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If you photograph weddings, events, families, school recitals or sports, your best marketing is the faces you shot. The moment one of those faces appears in an ad or a promotional gallery, a state right-of-publicity law starts to apply, and two states spell it out in statute.
California Civil Code 3344(a) covers anyone who knowingly uses another person's photograph or likeness for advertising or for selling products or services without that person's prior consent. For a minor, the consent has to come from a parent or legal guardian. The person used can recover the greater of $750 or their actual damages, plus any profits from the use, and the court can add punitive damages and attorney's fees. Section 3344(d) exempts news, public affairs, sports broadcasts and political campaigns, so an editorial photo is treated differently from an ad.
New York Civil Rights Law 50 makes it a misdemeanor to use a living person's portrait or picture for advertising or trade without first getting their written consent, or a parent's or guardian's for a minor. Section 51 lets that person sue for an injunction and damages, and for exemplary damages if the use was knowing.
What does a gap cost? Take a California wedding photographer who builds an ad gallery from one reception: 14 guests are identifiable, and only the couple signed releases. That leaves 12 people without one, and 2 of them are under 18. At the $750 floor each, 12 × $750 = $9,000 minimum before profits and fees. The claim does not wait for a complaint; it attaches the day the ad runs.
The hard part is not the release wording. It is knowing, months later, who signed, who signed for a child, and what they agreed to. A contact form collects a name and a message. It never asks whether an adult is signing for themselves or a parent for a minor, or whether the signer allowed ads or only the portfolio.
The gallery model release form plugin adds one form with one shortcode, [gallery-model-release-form]. It has 9 fields: full name of the person photographed, email, phone, date of the shoot or event, who is signing (an adult for themselves, or a parent or legal guardian of a person under 18), the name of that person under 18, how the photographer may use the photos (4 choices, from paid advertising down to private delivery only), anything the signer does not want published, and a typed full name as signature. Six fields are required. Above the form, two lines you set once say what the signer agrees to and that a parent or guardian signs for anyone under 18. Every signed release is listed in WordPress admin, 50 per page. It works next to whatever gallery plugin you already use.
The free plugin is complete for collecting releases. The free web check on our page does the counting: enter your state, how the gallery is used, how many identifiable people it shows, how many releases you hold and how many of the rest are under 18. It tells you who still needs to sign, whether consent must be written, and the California minimum for the gap. For a portfolio gallery it says plainly that courts differ on whether a portfolio advertises your services.
The paid version emails you each release as it is signed, sends the signer a copy of what they agreed to, exports every release as a CSV with the date and time it was signed, filters releases by name and files them per shoot with a tagged shortcode. One payment, not a subscription.
Send the release page to the couple and the parents before the shoot, and check the list before any photo goes into an ad. This is not legal advice.
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What does this gallery model release form do?
It adds a model release form to your WordPress site with one shortcode. Nine fields record who was photographed, their email and phone, the shoot date, whether an adult signs for themselves or a parent or legal guardian signs for a minor, the minor's name, the use they allow, anything they want kept out, and a typed signature. Every release is listed in admin, 50 per page.
Which photographers is it for?
US wedding, event, portrait, school and sports photographers, and studios, that show client photos in a portfolio gallery, on social media or in ads, with California and New York as the two named rules. California Civil Code 3344 needs prior consent, a parent's or guardian's for a minor; New York Civil Rights Law 50 needs it in writing.
Why not use a free contact form or a paper release?
A contact form never asks whether the signer is the adult in the photo or a parent signing for a minor, or which use they allow, so the release you need for an ad gallery is missing when you need it. Paper releases get lost. Under California Civil Code 3344 each person used in an ad without consent can cost at least $750.
What does the free plugin include?
The complete form: 9 fields with the adult-or-guardian question and 4 use choices, two lines shown above the form that you write once, a nonce check, a spam trap and a label on every field, and every signed release listed in WordPress admin, 50 per page. The free web check on our page counts the releases a gallery is missing and the California minimum.
What does it cost compared with other tools?
Gravity Forms, a general form builder, costs $59 to $259 per year and ships no release fields. The Pro plugin is $60 once, not a subscription. It emails you each signed release, sends the signer a copy of what they agreed to, exports every release as a dated CSV, filters by name and runs one tagged form per shoot or event.
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