"Free" photo session and model release or contract form?

[johnnieob]

Ive been in business for a long time & every time I've used "free" in my advertisements Ive been bitten on the butt!
Mabey you can put in "Free copy E-Mailed only" Have the participant sign a photo & model release form & if a hard copy is wanted offer to have it shipped for a fee.
Free seams to bring out the worst in some people & the last time I did a "free" shoot which I did not have a release form signed I got burned.They got all the photos (e-mailed) & got the hard copies them self. Now if I do a shoot that I dont get paid for I have the release form signed & I own the copyright befor I start & if they pay for the shoot I give them a cd of it & a few photos & copyright to the event.

[prince]

Originally Posted by johnnieob

if they pay for the shoot I give them a cd of it & a few photos & copyright to the event.

Copyright to the event? You mean after that you have no right to sell those photos?

[prince]

Here is a sticky to sample model releases under "Photographing People" forum

[Mr Guy]

Originally Posted by johnnieob

Ive been in business for a long time & every time I've used "free" in my advertisements Ive been bitten on the butt!
Mabey you can put in "Free copy E-Mailed only" Have the participant sign a photo & model release form & if a hard copy is wanted offer to have it shipped for a fee.
Free seams to bring out the worst in some people & the last time I did a "free" shoot which I did not have a release form signed I got burned.They got all the photos (e-mailed) & got the hard copies them self. Now if I do a shoot that I dont get paid for I have the release form signed & I own the copyright befor I start & if they pay for the shoot I give them a cd of it & a few photos & copyright to the event.

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it until someone tells me to shut up. It's absolutely positively crumulently critical that your business model reflects the reality of the customer's expectations. As a professional, you've got three distinctly different products you can sell:

1) Your time
2) The right to publish/obtain the images themselves
3) Hard copies

A lot of people around here seem to prefer to charge for 2 and 3, and give 1 away. From what I've seen, though, 2 and 3 have the least concrete value to consumers. What the public at large sees when they see a picture is the cost of the workmanship plus the cost of the materials. I firmly believe it's not going to be very long before it's almost impossible to sell prints. I've seen and talked to way too many parents that are downright irate at the cost of the prints, while they'd be perfectly happy to be charged a reasonable session fee.

That's why I keep harping on the idea that professionals need to figure out how much money you need to make, figure out how many prints they expect to sell, and THEN set prices. Going in with the idea that all your profit is going to come from prints when your customers may want digital images is going to lead to some consternation later as you try and figure out how you charge for no prints, and touchy feelings as you try and explain why the images themselves have value to you because to the customer you already gave away the workmanship part of your value for "free".

If you're going to do free sessions, you absolutely must state it's for a limited time, but what I'd do instead is offer "prepayment". Figure out what you need/want to make, and offer the session fee toward the cost of prints / CD with a money back guarantee, if they don't want any prints or images, you'll refund their money.

That emphasizes that it's your time they are paying for, which consumers know has value, and not the cost of the CD and prints themselves, which everyone already knows is negligible.

It's not that the pay-for-prints business model can't work, lots of people use it. It's that I firmly believe it's going to work less and less as people value actual hard copies less and less, and it's good to be prepared with another option to meet your customers needs.

[windrider86]

I could not have said that better myself!

[prince]

Mr Guy - I see what you are saying and understand how things might turn out in the near future. I guess it is important to realize the future and take the present in consideration to find a strategy that can be smoothly transitioned into the future consumer patterns.

I am going to give this a thought and see how I can get it to work for me.

[Mr Guy]

Originally Posted by prince

Mr Guy - I see what you are saying and understand how things might turn out in the near future. I guess it is important to realize the future and take the present in consideration to find a strategy that can be smoothly transitioned into the future consumer patterns.

I am going to give this a thought and see how I can get it to work for me.

I certainly understand that, I'm just trying to prepare you for the idea that they are likely to want to pay a price for a CD of the proofs you think is insulting or a waste of your time, so just be prepared for that. What you really need to do is have a price in mind up front that you've come to terms with, a full price list that emphasizes that even if you're offering the service for free, your work still has value outside of the actual prints themselves.

[prince]

Right, and I appreciate your effort to show us what is coming. There are tons of factors to consider while pricing in addition to the prints, like your time, your talent & skills, your travel time, your equipment (depreciation), post processing time (very easily taken out of equation), and many others... and that is what I guess Mr Guy is trying to say...