Is Your Boudoir Biz Protected from the Worst Case Scenario?

I want you to take a moment to be honest with yourself and answer the following questions in your head:

Are you having all of your clients sign a boudoir specific contract prior to their boudoir shoot?
Do you have a product delivery agreement?
Do you educate your clients on copyrights?
Do you have an agreement with your second shooter or makeup artist (independent contractor)?
Did a lawyer draft your contract to make sure it will hold up in court?
Does your contract cover for boudoir specific potential incidents?

If not, then I would add this to the top of your to do list – “Get legit contract.”

Not only is this to protect yourself in case of a lawsuit but also to educate both parties!

If you're not educating your clients about copyrights, delivery time frame, payments, etc. then you're likely to get burned. Typically It's not that the client wants to “burn” you by taking images off of your website, cropping our your logo and sticking them on their facebook. It's that they honestly don't know that that's wrong! They see the photos and think, “OMFG LOVE!” and they are then off to show them to the world in any way they can.

Legally bound contracts are also needed if you work with independent contractors! Do you have a second shooter or work with a makeup artist? If so it's essential for you to have them sign an “independent contractor” agreement. Again this is to protect yourself and educate. This will also take the responsibility of makeup/hair liabilities off of you. Boudie Shorts Blog Post Graphics_4 Stellar Tips for Marketing Your Glamour Photography Biz-06

If you're like most photographers you've likely pieced together a photography contract from free contracts online, friends contracts, or free legal forms online. I too did this when I was first starting out. I pieced contracts together and *HOPED* that they would stand up in court. I also did it though because I didn't have the money to go to a lawyer and I didn't know of any good boudoir photography contracts for sale online.

Then I met Gena. She's a lawyer from NYC and she partnered up with me to create the ultimate all-in-one boudoir photography contract. Are you kidding me?! What could be better then a lawyer pro-boudoir photographer combo?!

After our first meeting we got to work. I made a list of ALL of the worst case scenarios for boudoir photographers (allergic to makeup, not finishing payment plan, cropping photos for fb, alchohol policies, bringing a friend policies, bringing significant other, and SO much more). I also got feedback from several pro boudoir photographers to make sure we weren't leaving out ANY possible bad scenarios because trust me we've had them happen.

This is exactly what makes this contract better then all other contracts – it's boudoir specific! By pro-boudoir photographers (and a bad-ass lawyer) for boudoir photographers!

Check out the All-In-One Boudoir Contract here.

Molly Keyser

Boudoir photographer and business coach, I am dedicated to changing the world with the power of a camera. Originally from Wisconsin, I'm now in Texas, but I help photographers around the world learn how to go full-time with boudoir photography.