getting practice...need help

[carinlynchin]

Hi, I put an ad out offering free photography for rights to use them in my portfolio pretty much and to get practice...I've never done it for anyone else and I am so worried that i am not ready...but these people pretty much can't afford one so as one person told me "beggars can't be choosers" ....so anyway, my question is this:


- is it wrong to look at other photographers wedding pics and get posing ideas from them? I don't know if that is considered intellectual property or what...


and a second thing is that when you do photography for others ...who retains the rights to it..the photographer or the person who it is of? Just wondering for my own personal knowledge because when I pay a photographer for portraits of my family I want to be sure that they can't end up on the internet or anything without my permission first....but at the same time I need to know from a photographers point of view....so I don't get sued Do I need some kind of contract?


thanks (even though it turned out to be a few questions )


Carine

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by carinlynchin

- is it wrong to look at other photographers wedding pics and get posing ideas from them? I don't know if that is considered intellectual property or what...


and a second thing is that when you do photography for others ...who retains the rights to it..the photographer or the person who it is of? J

1: Not at all. I keep stacks of Esquire, Vogue, GQ, etc lying around for posing ideas. Whenever i find something i like, I save it into an "inspiration" folder. As long as you're not blatantly COPYING, its fine.

2: This depends entirely on how you word your contract. Generally speaking the photographer retains the rights and licenses the customer to use them for prints, etc.

[ML Photography]

People usually "study" great photographers' portfolios to get a flavour of their way of thinking about composition, exposure and so on. This is absolutely fair as long as you do not "copy" the idea but use it as a hint and develop your own style...

This is how I interpret it, at least...

[TheEagleSpirit]

I look at other's pictures all the time and take notes of how they were taken and where. Being an amateur photographer, I learn a lot from the work of others and the forums here are great places to learn.

[Sobriquet]

Absolutely look at others work, just today I google best photographers in the world. Although the results are subjective they are also very very useful and wonderful! I have lots of inspiration images form other photographers and shelves full of photography books which is pretty much the smae sort of thing. Never say one is yours and use them as inspiration. No harm in even trying to copy a pose or idea, but it is better if you ask yourself what you like about it and make your image about that.

To use the images for your portfolio you should get a model release, I have a very basic one that works for me, it basically says you can use the pics and they forfiet all rights. In return you give them the images on a dsic (or whatever your arrangement is). If you want a copy of mine send me an email michelle.armour1@gmail.com I don't mind, no guarantee of it being legal but you can change the wording to suit the deal youa re doing.

[LeeR]

There is a staggering amount of mis-information out there about when and where you need a model release. I would, therefore, strongly reccomend you visit Dan Heller's excellent site where he lays out the details in excellent fashion. Knowing the facts could save your bacon one day.

As for borrowing ideas, I suggest you visited David Ziser's site. He encuarages people to borrow his ideas and he is one of the premiere wedding photographers in the country. Other's you may want to check out are Monty Zucker and his protege Clay Blackmore, Dennis Reggie (arguably the best in the country, right now), Bambi Cantrell and Gary Fong. (Gary made a bet with his parents that he would either figure out a way to make more money than a doctor with his camera or go to medical school. Notice, his name is not Dr. Gary Fong!) Truth is, there are a lot of people out there who will encourage you all they can. Why? Because there was a time when they were doing the same thing.

[SuperDan]

In my opinion if you are just out shooting, and not doing homework like reading and spending countless hours here on DPS or even on flickr looking at peoples photographs then, really I dont feel you are ever going to advance. Constantly I am always looking for more inspiration and reading... literally as I sit and type this I have three books on my desk for reading and glancing today.. one of them is 500 poses for photographing women... its a visual.. so no reading, but great images and this book was actually created to give inspiration
*theres also a bride one too

In regards to the pics, I agree with everyone... but, currently I am kinda doing the same thing as you Carine, in that I am working with people to build up a portfolio. And just as Sobriquet and OsmosisStudios.. its all in your contract/release. Mine currently says something to the effect of that I will be using their likeness for advertising purposes... that way they know..

Good Luck

[Jim Bryant]

Yes, you need a contract when you shoot pictures of other people as well as any other type of commercial photography. They are there to protect your rights as a photographer.