Second Wedding shooter

[lynweber]

So i have been tagging along with a local photog who is my dear friend. I have been thinking should the photos I give her be my work or since i went with her are they hers. I am unclear on this and havent put any of them up on my site for shared any of them because i'm not sure what the line is.

It's good to work this out with the photographer ahead of time.

Generally, I give the main photographer rights to reproduce, sell, and commercially use the photos any way he/she wants. All I ask is that I can use the photos for promotional purposes (i.e. use to drum up business for myself). This doesn't have to be anything formal, especially between friends. Just a general understanding, and you should be fine.

[BCampbell]

It depends on what's written out in the contract you sign when you work with her.

You do sign a contract, right?

With very few exceptions the person who presses the button on the camera owns the rights to the photos. A wedding photographer wouldn't put photos shot by their 2nd in their own portfolio unless they really don't give a dong about their reputation.

Since it sounds like you have a friendly agreement, just ask, shouldn't be that hard. Of course, you're within your rights to use the photos, but if she says no, go with that; you'll have other opportunities for portfolio building in the future.

[lynweber]

Originally Posted by BCampbell

It depends on what's written out in the contract you sign when you work with her.

You do sign a contract, right?

With very few exceptions the person who presses the button on the camera owns the rights to the photos. A wedding photographer wouldn't put photos shot by their 2nd in their own portfolio unless they really don't give a dong about their reputation.

Since it sounds like you have a friendly agreement, just ask, shouldn't be that hard. Of course, you're within your rights to use the photos, but if she says no, go with that; you'll have other opportunities for portfolio building in the future.

No I dont sign a contract with her. She has mentioned to upload images that i feel would be useful to the couple to a shared file sight. I'll have to clarify with her i think. I'm sure it will be easy as we are friends.

[Swisstony10]

Originally Posted by Photoboothguy

This doesn't have to be anything formal, especially between friends. Just a general understanding, and you should be fine.

I hate to disagree and sound like one of those really petty hard-nosed-businessman kind of photographers, but if you're treating photography as a business (as suggested by the fact that you want to use your images to promote yourself professionally), then you absolutely do need to have a firm, clear, non-arguable and contracted agreement covering exactly who can do what with the images.

Leaving it to interpretation is leaving you wide open to misunderstand each others' intentions, which can, should things every go wrong, completely ruin a good and long-standing friendship.

I did a wedding for two good friends a couple of weeks back, and for various reasons, it was their wedding present from me - I didn't attend as a proper guest until after the speeches were finished (when I'd normally stop working anyway) - but even then, with it being a present for some good friends, they still had a contract.

If you're doing photography as a business, whether it's full-time or once every three weeks, then you really do need to treat it like that in every single aspect, and that means having a contract for absolutely everything that could possibly be misunderstood and lead to potential ill-feeling or at worst a lawsuit.

If the other person is a good friend, and a professional, they should understand the importance of that, and should be only too happy not only to sort something out formally, but also to help you to put together a contract and understand everything that it entails.

(Sorry to sound like a party-pooper on that one, but seriously - get your head around the importance of contracts and agreements early on, so that it becomes second nature, and it'll make the business side of things far less risky)

Russ.