The fun part of photography is taking pictures and seeing the final results. When it comes to protecting the rights of your photographs, its easy to ignore the business part, and hope you’re customers will do the right thing. Yet in today’s technology driven world, the line is blurred, and its more important than ever to spell out exactly what is and isn’t acceptable, and get a signature to make sure everything is in place.
Why do you need a photography disclaimer?
A photography disclaimer is protection for both you and your customer. It tells them what they can and can’t do with a photograph, and also what you will be doing with the image as well
The lines have been blurred in recent years with the advances in technology. When you take images at a wedding or a portrait sitting, or work on a commercial level with a company, chances are you hand over some or all of your work in digital format. With a couple of clicks, those files can be emailed anywhere in the world, or shared on Facebook or Flickr, or even uploaded to a place like Shutterfly for instant printing capabilities. Because it’s easy to do, its done every single day. And most clients today assume they have the right to do so because they have the file. They never think twice about the process.
Steps for putting your photography disclaimer together
Start by looking around at other photographers’ disclaimers. You can find them easily by doing a search online. Less is better, and the fewer words, the greater chance of the disclaimer actually being read.
Thanks to the Internet, you can also purchase a variety of legal forms for your photography business online that will give you a starting point. Because these forms are written by lawyers, you can buy them at a fraction of the cost of hiring a lawyer, and you simply fill in the blanks with your detailed information. As you grow bigger and more successful, I would also recommend touching base with a lawyer to make sure you are fully covered, and your disclaimer will stand up in a court of law if it ever comes to that point.
Once you have your disclaimer written, make sure you place it where it can be easily read. Place your disclaimer in your Terms of Service on your web presence. Also place it in all of your contracts. You may also wish to include a copy on your CD/DVD or other media source when you are turning over photographic files to your customers.
Related posts:
As a relative novice to this business, I guess I need some education. What are the downsides to giving a (wedding or portrait) customer a CD/ROM and telling them they may make copies as they see fit? I’ve only done a couple of weddings so far, but my concept is that the customer is buying the images I shoot.
Is this wrong? In my mind, it’s just my way of running the business. Can you enlighten me?
Hi Ed
When you hand over a CD with the digital files, and tell your customer they are free to make images as they please, you are giving up several things.
First, you are giving up creative control. As a wedding photographer, I told my clients that shooting was half the service – the other half was creating a storybook album of their wedding. A bride has one wedding – she’ll print off a handful of images, and put them into a book of pictures. We created 3 to 6 volume sets for each wedding client, showcasing hundreds of photographs that actually told the story of their wedding. The money is always in the creativity.
Second, you are giving up quality. A bride will take the disk down to the big box store, print on cheap paper, and handle the images like paper. No value there. If you mount every image, place them in a keepsake box, and handle them like original artwork, they have more value. People won’t value a piece of paper – its what you do with it that adds the value.
Third, you are giving up a revenue stream. If you charge $50 for a photo session, hand over the disk and expect them to come back for enlargements, you’ll be waiting a long time. As a photographer, you need to be paid what you are worth. I know some very high end wedding photographers that charge a $10,000 shooting fee, and hand over the files. That’s great – he’s paid what he’s worth. But if you charge virtually nothing, you’ll never be compensated for your time, expenses, equipment, energy, retirement fund, insurance, etc.
Very good post! I loved the information. I wrote my disclaimer a long time ago and now I am going to go through it again and retouch it and make the changes you pointed out.
Thanks,
Manuel
Thanks, VPS. This is good information, and gives me something to think about.
AMAZING POST!!!!!!!!! I loved “Never Give Up Creative Control”!!!!! Thank You for those words….