standinfor.me

Email templates · Photographer

Email template to ask a photographer about usage rights for your photos

You have your photos, or you are about to book, and you want to know what you can do with them. In the US, the photographer owns the copyright to the pictures they take unless a contract says otherwise. What you get is a license, which is written permission to use the photos in specific ways. A "personal use" license usually covers prints, sharing with family, and posting on your own social media. It usually does not cover a business website, an ad, a book cover, or letting a magazine run the images.

Asking by email matters because a license only counts if it is in writing. A verbal "sure, use them however" is not something you can show a printer who refuses to print professional photos, a vendor who wants to post them, or a lawyer if a dispute ever comes up. One email and one reply settles it for good.

Before you send

  • Your contract, if you have one, and the exact words it uses about copyright, license, or usage. Quote them so the photographer can say whether your reading is right.
  • A list of the specific things you want to do. Printing at a lab, posting on personal accounts, letting the venue or florist post them, using them on a business site, submitting to a publication, or selling products with them.
  • Whether you want the unedited originals, often called RAW files. Most photographers do not release them, and asking for them is a separate conversation from usage rights.
  • How the photographer wants credit, if at all. Many licenses require a photo credit on social media and it is easier to ask than to guess.
  • If you want more than a personal license, a rough idea of what you would pay for it. Commercial licenses are normally priced separately.
Subject Usage rights for the photos from [session date] 
Hi [photographer's name],

Thank you again for the photos from [session type] on [session date]. Before I use them widely, I want to make sure I understand what our agreement allows.

Our contract says: "[quote the usage or license wording, or "I couldn't find anything about usage in the contract"]." Could you confirm in writing which of the following are covered?

- Printing them myself or through a lab of my choice
- Posting them on my personal social media accounts
- Sharing them with [the venue / other vendors / family] so they can post them too
- Using a few on [my business website / a fundraising page / other use]
- [Any other use you have in mind]

If any of those need a different or paid license, please tell me what it would cost so I can decide. I'd also like to know how you'd like to be credited when I post them.

A quick reply by [date] would be great, since I'd like to order prints and share a few with [the venue / family] soon.

Thanks,
[Your name]

Everything in brackets is yours to fill in. Keep the rest as it is or change the tone to match how you write.

After you send

  • A good reply lists which uses are fine, names any credit they want, and quotes a price for anything commercial. Save it with your photos; that email is your license.
  • If they say prints must go through them, that is common and legal, but often negotiable. Ask for a print release, which is a written note allowing outside labs to print your images. Many photographers will give one for free or a small fee.
  • If you asked about business use and the price is high, ask for a limited license instead: a set number of images, one website, one year. Narrow licenses cost less.
  • If they will not put anything in writing, keep your use to personal prints and your own accounts, which is the safe default, and do not hand the images to anyone else to publish.

Or don't send it yourself

Forward the job to myagent@standinfor.me and let StandIn run the whole thread.

StandIn is an email assistant that handles conversations with businesses for you. You write it one email saying what you need. It writes to the business, waits for the answer, follows up when they go quiet, pushes back on the number when it should, and brings the results back to your inbox for you to decide. You don't need to install an app or sign up. The first email you send is already the start of the task.

Hand this to StandIn opens an email to myagent@standinfor.me with the job already written out

To myagent@standinfor.me Subject Sort out the usage rights on my photos 
Hi StandIn,

Please find out exactly what I'm allowed to do with photos from a session and get it confirmed in writing.

The photographer: [name, business name, and email].
The session: [type and date].
What the contract says about usage: [quote, or "nothing I could find"].
What I want to do: [list the uses, for example: prints at my own lab, personal social media, sharing with the venue, my business website].
Originals: [I'd also like the unedited files / not needed].

Ask them to confirm each use, get a print release if they require one for outside labs, and if any use needs a paid license, get the price and terms and bring them to me before agreeing to anything.

Thanks,
[Your name]

Related templates