Free Supercar for your wedding??

HWS:

I presume that contract or no contract using my own camera could not be refused if the B&G have given their permission for me to use it.

Some photographers (not me) do have in their contracts that they are the sole photographers at a wedding. This contract would preclude any other vendor taking images and giving/selling them to the couple. Often this isn't fully understood and there are pages of pro photographer forum discussions about this.

Key message to couples....do read your contract fully and watch out for "restrictions" like this.

Thank you Peter for this information.

I'm glad that you do not work by these principals :)

Personally I find it disheartening that service providers would allow their own ego's to potentially spoil a wedding day. This is the Couples day not that of any service provider.

After all other service providers would not have signed any such contract with a photgrapher, thus leaving them the dilema of how they would enforce this!

This to me would be the same as preventing any photographer or videographer from taking images of my equipment, car, lighting or even recording the music in the background during the reception.

Quite bizzare indeed.

My personal opinion is that it is the B&G's special day and that's all what matters!

You may present these views Peter on your photography forums and see what is said for your own reading pleasure.

I imagine many of these Photographers haven't a clue how English law really works where contracts are concerned. It only takes one judge to deem a contract unfair or restrictive and Bham! You then have a case study which sets a precedent for all.

It is my opinion that a Judge would weigh in favour of the clients and that the photographer has been paid for his services and that they have no legal bearing over other service providers.

During those many pages of forum posts has anyone actually sought legal advice? or better yet taken court action?

I don't think this is the correct place to further this discussion as it can become a legal can of worms, however from my many dealings with the law and contracts I would be very interested to see where this leads to. Can one service providers contract prevent other service providers who are working under separate contracts from doing what they normally do during the course of their contracted work.

As Peter has said, in almost all cases the right to use images/video for promotional work is something you need to agree with the photographer not the bride and groom. While you may need the bride and groom's permission as they appear in the images the copyright of the images almost always remains with the photographer. If couples get their images on disc these are normally provided with reproduction rights only (i.e. the right to print the images for personal use only). Any further use of the images for promotional work or commercial resale still rests with the photographer as the photographer keeps the copyright.

For what you want you may find it is actually easier to go to the photographer first as they are actually the ones with the rights to the images. I know we don't normally have a problem providing suppliers with 2-3 images free of charge for use in promotional work provided we are given credit for the images (on websites, in print, etc). If you want to amend the photos in any way (i.e. blur out faces) then you may need to ask the photographer to do this for you because if you interfere with the images then you are actually breaching copyright. However, if you get the bride and groom's permission as well to use the images then I can't see much need to do this anyway.

I guess the main thing is just to bear in mind that few bride and groom's can make the decision about the photographs independently without speaking to their photographers and, even if they think they can, you may still want to check they have definitely got copyright release with their photographers. Otherwise you could find yourself giving away use of a free car and find out after the event that you can't use the images as you thought.

Also, for brides on here, this is a good deal but make sure you speak to your photographer/videographer first and get their agreement.

Also, just to add, the reason photographers often have a bit in their contract about being the only professional photographer is not to be a pain in the @rse but because having other professionals there can actually significantly impact on our ability to provide full wedding coverage. We once found ourselves photographing a wedding alongside photographers from the local newspaper who wanted photos of the bride for an magazine article (as she was a well known local model). We were trying to provide relaxed, reportage coverage while the press photographers came in and monopolised the time with the bride while she was getting ready, stood in the way of a lot of the informal shots (i.e bride getting out of car with dad, even as she walked down the aisle), and then spend a lot of our allotted photography time getting posed photos of the bride and groom so our time with them and the guests was seriously compromised. We were being paid by the bride and groom to do a job and the other 'professional' were hindering us in our ability to do this. Immediately after this we changed our contract to state we are to be the only professional photographers at a wedding.

Phil, it is not the same as you not letting us take photos of your stuff, it is more like someone else turning up with a car, getting in your way and stopping you providing the service you are supposed to provide. However, all that said, we wouldn't have a problem with a car company, for example, taking some photos for themselves provided they were for your own business use only - to me this is not professional photography but is only like a guest taking photos, etc.

Hope all that is helpful insight.

Thank you snapdragon.

Your explanation was a little more detailed and your examples of past experiences have helped.

Of course should anyone take this opportunity then it would be a three way agreement to ensure all parties involved were happy.

I imagine any images taken by myself would not be exactly the same as the professional ones as I'd be looking at having the car as the primary focus and the B&G to provide the wedding theme as background.

I started off in this thread trying to get across that faces should they appear could be kept in place or blurred out and the decision for that would be with the couple in question. (for my own photographs only)

Once again thank you to all for your comments and I hope I can help add to someone's wedding soon and in return I can capture some candid shots.

Whilst I have the attention of at least a couple of Photographers ;) would it be something that would interest you if a car provider such as myself with an Aston offered a mutual shoot?

By this I mean the car is taken to a suitable venue or setting and the Photographer can take whatever shot's they wish for their own portfolio's and in return I receive a few images for marketing, advertising.

I plan to have photo shoots done of the car outside venues anyway, but unsure if this would actually interest any of you guys / gals as a mutual benefit.

HWS, you are not local enough for me but I have mentioned this thread to a wedding photographer friend I know that runs wedding photography workshops in your area as she might be interested in the car as an added accessory for shoot.

I would say it can't hurt to ask local photographers in your area but I would approach those that you think would have similar clientele to yourself for most benefit.

Thank you snapdragon :)

Hi Phil....I do detect an undertone to your posts that are slightly defensive and barbed against what I posted. All of the comments I made are not against you at all, I am really trying to help you appreciate how many other photographers in the industry work so that you can then best achieve what you are after without any problems. We really are singing from the proverbial same hymn sheet...

Please feel free to email me....Any pro supplier that cares is worth talking to......

Peter

Hi Peter,

I didn't for one minute think that your posts were aimed at myself.

I first took what you wrote as a warning that other Photographers out there work to different regimes than yourself, and that I had to be careful of how I managed this "FREE" offer.

Any remarks I made that seemed defensive were aimed at those who would take the stance of refusing any collaboration between the client's and myself where photographs were concerned.

snapdragon then commented and his explanations added to your own helped the penny to drop.

We all probably know too well how forums work and that the written word can easily be taken out of context, had we been sat around a pub table chatting all this would have been sorted out and agreed upon within a matter of minutes and then it'd be your round.. again :)

The bottom line is, any couples wishing to take up this offer needs ensure their photographer is on board.

No problems Phil....I hope yo get takers for this offer