Photography contracts: send and e-sign online

This page is for the photographer who knows they should get a signed contract before every shoot and wants sending and signing to be less of a hassle. By the end you’ll know how contracts work in Tellisto, what a photography contract should contain, and when in the booking to send it. Contracts and e-signature are on every plan, free included.

How it works in Tellisto

You draft the contract, send it to the client, and they sign it online. What matters most is where they sign. The signing link opens on your own white-label domain, never a tellisto URL. Your client opens a page in your colours, with your name on it, and signs. To them it’s your studio’s paperwork, and it is.

When the contract comes back signed, a contract task on the booking’s checklist ticks itself and is marked done for you (the wedding checklist has one to start with). You don’t have to dig out the signed copy to check whether the job can go ahead, because the booking’s checklist already shows it. The same happens when a gallery publishes: when Tellisto can see something happened, it ticks it off for you.

What belongs in a photography contract

This is a checklist, not legal advice. The best thing you can do is have a lawyer read your template once, then reuse it. A workable photography contract usually covers:

• Who the parties are. Your studio and the client, named properly, with contact details.
• Scope and deliverables. What you’re shooting, roughly how many photos they’ll receive, in what format, and by when. Vague deliverables are where disputes start.
• Payment terms. The total, the deposit, what the deposit secures, and the due dates for the balance. If you’re running instalments, the schedule goes here too.
• Cancellation and rescheduling. What happens if they pull out, if you have to, or if the date moves. Weddings especially need this spelled out.
• Copyright and usage. What you keep, what they’re allowed to do with the images, and whether that includes social media and print. Spell it out, because you and your client may assume different things.
• Model or property releases where the work needs them.
• What happens when things go wrong. Illness, equipment failure, a venue falling through. A short, fair clause here saves a bad conversation later.

Write it once, get it checked, and change only the client, the deliverables and the dates per booking. You’re not drafting from scratch every time.

When to send it

Before any money changes hands. A verbal yes doesn’t confirm a booking, and neither does a deposit sitting in your account on its own. A booking is confirmed when the contract is signed and the deposit is paid. You need both before a maybe becomes a job in your calendar. Send the contract first, and take the deposit second.

This ties in with how quotes work. When a client accepts or pays a quote, the lead becomes a client, and Tellisto creates the booking and first invoice in one step. You send the contract at around that moment: quote accepted, contract out for signing, deposit invoice ready to go. Once you have the signature and the deposit, the booking is confirmed.

Why signing online wins more bookings

The old way is print, sign and scan. You email a PDF and the client means to get to it, but they don’t have a printer handy. It sits in their inbox for a week, and a client who was keen on Sunday has lost interest by the next weekend. Every step between “yes” and “signed” is another chance for the client to drift away.

Signing online removes those steps. The client decides to book, opens the link on their phone that evening, and signs. They don’t need a printer, a scanner, or a work laptop to open an attachment. They sign while they’re still keen, instead of stalling on paperwork that has nothing to do with whether they want to hire you.

The whole thing carries your brand, so the client is never handed off to a signing company they’ve never heard of. From the enquiry to the signed contract and the tax invoice that follows, they only ever deal with your studio.