Paid advertisement. This guest article includes a paid placement for ConsumerShield.
Take a client who has agreed to a portrait session. Delivering prints or files to that client is usually not the situation where a release matters. A separate signed release matters for what comes later: using the person’s likeness to promote your business or sell something, and the rules vary by state.
Studio ads and stock: where a release comes in
A client’s face on your studio banner, in a paid social ad or on a promotional mailer is advertising, and that is where permission in writing is expected. A stock listing is a different question, because agencies license images for commercial or editorial use and set their own release requirements.
Commercial, editorial and portfolio use
Getty Images explains that model and property releases confirm permission for commercial use, while editorial content, such as news or textbook images, does not come with releases. It lists advertising, marketing and packaging as commercial uses. That describes how one agency treats the images it licenses, not a rule that every editorial photo goes without a release.
Portfolio use sits in a gray area, and the answer is not the same everywhere. A framed print on your own studio wall is far from a paid ad, but a post that promotes your services can be read as advertising. Photographers who want to avoid that argument get a release that names portfolio and promotional use.
What state law says: California and New York
There is no single federal release rule, so state publicity laws decide. California Civil Code section 3344 requires prior consent when a person’s photograph or likeness is knowingly used on or in products, merchandise or advertising, with the greater of $750 or actual damages available to the person pictured. Uses connected to a news or public affairs account are excluded from that consent requirement.
New York works differently. Civil Rights Law section 50 makes it a misdemeanor to use a person’s name, portrait or picture for advertising or trade without written consent, or the consent of a parent or guardian if the person is a minor. Other states have their own statutes or case law, so this is general information and not advice for your state.
Portraits of minors
For anyone under 18, the adult signing should be a parent or legal guardian. Adobe Stock applies its rule to a model who was under 18 when the content was created and is still a minor, and asks for a parent or legal guardian’s signature. It recommends having both parents sign when possible, one as witness, so one parent cannot easily revoke the other’s consent. That is the agency’s policy, not a legal requirement for every portrait.
Group sessions need care because consent is per child. One Improve Photography interview about photographing kids for commercial clients describes a shoot where a few children had no photo release, so the photographer composed frames that left them out.
What a release should spell out
A release that only says “I agree to be photographed” leaves most questions open. Decide in advance what it names:
- Who is giving permission and who receives it, with the photographer or business named.
- Which session or photographs it covers, with the date.
- The media covered: photographs, video, or both.
- The kinds of use: commercial, editorial, personal or promotional, and whether web and print are both included.
- How long the permission lasts and in which territory.
- Whether the person is paid, or gives permission without payment.
- The adult model’s signature and the date, or for a minor, the guardian’s printed name, signature and date.
Stock agencies show how strict a release can get. Adobe Stock asks for a separate release for each person and does not accept group releases, which is a useful habit even if you never upload to an agency.
Collecting the release before the shoot
Send the release with the booking confirmation so the client can read it at home, then confirm at the start of the session that it is signed. Signing in advance is good practice rather than a legal condition, since New York’s statute, for one, speaks of written consent before the advertising use. A person who has just been posed in front of a camera is still poorly placed to negotiate usage terms.
If you prefer starting from a template to a blank page, ConsumerShield is an online legal information platform. Its consumer law section includes a photo release form, and members can fill it in online. Compare any template with your state’s rules and with the uses you plan.
Pair the release with your service agreement so the usage terms and the delivery terms say the same thing. If a client wants to restrict where their portrait appears, write that restriction into the release itself.
Keeping the signed copies
Keep a complete, legible copy of each signed release, including every page, as its own file named with the session date and the person’s name. Link it to that session’s images, and back it up somewhere separate. A phone photo of a paper form can be cropped or blurry, so scan it or collect signatures electronically. Keeping the blank version as well is useful, but the exact signed document is what counts.
Keep the release for as long as you keep using the images it covers. Before you post or submit a portrait from an older session, open that file and check that the planned use is within what the person signed.