What goes on a photography service agreement
Commercial clients with a steady need — a retailer shooting new stock, an agency with a monthly content requirement — are the closest this trade comes to recurring income. The agreement turns a series of negotiations into a rate and a calendar.
- The shoot frequency, and roughly when in the month
- What a shoot day includes: hours, setups, and a number of finished images
- Turnaround from shoot to delivery
- The license granted, which on recurring commercial work is the main term
- Where the shooting happens, and who provides the space and the product
- The rate, and what happens to an unused month
- The term, the renewal, and the notice
The sample line items and example prices this sheet opens with are on the photography invoice template — the same table, which is about the trade rather than about this paper, so it lives in one place rather than on all six.
What you get
A PDF, and a link your customer can open in any browser. Word and Excel versions are not available yet — if a spreadsheet is what you need, this is not yet the tool for it, and saying so is cheaper for both of us than you finding out after typing everything in.
Pick how it looks
Six looks, from a plain classic sheet through a bold top band to a shop ticket, and your initials go on automatically until you upload a logo. See all six.
How to send it
Most customers want the paper on their phone, so the service agreement goes out by WhatsApp, text or email, or as a link that needs no app and no account on their side. Or download the PDF to print it or keep it for your own records.
Questions
What should a retainer cover for a commercial client?
A shoot day and a defined number of finished images, not an open quantity. Clients on a retainer send longer and longer shot lists for the same fee, and the fix is to say at the start what one day produces.
How should the license work on recurring work?
Grant it per shoot rather than blanket, or grant a broad one and price it accordingly. A rolling agreement with no licensing term quietly hands over a growing archive, and the day the relationship ends is the day that matters.