing.
What Should Be In Your Contract?
Honestly, you are still looking for many of the same things that other freelancers are looking for, but you have to throw some extra stuff in there.
Here’s a few examples of what you should have on your contract:
- All of the basics – names of the parties involved, dates where your services will be utilized, how much your services cost (either for the whole project or per hour), and other important items that you find on most contracts. Also be sure to have a place for your signature and your clients’ signature(s)
- As a photographer, you have some extra things that you have to take care of, including whether or not you will give the client the proofs, who owns the photographs after the job has been completed, whether or not you can use the photos in your promotional items, if the photos can be edited and/or copied by anyone other than the photographer, and a variety of other things
In short, a lot of the photography jargon that you’re going to have to deal with is ownership of the pictures. This is your work that you’ll want to use in a portfolio or to show on a website, so you want to make sure that the party in question is okay with you doing so. Obviously, you can work out other arrangements if they want privacy, but in short, you want to make sure that the terms are made quite clear from the beginning.
So, make sure that you have everything set out in your contract so that everyone is completely clear with the terms that you have set out. That way, there aren’t going to be disagreements later and you don’t have to worry about breaking the contract for one reason or another. With our Photography contract template for freelancers you can be sure all the provisions applicable to Photographers are included.
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