Photography FAQs

When any artist, be they a painter, musician, writer or photographer produces a work of art then they own the rights to that work. This is the case when a photographer produces wedding pictures, studio or any form of creative picture. In commercial shoots there is usually a contract agreement in place, whereby the copyright is handed over to the client. This copyright release is part of the fee and contributes to commercial and magazine photography costs.

"The wedding package typically includes a number of copies of the artwork as an album, photobook or prints. These are the product that is being paid for in the photographers fee"

The professional photographer automatically owns the rights to the work produced at the wedding and the wedding fee is to pay for the skill and time of the photographer. When they produce the final album, photobook, website or other products then they are doing so under their rights to produce a copy. This is why the couple will usually arrange in advance with the photographer how they want to receive the images so that it is factored into the price.

If the photographer hands over the actual negatives (physical or digital) then they implicitely are handing over the means for the recipeint to make copies. For this reason any professional photographer who values their work will usually not do so, or will agree a copyright hand over fee.

These are the main ways that couples typically receive their wedding photos:

• Classic photo albums
• Photobook (the pictures are printed onto the pages - a more modern option)
• Prints (either free or mounted on card/metal/PVC/foam)
• A Disc of digital images (these will not be full sized and may carry a small watermark, they are not intended to be printed)
• A DVD - the images are made into a movie slide show