Model and property releases for stock video

When stock video needs a model release

The rule is the same at all three agencies: a recognizable person in a commercial clip needs a signed model release. The agencies differ on what “recognizable” covers.

Adobe’s own test is the broadest: “If someone could reasonably identify themselves (or be identified by another), submit a signed model release.” If a clip goes to more than one agency, apply that test.

Typical video cases

• Street scenes. Passers-by who can be recognized need releases you will not get. Shoot wide enough that faces are not identifiable, from behind, or with a shallow depth of field, or submit the clip as editorial where that is accepted.
• Interviews and talking heads. The speaker signs a model release. Anyone else heard on the sound track needs their own, or the audio goes; see audio rejections.
• Hands and close-ups. Adobe asks for releases for body parts even without a face. Shutterstock asks only when a tattoo is visible or the concept is nude or suggestive. A hands-only clip for Adobe still needs paperwork.
• Yourself. Shutterstock requires a release “even if that person is yourself,” and both it and Adobe ask you to fill it in as model and as photographer.
• Your children. For Adobe, print your name and sign twice, as the artist and as the parent, and when possible have both parents sign, one as witness. Shutterstock requires its own downloaded form for minors.
• Drone shots. People too small to identify need nothing. A private home clearly visible in the frame needs a property release at Adobe.

Property releases

A property release is signed by the owner, or an authorized representative of a company that owns the property. Shutterstock requires one in commercial content for artwork (paintings, murals, graffiti, tattoos and more), sculptures, stained glass, sheet music, literary works, lyrics, restricted exterior architecture, building interiors and private land. That covers filming inside a café, an office or a rented apartment.

Adobe’s list adds vehicles, airplanes and other distinctive product shapes, properties with photography policies such as stadiums, museums and amusement parks, and some animals: racehorses, famous pets and zoo animals. Its table answers a few cases directly: a private home clearly visible needs a release; a public beach or open countryside with no private elements, or a generic building, does not. Logos and some famous products raise separate trademark problems, explained in logos and trademarks in stock footage.

Tattoos sit in both categories. Adobe asks for a model release from anyone with visible tattoos, a property release when the tattoo is the close-up focus or shows a protected subject, and possibly a release from the tattoo artist. Shutterstock requires a separate property release for tattoos.

What a valid release contains

Shutterstock’s checklist for an adult model release, which Pond5’s closely matches:

• your first name and surname, or business name;
• the model’s first name and surname;
• the model’s mailing or email address;
• the model’s date of birth;
• the model’s signature and the date signed.

Pond5 also asks for the shoot dates. For a minor, the parent or guardian’s name and signature replace the model’s. Shutterstock rejects releases with crossed-out, whited-out or pasted information, wants a handwritten signature (ink, or a stylus or finger on a touch screen) and dates in the Gregorian calendar, ideally written out in full, such as March 15, 2015. A person known by one name must attach a government ID.

Adobe’s two pages conflict on the format: the upload page (12 June 2026) accepts only PDFs, while the CSV requirements describe the Releases column as a JPEG file name. Keep the signed original and make both a PDF and a single-file JPEG of each release; that covers all three agencies.

Attaching releases, agency by agency

• Shutterstock: in the submission editor, click the + next to Releases, upload the JPEG and choose Model or Property. This works at the submission stage only: a release cannot be added to a clip that is already approved, and the CSV has no release column. Forms are in its Legal Center.
• Adobe Stock: in the Contributor Portal, select the clip in Uploaded Files, answer Yes to “Recognizable people or property?”, then pick an existing release or create one with Adobe Sign or a bulk upload of scans. The CSV can also name releases already uploaded.
• Pond5: upload the release first, by browser or into the releases folder of your FTP, wait for the approval check mark, then use Attach Release from the Actions menu of your uploads. The CSV takes the release file name, with its extension, in the Release column.

Adobe sets clips with flawed releases to “Remind to complete” rather than refusing them outright: inconsistent information, an illegible or incomplete signature, or one release reused for several models.

Name releases so they can be reused

A model who appears in twenty clips from one shoot signs once; you attach the same release to each clip. Adobe’s portal lets you search for an existing release, and Pond5 lets you attach an approved release to any of your files. Name each file after the person and the shoot date, and keep the name short: Adobe’s CSV allows 30 characters in the Releases column and, when two releases share a name, uses the most recent. Pond5’s CSV expects the exact file name with its extension, several names separated by commas.

Collect them on set

Get the signature on the day, before or right after the shot, and take a reference photo of the model: Adobe requires a reference image with Acrobat Sign releases, and Shutterstock lets you attach reference images at submission. On Adobe releases, the witness must be someone other than the model or the photographer, unless the release is signed with Acrobat Sign.

Editorial clips without releases

Shutterstock and Pond5 accept recognizable people and private property in editorial clips without releases. Those clips cannot be used to advertise or promote anything, documentary clips need a factual caption, and none can be altered in post. Shutterstock asks for press credentials at concerts in ticketed venues, sporting events, red carpets, runway shows and similar events. The rules are in the editorial stock footage guide.

Adobe does not accept traditional editorial content, and its illustrative editorial program excludes recognizable people. A clip with an unreleased person cannot go to Adobe at all.