If so, then I would ask the photog to supply one with out the layover.

It does sound like a bait and switch, which is too bad. If that is how a anyone works to get business, then that does not say good about their character.

Let us know what comes of this.

JM

You summed him up in a nutshell and no doubt he will eventually do this to someone else. I certainly won’t recommend him. I have established a very good relationship with the wedding venue and planners and they are disgusted by this guy, so I guess in the end he’s shot himself in the foot. After all reputation is everything.

Thanks again for all advice provided.

Kindest regards

Jenny

Before you cancel your album, make sure you are not losing your deposit or are responsible for any more money. If so, you might just want to bite your lip and see the results. If they are not to your liking, then you at least have a cause for a refund, otherwise you could end up paying for nothing.

To find a pro in your area that can help you, I would check with your friends and family to see if there are any that they would recommend. Other than that, I would visit a couple of studios and view there products, finished and bound. Sit with the staff and share your story and what you would like to end up with. If they can retouch your photos that you have concerns with and what examples of retouching can they show you.

A lot of folks don’t realize that picking the photos that are to put into the album is just the start. The photos you start with are not “finished” A pro will spend a lot of time going over each photo, enhancing, retouching and cropping were needed. Big difference if done correctly. Then they need to design a album that flows and creates a story of that special day. From there it is sent off to printing, the prints are sometimes sent back for the photographer to evaluate and give thumbs up or down, then they are sent back to be pressed into a book and all.

Good Luck

JM

I can appreciate that the photographer may feel that his pics have photographical merit but I feel these pics are very private and sensitive. I know that I may be perceived as vain, but I thought if you employed someone to do a job and you trusted them to take pics of your special day you should be able to trust them to request your permission or at least consult you before displaying such sensitive photographs.

I have approached my photographer about this and he has refused to remove the images of me, I’m guessing he has spent alot of money on the album he has on display which is a graphi studio one. We haven’t received ours yet so I am cancelling our order and going to ask another photographer to put our album together. I know we’ll lose alot of money by doing this but I don’t want to consult with him any further. When I bought the copyright i naively thought I was buying the copyright in the whole sense of the word, however I suppose with digital technology you never completely own images of yourself, I just paid £500 for the privilage of copying photos from my own wedding!!

I really appreciate any comments posted in reply and if anyone has any suggestions for a good photographer to put my album together who will not exploit our images I would be much obliged to hear from you.

Thank you in advance.

I have over 1500 weddings shot and that post has me thinking we are missing something. I read the post twice to be sure, but something does not sound right……and …..if it doesn’t sound right, it usually is not.

From the post, if I understand you hired a photographer for your wedding to be held last May. After that you paid extra in July for the “rights” to the images that you did not like, except for a few. Then you spent a lot of time selecting photos for the photographer to create a album with even though you could have had someone else do it. Ok, maybe that was in you original package, but still seems odd.

Maybe it is just me, but I would love to hear “the rest of the story”.

Most Pro photographers have in their contracts, a release that allows them to use the photos for marketing, etc. and if they are good, will update their albums at least once a year. We rotate our albums out for show, but retain them for use just in case the wedding is at a venue that a prospective bride is using.

For a pro to spend the time and money creating photos for the walls of his studio, albums and such for wedding fairs, tells me that “they” thought the images were great and that was what they wanted to show future clients of their quality, style and mood.

I usually will make up a album that is different from the brides album because I am not constrained to using photos of people or things that a bride might feel compelled to do. While the bride might take a long time to pick her photos and I understand that, I can go through and whip one out in a short time. Nothing worse for a photographer to show than DATED work.

When copyrights are sold, they are conditional and have several states of power. Some give the rights for personal use only, some for a limited time, etc.. Of course, each has its own value and are priced accordingly. You should read the terms of your contract before agreeing to it and if your not sure about the terms…….do not sign until you do.

Honestly, I think that you just were not happy with the photographer and or their work. I understand that, sometimes that happens, you might be justifiably mad, but what ever contract you signed is what you have to live with.

Brings to mind one of my clients that thought they should be compensated for us using “their” photos for marketing……….hmmmmmmm

JM

I certainly feel for you. But …

I don’t know of any photographers that actually “sell” the copyright to the images. The person or company that creates the images owns the images. It is more likely that you purchased the right to print the images and/or duplicate them in as you see fit.

I know that I have used, for presentation and sales purposes, many of the images that I have created for customers. After all, that’s how potential customers can see what my real work is like!. In some cases (where I felt the images were sensitive in nature) I have asked permission first even though legally that may not be required. In other cases, especially where the event (such as a wedding) is really quite public in nature, with numerous guests invited who have all witnessed the events, I have had no qualms using the images without talking to the customer first.

What is sad to me … is that you found the images to be of such poor quality as to be embarrassed by them. I hope that none of my customers are ever embarrassed by the images that I capture and present. Overwhelmingly, every time I have asked a customer if I could use their images, the response has been a resounding yes, almost as if flattered or honored to have been asked.

Case in point, last Saturday I took some fairly intimate maternity pictures of a lady and her family. I went out of my way to not only ask permission, but to show the pictures to her *before* asking so that she would know exactly what I was going to share. She not only told me yes, but she even suggested that I take those pictures (in brochure form) to the doctor’s office she visits because she’d love to help me drum up more business and she’s just really happy to have such wonderful images to share.

I wish that paying someone for their services was sufficient to guarantee a quality product, but it just isn’t so. You probably needed to go to your photographer’s place of business ahead of time to see what images were on his wall, and what his albums looked like, before deciding to go with him. If he’s willing to show what you consider to be bad images of your wedding as “now” representative of his work, then I shudder to think what the quality of the images he was showing before your wedding were like.

I also share your pain in that he has his own album before you have yours. That’s dumbfounding. I have never done that. The customer’s needs come first. There have been times when ordering two copies of something was cheaper than ordering one … in those cases I ordered a 2nd copy of the customer’s album and kept it for display purposes. But at no time have I ever had an album on display that the customer had not yet received.

Anyway, talk around (as you are doing now) and get a feel for what your recourses really are. Good luck to you.

One of my friends recently attended a wedding fair and told me that she had seen our wedding album. I was surprised as we had been told that our wedding album had not been completed. I then attended our photographers studio and was horrified to see photos of our wedding all over the wall and a very large A3 photo album of our wedding out on display. The photographer at no point asked our permission to use these images, which I would have refused as I am a very private person.

When i confronted the photographer about this, he told me that he owned the images and there was nothing I could do about it if he wanted to use those pics for his marketing purposes. When I asked what had I purchased when I had paid an extra £500 for copyright, I was told I had only paid for permission to print extra prints. I am horrified that images of my wedding can be used in this way. I thought that by paying a professional they would have to behave ethically. Does anyone have any advice? I am mortified and really don’t want my wedding images in the public domain.

Many thanks in advance.