A Model Photo Release Form

Does a pro­fes­sional pho­tog­ra­pher really need a model photo release  form?  How does it pro­tect the model?  Are there times when releases aren’t nec­es­sary?  How do you know?

Pro­fes­sional Pho­tog­ra­phers today are find­ing both legal pro­tec­tion as well as clar­ity with use of model photo release forms.  Such forms state the pur­pose for which a model’s images will be used and where they will be placed.  Her sig­na­ture gives the req­ui­site per­mis­sion to the pho­tog­ra­pher.  Nei­ther party can mis­un­der­stand what is explic­itly stated.  The release becomes a guide­line for how the pho­tog­ra­pher will han­dle the pictures.

A lot of images are uploaded daily to inter­net web sites, and the release becomes espe­cially impor­tant.  Sur­prises are great at Christ­mas and birth­days; they are not great when a model clicks on a web site and sees pic­tures of her­self that she didn’t know would appear.  A generic state­ment in the release that includes all pos­si­ble media and venues elim­i­nates the sur­prise ele­ment.  The model photo release form makes clear the pho­tog­ra­pher is in charge of where the images will be placed.

Mod­els pose for com­mer­cial shots daily.  Their images will appear in printed adver­tise­ments, brochures and posters adver­tis­ing a prod­uct or ser­vice, any prod­uct that will be ulti­mately sold to the pub­lic, and any eCom­merce sites (such as pho­tog­ra­phy), to name a few.  We are not aware of lit­i­ga­tion sur­round­ing per­mis­sion or lack thereof for use of pho­tos.  How­ever, we believe obtain­ing writ­ten per­mis­sion from mod­els to use pho­tographs of them is good insur­ance.  Poten­tial legal has­sles can be avoided fairly eas­ily if a model release form is stan­dard oper­at­ing procedure.

Non-commercial uses of pic­tures of mod­els poses another set of ques­tions.  If we look at photo jour­nal­ism for exam­ple, we see pho­tos being used in arti­cles that are sold for a photographer’s profit.  If pho­tos become a story that is sold to a mag­a­zine or news­pa­per or ezine, is a release nec­es­sary, espe­cially if one or more pho­tos fea­ture a per­son?  The owner of the story is mak­ing a profit from the sale of the article/pictures.  Does the per­son fea­tured have a pro­pri­etary inter­est in the pictures?

We believe a case can be made for being respect­ful and hav­ing con­sid­er­a­tion for oth­ers, espe­cially when their images are being used for the ben­e­fit of another.  This prob­a­bly isn’t a legal mat­ter as much as it is just treat­ing peo­ple with respect, whether it’s a pro­fes­sional model or a passerby on the street that you catch at just the right time for a spec­tac­u­lar photo.

Secur­ing per­mis­sion is wise even when you pho­to­graph strangers.  Most pro­fes­sional pho­tog­ra­phers keep dig­i­tal files of their work for use in the unknown future.  Such use may include com­mer­cial projects that weren’t defined at the time the shot was taken.  File shots that may be per­fect for com­mer­cial use later will need release forms; oth­er­wise, their com­mer­cial value is nil.  Obtain­ing that per­mis­sion at the time the photo is taken allows for lim­it­less pos­si­bil­i­ties in the future.