Wedding contracts?

[yogibear]

I took a wedding gig on my stay out at my grandparents this summer. Its nothing fancy just a very low key wedding they want some pictures of. Anyway they are asking me to send a basic contract to them before the wedding.

Im curious if I need something to show that I keep the rights to my photos but they have the right to reproduce/print them? Im not keen on the idea of selling rights to my pictures, no matter how casual.

Any thoughts or suggestions on how to write up such a contract with my basic quote?

Thanks a bunch

 

[Big Mike]

You should always keep the intellectual rights to your images. You can give/sell them the rights to make copies/prints...but you don't have to if you don't want to.

In the U.S., the photographer automatically owns the rights to the images, but it would also be a good idea to include that in a contract. There are many other things that you should include in your contract. Do a Google search and read some wedding contracts to get an idea of what other photogs put in theirs.

 

[DSPhotography]

Honest Answers About Wedding Photography Contracts

The site has 10 different samples in PDF format. They're all actual contracts used by wedding photographers, so it should give you a decent idea of what to say and how to say it regarding legal stuff.

*note: I couldn't get the first one to pull up a couple days ago, haven't tried it since then.

 

[yogibear]

Awesome stuff guys! Thank you very much.

Sorry for the late reply. Been a busy week!

 

[guitarkid]

one thing my contract states is that we have the right to use the images for promotional purposes. even if they purchase the CD with hi rez images, we still own the rights. we will use them in good faith and no contact info will be given, just images. i have only had one couple not wanting their images seen so i scratched that line out and initialed the contract. no images appeared online anywhere or in any of my albums and never will.

 

[KmH]

one thing my contract states is that we have the right to use the images for promotional purposes. even if they purchase the CD with hi rez images, we still own the rights. we will use them in good faith and no contact info will be given, just images. i have only had one couple not wanting their images seen so i scratched that line out and initialed the contract. no images appeared online anywhere or in any of my albums and never will.

But you charged extra because you had to give up the expectation of using the images as part of your advertising, right?

 

[ryyback]

one thing my contract states is that we have the right to use the images for promotional purposes. even if they purchase the CD with hi rez images, we still own the rights. we will use them in good faith and no contact info will be given, just images. i have only had one couple not wanting their images seen so i scratched that line out and initialed the contract. no images appeared online anywhere or in any of my albums and never will.

But you charged extra because you had to give up the expectation of using the images as part of your advertising, right?

No, because you charge extra for the DVD in the first place.

 

[KmH]

Well, actually, I charge extra for the disc (DVD in my case) and if they won't let me use their images in my advertising I charge extra for that too.

 

[UUilliam]

Well, actually, I charge extra for the disc (DVD in my case) and if they won't let me use their images in my advertising I charge extra for that too.

I would do that too
But then again some photogs say they only charge for example £500 to shoot the wedding but the extra £500 is to release their Copyright and the extra £* they ask for is for prints and stuff
so if you then charge people for your copyright, then your charging these people more (sure it is a different license i guess) your then cheating the other couples out on their copyright by claiming to give them copyright yet you can still use them

but i guess you could say that the other couples only get Display rights
where as this couple have fullrights with the exception of commercial and reproduction.