i’m getting ready to do some shooting this weekend that is going to involve some street photography for a political campaign, so i wanted to make sure i had updated model releases so that the candidate could use the images on his website.
first, a few references for the wording of the model release.
the american society of media photographers has a great resource for model releases, including a few different ones for different situations. you can view their article and samples here: http://asmp.org/tutorials/property-and-model-releases.html.
a few of the stock photography agencies have their own release forms, as well. this is one example from istockphoto: http://www.istockphoto.com/docs/languages/english/modelrelease.pdf, and that certainly may be more appropriate (or required) when shooting stock images for any of those agencies.
as with anything involving legal advice, be sure to check with a lawyer, especially to get a better understanding on the laws in your area.
as i mentioned for todays shoot, i’m going to be walking around on the street, so having a 4-page model release probably isn’t the most efficient solution for getting releases and shots at the same time. instead, i opted for the “pocket” model release which i am printing on 4 x 6 postcards. the local office supply store here had a pack of 200 cards (4 per sheet), and a downloadable microsoft word template from their website. i pasted the release in to each of the 4 sections of the word document and hit print. the sturdier paper and the smaller format is going to make it much more manageable in the field, and because of the limited use of the images for my website and the candidates website and promotional material, i feel like the abbreviated version of the form will suffice. if it was for stock images or something where i was likely to make money off the prints, i would have stuck with the longer-form release.
i’m also walking out with a stack of business cards. one of the fun things about these contracts is that both sides need to get something in order for it to be valid; “consideration”. so i’ll offer them a print in exchange for allowing us to use them in an image for any shots we decide to post. and maybe got some more business out of it, as well.
