It's the 21st century, the age of all things digital, of the Internet, of Blogs, Twitter, and Facebook; things have certainly moved fast over the last ten years or so. And wedding photography is no different; the digital age has changed everything, for both photographers and their clients.
Everyone now wants immediate access, of course (prints are so last season!). As every good bridal magazine, forum or blog will tell you, a must-have on your wedding photography shopping list is the right to own all the images. You want a disc containing every photograph taken on your day, so that you can make copies of them for your family & friends.
And so, reluctantly, the professional photography market has had to change, adapt and finally give in to consumer wishes. And rightly so, as the client should always dictate the market.
However, some of those same magazines, forums and blogs will tell you to ask for the copyright-free images from your wedding photographer. And you know what? Some photographers actually seem to be doing just that!
The problem with this is that copyright gives total and utter ownership - intellectual rights over those images. The photographer who took them has now handed over the copyright to his client - and has lost ALL rights to use those images. This means should the photographer wish to use them on a website gallery or print a canvas for the studio, for example, or even store a disc with them in a draw, the photographer legally cannot! That is, not without the express permission of the new copyright holder (the client), who of course now has the right to refuse (and/or make a charge for useage).
A photographer who gives you copyright gives away his or her rights to use those images in any way, and in fact may be taken to court and sued for breaching those rights. Maybe your photographer gave you copyright? It might be worth a look on their website galleries for your images...
A wedding photographer with good business sense will of course give their client exactly what they are looking for - a disc of images ready to print. But these will be with 'reproduction rights'; that is, the right for the client to make copies for themselves for personal use to share with family and friends. If you want to use these images for social networking purposes for example, accreditation should be given to the photographer (many photographers nowadays will give a second set of images on the disc already web sized with their logo in the corner). However, the photographer maintains ownership of the copyright, and therefore can use the images for their portfolio and website, and thus everyone is happy.
Remember, wedding photographers are completely at your service on your wedding day, on hand to record the most cherished moments of the big occasion, and all they ask in return is that their hard work is acknowledged, and their copyright respected.
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