Really, it's not so scary.  Before you run for the street to take yet another unreleased image of "The Window Shopping Old Lady in a Red Coat" or "The Large Woman in Bikini at the Beach" or "The Hungry Looking Street Child in the Third World"… listen for just a moment.

Models are people too.  The difference between them and the characters mentioned above is: they know that you’re taking their photo, they want you to and most importantly of all, they sign a release which gives you permission to license that image.

Why bother to shoot model-released images of people?

Good images of people will sell. The general consensus across the industry is that people, lifestyle, and business/industry are stock’s all-time, consistent top sellers.    That is the positive reason.  The negative reason is that nowadays, photographs of random people without releases are becoming more and more risky for stock agencies to show, even when marked for editorial use only.

What do clients want and buy?

Clients want model-released images of people that convey a message and thus help sell a product, be it a vacation, a retirement fund, a heating system or a magazine.  And usually (but not always) they want the image to be a good photograph, well composed and with good copy space for the client’s message.  Logically, it’s easier to sell with a positive message than a negative message, so generally the images should communicate positive ideas such as happiness, confidence, peace, health, etc. 

Are you up to the challenge?

Could you make a model-released image that communicates an idea like the following? Senior enjoying golden years.  Connected teens.  Good customer service.  Those images could be used to advertise medicines, investment plans, phones, universities, insurance, hospitals and much more.  If you don’t think you could make an image like this, but you would like to try, stay tuned to the blog.  In upcoming posts, we will talk about how to photograph (people) models.  We will give you shoot preparation do’s & don’t, talk with a lifestyle photographer, examine the ever elusive client request for “real people” and give you lots of ideas.

Top 5 signs that your model release might be a ticking time bomb…

1. If you have moved to another state and left the release behind in a box in the garage.

2. If your well-intentioned assistant got the release signed by the wrong person… the guy who didn´t appear in the photo.

3. If you signed a model release for photos you took of your girlfriend… and then you dumped her.  Revenge is so sweet.

4. When you flashed a release and a few coins in the face of a third world subject, who cheerfully signed a document that wasn´t in her language and that she can’t understand.  But her cousin in New York knows what´s the deal…

5. If you told your agency that you have the release, but you don´t.

You might laugh, but all of these situations happened to real people, photographers at age fotostock.  And some of these photographers found themselves in very uncomfortable legal and financial situations, trying to explain how they could make such a mistake.

This issue is becoming more and more important nowadays for two reasons:

1. Our world is increasingly global and interconnected, which means that everything becomes visible.  The old distinctions between editorial uses and commercial uses are not always a safe defence because displaying the image on internet to potential buyers allows it to be visible around the world, and in places where the rules of editorial usage are different.

2. During tough times, everyone will try to pull a dollar out of any place they can find it.  Crisis makes people litigious. Those people might be your models…

Don´t get caught by a ticking time bomb of a release!

Read our legal basics here (http://www.agefotostock.com/phroad/ingles/phroad03a.asp) and pay close attention to the differences in editorial use between the United States and many European countries.