Who Owns Your Pictures?

There won't be any new wedding pictures in weeks post. This is just a general knowledge article to talk a little about a subject most people aren’t very aware of, who owns the photographs a wedding photographer takes and why. Now I live and work in America and the laws of other countries may differ greatly so as with all things advice related your milage may vary.

OK so I fibbed a little. I’m a wedding photographer, there have to be some pictures OK?

Let’s start with this popular misconception: in a public setting a photographer doesn’t need your permission to take your picture. In fact permission is only required if the subject had an expectation of privacy. Also most people commonly believe that if they hire a photographer and she works at their discretion and direction that the work she produces belongs to them, the hiring party. But in reality thats just not true. Based on U.S. Copyright law the photographer who takes the picture owns the copyright for that picture and they have complete control over:

• If It can be reproduced

• If derivative works can be produced based on the photo

• If it can be distributed including but not limited to being sold, given, lended and/or leased

• If it can be displayed publicly

There is one clear exception to this, and that is a work for hire situation. For example if your company employs a full time photographer AND supplies the photographic equipment then that photographers work is work for hire and is considered the property of the employing company. You can also hire freelance photographers as work for hire but typically no talented photographer will consider such an assignment. Mostly because photographers are only considered to be as good as the last photograph they took. If I can’t show the work I shoot its basically not helping to move me or my business forward. This is especially true of wedding photographers, in today’s market I pretty much have to push out a new picture everyday to social media channels.

The first question that jumps to mind when I have this discussion with people is what about their right to privacy. Most people believe this trumps a copyright but they are really different competing sets of rights. A photographer can take your picture without your permission if they are not infringing on your right to privacy. In other words if you are out at the store or in a park or at an event where you can expect to have your picture taken then you shouldn’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy and most people would not find this action offensive (thats the language around the legal definition, not mine). 

Well what about in a studio, office or in your home. Thats private right? Well if you invite a professional photographer into those spaces not really. Most photography contracts basically have a clause in them that says you give the photographer the right to take pictures of your guests, employees, models etc. But even without the clause the fact that you hired and paid for a photographer usually is enough to remove the expectation of privacy.

So how do you get copies of your pictures? Well your photographer can grant or sell you licenses to use the pictures. The license can be explicitly stated in the contract or the license can be implied. For example if as part of the service a photographer delivers prints to you it is implied that displaying the prints is acceptable and that you in fact own those prints. Not the digital copies, those are still the photographers property.

Explicitly stated licensing terms are always better as they avoid possible legal issues in the future. In fact a photographer who contracts without specific licensing terms is exposing themselves as not very knowledgable about the business in general and not caring about what’s best for their clients.

The next question is typically what kind of licensing terms can be provided. In reality your photographer can provide you any kind of usage rights they like but in general the terms fall into two categories:

• Personal use - decoration around your home or office, used on personal Facebook or Twitter accounts, etc

• Commercial use - used to promote a product or business or used to sell an item.

However the terms of how you can use a picture in those two arenas can run anywhere from you having to pay every time you print the image to the photographer providing you the lifetime commercial license at no charge. It is more reasonable to expect that personal use licenses are relatively inexpensive and the expense of commercial use licenses is based on what mediums, how often and how widely the image will be used. In other words it costs more to use an image for a world wide product launch than it does just to print posters to use in your hair salon.

Now I wish I could tell you what licensing is going to cost for other photographers, that there was some general guideline to use. There really isn’t. It is going to depend on how in demand your photographer is, what you want shot and how you want to use it. The costs can vary wildly from photographer to photographer.

For Eleven 11 our Diamond package includes full copyright to your wedding images. You own them and can do whatever you want with them for as long as you have them.

Now why do we do this, why are we so different from the norm? Well I really believe that a phot which is never seen is worthless. I want your pictures out in the wild living their best lives. We also like the simplest path to making our clients happy and this is the simplest path. If you’d like to own your wedding pictures reach out to schedule a complimentary consultation today.

Anyway thats all for now, catch you next week.