What does copyright have to do with your wedding photography?

The voice on the other end of my phone was angry, to say the least.

It was a friend of a friend who had just gotten married. The person was distressed; he just couldn’t understand why his wedding photographer had provided him with a CD of low-resolution wedding photos (all of which, to his great annoyance, were water-marked with the photographer’s logo). So of course, he couldn’t send any of his wedding photos via email to his friends and family. Furthermore, he was then informed that he had to choose photos from that CD, which could only be printed by the wedding photographer.

In essence, there are two problems here:
1) The photographer failing to communicate his/her terms and conditions to the couple prior to the wedding
2) The couple not understanding or knowing about copyright laws

Let’s tackle the first issue - in an ideal world, all wedding vendors should communicate clearly to their clients about the type of services they will be receiving, the limitations of any products/services and the delivery time of same. In this instance, the couple thought they were going to get a CD full of images that would be ready to print and/or email out. Ideally, the photographer should have had the couple sign a contract which specifically indicated what type of items would be received.

Nowadays, many photographers who do digital photography will provide you with a CD of low-resolution images to choose from and then they will handle the printing of the photos for you. Some photographers can even provide you with log-in access to a special web page or digital gallery, where again, you can choose the number of photos you want, depending on the package you paid for.

Another option used by some photographers is to provide their clients with a CD of high-resolution (best digital quality) photographs at an additional cost. And other photographers have no problem giving you this type of high resolution CD as part of their package. So you see, photographers’ contract terms are not standard across the board. This is something that as a couple, you need to be aware of and ask about upfront, in order to prevent any awful surprises post-wedding!

The second issue is one about copyright and the most common question I get asked is:

“Why does the wedding photographer own the copyright for the wedding photos?”
The fact is that anyone who creates something using an artistic medium such as: painting, poetry, literature, drawing, photography, etc., owns the copyright of the work they created, since it is a combination of their ideas, training and skill that is put to use to create the artwork.

Normally, the fee you pay your photographer is for his/her time and skill and an initial set of prints. This fee does not give you any claim to copyright (unless this is expressly stated in the contract). The reason why you have to go through most photographers in order to get prints of your photos is because the photographer is the copyright owner and he/she controls who can copy his/her work.

Two other questions I often get asked are:

(1) “Can the copyright of my wedding photos be assigned to me?
In some circles, this transfer of copyright is called a “buy-out.” A buy-out of the copyright on your wedding photos could perhaps be arranged if the photographer is willing to do this, however, it will cost you an additional fee. Many photographers, however, will only arrange a “buy-out” for commercial photography and not wedding photography.

(2) Who owns the publishing rights of my wedding photos?
It is important to understand that although the photographer owns the copyright to the photos, he/she does not have publishing rights, unless you have signed a “model release” clause, which can give him/her the right to display your image on his/her brochure, website, portfolio or other type of promotional material.