If you’re a photographer working with clients, you need to have a contract or otherwise put the parameters of the job in writing.

When photo jobs go sideways, it’s often due to a lack of communication. A contract protects not only you, but also your client in the event of any unmet expectations.

That being said, when you work on the commercial level, with ad agencies and such, contracts are not typically used. Agencies will not sign your contract.

You must submit an estimate for the job with the Terms and Conditions and get them to sign off on it. Terms and Conditions cover things that typically are outlined in a contract, but in brief, and appear at the bottom of the document.

A lot of commercial photographers use the software Blink Bid to write up professional estimates with all the production costs, and Terms and Conditions for the client to sign easily.

If you’re working “Client Direct”, here are some of the inclusions you might want in your contract.

Who is the Agreement Between?

Start by stating clearly who the contract is between and identify each party. You can identify yourself as “the Photographer”, and your client as “the Client.” The photo shoot itself can be referred to as “the Event” or “Photo Shoot”.

Note that the agreement supersedes any prior agreements between the parties, and that the only way to add to the agreement or make changes to it is to do so in writing; this amendment must be signed by both parties.

If anything changes between the signing of the agreement and shoot day, you’ll need another contract.

What are the Reservations?

You should have a section on your contract about the “Reservations”.

This means you note the date the shoot is scheduled for, and your policies about rescheduling, postponement, and cancellation.

Make sure the client is very clear on the consequences of any of these changes.

For example, most photographers require a 50% non-refundable deposit in case of cancellation, so they don’t miss out on potential work that could have been booked for that day. The deposit is used to reserve their time and offset any potential loss due to cancellation.

You might be ok about date changes without penalty if you’re pretty flexible, but cancellation should come at a cost.

Your time must be respected.

What is the Schedule?

Note that shooting time commences at the scheduled start time and ends at the scheduled time, regardless of when the client shows up. If a client is very late, then the shoot goes to the agreed upon time and no later.

On commercial food jobs, a shoot is a ten-hour day, including set-up and tear down. Anything beyond this should get charged overtime.

I also highly recommend that if you’re a commercial photographer, that you state clearly that the client or a representative from their company must attend the shoot to provide creative direction and approve the final images.

You’re not responsible for the final aesthetic if they are not there to provide feedback and approval.

Furthermore, reserve the right to cancel the shoot and retain the deposit if the client or their representative does not attend.

Seriously. This happens.

Expenses Incurred

This is where you might note that there could be additional expenses incurred that may not be part of the original quote, such as parking, props and groceries.

These kinds of expenses are usually TBD (to be determined) and not part of the initial estimate. This should be made clear up-front so you don’t end up taking a cut from your earnings to cover these things.

Responsibilities

You are responsible for a lot on a shoot, but certain things are unforeseen and out of your control. Things such as obtrusive staff, lateness of the client, the weather, schedule complications, incorrect addresses provided by the client, or restrictions of the chosen location if you’re not shooting in a studio.

Venue and Location Limited

Unless you’re shooting at your studio or a rental, the client is usually responsible for providing an appropriate place for the photographic work to take place.

If the venue is found to be limited in space or otherwise hinders you from carrying out your work in a safe manner (or one that doesn’t allow you to produce the desired result), reserve the right to request moving to another location or cancel the shoot without penalty.

Copyright and Usage Rights

The photography you produce for a client still belongs to you, as the creator of those images. A lot of clients think the images belong to them because they are paying you money to produce them. They need to be educated on copyright.

In the commercial world, clients commission you to produce photos that align with their brand. They then pay you a separate fee to license those images for a specific use and time frame.

You should have a separate Usage Agreement in addition to your contract that outlines the usage parameters.

Limit of Liability

In the unlikely event that you are not able to perform to the guidelines laid out in the contract due to injury, illness, an “act of God,” or another event outside of your control, you should not be held responsible.

You should, however, make every effort to reschedule the shoot. If this isn’t possible, then ordinarily all payment received for the event should be returned.

If digital files are lost, stolen, or destroyed including but not limited to hard drive or equipment malfunction, your liability is to return all payments or reshoot on your own dime.

The limit liability for a partial loss of originals should be a prorated amount of exposures lost based on the percentages of the total number of originals.

Capture & Delivery

You’re not liable to deliver every image taken at an event or shoot.

The number of final files to be delivered is at your discretion or is based on an agreement made between you and the client before the signing of the contract.

In this section, you can make a note of when you’ll be delivering the files by and how they will be delivered, such as JPG or TIFF files.

Post Production & Editing

The final post-production and editing styles, effects, and overall aesthetic of the image are at your discretion unless you’re working on a specific type of job where the editing will be done in-house, say by a magazine or ad agency.

Nothing is worse than working hard on editing and then having clients put crazy Instagram filters on your images. Prohibit any alteration to your photographs unless there is an agreement with the client as to what those alterations will be, like putting text on a photo.

Payment

If you’re asking for a deposit (and I hope you are), make sure to put that in your contract.

How you manage payment for the remainder is up to you. Many photographers allow thirty days for receipt, however, any late payment after that is subject to interest – usually 15-18%.

Also, note a policy around any NSF charges and if there are any consequences the client needs to be aware of in terms of not paying on time.

For example, you can state in your contract that non-payment after three months is subject to legal action.

In the commercial world, it’s common for photographers to demand payment before they hand over any files at all, and put this in their Terms and Conditions.

For my commercial work, I typically don’t give my clients a usage agreement until the images have been paid for in full and prohibit the use of my images until then. Clients should not be using your images publicly unless they have paid for them, or it is a violation of your copyright.

I even state this term on my invoices and draw their attention to this in my email communication upon sending it.

Some clients can take a long time to pay you unless you draw specific boundaries around payment and the use of your images.

Signature Field

There should be an area where both you and the client can sign and date the contract.

It’s best if you use electronic signature software such as Hello Sign so that clients don’t have to spend their time physically downloading and scanning a signed contract back to you. Everyone is busy, right?

If you use a CRM software like Dubsado or Honeybook, it may already offer such a feature. You can send clients emails and contracts directly from within the user interface. You can have all the other features of a client management system for around the same price you’d pay for signature software alone.

In Conclusion

Be sure that your contracts are dated and signed before you consider a job booked.

You might want to go over them with the client and make sure they understand the terms and conditions. A lot of people don’t bother to read contracts before they sign them, and you don’t want to deal with any surprises.

Please note that this post is for educational purposes only and doesn’t constitute legal advice, as I am not a lawyer and cannot advise in that capacity.

To make sure that any or your contract or written agreements are legally binding, and will cover you in an event of a discrepancy, please contact an attorney. If you buy a contract template online, you should still have it looked over by an attorney, as laws vary from state to state, or province from province etc.

Want to read more about the business of food photography? Check out these posts:

What You Need to Know About Pricing Your Food Photography
How I Got into Commercial Food Photography
Pricing Your Food Photography: What is Your Profit?
How to Become A Successful Food Photographer