Which rights to photographs should I retain when writing a contract?

Question

The title says it all, but to clarify, assuming that the client does not have a specific contract that I must sigh or specific clauses that they want added, what rights to the photographs that I take should I retain for myself?

Answer

You should assert your copyright and all other rights (with the 'all rights reserved' clause), and explicitly grant the customer a licence to use the image for the purposes they need and no more, unless it's a royalty-free sale. If the image contains people or property you should check to see whether you need a signed release; if images of people are used for commercial/advertising purposes then without a release, the subject can reasonably demand a share of the profits from the use of the image.

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