Someone in one of the online fora that I participate in asked about writing photography job contracts – where he can find sample contracts, if photographers should present their own contracts to their clients, or just wait for their clients to present their contracts to photographers.
This is my reply, which I hope will help other photographers facing these questions.
We (our photo studio that represents four photographers) have our own contract that we ask our clients to sign. There are pre-printed terms and conditions, while in the open part, we indicate what clients are asking us to do and what additional conditions, including price, which we would like them to accept.
Sometimes, we do get clients who present us with their standard contract. We find many of their standard terms and conditions not suitable – such as the venue for litigation being in some foreign country, or our liability being a humongous amount that we cannot possibly pay and which is not appropriate for the amount of the transaction between us. We also find that some of these standard contracts define our relationship as “work-for-hire†and that by signing such contracts, we lose our copyrights. When this happens, we approach our clients and point out the terms that we cannot accept, and we ask for adjustments.
If client is adamant (they are sometimes this way in the beginning, but if
they like or need you, we find that they are willing to negotiate), then we
decide if we are willing to be covered by such “onerous” provisions (onerous for us, it may not be for another photographer who lives in their country, or willing to assume multi-million law suits, or give up their rights), or walk away from the job.
But, so far, so good. We find that clients, even big multinational clients,
are reasonable and willing to change their standard contract to one that
would be acceptable to them and to us.
We do have a lawyer whom we ask to draft the amended terms and conditions, as we cannot really expect our clients to have to rewrite their contracts for us. After all, the terms that we want changed are those we want to be more favorable to us and maybe less favorable to them. We find that when they are willing to accept our revisions, we would still have to write the revisions. That is good enough for us.
I am willing to share our own contract, but they may or may not be
appropriate for everybody. There are sample contracts in many books and websites on the business of photography, including a wealth of materials in the websites of the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) and the Advertising Photographers of America (APA). You can find many more resources with sample contracts and explanations on them on the Internet. Choose which ones you like or apply to you, and you can then draft your own.
Hope this helps.