As a professional or even amateur photographer, you know you need to register your photos with the Copyright Office to be able to enforce your rights. But what is the best way for photographers to register their work? Here are your options.
Full disclosure: RightsClick is our company. We’ve tried to lay out the alternatives fairly so you can choose what fits.
Copyright registration options for photographs at a glance
| Option | Handles group registration | Added cost on top of Copyright Office fees | Time to submission | Pricing published |
| Copyright Office (direct) | Yes, up to 750 photos | None, other than your time | As fast as you can complete it | Yes |
| LegalZoom | No, single works only | $114 per application | Not stated | Yes |
| Copyright lawyer | Yes | Hourly, often hundreds of dollars per hour | Varies | No |
| Cosynd | Yes | $35 | Can take months | Yes |
| RightsClick | Yes, plus single works | $15 (under 100 images) or $30 (larger groups), plus $11.95/month subscription | A few days, often same-day | Yes |
Register photographs directly with the U.S. Copyright Office
The United States Copyright Office allows you to submit your copyright registration application directly to them via the office’s website. The cost is $55 per group of photos, which can be up to 750 individual images. [Note: Fees are increasing from $55 to $85 in November, 2026]. The Copyright Office doesn’t make it easy to register your work.
- There is a long list of rules of what can and cannot be included in a single group.
- You have to upload a spreadsheet of the titles of all the photos and the corresponding filenames along with the images.
- You also have to enter the name of each photo, separated by commas, into a box on the Copyright Office website that only allows up to 1,999 characters at a time. Uploads have size limits as well.
If you have the time and patience to work through all of these requirements, you can submit your photos on your own. In 2011, the Professional Photographers of America told the Copyright Office that only about 1% of professional photographers register on a regular basis. “Photographers already working over 40 hours per week simply refuse to take the time away from day-to-day operations, their clients, and also their families, to navigate the complexities of copyright registration.”[1]
Filing copyright registration through LegalZoom
Many people are familiar with the online legal tools at LegalZoom. LegalZoom offers a copyright registration portal. It’s a fairly straightforward set of questions about your work. However, the LegalZoom portal is limited to single work applications – the LegalZoom portal is not equipped to handle group applications. LegalZoom charges $114 plus the Copyright Office filing fees. So, if you are trying to register 100 photos, LegalZoom is going to cost you over $17,000. According to my partner here at RightsClick, David Newhoff, “That is prohibitive for every photographer we’ve ever met.”
Hire a copyright lawyer to register your copyright
You can also hire a lawyer to take care of your copyright registration applications. The benefit is that you will have a professional review and handle your application. It is easy for you and everything should be done right. The downside of hiring a lawyer for managing your copyright registration process is the cost. Lawyers commonly charge hundreds of dollars per hour for their services, so this option can also get expensive fast. A lawyer certainly can be useful, particularly if you have an infringement lawsuit. Sometimes a law firm will handle your registrations at a discount because they want your litigation business, which is much more valuable. We have put together a list of copyright lawyers on the RightsClick website, in case you want to investigate this option.
Cosynd registration platform
Cosynd offers registration application services and they do handle group applications of photos. Cosynd charges $35 on top of Copyright Office fees and they promise to assist you with your application. The downside is that it can take months to submit your application. That matters: your effective date of registration is the date the Copyright Office receives your application, not the date you hand it to Cosynd. Your photos are protected from the moment you create them, but the effective date determines whether statutory damages and attorney’s fees are available for an infringement. Any delay before submission is a window where that remedy may be lost.
RightsClick platform for registering photographs for copyright
RightsClick offers registration application services for groups of photos and single works. The brief set of questions on the RightsClick platform automatically complies with Copyright Office rules so you avoid common mistakes. RightsClick then submits your application directly to the Copyright Office within just a few days and often same-day, protecting your rights as quickly as possible. We provide ongoing support to help understand the law and any technical issues that may arise. RightsClick charges $15 plus Copyright Office fees for a small photo group (<100 images) and $30 plus Copyright Office fees for larger groups. You also need a subscription, which is $11.95/month, with deep discounts if you are a member of a partner organization like PPA, ASMP, the Copyright Alliance, and others. As a subscriber, you also get ongoing access to the organized database of your images with the relevant copyright registration information, which is crucial if and when you need to take action.
FAQs about registering photographs for copyright protection
For U.S. works, yes. You need a registration (or a refusal from the Copyright Office) before you can file an infringement lawsuit.
It’s the date the Copyright Office receives your complete application, fee and photos. The effective date of registration determines whether statutory damages and attorney’s fees are available for a given infringement.
Yes, and you’ll need to before taking legal actions such as suing. However statutory damages and attorney’s fees generally aren’t available for infringements that began before registration, unless you registered within three months of first publication.
Register your photographs
Which option is best is up to you. Whichever you choose, registering is what lets you protect your photographs and creative work.
[1] Professional Photographers of America’s Comments Regarding Deposit Requirements for Registration of Automated Databases that Predominantly Consist of Photographs, Maria D. Matthews Manager, Copyright & Government Affairs Professional Photographers of America, 2011.
