Listen. To. Me. PLEASE?

I am still seeing other photographers making posts and announcements that they give copyrights to their images.

PLEASE know that unless you are charging a substantial amount of money for those copyrights, you are making a big mistake.

Did you know... ???

If you give copyright releases, and your client uses an image from your session for something like a photo contest, and they win a prize of ... let's just say $10,000... YOU DO NOT get that money.   Please reconsider and educate yourself on what a copyright is compared to a print release form.

A print release form, gives your clients the right to print their photos where they want and how many they want.   YOU still own the images.   A copyright, you lose all ownership.  You can't use that photo for ANYTHING any longer.

Create a print release form.   You can find one on the internet, if you do a search on Google.  Or you can copy mine.  It's up to you.

I have the below printed on a paper and I give it to clients with their CD's, but I am working on getting it as a file onto the CD so that they won't ever lose it.

Print Reproduction and Use License Agreement

All of these images are protected by United States Federal Copyright Law, © 2013 Simply Me Photography. All rights reserved.

This license grants, ___________________________________, and their immediate family the right to print, or have printed, any of the images on this disc. No other usage rights are granted.

Reproductions of the images on this disc are for personal, home, and work place use only and may not be entered in any contest, used for any commercial purpose, without written permission from, Simply Me Photography.

Simply Me Photography is not responsible for the quality of any prints not purchased from them.

Photographers Signature: ________________________________________ Date: _____________

Client Signature: _________________________________________________ Date: _____________