Photography FAQs

Photography contracts, session agreements, and model release forms are necessary for outlining expectations and protecting copyrights. If you’re selling prints or personalized photo gifts, use an order form that accepts payments. Add a contact form or inquiry form to your portfolio so potential clients can easily message you. Ask clients for feedback with custom surveys. Learn more about how photographers can benefit from using online forms.

Collecting session information, client signatures, and payments doesn’t need to be limited to pen and paper. Instead of sending clients a PDF of a photography contract, session agreement, or model release form they’ll have to print out, sign by hand, and scan, you can use an online contract that will make it easier for clients to do business with you. You can spend the time you save capturing images instead of information.

Using our drag-and-drop Form Builder, you can either build your online from scratch or select a ready-made template to customize.

The “Form Elements” menu on the left allows you to add form fields, payment processors, and widgets to your form. From here you’ll be able to create an advanced form that can process photo orders, collect signatures, accept payments, and receive feedback.

The paint roller icon on the right opens the “Form Designer” menu, where you can change the appearance of your form. Choose colors and fonts that correspond with your brand, add your studio’s logo, and upload your own photos to create an online form that represents your photography business perfectly.

To embed your form in your portfolio, select “Embed” under the “Publish” tab at the top of the Form Builder. Copy and paste the short embed code provided there into your website’s HTML. You can also publish your form directly onto third-party sites if your website is hosted on platforms like WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, or Blogger, or if you’d like to add a form to your Facebook page.

Jotform also provides a separate URL for each form. You can email this link to clients or share it through social media as you spread the word about your photography.

To collect electronic signatures on your online photography contracts, model release forms, session agreements, and copyright notices, simply add one of our signature widgets — Smooth Signature, E-signature, Initials, Adobe Sign, or Docusign — to your form.

Jotform offers more integrations than any other online form builder, allowing you to create the most efficient forms for your photography website. You can automatically send submitted information to your CRM software and email marketing list, accept payments with popular payment gateways, create spreadsheets with Google Sheets, and schedule events with Google Calendar. If you don’t see your favorite tools in our list of integrations, you can build a custom Jotform integration with Zapier. Jotform is always pursuing new integrations, so check back often to learn about upcoming features!

Choose Google Calendar from our list of integrations and verify your Google account. After you’ve selected which calendar you’d like to connect, select your start time, end time, event location, and description. Each time a client books a photography session through your form, Google Calendar will automatically create an event for you.

You can also view submissions in Calendar view with Sheets. Choose the “Sheets” option from the dropdown menu next to the Jotform logo at the top of the Form Builder. Select “Calendar” from the “New View” tab. Decide which form fields to show in Calendar view, configure a start time and end time, and categorize your events by color.

Select “Emails” from “Settings” at the top of the Form Builder. Choose the “Autoresponder Email” option with the green envelope icon. You’ll be able to edit the subject, title, and content of your confirmation email to tell clients how to prepare for their session. Under the “Advanced” tab, you can decide exactly when the confirmation letters will be sent out and even attach files like coupons or receipts.

Select the “Autoresponder Email” option from the “Email” tab under “Settings.” Click “Advanced” to find the “Send Emails Later” field. Scroll through the provided options to determine exactly when you’d like your form to send out reminder emails.

Using our Form Builder, select your preferred payment provider from our list of more than 40 payment gateways. After you’ve verified your account, publish your form to start collecting money from customers. Jotform won’t charge you additional transaction fees.

Yes! Once you’ve chosen your payment provider, select “Sell Subscriptions” as your payment type to collect recurring payments. Click “Continue” to determine the price and frequency of your clients’ payments. You’ll also be able to set up the number of installments they can pay. If your clients must deposit a larger sum of money before their installments, you can configure this under “Set Custom First Payment Cost.” When your clients have submitted their credit card information, your payment provider will automatically bill them according to what you’ve specified.

After you’ve added a payment processor to your form, select the “Coupons” option under “Payment Settings.” From there, you can include a coupon code and set a percentage or fixed amount for your discount. Then determine whether to apply your discount to certain sessions, photo packages, or the total payment amount.

You can customize any of our free PDF templates to automatically convert form responses to PDFs. You can also send clients PDF copies of their submissions by enabling the “PDF Attachment” feature for notifications and autoresponders.

Ensuring the privacy of your data is our top priority at Jotform. All forms are delivered across a 256 SSL connection to prevent third parties from accessing personal information. Jotform is the first online form builder with PCI DSS Level 1 compliance — the highest level of security for businesses that accept credit card payments — to protect your clients’ credit card information. We’re also GDPR compliant to protect the personal data of EU citizens. Additionally, you have the option to encrypt your forms to ensure that nobody but you has access to submitted information.

Contact our 24-7 support team to address issues you encounter with your photography forms or Jotform account. We also recommend checking out our User Guide for detailed instructions on how to optimize your forms for your photography business.