Payments or TFP, portfolio material rights or not…. ??? How to do this?
Rule number one: there are no rules, unless what you do is within the law of your country and within other formally noted obligations you took ever. Every photographer makes his own arrangements with teams, as long as they don’t contradict other agreements photographer had made before.
Do what you think is the right thing to do… within the law and your own work ethics.
Now let’s get to details 
I have an exclusive contract with my agency. This contract restricts my image giveaway rights. Can I still give away images to my teams? Can a model use her images in her portfolio and what does it mean? Her site? Model agency site? Facebook? Model Mayhem?
Usually, as long as we use images for self-promotion, it is not a problem at all. I can’t imagine exclusive photographers who can’t give images for portfolio use to their teams. I really do not think it is against iStockphoto policy, otherwise all Content would be impossible. We all should showcase our work in order to get more work. We work hard enough for that, all of us, models, photographers, and stylists.
With model agencies, it is sort of grey. Model agency is kind of a third party company. But… It is very logical that models will use the images for their portfolio. However portfolio is not really a commercial use, but a promotional use for advertising their own face. It is the same as you advertise your work at your website.
One thing to watch out for: make sure that the image is being used to promote model only in her dedicated profile on model agency’s website. They cannot use same image for promoting their business (like a banner for example). For that, kindly direct a model agency to iStockphoto license purchase.
Facebook and similar networking websites are another grey area. They do demand particular royalty-free rights from contributors. But… because of their enourmous popularity it is quite difficult to restrict such usage, neither to track it properly.
What I know for sure, is for example, a clearly prohibited usage of iStock exclusive images on DeviantArt website. Here is excerpt from iStockphoto support ticket: Websites like ModelMayhem are ok, but DeviantArt actually requires a royalty free license to use images posted on their site for any purpose they choose, so model uploading images to this specific site is not permitted.
Commercial use of images by your team, however, is not allowed. For example, model placing image in her port, is one thing. Herself, placing a photo as a banner for her other business site not related to her modeling, is totally different story. Same concerns a stylist. Stylist can use your photo in personal portfolio, but cannot use the same photo to promote his employer (a hair-salon). A hair-salon has to purchase a license from your exclusive agent for such use.
I found my image in a magazine. After research, I found that the magazine received the image from a model agent. I took legal measures against magazine, but they pointed fingers to model agent, an model agent pointed fingers to model. Model doesn’t talk to me now. What did I do wrong?
You did nothing wrong. The one at fault here is the end publisher, a magazine.
The magazine should have asked YOU, and not the agency, for permission. Agency does not hold rights to your images. Model does not hold rights to your images. Normal agencies, by the way, they know about copyrights and will not get themselves into this.
Should I make up a lengthy contract when working with models, should I mark up each CD with a special license? How can I protect my images from being used un-licensed?
In general, you don’t have to explain your copyright story to everyone you meet. Copyrights are there, solid. Images are yours, and nobody else’s, until you sign a paper stating otherwise. Neither model, or agency, or magazine, or anyone else may use images without a formal license.
However, to protect your models from any trouble and sour discussions in future, make sure that you take time to explain to them how things work. Not every 17 y.o. girl is aware of the world of commercial licensing. You can make up some short piece of text that you attach to your email when setting up a shoot.
Should I watermark images I give to my teams?
I used to do that, and learnd something from it.
- usually, models hate watermarks on images
- eventually, you’ll come to hate them too, because of the way it looks, and because of the work you’re facing
- watermarks seem to be easily edited out when needed. See this post by Scott Kelby.
I haven’t been watermarking my images visually for quite some time now, and recently, I decided to subscribe to Digimarc. Will keep you updated about how it goes
Just make sure you don’t give out images for web use larger than 500 or 600 pixels long. This size is really MORE than enough to showcase work on the web. Many top photographers put out much larger images, but usually they do that when they have iron-solid licensing capabilities and legal backup that you can’t afford.
Should I pay models, and if yes, how much is average?
Well, I used to pay models in cash, images, and even chocolates. It all depends on what you agreed upon.
If you want to attract better models, there are basically two ways:
- make better images
- offer a fair competitive compensation
The first one (better images), shows to be even better than cash, because good models are, just like you, artistic creatures, and usually love what they do. When they do it with equally talented teams, they love it even more
As for fair compensation, it truly varies depending on your geography and model’s experience. Many models will be happy with $20 per hour, but others will not “get out of bed for less than $200 per hour”
Maybe I could pay by percentage of my royalties? Sounds fair?
In terms of communist approach, it sounds very fair: divide everything, why don’t you. Personally I consider such arrangement a PITA for a number of reasons:
- you’d have to determine the % rate, that includes your own vision of your talent costs, model’s input worthiness, and an inevitable heated up negotiation process with every model about who is worth what. Good luck with that. Oh, and if 50/50 rate is fair to you, by all means go ahead, but at some point you’ll ask yourself: why did I get myself into this? I know the feeling, it is similar to paying taxes, only in this case you won’t see the lifetime rewards (like… better roads.. free medicine… etc)
- you’d have to determine if you’re getting into % agreement forever (as long as the images are being sold) or for a limited period of time. If you make a forever agreement, you’d have to see how often you execute it: once a month? once a quarter? as often as model’s mobile phone activity exceeds the subscription?
- you’d have to allow a model to basically audit your income, because there is nothing like trust here. She will want to see how much you made with her images. Well, I know for myself, I don’t allow anyone near my administration except tax department. Like I said, at least, I see the reward from them, the roads in Holland are a song
The model said that her agency said that she cannot do stock.
If model actually signed a paper stating “i agree not to do stock”, she may indeed have troubles with her agency. If she didn’t, her agency cannot have any claims.
In any case, an agency cannot have any claims on you at all. Model’s relations with her agent is not something of your concern. This also means, that neither model, nor model agency, can ever revoke the Model Release from you.
