Photographers - Your Terms and Conditions

When your hobby becomes a profession there's a lot to think about. The most important thing that I've found is to get yourself some terms and conditions and a contract written up so that you can make sure you cover all basis. There's nothing worse than getting your ass bit in the first few months of stepping out into a 'profession' and having your confidence knocked. With Photography there are some specific bases that need covering. The below advice is assuming that you have a booking for whereby the client will write out dates, times, location, shots and so on. Below is the advice for the contract or terms and conditions, which should go out with your booking form...

-Booking Fee
-Payment
-Cancellation
-Copyright
-Co-operation
-Services
-Photographers
-Health and Safety
-Provision of Photographs
-The Entire Agreement

I'm not legally trained and I didn't have a lawyer or 'attorney' look at my terms and conditions (yet). If it's your full time job then you will make it your business to get this sorted out because you can't afford not to. But for now here's a bit of guidance which might just help you through. Don't forget when working with models you will also need to sort out a Model Release Form.

Payment; It's a preference and many people don't opt for it but I like to be paid in full before I undertake a big piece of work. I.e a Wedding or event photography. I totally realise that some shoots can be last minute and you have to put your trust in the person booking you, but when you're giving up a whole day to shoot someone's Wedding and hours afterwards editing and processing you do not want to not get paid. Set it out in your terms and conditions and make sure your customer is aware of what you want. My preference is 50% deposit on booking (non-refundable, we'll go into more detail about that later) and the remaining balance one month before the event date.

Cancellation; It's up to you how you want to play this, but strictly speaking in my contract in the event of cancellation by the other party, no refunds will be made. In the event of cancellation by me, full refund will be made. If I'm not available to shoot a wedding due to ill health or equipment failure (get insurance people!) then it's my fault and I will try my best to replace me with someone else. If that's an option write it into your contract. Set out exactly what you will give people back and set out exactly what they are liable for if they cancel. Don't make it flowery or cute, just write it as it is. People like the facts.

Copyright; This is the part where you lay out how you are going to let your client use the photographs that you take. Here you can also talk about whether images will be watermarked when they go online and you can talk about how you might use the images for future promotional materials. It's important to quote acts, legal arrangements and so on here and these might differ depending on which country you're in.

Co-operation; It's all about your clients in the end, if you get some really stroppy people who don't want their photographs taken, it's not your fault. You can't make people pose and you can't make them smile. If you're a particularly sociable photographer you may be able to work your audience around a little but you need to make sure you state that you will not be held liable if Great Aunt Gertrude is pulling a frown.

Services; This section can highlight exactly what you're going to offer, whether a second photographer will be included and you can personalise it by stipulating timings. If Wedding photography (as an example), isn't your full time job then you may wish to be a bit flexible. I tend to tell my clients that I will be with them from Makeup until first dance and then give rought guide times. I reassure them that I won't run away at seven pm if things are running behind but equally that I won't be there at 10pm when the guests start getting loud and lairy!

Photographers; It's good to talk about your photographers. You can mention whether they are DBS checked (that's the disclosure and barring service in the UK which talks about police checks) or whatever is relevant to your country. You can highlight whether it 'may' be you or someone else and any other information that might be suitable.

Health and Safety; You need to include this bit because whilst it's great that you can lie on the floor, climb trees or whatever else to get a shot, you need to have limits and boundaries. You also need to mention guests and anyone else that might be involved. You need to talk about whether you have public liability insurance (and you should have it) in the event of a problem.

Provision of Photographs; This section lets your client know how you will be delivering their photographs to them and in what format. It also highlights how much you'll be giving them and what they can expect. You absolutely do not want to be showered with requests for all the RAW files that you took on the day. It's a headache. Trust me, I know.

The Entire Agreement; This is just a little line at the end that states; This contract is the entire agreement between (Name) and (Client Name) and anything agreed outside of this requires modification to be made in writing. It covers you both and if any other little things are mentioned or 'alleged' to be mentioned you can refer back to whatever is in the written and signed agreement.

Other Bits
I make sure all pages are linked together with page numbers and a unique watermark of sorts (header or footer). If you ever had a problem pages can easily be separated and clients can claim they didn’t have ‘this page’ or ‘that’ page so it’s important to get as much stuff as possible on one page and particularly at the end of the terms below have a signature box for both photographers and clients. It’s also good to include your watermark/logo at the top of the page. Makes it look good too.

Once again though, I'm not legally trained and this is just my preference. At the moment it works for me and it might just help you if you're ready to pay someone to legally set it all out. If you have any tips, questions or preferences of your own share them in the comments! Happy snapping!