Contracts and More Legal Information

Joshua Plagerman
2 min readFeb 23, 2021

The goal of contracts is to understand what is in it, explain it, and use it. It isn't just a legal document that you make and put away for protection, instead it can be used as a backbone for you and your company. When it comes to the basics of a contract, the clients should understand they are signing a contract and understand what they are agreeing too, they are old enough to comprehend, and there has to be an official exchange. Items that are requirements within the contracts are all party information (who is potentially being photographed), all the validity requirements discussed above to prove the contract is valid, and a description of your mirrored workflow (when you expect to be paid by, when images will become available to the client, etc).

The Model Release gives permission to use the images and promotional activity as well as the client waiving any form of compensation for the usage of their image. This allows you to use you images freely without having to worry about a client coming back and trying to get money from you. A Print Release is giving them a license to use the image but you own the copyright of the image. It tells them what they can do and how they can use your image but at the end of the day, you own you image and have the say about how they can use the image. A Product Delivery Agreement is a confirmation that the product was delivered and in good condition. This is important because if the client was to damage the product and there was no agreement, they could pin the blame on you and say it was you that gave them a damaged product, making you spend more money to fix it. A Payment Plan is an agreement of how much the client has to pay, when they have to pay, and how they plan on paying. It makes it clear for both parties so there is no confusion when it comes to the money side of things. A Third-Party Document is an agreement that anything that is created in the course of your business is you intellectual property. This makes it so if you hired an independent contractor, all their work they do for you is your property.

External Resource 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVEDFaF1Jfo&feature=youtu.be

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Joshua Plagerman

Joshua is an amateur Photographer, with his main focus on Graphic Design and Music.