With the success of apps like Easy Release and Second Shootr, we continue to look at useful iPhone apps that are geared toward the pro photographer.
Photographer’s Contract Maker, by Canon instructor Michael The Maven, is an app that allows you to create, edit, sign and email single page photography contracts and releases right from your iPhone.
The app is somewhat like Easy Release, but it takes things a bit further by offering Model Releases, as well as Photo shoot contracts, Copyright Releases and Work for Hire contracts. Also, unlike Easy Release, Photographer’s Contract Maker allows you to edit the specific legal language of each contract type. Although the contracts in the app have been checked by lawyers, there might be instances and/or different States that necessitate slightly different wording for your specific needs or geographic regions.
You can either write a contract completely from scratch, or you can duplicate and edit one of the existing contracts. This option could come in handy if you have different pricing and fee structures for similar types of photo shoots. For example, let’s say you shoot portraits and you have a special yearbook rate, which might be different from your regular sitting fee rates, or special rate for referrals or repeat customers. You could also use this feature to create property releases out of the model release wording. You can also create up to 12 new contract templates, which allows you to make a set of very personalized contracts that are customized for your business needs.
You set up the app by entering your name or company name, which will then appear in all the applicable lines in all of the contracts that you write. Then, when you’re ready to start a job, you can either import clients from you iPhone’s contact list, or you can enter new clients who aren’t already in your address book. Once entered, you can view and contact your clients right from within the app. When you’re ready to do the shoot, they simply sign the touch screen contract, which can now be saved and emailed as a PDF file.
While there are a few things that the app lacks at this point, such as the ability to add a photographer logo to the forms, Photographer’s Contract Maker is a very useful, highly rated and economically priced app that can help you stay on top of your paperwork. It features a no frills, simple design and it appears to have decent support from the developer.
Available in the iTunes Store, it runs on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, but at this time, it’s NOT yet available for iPhone 4 OS.
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Dan Bailey is a professional adventure, outdoor and travel photographer based in Anchorage, Alaska. Follow his own blog at danbaileyphoto.com/blog and see his daily updates at facebook.com/danbaileyphoto.
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