Problem with wedding photographer

Robin_Usagani · Nov 14, 2013

It wont happen to me because I only hire awesome 2nd shooters

but that would suck if the 2nd edit the photos and he/she uses selective colorings and heavy vignette.

robbins.photo · Nov 14, 2013

Steve5D said:
robbins.photo said:

Like most people I'm sure the second shooter would most likely prefer to avoid a full blown lawsuit as well...

Click to expand...

That goes directly to my point. The couple likely has no legal ground on which to successfully sue, and I'd be willing to bet that the second shooter is well aware of that.

"Threatening" a lawsuit would be little more than hot air...

Well I couldn't really be sure of that unless I were able to see the contract between the couple and the primary photographer as well as the contract (if any) between the secondary photographer and the primary photographer. I'm guessing that most likely that a lawsuit probably wouldn't be very productive if the only claim is based on simply being dissatisfied with the results. Unless there is some form of negligence involved on the part of the primary photographers part - so odds are very good you would be correct. From the sounds of things the dissatisfaction was really with the second shooters work, however, so again without a better understanding of the second shooters contractual obligations to the first it's a little difficult to judge wheter or not a legal suit would be the best course of action.

In most cases, probably not. Particularly if there is no such contract, in which case everything would default back to the primary and whatever contract he/she had with the couple - and my guess is that the contract is worded in such a way that being dissatisfied with the end result does not constitute a breach of contract. As to what the second shooter knows or doesn't know concerning how successful a lawsuit may or may not be, that I really can't speak too - but I've found a lot of times people are willing to be more reasonable if they think that it might be a viable option.

I don't think asking for the RAW files is a good approach - however if they could sit down with both the primary and secondary photographer and perhaps work out a deal where the primary would be allowed to re-edit the secondary's work and provide a finished product, that would most likely be the best route to go here.