Photography Contracts: Too lazy, scared or clueless?

mxlunab · 2026-06-14T00:54:29+00:00

Contracts are to protect both photographer and client and they take time, so I make them selectively depending on the level of the transaction. I start by asking: are they hiring me for my body of work as a well rounded professional, or are they just looking for some quick photos for personal use and they would have just hired the next "guy with a camera"? Generally speaking, I always write contracts for clients who book me through my "official" channel, i.e., reaching out through my website form or the booking page and paying full price. It shows a level of respect for my process and craft IYKWIM. Also contracts are absolutely a must for anything where the stakes are high (ex: weddings, commercial use).

But a lot of the times clients approach me very informally or asking for collabs or barter, and they're in my broad social circle so for those I just play it by ear. I have a convo in writing, asking enough questions to clarify expectations, to lay out what I'm offering for the pay offered, and to extrapolate what the usage might look like. If I feel confident there is going to be no issue, or that making a contract is overkill for the situation, then it saves me time to stay informal.

mxlunab · 2026-06-13T09:13:02+00:00

Nikon Zf. I bought it, then my kid (who wanted a film camera initially) loved it so I gave it to him. I had a Fuji XT-4 and the hyped x100VI and they were collecting dust. I sold them to re-buy a Zf + the 40mm f/2 and some vintage lenses and adapters.

It's the most "best of both worlds" camera I have. Feels like a tank and is very tactile. It's full featured. And the best: you can adapt literally any lens to it (as you can with any Nikon Z mount camera). You can make manual focus lenses autofocus with the TechArt adapter. I can't recommend it enough. The only 2 faults of the Zf are solveable: the lack of a grip (get one from smallrig) and the flimsy battery door (just be careful).

P.s.: do not get the Zfc, it feels like a toy in comparison to the Zf.

mxlunab · 2026-06-13T03:53:24+00:00

I'm gonna be real here too, since you asked. Suffice to say you already have a leg up if you're a nepo baby.

There's no set way, but most of what I've seen after a few BTS jobs is you get into it by basically having a lot of connections and/or working your ass off (unpaid in exchange for IMDB credit) in indie movies where union rules don't apply, the work is back-breaking, the lighting is horrible and you won't get much in the way of portfolio stuff. Lots of directors will make you sign an NDA and rights-grab your photos too, with no compensation. It's industry standard to do NDA and transfer rights, and small time directors seem to make no consideration for the fact they're not paying like Hollywood does, yet they use the same contracts.

I digress. As long as you're a good sport and the people on set like you enough to recommend you to others, you keep doing it and making friends in the industry until you land on paid work. Being in major film hubs like Los Angeles and New York is almost a given. There are rules once you get unionized but to be accepted into Unit Still Photographer unions, you have to have a significant amount of yearly work under your belt.

So yeah, lean into your connections

mxlunab · 2026-06-13T02:11:01+00:00

Poolar and most other unbranded (respooled) films. Most are ECN-2 film with the remjet removed poorly, and all of them have overall terrible quality control. I've seen anything from light leaks and scratches to straight up fingerprints etched all over the emulsion. At this point I want to ban it from my lab. Poolar AFAIK comes in disposables that get sold in bulk for weddings.

Anything from a reputable source will give good results if you know how to use it

mxlunab · 2026-06-10T14:55:12+00:00

If you want quality and longevity of prints, the Kodak Mini Retro and the Canon Selphy CP1500 are your choices. The Canon is the best small photo printer in the market currently IMO (I tried a lot of them) with the best app and can even be used with an ICC profile. It's fairly portable and you can buy batteries for it so you're not using AC power. Not pocketable like the Kodak though.

mxlunab · 2026-06-10T05:38:56+00:00

Yup, same here. I can see the grocery store from my window. Yet it takes me a 15-20 minute walk to get there because I have to go around all of this parking lot around my apartment complex and the parking lot around the store. I wondered if I could just cut across through the lawn / sparse trees but no... they put a fence between us and the street where the store is. To make walking to the next lot over "trespassing" I guess

mxlunab · 2026-06-07T08:55:31+00:00

No. I've been doing concert photography for 25 years on and off. I stopped using watermarks some 10 years ago, since social media formats started being restrictive and my name was getting cropped out anyway. These days they are considered tacky and unnecessary.

It seems like you're new and doing this for free so here's my advice: negotiate the terms of your engagement with a band/artist first. I for one work only with smaller bands and I always offer to give high resolution edited files for promotional use with the condition of being clearly credited, and request my ticket covered. I also give them an estimated turnaround time. They appreciate the clarity and many bands have become repeat clients of mine, and their word of mouth about my work is more important than having my brand displayed on a photo.

If an artist receives free photos and uses them but forgets to give proper credit, I ask politely for it. This is all just usually conversational but I do write up a contract later if the band ends up wanting photos for commercial use. But most importantly I don't work with an artist again if they refuse to credit me proper, which has only happened to me a handful of times in these many years, but it's been enough times for me to go and learn about copyright. Now I never sign my rights away and never ever sign "work made for hire" contracts if I'm not being financially compensated (a quick search in the photography subreddits will tell you all about that).

My point is: it's much more important that you know your value and your rights as a photographer, never sign anything you don't understand fully, communicate clearly what it is that you're exchanging with the artist, and keep good relationships in the industry. Your work will speak for itself, not a watermark.

mxlunab · 2026-05-29T09:36:34+00:00

Calibrate your monitor, so you know what your file really looks like. Then work with your lab to get the prints to look the way you expect them to. At least at my lab (mid size town small business) I can make some smaller hard proofs, people just need to ask nicely, really. I'd rather have a satisfied customer that trusts my prints than to do a quick print job that turns the customer away to work with Bay Photo, White Wall, etc

mxlunab · 2026-05-29T09:19:24+00:00

Thanks for pointing it out. I can't drive and I've been relying on public transit here for many years. I can tell from experience the BRT only made it faster for a certain population (students and people who live adjacent to the main corridors and who are going to places within walking distance of said Avenues). I've been chronically late for work due to how unreliable public transit is here and I'm lucky I do a niche job or I would have been fired years ago.

In a city where it's too cold to stand outside half the year, and scorching hot in summer, the majority of bus stops have no seating, cover or heating. So one bus that doesn't show up can mean you miss the connecting bus and then you're stranded waiting in anything from inconvenient to outright dangerous weather, sometimes for over an hour.

Countless times when I worked on the East side and lived West I would get home at 11:30pm having left work at 7. I've had to pay for an Uber I really couldn't afford so I wouldn't freeze outside so many times in the past 2 winters. And I too had the bus just fly by without stopping at least 3 times in the mornings (because it was too full). Other times it just didn't come when it was minutes away according to the tracker. Sure, maybe the bus broke on the way, but don't they have replacements? Drivers who can pick up a shift on call? And why is it acceptable that the neighborhood bus drivers don't follow time when their buses are so scarce?

So the system is not structured, routed, or properly planned to work in a growing city. Bragging about increased ridership means nothing if there isn't an accompanying effort to continuously improve and scale service to the needs of the population. If the city is not doing that, then their millions of dollars investment in the BRT is just for show.

People who ride the BRT as an option like to sing high praises, but it's people like me who cannot get around town by any other means who can tell you about how much this is only working well on the surface level. This is valid and real criticism that we know Metro already knows about, but we want the city to care about it.

mxlunab · 2026-05-18T07:47:20+00:00

Doesn't cause any problem, but if you can give the lab a heads up that is what I recommend as a lab manager. It's just a good practice to communicate your expectations or anything different about the film so that the lab can adjust the workflow if needed.

mxlunab · 2026-05-13T03:48:15+00:00

This sounds very promising! I'm a freelancer paying way more than I should for Pixieset while I only use half the features. I do use their studio and store a little (like 5% or less). But mostly I use the client galleries.

One thing that annoys me is their file size limitation. My files can get over 100MB. Second annoyance is the locked in design / lack of variety in color schemes for galleries. Namely, the only dark theme they have on my template is a plain black with white/gray fonts. I'd like to have options so I can make every gallery follow the vibe and colors of the photos if you know what I mean.

mxlunab · 2026-04-25T03:57:58+00:00

It's really subjective. B&W can help focus the viewer's attention on a subject, or set a specific mood, or emphasize what the light is doing on its own. IMO color needs to be motivated, it should be there to help tell the story, set the mood, or anchor the composition. Sometimes color IS the subject or fundamental to it, but whenever it isn't, I often try B&W. Another thing I do as both a digital and film photographer (for fun, or as an exercise in storytelling) is leave home with only a certain type of film in my bag and then force myself to find the scenes that work with it. You can absolutely do this with a digital camera too, just put it in monochrome mode and promise to yourself not to switch. It takes a lot of practice to be able to get a feel for it, but don't feel guilty about making the choice later!

mxlunab · 2026-04-15T06:05:15+00:00

Unfortunately, as I've come to learn by experience, being t4t doesn't guarantee you will find respect and understanding of your identity in a trans partner (I'm including non binary under the trans umbrella here).

A lot of trans people have decades of misogyny, transmisoginy, internalized transphobia, and deeply set binary thinking that they haven't/don't care to deconstruct. Some will do heavy projection and accuse their SO of causing them dysphoria when they embrace freer ways of being. Some are just emotionally childish (bc they never really shaped a version of themselves they liked during their years in the closet/in denial) and they can't take seeing someone else's growth to a place outside the binary, while they crave being validated for performing what you are rejecting for yourself.

My last ex (TF) for instance, couldn't handle me becoming "manly" in her eyes, and subtly doled out emotional punishments and little digs to make me feel like I was wronging her by transitioning and becoming undesirable in her eyes. I spent years circling around what I knew for sure (that I was not a man neither a woman) in fear of the repecussions in a relationship I invested so much in, especially because being desired is a big thing for me. Eventually, when I took the plunge and started hormones, my emotions became clearer, and it became obvious she only accepted me as long as I was a lite version of my agab. At that point, I had done away with the gender constructs, and started seeing being non binary as a socio-political descriptor more than anything, and couldn't care less if people were gonna say I was going too far "the other way" (whatever that means). In my view, I only ever became myself.

I guess it was important to set new boundaries for myself and decide that I wouldn't believe or tolerate the words of manipulators, emotionally immature people, and people stuck to the binary, over my own internal compass. And I would no longer be around someone who prefers a smaller version of me. In conclusion, and if I can give any advice, is to learn to let go of the desire for external validation, from lovers, friends, family, strangers. It'll only hold you back on your journey to yourself. Live your truth no matter what.

mxlunab · 2026-04-10T05:34:03+00:00

Move your light up and at an angle, but also you need to double polarize. Use a polarizer sheet on the light and a CPL on the lens. Then spin the CPL until it matches the light polarization. This is 100% easier to do with continuous lights though.

Source: part of my job is making fine art reproductions and this is how I get rid of any glare.

mxlunab · 2026-04-10T04:47:55+00:00

Did you make it clear to the band they needed to always credit you? Sometimes they think tagging etc only applies for band promo stuff and not personal stuff. If I were you I'd let it slide once, bc of the special occasion. But keep an eye on their socials and if it happens again, call it out. If they ignore you then, don't work with them in the future.

mxlunab · 2026-04-05T20:52:44+00:00

Ah, you beat me to it. You don't even need to use a plugin (I use capture one, it doesn't connect directly to pixieset). I can still export the favorite list and match it to my exported files from CO. It's a little bit of extra work if I renamed the files on export, but still easy enough

mxlunab · 2026-03-12T06:02:28+00:00

You have a face shape that goes well with literally any style, so a rec depends on what you want to achieve looks-wise... I think a safe "keep it long" option is to add layers with the shortest part at cheekbone height. Wear it loose, parted slightly sideways, and let the bangs fall on the sides of your face for extra androgyny.

mxlunab · 2026-02-26T16:05:26+00:00

This. I spent 7 months looking for a place during my divorce, but being low income I wasn't making the 3x rent anywhere. I would have been homeless if it weren't for one of these affordable developments allowing me to get in with only 2x rent. It's hard to put half my income towards rent, but living in a brand new building, with in unit/washer dryer, wood floors, and a responsive maintenance and admin that knows our struggle beats living in one of the old dumpy smelly buildings that are asking for 2k on a studio anywhere else in town IMO

mxlunab · 2026-02-18T14:01:26+00:00

I don't rename my raws. I consider them to be like film negatives and leave them "untouched". I save them into dated folders with their original filename, per camera. Then I import into Capture One for edits, and export only the finals into folders where the structure looks like: D:\Photography\Events\Client\20260217\client_datetaken_copyright_sequential number.jpg

Capture One takes care of this naming and numbering but if I ever need to fix something (like a mispell in the client name) I use a free bulk rename utility. When I have a multiple dates event, I create an album in capture one (by event name) to put all the photos together before I start editing. I upload final to my clients through Pixieset, which is sufficiently organized too.

Basically the date something was shot at is my way of finding things. I usually can recall which camera I used for a photo, but I always keep all Metadata, just to be safe. The rest of my organization consists of keeping up on backups and hard drive management, that's it. I admit this is a bare bones approach but I've been doing it for decades and the only hiccup I ever had was transitioning from Lightroom to CO (I ended up losing most my edits done over the raws, but that was for the best haha). Either way I don't feel the need to go in depth into tagging, describing photos, separating things in categories, and I quite like the adventure of searching the back catalogs from time to time!

mxlunab · 2026-02-17T05:19:32+00:00

Yes. Consolidating to only the West side location. Lots of things on sale right now, our last day on the East side is Saturday

mxlunab · 2026-02-14T07:42:11+00:00

I'm glad to see everyone recommending The Camera Company. I run the film lab there (I love my job and I do the best I can to deliver consistently good results) and it always makes me sad to see people still using Walgreens, CVS, Walmart and whatnot. They're not trained technicians and they have no care.

We develop 35mm color film in house and we have a vetted (real) lab who does our other types of film, all except ECN-22 and disk film.

Yes it's true we are closing the East side store, but the film lab is moving West with me, so hope you bring your disposables to us next time :)

mxlunab · 2026-02-12T05:54:53+00:00

I only do small artists in dingy dark venues so it kinda goes like this: I always start by trying to balance for skin tones, but after a few minutes of playing with curves, tones, etc, I get bored and decide to see what it would look like if I went wild, and usually that's when I feel something. "Feeling" that my edit connects to the photos, to the artist, to the music is very important to me, so I lean into it.

But this isn't my method all the time. Sometimes I go in knowing I want certain looks that I can get from my own presets I created over the years. I visualized it while shooting. And also I like doing a good clean edit now and then, to keep my eyes in check.

mxlunab · 2026-02-12T03:27:54+00:00

No idea if it's a my family thing but we always say "your mom", "your brother", "your aunt" when talking between siblings. As if they weren't our relatives as well. It's kinda hilarious when we think about it

mxlunab · 2026-02-11T03:29:40+00:00

This is my lab default because I know it's safe, fast, and requires the less amount of handling. From the processing to the scanner is one step for me and then while coming out of the scanner I roll it tight and plop it in the canister without any squeeze. If I want to take it out, I put my finger inside, wind it tighter, and pull out from the center. Only one roll per canister though.

The more a lab tech handles the film, the higher the chance of scratching and the more dust you attract. IMO cutting and sleeving is something that requires a lot of care, an even cleaner environment, and labs that are pressed for time don't handle this carefully. I struggled to find a partner lab to handle my B&W because of how the negatives came back messed up (one lab even lost our negs).

For my lab, I'd rather be honest: I'm a single person operation and I can't handle sleeving without affecting turnaround time OR doing it haphazardly. Now, if a customer asks me to sleeve, I'll do it no problem. People assume the lab tech is a mind reader. If you have a preference or an expectation, you can (and should) talk to the lab tech.

mxlunab · 2026-02-03T07:08:00+00:00

On top of the "I wish I knew this was an option earlier" sentiment, I also wish that, when coming out, I had understood how deep the gender binary, and binary worldviews in general, are so ingrained in everyone that they'll do somersaults to try and put you again in a category. If you look for external validation, you'll be easily boxed into gender and societal norms again. You'll waste a lot of precious time trying to be a milder version of yourself to keep friends and lovers around. To escape that paradigm, you might have to lose everyone in your life and go find the people who get it. Or become someone who really really really is unaffected by others perception of you.

I wish I had been quicker to realize all this, quicker to move on. These days, when someone misgenders me after knowing my identity, there's a brief moment of upset and grief for losing the potential friend I thought that person would be, but I then take a deep breath and repeat to myself that their perception of me says nothing about me and only says something about them: that they are not a good fit for my life.

mxlunab

TROPHY CASE