Model Release Form Getty Images: Fill & Download for Free

Note: I used to work for Getty but I didn’t and don’t represent the company. Views are mine.Although Getty Images is known as the highest quality stock photography agency, the main reasons Getty images are so expensive are exclusivity, releases, and indemnification.ExclusivityGetty often has exclusive access to photographs. When Getty is the official photographer or distributor for an event (such as the Clooney wedding), they are the only legal source for those images. You might be willing to right-click save-as to share a photo of George Clooney on facebook, but no sane media company would even consider it.Among Getty’s library are many archival photos. Iconic photographs of sports stars like Muhammad Ali, scientists like Albert Einstein, celebrities across time from Marilyn Monroe to Miley Cyrus. Getty owns the rights to a surprising number of famous images.Getty also facilitates total buyouts of images, meaning that instead of purchasing a non-exclusive license to use the image a customer would purchase exclusive rights to use the image. Sometimes the exclusive license is for a certain time period or formats (e.g. to ensure your ad campaign is unique), and sometimes the buyout is permanent (e.g. to ensure your brand is unique). Many of the absolute best or most exclusive images are only available this way, and companies will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars.ReleasesPeople often ask me if their photos are good enough to sell. I ask them if they’re willing to sell photos of their families. Basically, there are a zillion amazing photos of sunsets on the beach, but there are far fewer amazing photos of sunsets on the beach with a lot of people available for sale. That’s because you need a signed model release from every single person in the photo if you want to use the photo commercially. And, well, models don’t work for free. People laugh at stock photos of corporate boardrooms or huge crowds of smiling people, but those can be very expensive to shoot!Is the photo at someone’s property? Then you may also need the owner’s property release, especially if it’s a recognizable or famous location.This is where costs start to add up.IndemnificationIndemnities are insurance: when you insure something, you indemnify it for a dollar value. When you license an image from Getty, it comes with quite a bit of indemnification. This is basically Getty’s way of saying that just in case your use of the photo results in a lawsuit, you are covered for legal costs and damages up to the amount of the indemnification.This might seem like a weird thing for Getty to offer / customers to value, but imagine if an unscrupulous photographer forged the model releases for an image you used in a regional ad campaign where those people happen to live, and they sue you.All that said, there are often less expensive options available depending on the type of image you want and how you want to use it.

The key advantage of requesting a license through Getty Images rather than using an available CC license is that Getty will ascertain that any needed model and property releases are acquired and legally valid.

Absolutely EyeEm is not a scam. It is very popular in Europe, much like Instagram here. Compared to Instagram, it is a community of more professional photographers. Challenges are run that you can enter.I have sold images. It can be a somewhat tedious process to have images accepted to Getty Images which is who EyeEm has partnered to market images. Also, there is a review process and you submit the ones you want to have vetted for sale, some are accepted, then model or property releases must be obtained.It is based in Berlin and therefore the branch of Getty Images that brokers the images on your behalf is subject to world wide copy writeand model’s and property release rights. These are in general more strict then in the United States. So any identifiable person in the image must sign a model release to sell the image. This is pretty much the same in the US but seems much more strictly enforced what is interpreted as “identifiable” and is done automatically by computer image analysis. Often a “person” has been identified that is not a person and I have not figured out how to protest that so the images are not left in the “needing model release” limbo.The property releases, the owner of the buildings which are identifiable in the image is much stricter in Europe and may be required. . From my understanding when building is publically viewable on a public street in the United States , a release is not required.While multi-step, and required for individual images, the release process is facilitated and simple through EyeEm. Once accepted to be submitted to Getty, then you will be asked to send an email and name the subject or building. The images are placed in a limbo until the releases returned. You are notified through email of this activity.EyeEm is a great community with really great photographers world wide.