The author of a photograph that is the photographer who created it, is under international law the owner of the copyright. This applies equally to commissioned photographs and to those which are not.

This was the major photographic reform enshrined in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Under UK law, only the copyright owner can license the copying of a photograph.

That means reproducing the image in any material or electronic form, this includes storing the image in any medium including electronic. Only the copyright owner can license the issuing of a photograph to the public..

In practice, this means that clients may only use photographs taken by a professional photographer in ways that have been agreed at the time they were commissioned. If further uses are required at a later date, permission must be sought from the copyright holder and an additional fee agreed.

For this reason, it is essential that clients specify the uses to which images will be used when briefing a photographer and requesting a quotation. - preferably in writing. This agreement then forms part of the contract.

The contract should cover how the work will be used, where (geographically) it will be used and for how long it will be used.