Portrait Contracts by Elizabeth Halford

I get asked a lot what’s in my portrait contract. A while back, I shared about my wedding contract and my portrait contract contains a lot of the same information. Note that under the bullet point that states that the deposit is non-refundable, I’ve added a clause with a tiny bit of legal mumbojumbo. The subject comes up often about whether to call a deposit a ‘deposit’ or a ‘retainer’. I once read that a ‘deposit’ can be refunded while a ‘retainer’ cannot. It seems that neither is true. I found this article to be extremely useful to cover my back in this area.
Note: Bear in mind, this is just MY contract and may not apply to where you live. I always recommend getting legal advice if you want to be absolutely certain that yours is legally binding.

{Gracie May Photography Portrait Contract}

 

Name:
Date of session:
Time:
Price of package (or simply just the session fee if they’re not pre-buing a package):
Deposit (Personally, I don’t do a deposit, the session fee is paid in full upon booking): £___
What’s included:

• Bullet points here about what’s included, for example:
• Session in x amount of locations
• x amount of wardrobe changes
• x amount of time for session
• Full editing of all images
• Online proofing and ordering gallery
• -or- In home viewing and ordering session

By signing this contract and providing a deposit, you are agreeing to the following:

• The deposit holds your date and is non-refundable should you no longer require my services. No amount of monies paid to me are refundable unless I experience an emergency that renders me unable to provide the agreed services.
• The remaining £___ is due in cash on the day, before the session begins.
• Should you fail to perform (you decide that you no longer require my services), liquidated damages shall be charged at the amount of £(amount of deposit paid). (Note: this is just another way of saying that the deposit is non-refundable)
• Should I have an emergency and no longer be able to provide my services, I will provide a replacement photographer or refund your deposit. This would only be in the case of a true emergency and is never expected to be a possibility.
• Should you need to reschedule due to illness, please give me 24-48 hours’ advance notice if possible. You are allowed one event of rescheduling but please give me as much notice as possible. Please don’t reschedule for minor skin injuries.
• If the weather is torrential and we cannot shoot, the session will be rescheduled or shot in my studio. Clouds, wind, light sprinkles aren’t a problem and I usually go ahead in this case.
• Please do not bring your own camera or recording equipment to the session. If a camera is present, I will have to request that it be put away and this is a very awkward moment which I would love to avoid.
• Photographs taken by Elizabeth Halford (Gracie May Photography) may be used for the purposes of display, advertising, portfolio, website or any publication to promote my business.
• At no time shall any of my work be saved to a computer/hard drive, shared online or printed without express written consent. This is a breech of copyright and illegal. If you purchase the digital files, these releases will be included. However, any blog posts or Facebook images posted by Gracie May Photography may be freely shared with your friends and family by way of a link back to the original content.
• Feel free to invite family members to the viewing session. I am unable to leave images with you or post them to the internet, so this will be everyone’s chance to buy their own prints or contribute to a collection if they would like some images of their own.
• I do not offer free or discounted re-shoots on the basis of client regret over wardrobe choice, location choice, etc.

I am obliged to explain the following:

• Upon viewing samples of my work, you have decided to invest in my services to photograph you and your family because you are confident that I can give you results which you will cherish.
• There is no knowing what photos will be produced from this endeavour simply because this is an event in the future.
• As an artist, I reserve the right to artistically interpret what I see and in what ways I choose to photograph a scene. This may mean that some shots are colour, some are B&W. This is my interpretation and vision as an artist.

Signed: _____________________________________________ Date: _______________________
Print name: ______________________________ Address: _________________________________
Photographer Signed: ___________________________________ Date: _______________________