Never do paid photo work without a contract. It's easier than you think.

Many discussions on this sub could be solved if the photographer had a contract and work order in place before they started work on a paid gig. You don't need a lawyer. There are templates everywhere that make it easy (AI chatbots may not be good enough yet).

• A contract states the general terms of your relationship and how you're going to get paid.
• A work order describes each project. It says what you're going to do, how much you'll get paid, and what you're going to give the client as a finished product (edited jpgs, raws files, no raws, an extra fee for raws, a fee for digging up files several years after the project completed because the client can't find them, etc.). It also includes deadlines. If the amount of work changes after work starts, a change order or new work order must be issued.
• Invoices are issued for the deposit and final payment.

Get templates from:

• Professional Photographers Association ($17/month) (they also can insure your gear)
• American Society of Media Photographers ($100/year)
• Legal Zoom ($59/template)

You may lose bad clients while negotiating the terms of a contract. But it's crucial to spell out what you're willing to do, not do, and what you're going to charge. If you and the client aren't on the same page, it's better to know that before any work has been done than to be pissed off about it later.

You could hire a lawyer to help you generate templates that you can modify on your own. Small business lawyers will often do that for a couple of hundred bucks. But even if you use a template and it isn't perfect, it'll probably hold up in a small claims court.

A note on payments: I always require a 50% deposit upfront. And 50% upon completion. For the final payment, I very clearly lay out a 25% late fee for payments received more than 30 days after invoice. When you're a freelancer needing to pay your bills, it's nice to be able to hit up a client a few weeks after sending and invoice and say, "Hey, get me a check next week or you'll get hit with that fee that you agreed to."