Who owns the photographs

I hold the copyright in every photograph I take, under the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000. Booking a session buys you a licence to use your images. It does not transfer the copyright, which stays with Sharon Byrne Photography.

That is standard across the industry and it is not meant to restrict you. The licence below is deliberately generous for the things clients actually want to do with their photographs.

What your licence covers

If you have commissioned a portrait, family, children’s or equine session, your licence is personal, non-exclusive, worldwide and does not expire. You may:

  • Print your images at any size, as often as you like, for your own home and for family and friends
  • Share them on your personal social media accounts
  • Use them as profile pictures and in personal messages
  • Include them in personal photo books, cards and albums
  • Give copies to family members for their own personal use

Headshots and personal branding

A headshot or personal branding session comes with a business use licence for the person photographed and their employer at the time of the session. That covers LinkedIn and other professional profiles, your company website and bio pages, press and speaker profiles, business cards, email signatures and internal company material.

If the images are going into a paid advertising campaign, on billboards, or into a stock library, that is a wider commercial use and needs a separate licence. Ask me and I will quote for it.

What the licence does not allow

  • Selling, sublicensing or supplying the images to anyone else for their own commercial use
  • Entering the images into competitions or exhibitions as your own work
  • Re-editing, filtering, cropping or otherwise altering the images in a way that materially changes them
  • Removing or obscuring any credit or watermark
  • Using the images, or supplying them to any service that uses images, to train artificial intelligence or machine learning models

I retain all rights not expressly granted here, including the right to object to derogatory treatment of my work.

Editing and filters

Please use the files as delivered. Every image is finished to a consistent standard and social media filters tend to undo that. If you would like a different crop, a black and white version or a different aspect ratio, ask me and I will supply it.

Credit

Credit is not required for personal use, though it is always appreciated. Tagging @shabyphotography or crediting Sharon Byrne Photography helps enormously. For editorial, press and any published use, a credit line reading Sharon Byrne Photography is required.

Commercial, editorial and press licensing

If you want to license an existing image, or commission work for commercial use, get in touch. To quote accurately I need to know:

  • Which image or images you want
  • Where they will appear, for example a website, print advertising, packaging or a news article
  • The territory, for example Ireland only or worldwide
  • How long you need the licence for
  • Whether you need exclusivity

Fees are based on those factors rather than a flat rate, which is normal practice for commissioned photography. Editorial and press use of a single image for a news story is usually straightforward and inexpensive.

People in the photographs

I sometimes use images from a session in my portfolio, on this website, in my galleries and on social media. If you would prefer that your photographs are not used that way, just tell me. There is no charge and no awkwardness, and I will note it on your file. For photographs of children I will always ask first.

If you spot an image of yourself on the site that you would rather I removed, email me and I will take it down.

Prints

Your licence lets you print your own images. It does not transfer copyright, so a print made from your files is still my work. Commercial printers occasionally ask for written permission before printing professional photographs. If yours does, email me and I will send a print release the same day.

Unauthorised use

If you find my work used somewhere it should not be, I would be glad to know. Where images are used without a licence I will ask for them to be taken down or licensed retrospectively at my standard commercial rate.

Requesting a licence

Email sharon@shaby.ie or call 087 418 1408. I answer licensing queries quickly and I am easy to deal with.

Last updated 15 September 2026.