Contracts & Usage Rights

The booking fee

The rate you agree to is only half the picture. What happens to the images afterward matters just as much, and it's the part most people skip reading properly. The booking fee is the foundational hourly or daily rate paid strictly for your physical time on set. It's separate from, and doesn't automatically include, any rights to use the resulting images afterward, those are negotiated on top.

Your likeness, and why it's a separate fee

Your face and image belong to you, that's your likeness, and using it commercially is a separate right from simply paying you to turn up and be photographed. This is sometimes called a usage fee, sometimes a likeness fee, but it's the same idea either way: a brand isn't just paying for your time on the day, they're paying for permission to use your actual image to sell something, and that's worth a fee in its own right, on top of the booking fee.

This is exactly what catches people out on both sides. A photographer or brand assuming the booking fee covers unlimited future use, or a model not realising their image is being used commercially without that usage ever being properly agreed or paid for.

Editorial usage vs commercial usage

Editorial usage covers images used for storytelling, magazine features, and non-commercial publication, it's not directly selling a product, and usage fees here tend to be lower or sometimes waived entirely in exchange for the exposure and credit. Commercial usage means the image is being used to directly sell something, an advertisement, a product page, packaging, and that always warrants a proper usage fee, since the brand is profiting directly from your image.

The same photo can move between the two. An editorial image, originally shot for a magazine feature, being repurposed into an advertising campaign later is a change from editorial to commercial usage, and it should trigger a new conversation about payment, not be assumed as already covered.

Usage and territory rights

Additional fees apply based on where an image is used, UK only versus worldwide, and how it's used, social media, print, billboard, TV. A wider territory or a bigger platform means a bigger usage fee, and it's worth confirming this is priced in rather than assumed.

There's no fixed UK standard for how long a usage licence runs, it comes down to what's agreed in the contract, but one to two years is a common range for this kind of work. Continued use beyond the agreed term requires renegotiation and an additional fee, it doesn't automatically roll over for free.

Stock and third-party use

If an image of you ends up on a stock photography site, or gets licensed out to a third party beyond the original agreed use, that's a distinct commercial use and you should be paid for it. This should be covered explicitly in your original agreement, who can license the image onward, and whether you see any share of that, rather than left as an assumption either way.

Clauses worth reading twice

• "In perpetuity" or "all media worldwide": avoid signing this unless it comes with a substantial buyout figure, since it hands over unlimited, permanent use for a single fee
• Exclusivity clauses: restrictions preventing you from working for a competing brand require separate compensation, they shouldn't be assumed as part of a standard rate