There’s a thread over on Hairmaven.com that turned to the subject of release forms, and I wanted to share some information I posted there because it might be useful to any stylists out there looking for advice on doing their own photoshoots/creative work. Ready my replies below, or click here to go to the full thread: Creatively Stifled in my current salon
And of course you can check out/rip off my own release forms that I posted awhile back: Model / Makeup Artist Release Forms
Originally Posted by pixanne
release forms are a good idea for any chemical services or big changes you might do, to protect yourself as far as having freedom to do whatever you want with the model’s hair to get the images you need.
If you want this type of release form, go to a beauty school, say you want a haircut, steal the form they ask you to sign and run for the hills!
It’ll be better than what you can draft yourself, because they almost certainly had an actual lawyer write theirs, and it will be tailored to that location as well. Just a few alterations and it’ll be perfectly suited to your use.
Originally Posted by pixanne
other than that, if you want full rights to the photos, you will need to offer some compensation to the model and photographer for their time.
Compensation can be monetary, goods, or services. Depending on your agreement, and how you word your release forms, the haircut or color could be considered the compensation. Or you could give them a dollar. Or give them photos from the shoot and allow them the use of the photos you elect to give them in some way.
All of those are considered valid compensation, and the release forms usually don’t need to specify what the compensation is – they most often just include something that says that by signing, the model has accepted the compensation which has been assumed to have been provided.
Originally Posted by pixanne
i always prefer to let photog and model have the photos for their own portfolios, so we all benefit from the shoot.
I agree, I always allow everyone involved the non-commercial usage rights of select photos I give them after the shoot – I.E. web-sized pictures of my choosing. (Otherwise they’ll start asking for every single photo full sized, they’ll start putting up the worst photos from the shoot all over the internet because those are the photos in which their boobs looked super boob-ified, and everyone will see the bad photos and your name and think “OH MY GOD THIS PERSON SUCKS!”. If I had a nickle…)
The copyright should go to the photographer. Period. Unless you are paying the photographer a significant amount of money (Read: Quadruple digits), they should still be the photographer’s photos. That doesn’t mean you can’t have all the rights and “ownership” of the photos you want though – Usage rights is what you should be interested in, if you’re not the photographer on the shoot.
You want the right to use the photos commercially (meaning you can sell them), you want the right to alter the photos in part or in whole or combine them with other media or forms of media (meaning you can crop, photoshop, or whatever the photos, and that you can include the photo or parts of the photo in any design or image you may make in the future), and you want the right to assign usage rights (because this is how you sell a photo to a magazine. They’re not buying literal photos from you, they’re buying usage rights to publish the photos.).
I would suggest you give yourself usage rights in perpetuity (I.E. Forever), because while at times it seems like only having the photos for 10 years but getting a bit more money might be the best way to go, I can guarantee you that there will come a point that you’ll wish you still had the usage rights to your work.
Originally Posted by pixanne
so when you contact a modeling agency, ask for girls that are willing to do test hair modeling for you. this way, it is like barter for the photos.some agencies won’t let you change the hair color or length, just use them for styling and up dos. college campuses are a good place to get young people who need free haircuts and will let you do more adventurous things to their hair a lot of times. do an open call in your salon,take digital photos to remember who’s who,get all those phone numbers, and call the people you want to use, but keep the others in mind for other promotions you might want to do.
Legitimate modeling agencies can be hit or miss if you don’t already have a reputation and portfolio, but you can absolutely find tons of great models in everyday life. I always make sure I have some photos of my work when I approach people, because they’ll usually shrug you off if you don’t. And most of the time they won’t be interested, but it’s just a numbers game. Keep pulling the lever until you hit the jackpot!
Also if you are desperate, you can try sites like modelmayhem. But if you do post a casting call there, don’t even bother replying to anyone who has any hint of an attitude – it’s an amatuer, gong show of a model networking site.
Hope this info helps!
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