What should a UK photographer contract include?

A UK photographer contract should name the parties, the shoot dates and hours, the edited deliverables, whether the client gets a licence or an assignment, how RAW files are treated, the deposit and kill fee, and what happens if they cancel or pay late. Sign it before the shoot. Start from a photo licence.

This page is England and Wales first. Copyright under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 is UK-wide. The money-claim route for an unpaid invoice is the England and Wales procedure in Client won't pay a freelance invoice.

Nine blocks do the work:

The booking-fee and kill-fee percentages later on this page are examples, not a statutory rate. Write the numbers you actually use.

Contracts for photographers is the shorter audience page. Does a photographer have to hand over RAW files is the RAW page. Wedding booking fees sit in Is a wedding photographer's deposit refundable in the UK?. What goes in a freelance or contractor agreement compares templates.

Do not email a Word file and hope v4_final is the one they signed. Both sides should edit and e-sign one shared draft.

Write the shoot as a date, hours and place, then write the gallery as a list. “Coverage of the day” is not a list. “Ceremony, breakfast and first dance until 22:00, 400 edited JPEGs in a private gallery within six weeks” is a list. Name what is out of scope in the same breath.

A working scope answers five things:

• When and where. Date, call time, hours, location, travel, overtime rate. A second shooter, drone or lighting kit is in or out.
• What is delivered. Count or a “best of” method, format, colour space, gallery or drive, turnaround.
• What is not. RAW files, unedited selects, albums, prints, same-day socials, a second location — unless they are on the in-list.
• What “done” looks like. Edited files the client can download, not an open Lightroom catalogue they keep commenting on.
• Dependencies. Access, shot list, brand boards, model or location releases. Dates slip if those do not arrive.

A revision limit polishes the agreed gallery. A change adds a second location, a weekday recce, or an extra hour. Mixing the two is how a “quick extra set” becomes a new product at no fee. See Client keeps adding extra work and change control.

Example

The Photographer will attend the Shoot on the date, at the location and for the hours in SchedulescheduleA schedule is an annex to the contract that holds the detail: fees, dates, deliverables, service levels. It is part of the agreement if the main body says so. An order-of-precedence line should say what happens if the schedule and the clauses collide. Swap a schedule only by the variation method the contract names.More in the glossary 1. Deliverables are the edited images specified in Schedule 1, in JPEG form, delivered by online gallery within the turnaround in Schedule 1. RAW files, unedited selects, catalogues and working files are not deliverables. Work not described in Schedule 1 is out of scope and is quoted in writing before it starts.

In Plain English: they get the edited gallery they bought, for the hours you named. They do not get the card. Anything extra is priced first.

A photo licence is the usual paper. Repeat commercial clients often sit under a services agreement plus a statement of work per job. A freelancer agreement carries the same shoot and delivery lines for mixed creative work.

Licence unless the client is paying for ownership. You own freelance photographs until you assign them. CDPA 1988 s.11 makes the author the first owner. An assignment is not effective unless it is in writing, signed. Paying the invoice does not move title. Photography, unlike a logo, is the usual case for a licence.

A photograph is an artistic work. Section 4 defines it as a recording of light or other radiation on a medium from which an image may be produced, irrespective of artistic quality. Section 11(1) then says the author is the first owner. The employee exception in s.11(2) applies to employees, not to a photographer on a contract for services.

GOV.UK on ownership of copyright works is blunt about commissions: the first legal owner is the person who created the work, not the commissioner, unless you otherwise agree it in writing. If the contract is silent, courts may find a limited implied licence for the purpose of the commission. That is not ownership. Silence is how a brand puts a wedding portrait on paid ads and then argues they thought they had bought it.

CDPA 1988 s.90(3) is the assignment rule. An IP assignmentIP assignmentAn IP assignment is a transfer of ownership in the work, so the client owns it instead of the person who made it.More in the glossary has to be in writing, signed by you or someone signing on your behalf. A licence is permission to use the photos. It is not a transfer of ownership. See IP licence vs assignmentIP licence vs assignmentAn IP assignment transfers ownership of copyright or other intellectual property. A licence is permission to use it; the author still owns it. In England and Wales there is no work-made-for-hire first-owner rule for freelancers: Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 s.11. An assignment must be in writing and signed: s.90. Say which you mean, and when it happens.More in the glossary.

A US “work for hirework for hireWork for hire is a phrase, common on US-style papers, meaning the client is treated as the author and owner of the work from the start.More in the glossary” heading does not do that work in England and Wales. See work for hire. Write licence or assignment in English words.

A photo licence is built for the split: web, social, print, paid ads, territory, duration, exclusivity. Wider or longer use costs more. Keep pre-existing materialspre-existing materialsPre-existing materials are tools, libraries or work the supplier already owned, which are licensed for the job rather than handed over.More in the glossary — presets, earlier work — licensed, not assigned. Write the grant in the intellectual property assignment or intellectual property licence clause, and name the uses in usage rights and credit.

Example

Copyright in the photographs remains with the Photographer. On receipt of full payment the Client is granted the non-exclusive licence in Schedule 1 to use the Deliverables for the uses, territory and term set out there. Until then the Client has no licence to copy, publish, communicate or adapt them. Paid advertising, merchandise and assignment of copyright are not included unless Schedule 1 says so.

In Plain English: they may use the gallery as the schedule says, once they have paid. They do not own the pictures. Ads and a buyout are extra.

If they publish unpaid work, see Client using your work without paying.

Moral rightsmoral rightsMoral rights are the author’s personal rights in a copyright work: to be identified as author, and not to have the work subjected to derogatory treatment. In the UK they sit in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 ss.77–80. They cannot be assigned. They can be waived in writing, signed by the person giving them up, under s.87.More in the glossary sit beside copyright. You have the right to be identified as author, which must be asserted, and the right not to have the work subjected to derogatory treatment. Those rights cannot be assigned. They can be waived in writing, signed by you. An IP assignment that is silent on moral rights leaves them with you.

CDPA 1988 s.77 is the right to be identified as author of an artistic work, including when it is published commercially, exhibited, or a visual image of it is communicated to the public. Section 77(1) says the right is not infringed unless it has been asserted in accordance with s.78 — on the assignment, or by an instrument in writing signed by you.

Section 80 is the integrity right: not to have the work subjected to derogatory treatment, meaning a distortion or mutilation that is prejudicial to honour or reputation. Cropping a portrait for a campaign, adding a slogan across a face, or recolouring a documentary set can raise that right.

They are not assignable. Section 94 says so in one sentence. Section 87 lets you waivewaiverA waiver is a choice not to enforce a right this time, without rewriting the contract. Accepting late work once does not, by itself, kill a time-is-of-the-essence clause if a no-waiver line is present. Waiver is not a variation: Rock Advertising Ltd v MWB [2018] UKSC 24 still requires the agreed method for a change of terms.More in the glossary them by an instrument in writing signed by the person giving up the right. A waiver can be specific or general, conditional or unconditional. The moral rights page is the longer note, and the moral rights clause is the drafting home.

Write four sentences, not one American “work for hire” heading:

• licence or assignment of the finals, on payment
• assertion of the credit, if you want a byline
• the waiver you are actually giving, limited to the uses they bought
• portfolio use, if you want to show the work

A brand that needs to crop a campaign still for a billboard is a reason for a limited waiver. It is not a reason to waive integrity for every future parody. Waive as far as the job needs, and no further. Graphic designers face the same split; see What should a UK graphic design contract include?.

Name the edited files as the deliverables, and say whether RAW is in or out. UK law does not require a photographer to hand over working files. Possession of a RAW file is not copyright. Paying the invoice does not create a right to the catalogue. Write the list before the shoot, not in a gallery-comments thread afterwards.

The longer RAW page is Does a photographer have to hand over RAW files. This page is the clause that sits in the main contract.

A working clause answers five things:

• what is delivered — count, format, colour space, gallery or drive
• what is not — RAW files, unedited selects, catalogues, sidecars, presets
• when delivery happens, and that it is tied to payment
• the licence or assignment that applies to what is delivered
• how long you keep the files, and whether a later RAW request is a new paid job

Example — RAW excluded

Deliverables are the edited images specified in Schedule 1, in JPEG form, delivered by online gallery. RAW files, unedited selects, catalogues and working files are not deliverables and are not supplied. Copyright in the photographs remains with the Photographer. The Client is granted the licence in clause 5 on payment in full.

In Plain English: they get the finished JPEGs they bought. They do not get the RAW. You keep the copyright. They may use the JPEGs as the licence says, once they have paid.

Handing over a RAW copy does not assign copyright. CDPA 1988 s.90(3) still requires writing, signed. Put the list in a photo licence.

There is no default UK right to keep a deposit or charge a kill fee. Both sides have to agree the sums. A deposit is money before the date is held. A kill fee is due if they cancel. For a business client the charge must not be a penalty. For a consumer, a 14-day cancellation right can apply.

A deposit or booking fee on signature, with the date not reserved until it lands, is the usual photography shape. A kill fee sits next to it: a named share of the fee if they cancel for convenience, with committed costs on top. See cancellation and kill fee.

Who the client is then splits the page:

• A business client (a company, or a person buying in the course of business — a brand campaign, a hotel booking a brochure shoot). An agreed cancellation charge that is really a sum on breach must not be a penalty. Cavendish Square Holding v Makdessi [2015] UKSC 67 asks whether a secondary obligation imposes a detriment out of all proportion to a legitimate interest in performance. Tie the figure to the date held, other work turned down and costs committed. A flat 100% from the day they sign, with no link to those interests, is the shape that looks like punishment.
• A consumer (an individual acting wholly or mainly outside their trade, business, craft or profession — a couple booking their own wedding, a family booking portraits). Distance and off-premises contracts carry a 14-day cancellation right under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. Cancellation terms are also tested for fairness under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. A “non-refundable deposit, no cooling-off” line does not remove a right those Regulations give.

The general freelance split is Client cancelled: can you keep the deposit?. The wedding-specific page, with postponement, weather and a sliding scale, is Is a wedding photographer's deposit refundable in the UK?.

Example

The Client will pay a Booking Fee of 25% of the Fee on signature. The Photographer will not reserve the Shoot Date until the Booking Fee is received. If the Client cancels for convenience, the Client will pay a cancellation sum of 25% of the Fee if cancellation is more than 14 days before the Shoot Date, or 50% if cancellation is 14 days or fewer before the Shoot Date or after the Shoot has started, plus committed costs already incurred. The Booking Fee is credited to that sum and is the minimum kept. Intellectual property in work not fully paid for stays with the Photographer.

In Plain English: a quarter lands before the date is yours. If they call it off, they pay 25% with a fortnight in hand, or 50% inside two weeks, and they cover costs you have already committed. They do not own unpaid files.

Those percentages are examples, not a statutory rate. For a consumer the same shape still has to be fair, and cannot remove a 14-day right the 2013 Regulations give.

Write a short due date, a right to pause if an invoice is overdue, and that no licence or assignment bites until payment in full. For a UK business client, statutory interest on late commercial payment is 8% above Bank of England base rate, plus a fixed recovery sum. We do not print the current base rate.

The 1998 Act does not apply to a consumer client.

Payment terms should name:

• when invoices go out — on signature, before the shoot, on delivery
• how many days to pay — net 14 or net 30Net 30Net 30 means the client has 30 days from the invoice date to pay.More in the glossary beats an open-ended “after the gallery”
• a pause right if an undisputed invoice is overdue, and no attendance if the balance has not landed
• that copyright, or any licence to use the work, passes only on full payment

For a qualifying business-to-business debt, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 sets statutory interest. GOV.UK on late commercial payments states the rate as 8% plus the Bank of England base rate. Once that interest runs, a fixed recovery sum is also due: £40 under £1,000, £70 from £1,000 to under £10,000, and £100 at £10,000 or more, plus any reasonable recovery costs not met by that sum. See late payment interest.

A couple booking their own wedding or a private portrait sitting is a consumer. Statutory interest under the 1998 Act does not apply. A contractual late-payment line can still sit in the paper; keep it proportionate. A brand, agency or venue buying in the course of business is the 1998 Act client.

Example

Each undisputed invoice is due within 14 days of its date. The Photographer may pause work, and is not obliged to attend the Shoot, while any undisputed invoice is more than 7 days overdue. Copyright and any licence to use the Deliverables pass to the Client only on payment in full. Until then the Client has no right to copy, publish, communicate or adapt the Deliverables.

In Plain English: they have two weeks to pay. After a week late, work stops and you need not attend. They may not use unpaid files.

The chase sequence — written demand, letter before action, money claim — is Client won't pay a freelance invoice. Net 30, net 14, on receipt is the due-date page.

Only if the contract says so. A licence to the client, or an assignment of the finals, does not by itself give you a right to put the work on your site. Write a licence back: named channels, whether you may name the client, and whether private or unannounced work stays off the portfolio until they post or launch.

A working portfolio clause answers four things:

• Where. Your website, social, printed showreel, award entries.
• What. The edited finals, not unpublished selects or the rejected set.
• When. After they first use the images in public, or after a named embargo. Wedding galleries often wait until the couple have posted.
• Credit. Whether you name the client, and whether they name you. That sits next to the moral rights assertion.

See publicity and portfolio use. If the job is confidential — an unlaunched product, a private family who asked for no socials — write that the licence starts on their public use, or on written consent. Silence is how a sneak peek goes live the week before their announcement.

Example

The Photographer may reproduce the final Deliverables in the Photographer’s portfolio and on the Photographer’s website and social channels, and may name the Client as the commissioner, after the Client has first used the Deliverables in public, or earlier with the Client’s written consent. This licence does not extend to unpublished selects, RAW files or confidential informationconfidentialityConfidentiality is a promise to keep shared information private and to use it only for the agreed purpose.More in the glossary. The Client may require a reasonable embargo in writing before the Shoot.

In Plain English: once they have used it in public, you may show the finals and name them. You may not show the selects they never saw, or leak the launch. They can ask for a hold, in writing, before the day.

If they refuse any portfolio use, that is a price issue. Some commercial and family work stays off the site. Get that in the paper before you hold the date, not in a later mood-board email.

Cap gallery revisions at one consolidated round unless you have priced more. A round is one packed set of comments on the then-current proofs, not a drip of WhatsApp notes. Recolouring a set, swapping ten frames, or a second location is a change, not a revision. See revisions and acceptance.

A working revisions clause answers four things:

• how many rounds are included, per gallery or per shoot
• what a round is — one written set of comments, by a named date
• what happens if they say nothing — deemed acceptance after a set number of working days is common
• the fee, or the change-control path, for extra rounds

A revision limitrevision limitA revision limit says how many rounds of changes are included in the fee before extra work is quoted.More in the glossary is not change control. Revisions polish the agreed deliverable. A change adds something that was never in the brief. Mixing the two is how “a few more from the evening” becomes a second shoot at no fee. See Client keeps adding extra work.

If the client redlinesredlineA redline is a proposed edit on a draft contract — words added, struck out or rewritten — not a signed change.More in the glossary the limit down to “until we are happy,” that is a price issue, not a courtesy. See Your client redlined your contract.

Example

One round of consolidated feedback on the Deliverables is included. A round is one written set of comments on the then-current gallery, sent within 10 working days of delivery. If the Client does not comment in that window the Deliverables are accepted. Further rounds, or a request for images outside the agreed selects, are quoted and agreed in writing before work starts.

In Plain English: one packed round. Ten working days to comment, or the gallery stands. Extra frames are priced first.

On Contracts.io both sides draft, negotiate and e-signe-signatureAn e-signature is any electronic way of showing agreement to a document, such as a typed name, a drawn signature or a click.More in the glossary one shared photographer contract, so the shoot list, the licence and the kill fee are the version you both signed. Describe the job in a sentence. Lex, our AI host, drafts. You share one link. Nobody emails v4_final.docx back and forth.

The client opens that link. They can Accept, Counter or Decline on the same version, then both of you e-sign it. The other side never pays and does not need an account.

Start from a photo licence. Repeat work can hang a statement of work under a services agreement, or sit on a freelancer agreement. You can also start from the AI contract generator or the contract generator. If you are sharing images before the deal is signed, the NDA generator sits next to it.

That does not chase an invoice for you. It does mean the deliverables list, the RAW exclusion or buyout, the licence or IP assignment, the deposit and the kill fee are the words you both signed, not a line lost in email.

Free £0, Plus £15/mo, Pro £29/mo, Team £119/mo for 5 seats, Enterprise from £750 — see /pricing.

Try it on contracts.io: describe the shoot in one sentence, share one link, and e-sign before the date is held.

Contracts for photographers is the wider set of terms that sit around this paper. Should I start work before the contract is signed? is the day-one rule.