© Heber Vega | Southern Iraqi worker waiting on the street for the next job.

As Matt Brandon well describes in his blog post called “Don’t be an ass get a contract“, we should all have a written contract at the time of starting an assignment. Contracts are not a thing to be afraid of, so why have we stopped talking about them? You should have a contract even when you have decided to work pro-bono. Why? Because contracts are not just to keep on hand in case you have decided to demand someone else in court. Contracts, if you want to see the brighter side of them, are a way of understanding mutual expectations, both from your side and also from the non-profit’s. It’s a guide to help you, to remind you of exactly the things that need to be done on that specific assignment.

Now, before I write more, I do have to make it clear that in this post, I’m not talking about the legal parts involved in a contract, or about jurisdictions and legal actions to follow if the contract is not met by one of the parties. If you are in that type of complex scenario, then I assumed you have hired already a lawyer. If not, do it soon!

Today’s post is much simpler than that. It is for the photographers that want to start offering better services and help themselves by having written “mutual agreements” with their clients. However, you should find out, or try to understand a little bit more about, the laws and jurisdiction in your state, country, region, etc. about topics relating to images and contracts. Just go and find another photographer in your area who has experience and ask him/her what do he or she does if a contract goes sour. Who takes care of those things in your government? Remember, your WORD still stands these days. Just make sure to be faithful to it. Remember word of mouth is one of the secret weapons for successful photographers!

During the last couple of weeks I’ve been doing my homework for my own contracts. I’ve been looking on the Internet for what kinds of things photographers should include in their contracts. What I found out is, that with the exception of the wedding photographers, few other photography fields are really talking about contracts on the Internet. Google them, and you’ll find several copies of contracts for weddings. These are good examples for the type of contracts that I’m talking about in this post. You have found a “client” that’s a couple about to be married, and you have talked about several details already, including your rates and the needs that this new marriage will have for their wedding shots. Now it’s time to write these things down and then stick to what you have promised. In the humanitarian field, you start talking to a person or two from a specific non-profit, then you go through details about rates, dates, needs, locations, etc. and then it’s time to have a written commitment, where both parts have responsibilities. You don’t want surprises on the way, you want to already know the terms when you start shooting.

Now, there’s one more thing, but it’s very important! You will be working to get the best shots of your career for this client (that’s our commitment, isn’t?) Well, what’s going to happen with the images after this assignment? Can they be used by the client only once? For a lifetime? Are you going to keep the Copyright? Sell that as well? Are you going to use those images in your own portfolio ? What type of license then? What about keeping the printing rights of those images? If there’s one thing that’s important after the assignment itself, it’s the images that you have worked hard for! In this case, be very specific about what will happen to them after the assignment.

My advice, give them more rights as they pay you more! If you remember the post about working pro-bono, if they pay you little or nothing, then you can use those images for your own sake. Or maybe, you can sell them as stock, or to other non-profits if you have that opportunity in the future. Again, seek a win-win situation.

Okay, let’s talk about things you should write in a contact:

- Specify the parties to whom this contract will be effective
- Have specific start and end dates
- Jurisdiction. If the contract is not met by one the parties, what happen then?
- Scope of the work. details of the work – assignment. Explain all of your ideas or what you understand from your conversations with the client.
- Payment information. Explain in detail; how much, when, cash/check/paypal, to whom, etc. Who will pay the fees for the payment, transaction, wire fees, etc.
- License
- Copyright
- All details on the delivery of the images.
- Deadlines

(Before you start rolling with your questions, I will put a sample of a contract that you can download and take from there. It’s a PDF to “show you the way”. If you want the template that I use in Pages – only for mac – drop me an email and I will send it to you as well) To download the PDF clic on the image below!

Some photographers have divided all of those previous items into sections. Whether you do this or not is up to you!

1. Contract Section

All the information from the parties, such a names, logos, emails, phones, websites, etc.
Dates for starting and ending the assignment.
Hours involving the assignment.
Rates.

2. Agreement Section

All the agreement stipulations.
Description of the assignment for both parties.

3. Payment

All details related to this, some of them written above.
Do you ask for an advance?
You want it all up-front?
All at the end?

4. Rights and Usage

First, take your time and determine how you want to sell these images. I have already given you a paragraph to think about it (above).

5. Model Release

Do you want to keep these images for your portfolio? Get written permission for it! Include it in the contract.

6. Budget-Schedule

In my contracts I like to use a chart that shows these things more clearly, about my time/work invested in the project.

Just one last comment. You can send a “proposal” for a contract and go back and forth, changing details until both parties have agreed on all the terms, then it’s time to sign it, stamp it and go finally for the assignment!

I hope this post is of value to you. If so, just leave us a comment. If you have further questions, I’m not an expert, but I will try to help you with them as well. Let’s use posts like this one to add something useful to our industry, that’s all!

Blessings.