# Essential Contracts



## RyKindig (May 8, 2014)

I am a young aspiring photographer and I have some work coming up but I want everything to be professional and legal, so I was just wondering if anyone knows or can help me find the correct contracts to do the following:

 - Permission to take photos of the model and use however I want
 - Permission to the customer to own the rights to the photos given to them when final product is delivered

Any other kinds of contract anyone feels is also essential and can lead me and whoever else checks this thread out in the right direction would be greatly appreciated!!


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## vintagesnaps (May 8, 2014)

You could look at  American Society of Media Photographers  for info. on contracts, releases, etc. I got a book of sample forms by Tad Crawford that I found out about thru their site; they also have an app for releases. ASMP also offers webinars periodically related to the photography business (called Business as UnUsual).


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## KmH (May 8, 2014)

So you need a model release - #1
Model release law varies by state, so you want one that's valid in Illinois.

And a customer use license (print release/limited reproduction rights) - #2. The  rights I give a customer are determined by how the customer intends to use the image.
For a model I would only grant usage for personal use in their portfolio and the model would not be allowed to transfer any rights to a 3rd party.
Use licensing is about copyright and the bundle of rights we get when our photograph s are recorded in a tangible medium - like a camera memory card.. Copyright is federal law so here in the US there is only 1 version of it rather than 50 state versions.

I highly recommend gaining a good understanding of what copyright is and how valuable copyright is to any creative.
Register your copyrights with the US copyright Office.
U.S. Copyright Office


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