Sometimes people ask if they can get copyright to the images, but typically they only want to be able to print their own photos. Copyright is an important concept to understand, so we wanted to take the opportunity to talk a little bit about this.
The question about the copyright of your wedding photos (or any type of photo taken by a professional photographer) comes into play when you purchase the digital photographs from your photographer. By the way, we hope that everyone understands that photographic prints are not meant to be scanned on a home scanner and then reprinted. When you do this, it means you’re hurting the reputation of the photographer that created the photo, because the reprint will not reflect the quality that the photographer provided.
Let’s assume that you have purchased the disc of the digital images. Most photographers will give you a so-called “image usage licence” which basically means that you are given the right to make prints with the digital files. This does not mean, however, that you own the copyright of the photos; that is a different thing. The contract between you and the photographer will specify that they still have the full legal rights to the images, but the client will have the rights to reproduce the images for personal use. It will be illegal for you to sell your photos, or enter them into contests, for example. After all, you aren’t the person who made them. Typically, a photographer will never sell the copyright to an image, unless it is for a very high premium, as it means that they loose all the rights to the image.
You can compare photographs with other artwork, such as paintings. When you buy an original painting you can compare it to purchasing copyright of a photograph. It means you OWN the piece. It will be a very valuable piece of art, because there is only one original.
The same applies to photography. Photographers are artists and there is only one original photograph and one copyright holder. Most of the time you would choose to receive just the personal usage rights to an image, which can be compared to a reproduction of a famous piece of art. There is a price tag, but it will be a lot more affordable than the original.
Just a side note here that photographers always have the moral rights to their images (even if they sell the copyright). Moral rights to an image means that photographers have the right to have their name associated with their work, and also the right to the integrity of their work (so no clipping, cropping or editing of the image).
You might have noticed that we didn’t say “digital negatives.” That is because the digital photographs you receive will typically not be the files straight out of the camera. In the film days when you were given the negatives, they were the files that came straight out of the camera. These days, photographers spend a lot of time working on the images after the wedding in Photoshop and other progams to make the image look its best. Sometimes people think that with the switch to digital cameras photography has become less expensive, but it is the complete opposite. Yes, photographers don’t need to buy rolls of film, but there are lots of other expenses that weren’t there in the film days (such as retouching software and storage of all the terabytes of photographs they shoot every year). And don’t forget the amount of time a photographer has to work on the images, while in the film days they would simply drop off the rolls at the lab. Nowadays a photographer will typically spend a week on one wedding! That’s a lot of work for one day of shooting!
We hope that you understand a little bit more about the copyright to your images. If you have any questions that we left unanswered, feel free to contact us!
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