I have been wanting to write a blog about Copyright for awhile now. This year more than ever I have noticed folks violating my and other photographer’s copyright in some way. To be honest, I was a little hesitant to even write about something like this on my blog. Then I got to thinking that it was silly of me to not want to educate people on this matter. Most people just do not know what is allowed and what is not when it comes to photographs. I have discussed this issue with many photographers and it saddens me when I hear them say they WANT to educate brides about copyright, but don’t want to sound mean or lose bookings. As artists, I think it’s important for people to know what they can and cannot do with our images on DVD and images on our blogs/websites. Of course, some photographers will have different rules when it comes to their work, so check with your photographer before doing anything with their images.
Images on a photographer’s blog/website
Many wedding and portrait photographers these days have blogs. This is the place where they post images from their recent weddings and sessions. Keeping up a blog is a lot of work for the photographer and images we post after a wedding (sometimes even hours after a wedding) is a courtesy to our clients to see sneak peeks of their images. We spend hours editing and even touching up the images for our blogs, because a blog is like a second website and all images need to maintain quality.
It is very easy to take an image from anywhere on the internet and put it on our Facebook pages. I personally don’t mind my clients using my blog images on their Facebooks. I would just appreciate it if they ASKED first. Photographers spend a lot of time editing blog images and we like to know where our images are ending up on the internet. Do not crop out a photographers logo if your photographer allows you to use a blog image for Facebook/Myspace/etc. There is a reason why their logo is on their image! Also, it’s a nice gesture to give your photographer photo credit when you use their photos online, especially if you don’t plan on purchasing a print or digital file of that photo. Some photographers require this if you use images on the internet, and some do not. Again, ask your photographer.
-Do not print images from a photographers website/blog.I’ve seen this happen many times with not only my images, but other photographer’s images as well. Your photographer works very hard on each photo they print to make sure they look amazing. When images are printed from a blog, not only is your photographer not getting compensated for all their work, the image is being printed from a resolution that is far too small and will look pixelated. If you’d like a print made, contact your photographer on how to purchase a print from them. Many photographers sell high resolution digital files that you can use to make your own prints
-Attention wedding bloggers! We photographers LOVE the fact that we can be published on a wedding blog. It gives us more exposure to potential clients and who wouldn’t love seeing their work featured? We would just appreciate it if you ASKED to use our images before taking them from our blog. Yes, you may have given us credit and even linked to our website (thank you!) but I have had some clients that do not want to be splashed all over the internet and were only okay with being on my blog. Please know that some brides don’t want their wedding/images featured! Be sure to ask the photographers permission before taking an image and publishing it on your own wedding blog.
Photos on DVD/CD
A lot of photographers now offer high resolution images on DVD/CD for you to make your own prints. I personally love offering these to my clients and include at least the wedding day images in all my collections. I too would want all my images on a disk for me to look at whenever I’d want, make prints, etc. A problem I’m seeing lately is people doing whatever they want with the images on the disk including entering photos in contests, using photos for commercial usage, submitting photos to magazines, editing photos in photoshop, etc.
-Commercial Usage- Let’s say you start a business working in weddings. You want to use one of your photographers images from your wedding for your website or brochures. You will need to ask your photographer for permission first. (Our print release does not allow any commercial use, so another agreement would need to be made.) Most likely you’ll need to give your photographer photo credit whenever you use the image or you will have to pay a commercial usage fee.
This also applies to your other wedding vendors. If your florist, cake baker, DJ, etc asks you for some images from your wedding from your disk, please direct them to your photographer. You most likely cannot redistribute the files to anyone including family members and friends. Having these vendors go through the copyright owner ensures that the photos will be used legally.
-Submitting photos to magazines- The idea of having your wedding featured in a magazine is pretty exciting. You have the files on DVD, you know how to submit the photos, now all you have to do is send the files to the editor and hope they publish it. This will most likely not be allowed by your photographer without their permission. Unfortunately, I’ve had a wedding of mine featured in a magazine without my knowledge(bride submitted my photos without my permission) and no credit was given to me. For an artist, seeing your images in a magazine and NOT seeing your name next to them is crushing. You’d think the magazine would have the common sense to ask who took the photos because we all know that a bride can’t shoot her own wedding! If you’re wanting your wedding published either in a magazine or online wedding blog, tell your photographer about it. They will be thrilled that you love your photos enough to have the rest of the world see and will be happy to submit your wedding for you. This ensures that your photographer will get the credit they deserve for all the hard work they put into your wedding.
Another reason why photographers would rather submit weddings themselves is so they can touch-up all the photos that will be published. The photos on your disk are most likely not touched-up and we artists want to make sure our images look their best when they are in print.
-Editing a photographers photo in Photoshop-I see this done a lot! I’ve seen things done to my art ranging from insane (making a photo of a groom into a red skinned devil with horns,) to misrepresenting my style (selective coloring, faddish special effects, etc.) With all of them, they are not things I put in my work. Would you go to an art show, buy a painting and go home and paint over it? Of course not. You bought the painting because you loved how it moved you, loved the painters perspective. Don’t apply effects to a photographers image. It’s really tempting to “play” with someones photos in photoshop and then print it out. This grossly misrepresents our work/style.
-Selling the files/prints- If anyone should be making money off of your photographers images it should be your photographer. Enough said.
Things you most likely can do with images on DVD:
-Take the disk to your local printer and make prints.
-Upload images to an online printing company and make prints there.
-Make albums with snapfish, shutterfly, etc.(but DO NOT upload files to Shutterfly for families and friends to purchase prints)
-Make Christmas cards, Thank you cards.
-Upload photos to Facebook (with a photo credit, please!)
A photographer should give you a “Print Release” stating what you can and cannot do with the images on disc. Every photographer will have different rules, so please read carefully.
Scanning and copying
So you decided to purchase a print from your photographer. Awesome! We love clients that value good prints that last a lifetime. You purchased a copy of that image from the photographer. You cannot scan the image for any reason including making copies for let’s say, Christmas cards. This is Copyright infringement. If you want Christmas cards, you will either need to go through your photographer for them or purchase a digital file to use for the cards. This will most likely cost more than just buying a 4×6 print from your photographer and scanning the image but your photographer should be compensated for you using their work.
The image files on your DVD/CD also cannot be copied and redistributed to family and friends. The print release you get from your photographer only has your and your spouses name on it, meaning you can only use the disk for personal use. Redistributing the files to others gives a greater chance of the photos being used in a way the photographer would not approve of. By all means you can purchase prints for family and friends but you cannot copy the files and share them electronically.
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A final word
In our culture, we have gotten used to nearly everyone having a camera with them at every event they attend from birthday parties to weddings to nights out at the bar. Then all our friends upload these to the internet for everyone to see. It is happening too often that people treat our images the same way. When you hire me to photograph your wedding or your family, you are not just paying for the final product of an image on a disk or a print in a frame. You are paying for the service of my years of experience capturing images, and handling those hundreds of images through the post process to make sure they look wonderful whether on your computer or on your wall. You are hiring me because you believe in my art and trust that I will best capture the “moment” of the most important event in your life. Likewise, I trust that you will treat my art with the same respect I will treat your wedding. This kind of respectful relationship is the kind that will allow us to work most effectively in capturing the magic of your wedding. You are a partner with me in this regard, and I need you to honor our relationship with respect and dignity, just as you need me to do the same for you. I love what I do, and it is a privilege to be a part of such an intimate special part of people’s lives! Hopefully this helps everyone understand a little bit better why we have these limitations on how you can use a photographers images.
