First adult shoot checklist: what to settle before you say yes

Almost everything that goes wrong on a first paid adult shoot was decided beforehand, in a conversation that did not happen. Not because anyone was acting in bad faith, but because the awkward questions are easiest to leave until they are impossible to ask, which is the moment you are standing in a studio with your coat off.

This is the list of things to settle before you say yes, what to do on the day, and what you should leave holding.

Before you agree: eight things in writing

1. The register, named

Lingerie, swimwear, boudoir, implied, art nude, explicit. Not "tasteful", not "artistic", not "sensual". If the booker will not name it in plain words, that is the answer to a different question and you should decline. Get it in a message you can scroll back to, not on a call.

2. What is in frame, and what is not

Specific: what is covered, what is not, whether there is a shot list, and whether you will see it beforehand. Write your own limits out and send them. The correct response to a list of boundaries is agreement, not negotiation, and how a booker responds to that message tells you most of what you need to know about them.

3. The rate, the usage, and the difference

Two separate numbers in effect: what you are paid for the day, and what they may do with the images afterwards. Portfolio use and a paid social campaign are different products at different prices. If the brief does not say the usage, ask, and do not accept "we will figure that out later", because later means after they have the files. Our piece on day rates and usage buyouts explains the multipliers, and you can run your own numbers in the rate builder.

4. Hours, overtime and the kill fee

Call time, wrap time, an hourly rate for anything past it, and what happens if they cancel. A standard arrangement is 50 percent inside 48 hours and 100 percent inside 24. Also agree what happens if the shoot is cut short on their side: it is paid in full.

5. Who is on set

Names and roles. Photographer, assistant, hair and makeup, client, anyone else. Ask whether you may bring a chaperone and treat any hesitation as disqualifying. A professional set has no problem with an extra person sitting quietly in the corner; the only people who object are the ones whose objection is itself the information.

6. Where, exactly

A commercial studio, a rented space, a residential address. All three are legitimate, but they are different risk profiles and a residential address should come with more of the other answers, not fewer. Get the full address in advance, not a postcode and a phone call on the day.

7. Payment terms

How much, by what method, and when. Same day, seven days, thirty days. Ask for a deposit on a first booking with an unknown booker; it is normal, it costs a serious client nothing, and it filters out a specific kind of problem entirely.

8. The paperwork

What you will be asked to sign, and whether you can read it before the day. A release and a usage licence are normal and you should expect them. Being handed a document on a phone at wrap and asked to sign immediately is not normal, and the correct response is that you will read it and send it back tomorrow. Our guide to releases and usage rights covers what each clause should say.

Checking the booker

You are allowed to do due diligence and a professional will expect it.

• Ask for two references from models they have booked, and actually contact them.
• Look for a body of published work, not just a mood board.
• Check whether the account is verified, how long it has existed, and whether it has completed bookings.
• Ask what happens to the files: where stored, for how long, who else has access.
• Tell someone where you are going, the address, and when you expect to be finished. Arrange to message them at a specific time.

On a platform, the equivalent question is what the platform actually checks. Here, a booking request comes from a confirmed account, and every model profile has cleared government ID and a liveness match before publishing, which means the other applicants were held to the same standard you were.

Red flags that are always worth acting on

• Refusal to name the register in plain words.
• Any hesitation about a chaperone.
• Rate that only becomes clear after you have committed.
• "We will do the paperwork afterwards."
• Pressure to decide quickly, or a claim that another model is waiting.
• Any suggestion that the shot list might extend "if it feels right on the day".
• Being asked to send an identity document directly to an individual by message.

That last one deserves emphasis. Age verification is necessary and legitimate. Sending your passport to a stranger's phone is not the way to do it. A verification should be performed by a system that holds the document and gives the producer a confirmation, not a copy. If you have already done that with someone, it is worth asking them to delete it and confirming they have.

On the day

• Arrive with your own transport arrangements and enough phone battery to leave.
• Confirm the shot list before you change. If it has grown since the brief, it has not grown.
• Boundaries can be narrowed at any point. That is not a renegotiation, and it does not affect the fee.
• You can stop. A shoot you stop is still paid for the day. If a booker disputes that, they have told you what they are.
• Take breaks, eat, and do not let a long day become a reason to agree to something quickly at the end of it.
• Do not sign anything you have not read. "I will read this tonight and send it back" is a complete sentence.

What you should leave holding

• A signed, dated copy of the model release, describing what was actually shot.
• A copy of the usage licence stating territory, term, exclusivity and media.
• Written confirmation of the fee and when it will be paid.
• Your own note of who was present and what was shot, written the same day.

Keep these permanently and locally, not only in a platform account. If work later appears somewhere outside the licence, the document you are holding is the difference between a conversation and a dispute you cannot evidence. Platforms change, close and delete; a folder on your own drive does not. Our piece on where adult work is allowed covers why that matters more in this industry than most.

After

Chase payment on the day it is due, politely and in writing. Add the images to your book when the licence allows. If the booker was good, say so where other models will see it, because the information asymmetry in this industry is the whole problem and the only fix is people sharing what they know.

And if it went badly, write it down while it is fresh: what was agreed, what happened, who was there. You may never need it. If you do, contemporaneous notes are worth far more than a recollection twelve months later.

Getting paid, and the admin nobody mentions

A first paid booking usually also means a first invoice, and the invoice is where an otherwise good job turns into a three week chase. Send it the same day, while the shoot is the most recent thing in the booker's inbox rather than the fourth item down. It needs your name, the date of the shoot, a one line description of what was booked, the agreed fee, any agreed overtime or travel, the payment method, and the date payment is due. If a purchase order number was mentioned when the booking was agreed, put it on the invoice: on the production side that number is what lets somebody in finance pay you without asking a second person.

Decide in advance what name and address appear on it. Many models work under a professional name and are reasonably unwilling to put a home address on a document that circulates inside a company they have met once. A registered business address, an accountant's address or a mail forwarding service all solve this, and all of them are cheaper than the alternative. This is worth settling before the first booking rather than at the point the invoice is due.

Keep your own records from the first job, not the fifth. What you were paid, by whom, when, what was deducted, and what you spent to be there. In most jurisdictions this work is self-employment and the record you keep is the one a tax authority expects to see; the specifics differ by country and this is not tax advice, but the habit is the same everywhere. A single spreadsheet with one row per booking, started early, is the entire solution. Started late, it becomes an afternoon of reconstructing a year from bank statements.

If payment goes past its due date, chase in writing on the day, not a week later, and keep the tone flat. Most late payment is administrative rather than adversarial, and a polite message that repeats the invoice number and the agreed date resolves the majority of it. What makes that message work is that the terms were agreed in advance and are written down somewhere you can both see, which is the point of settling them before you said yes.

None of this is legal advice. It is the list of questions experienced models ask before a first booking with an unfamiliar client, compressed into one page. If you are setting up a profile, what a model account gets and what a bookable portfolio contains are the practical next steps.