Separate the fee from the licence
- Session or day rate — the time, the crew, the equipment
- Licence fee — what the client may do with the images
- Post-production, where it is priced separately from the shoot
- Expenses: travel, permits, props, assistants, studio hire
Write the licence in terms, not adjectives
"Full rights" means nothing to a court and different things to two clients. A usable licence line names the media, the territory, the duration and whether it is exclusive — for example, web and social, United States, two years, non-exclusive.
Price delivery, not just capture
Number of final edited images, the format, the turnaround, and what a rush costs. A shoot invoiced without a stated deliverable count is the one where a client expects every frame.
Take a booking fee, and say what it holds
A booking fee holds a date you cannot resell once it is close. Make it non-refundable inside a stated window, and invoice it as its own document at booking rather than folding it into the final invoice.
Extra usage is a new invoice
When a client wants the images for something the licence did not cover — print after a web-only licence, a second year, another territory — that is an additional licence fee, invoiced separately and referencing the original job.
Common questions
- Should the licence be on the invoice or in the contract?
- Both. The contract carries the full terms; the invoice carries the licence line so that what was bought is visible on the document the client files and pays.
- Do I charge for raw files?
- Only if you have decided to supply them. Many photographers do not, and the invoice should say what is delivered so the question is answered before it is asked.
- What if the client uses images beyond the licence?
- Invoice the additional usage, referencing the original job and the licence it carried. That is a straightforward conversation precisely because the first invoice stated the limits.