Modelling Photos : Copyright and Rights to Use (in the UK)

There are often many questions raised by models about copyright and what rights they have to use photos that they have posed for. The answer is: it depends! The reason is that firstly the law is different in different countries and advice you read on the web could have been written from anywhere based on their laws so that is the first thing you need to check. The comments here are all based on UK law; the situation in the USA is very different and much advice on the web would relate to that purely because the USA is such a large country with a huge web presence.

In the UK in general terms the photographer owns the copyright of any photos that they take. They can do pretty much anything with those photos should they so wish and no model release form is needed. This is one major difference with the USA where model release forms do have a purpose and many online articles confuse models about their requirement in the UK - model releases forms are not needed for a photographer to publish photos of a model here. Some magazines may require them but they are not legally required and a photographer can use any photos taken online as they wish.

If you are a model that has posed for a TFP/TFCD shoot then the photographer will provide you with copies of images from that shoot that you can use for your portfolio. The number will depend on the agreement that you reach with the photographer but you should not expect EVERY photo that has been taken. A good photographer will remove poor photos. An indication to me about the professionalism of a photographer is their worst photo that is shown; studio lighting stands or background edges in a shot show me that they do not care much about their work.

Any images provided to you should be used as provided unless you have a written agreement from the photographer that you can edit them including cropping. Any logo included on the photo should remain wherever you use them as in the example below.

Alice in Wonderland Theme Shoot

This is the first photo from an Alice in Wonderland theme shoot with Amy. All makeup for the shoot was done by Amy herself.

National Cleavage Day UK Photos

It may be an April 1st joke but National Cleavage Day is trending very highly on Twitter at the moment. From Wikipedia National Cleavage Day is an event started in South Africa but now come to the UK as well supported (!) by Wonderbra. Photos of our models for National Cleavage Day UK are below.

Check out Kube Studios - the modelling photo experts!

Some recent model portfolio photo shoot shots

These are a few shots from a recent shoot with Safia

Style Secrets at Hempstead Valley 21-23 October 2010

Models3 have supplied the models for the catwalk shows at the Hempstead Valley Style Secrets shows taking place daily at the shopping centre from 21-23 October 2010. Come along to the centre to see the shows, for more info click on the link below

http://www.hempsteadvalley.com/events/style-secrets-free-fashion-event-21st-to-23rd-october

The Importance of Posing!

Here are 2 shots from a location model shoot that show how important the right pose is. The first shot was taken deliberately to show how the figure looks when no effort is taken to pose.

The next shot was taken with the model now adopting a pose that flatters the figure and makes a huge difference to the final shot.

Any photographer should be able to pose their model to make the shot work best.

Do I need to pay for pictures for a portfolio/Paying for Copyright of Photos?

A common answer you may find is no but unfortunately like many things you get what you pay for. We all have bills that need to be paid but a photo shoot does not need to cost a fortune. Our prices for model test shoots & model portfolio starter packages are very reasonably priced and allow you to get a good selection of pictures to start your portfolio. Some portfolio photo shoots may be promoted as being free but you then have to pay £1000 for photos or a CD of images after the shoot at a hard sell sales presentation.