Portrait Release

[dkatz02]

This woman wants me to take pictures of her for Valentines day. I'm

going to shoot her with a D Rebel, she works at Kinkos and wants the

digital negatives to print out at Kinkos. My friends tell me I need

a Photo Release or something, so the negatives still belong to me

and she has the rights to use them. Does anyone have one of these I

can use??

[Spearhead]

Your information is a bit confused. You own the images unless you sign them away. If you want to make commercial use of the images, and this includes a lot of usages you might not initially think about, you need a model release from the person you are photographing. If she wants to use them for her cards, you can sign a limited usage agreement with her allowing her to do that, specifying the financial transactions involved and the specific usages allowed.

 

Model releases can be found all over the internet if you use a search engine. The other contract is something you may have to search for, or you may get a lawyer.

[richard_milner2]

To amplify the previous comments slightly, you own the physical negatives AND the copyright of the images, unless you sign them away.

 

As your camera is digital, the principle is the same, but it's easier for people to copy the files.

[james_oneill]

You own the copyright. If she wants someone else to make prints from them she needs your permission. The one I use is written for English not US law, but it basically says.

 

This agreement was made between (name) - the model, and (name) the photographer, concerning photographs made at (place) on (date).

 

Under this agreement the model agrees that the photographer owns the copyright in the photographs, and may (do the things that the law allows the copyright owner to do).

 

The photographer grants the model a non-exclusive, non transferable licence to use any photographs supplied by the photographer in any way provided that no charge is made for access to them.

[lacey_smith4]

If she is an employee and printing these herself, probably this is not it, but if she were to take professional looking images to a commerical place, that place may require a release from what they think is a professional studio, before the make copies/prints.