Anime Wedding. (cc) by-nc-sa, Sundar Raman.

Given the title you’d think I’d go off on a matrimonial advice tangent, but I’ve (sort of) learned to be more sensible about that sort of thing after being married for as long as I have.

Getting to the point. I’ve recently been embroiled in a case of misunderstanding, misplaced trust and general misgivings all round related to wedding photography. I should probably step back and provide context so we get beyond the “whachu talkin ’bout willis” phase of the conversation.

Two very close friends of mine recently wedded each other (yeah, I word-smithed that to hell and it still sounds obscene). They only had friends at the wedding and I was asked to play the role of the minister (thank Krishna for the Internet!). Another friend volunteered to play the role of the photographer and yet another the videographer. My pals wanted just close friends and there it was.

It’s now a few weeks later, and the missing ingredient in matrimonial bliss is a rather pronounced lack of the original photographs. I had to add the original qualification since a percentage of the doctored/photo-shopped/”enhanced” photographs were uploaded to a site for everyone to get the info from. My pals have asked our photographer friend to please provide all the photographs as soon as possible so that friends, family and random hangers-on can make fun of the appropriate places where I look like an idiot being a minister. Thus for (thankfully for me I guess) pics have not been forthcoming.

Now the point of this post has nothing to do with procrastination (you’ll notice that my last post was a week ago, so I’m most certainly not one to cast aspersions). It’s more about the latest installment in my friends’ conundrum.

The photographer, who has been a close friend of the couple for a couple of years, sent an email with the following:

• a model release form which my pals had to sign in order to get half of the pictures (half have been uploaded to a photo sharing site)
• a statement that the form was necessary to be signed because of some accounting legalese and taxes, and that this was considered pro-bono work which had to be accounted for accordingly
• a statement that photographers generally delete the original (raw) photographs unless the couple explicitly asks for them (which my pals actually did, in my presence)
• lots of unwarranted and extraneous smileys

My real problem with all this was the extraneous smileys No, not really. The photographer’s email brought up a bunch of things that I think people forget about when dealing with friends, “professional services”, and copyright law. And I hope to have people think about these issues before causing otherwise happily recently wedded couples entirely uncalled for grief (I know all you budding photographers on Fairfield Flickerites need to know this, dammit!).

When a person takes a photograph, irrespective of the event or the aegis under which the photograph was taken, and the photograph is then developed in any way (including being put online) ownership of the image is in the hands of the photographer. Solely. The hirer, the couple, the family, all get nothing. Standard practice (whatever that means) appears to be for wedding photographers to have the family sign a non-commercial release. This allows the photographer to grant non-commercial use of the images to the family, but all commercial reproduction and dissemination is prevented. The option of handing all rights over to the happy couple is something that’s done for a much higher price. The reason for this approach is actually relatively sensible. Since the couple probably wants prints, this license requires that prints be purchased from the photographer. It’s a business model that can be argued for  given that this is a form of livelihood.

I looked up all kinds of wedding contracts and standard practices, and they all fall within the guidelines of providing family-and-friends-only reproduction for the flat wedding fee, and anything else being negotiated, including full rights to the images (which usually costs a lot more).

Now the monkey-wrench in this is that a friend volunteered a service for other friends. Where is the line drawn in this circumstance given that there was no contract signed? (I usually make all my friends sign releases to me every time they’re in my house for an event, but they’ve taken to laughing at me heinously then telling me to put things in places where they should not be put. But I digress ..). Does the standard professional photographer behavior still apply? Is the expectation that an implied contract exists between friends that all services are provided without limitation?

I spent a significant portion of an afternoon trying to come up with answers to these and other questions, and basically came up with zilch It seems like there should be a standard code of behavior between “friends”, but this is amazingly absent in the US Legal Framework (TM)! One article I found to be of marginal use is 10 tips for your best friends’ wedding. Having been a professional photographer and having dealt with both decent and less than sane photographers I think there’s a basic code of conduct to follow

For the photographer it’s REALLY simple:

• Write down what you’re going to do. Even an email will do so there’s no confusion. If you’re not going to provide raw images, say so. If you’re going to put stuff up on a website, say so. Be clear.
  The event is YOUR responsibility. The couple is already overwhelmed/crazy. If you’re doing this with even the vaguest notion that you’re going to pretend to be professional set up limits to what you’ll do.
• If you’re not a loser, release all the un-adulterated images under a Creative Commons-Attribution-No Derivatives license. This allows the couple to do whatever they want with the raw images. If you ARE a loser don’t provide the photographs, ever.
• To retain your “professional” ethic and the wedding really is for friends, release the touched-up/enhanced images under a CC-By-Non-Commercial. This ensures that the images can be shared and reproduced amongst friends, but that if they ever have commercial viability you still retain all rights.
• Make the couple feel comfortable, and be clear about everything up front. You’re supposed to be a “professional”, remember?!
• Learn about Creative Commons. You’re trying to promote your work, so learn how to promote it in a sensible way!

For the couple, it’s sort of simple:

• You don’t want to be anal and require a contract, but at least send out an email to the photographer with a clear indication that you want all the images on a CD/DVD/thumbdrive/whatever
• Get your brother/cousin/uncle/non-drunk individual to make a backup of all the images from the photographer BEFORE they leave! This is both to ensure that the photographer getting hit by a truck is not cause for too much sadness (since you’ll still have the pictures, and that’s really what’s important) and so that you have the images at least to share with family even if you don’t actually own copyright on them.
• Don’t assuming anything about your friends. I know it’s crazy, but sometimes your friends will get you drunk AND give you the keys to someone’s car!

I’d love to hear what both photographers and those who’ve asked friends to be photographers think about all this.

P.S. Apologies up front for the Krishna link, but you know I had to do it, right?!