An image licence is permission from the copyright owner, usually the photographer, for someone else to use a photo in agreed ways — for a set purpose, period and place — while the photographer keeps the copyright.
General information, not legal advice. Laws differ by country and state — check with a lawyer where you work before you rely on it.
Draft a licence for personal, editorial or commercial use, then download a PDF.
Also used in: Photography Contract Template
A licence is how a photographer is paid for how the images are used, not only for the shoot. It names the images, what they may be used for, where, for how long, whether it's exclusive and the fee, and anything outside it needs new permission.
Selling the copyright itself (an assignment) is a different and much bigger step: the photographer could never use or license those images again. ("Licence" is the British spelling of the noun; American English uses "license".)
A hotel asks a photographer for the rights to her photos of its restaurant. Instead of selling the copyright, she licenses six images for the hotel's website, social media and brochures, in Europe, for two years, non-exclusive, for a fee.
When the hotel later wants one on a billboard, that's a new licence and a new fee.
Write posts that bring in clients
Spotlight's Get clients mode turns a photo from a shoot into posts for every platform that say what you shoot, where you work and how to book or license from you.
Get clients is a mode of the Spotlight workspace on CAPTD's paid plans — see pricing.
Open Get clients