Here’s another amazingly NICHE Android app, in the shape of Model Release Pal – an app that’s been designed to help photographers keep track of models they’ve taken photographs of, collating and organising digital copies of their signatures and image release forms.
Here’s the feature list:
Model release management tool for photographers.
Features:
- signature signing on the phone (with finger or stylus)
- add as many contracts as you want (pdf)
- export contract+signature
- link model releases to photoshoots
- more to come
And look, here’s a model’s very brave attempt at writing her name:
Very niche. Possibly only of interest to several hundred people in the world today. We love it!
HTC’s 4.3″ dual-core Android model, powered by Qualcomm’s all-new S4 processor. It’s smaller than the enormous One X, but is it as nice as its bigger brother? (SPOILER: Yes it is).
HTC is very much B-A-C-K at the top of the Android world with this, its quad-core flagship for 2012. Great camera, huge 4.7″ display and Android 4.0 running beautifully well.
Sony returns with an all-new mobile design for 2012, pairing a dual-core processor with a 720p display. It’s a lovely phone, but is it enough to end our Samsung and HTC obsession?
LG’s updated Prada phone comes with an absolutely crazy black & white theme, but is it just for fashionable suit wearers who want to make themselves look a bit more interesting?
Janne
/ June 11, 2010Actually, it’s rather more widely useful than that. You need “model” releases any time you have a recognizable human (or distinctive building, or any number of other things) in an image that is going to be used commercially.
And “commercial” isn’t just advertisements. Magazine features (you want to use your holiday snaps for a travel piece? You’ll need releases for everyone in the shots); any image in a commercial website; to be safe, you probably want releases for any image connected with a business or money changing hands.
So, any commercial photographer including your local paper hack, and a fair number of hobbyists, already carry model release forms just in case. I don’t – too much like work – and I’ve lost image sales due to that. But the target audience is certainly in the tens of thousands.
With that said, I kind of wonder about “signing” on a screen, and I’m just a little sceptical that it’d be valid in many jurisdictions. And at least some agencies require you to give the model a copy, which is kind of difficult if you only have it on your phone.
Jon
/ June 11, 2010Well, the app allows you to export the contract+signature, so you could technically email it to the model on the spot.
Also, regarding digital signatures – if you think about it, when someone signs a contract (with pen and paper), most of the time you end up scanning it and sending it off somewhere, which in turn digitises the signature.
This is the way forward in my opinion.
A good example would be the gas/electric meter guy, or certain delivery companies – they have a PDA or similar device, which you have to use a stylus to sign your name (digitally).
Seth Garcia
/ June 13, 2010Does this app also allow you to take a picture.
This is a must especially of the model holding her license or ID.
Jon
/ June 13, 2010I can add that in the next update.
Dave
/ July 5, 2010Love this idea, they have one for the iphone I just discovered, and I’m getting my android in 3 days. This will be so much easier than having to take paper copies with me. Will be great when you can attach photos please add this feature soon, I’d gladly pay
Cheers
Kurt
/ July 9, 2010Adding the photograph and embedding it with the contract would be awesome.
Morgan Belford
/ July 12, 2010FYI, Easy Release for Android is now available in the Android Market! Our iPhone version is already used by 10s of thousands of professional photographers. Go to http://www.applicationgap.com for more details, or just search for Easy Release in the Market app on your Android device.
Claudio
/ August 22, 2010Janne,
> your holiday snaps for a travel piece
Not really. Editorial content is not subject to the same constraints of commercial content.
Jon
/ September 5, 2010The latest update for Model Release Pal has just been released today!
Added a few features that people have been asking for.
Keep me posted on what else you want – can get in contact with me via http://www.xil3.com
And it’s still free :)
@Morgan Your marketing tactics are a bit … how can I say it… unprofessional? You’ve hijacked almost every single thread of mine that I’ve made in regards to Model Release Pal…