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Category Archives: Photography Business
Photography, Copyright and the Digital Age
Thomas Hawk asks “Should Fair Use Apply to Your Family Portraits?”
I don’t want a wall sized family portrait because this is not how I consume photography these days. These days the majority of my photography is consumed on a 43″ plasma in my living room through my Media Center PC. Would I be interested in seeing my family shots on my plasma as they rotate through my digital photography collection, like all my other photography? Sure. Do I want a big wall sized print of my family on the living room wall? Not so much.
So I explain to the photographer about how I consume photography these days, on how it is of much more value to me to see my work as part of my Media Center PC than on a wall on a $1,000 print and ask if there is a way instead of buying prints, that I can just purchase the images digitally. I’d even happily pay the $2,000 for digital versions of my 5x7s rather than get prints which I don’t really want to hang in my home anyways.
And here she tells me no. Which is her prerogative I suppose, but when I mention that I could always just scan the 5x7s and watch them anyways she goes off into a little speech about how her images are copyrighted and I can’t do that, etc.
Aaah, the old portrait photographer ransom. What a clever scheme this is. Thing is the photographer in question is well within her rights. Consumers continue to pay the prices without demanding digital files and Photographers continue to charge them without offering them.
There are many photographers now who do offer (voluntarily) digital files. Surprisingly many wedding Photographers see this as the bargain end of their offering with the more expensive leather-bound-large-print service being the premium. Geek as I am, I see it the other way round with the RAW/PSD/TIFF/JPG images the more desirable providing the digital files are high resolution.
Seems quite similar to the music/film industry DRM dilemma. Clearly consumers do not want it but the copyright holders are willing to do anything to enforce these unpopular restrictions. We don’t like the MPAA for it. There is a lesson right there. But Photographers do need to make a living and that is as important as the customer getting a disc with pictures on.
The only answer to this disagreement is some calm discussion of the issue. For future reference though there are two solutions
- Discuss beforehand your requirements (both Photographer and client)
- Provide the option of work-for-hire rather than traditional portrait shoot
For photographers you need to either consider providing files as an option or have a very good answer to the question. Our last family portrait session I simply asked and was given a CD, no quibble, no additional fee. You do not need to particularly go that far, maybe having a price on your menu for an archive CD/DVD but it is worth considering the negative affect point blank refusal will do to your reputation and repeat custom …
Technorati Tags: photography, copyright, fair, use, law, news, tips
Walmart Photo Processing Copyright Farce
If you take photographs that look remotely professional expect to have some trouble getting them processed at your local supermarket. Check out the trouble this Flickr user had in the Flickr 100 years old group thread!
Several times I have heard of people attempting to get (family) photos copied at Wal-Mart and refused because they were “copyrighted” – because they were made by a photograph studio. Even if the person who OWNS the copyright were to ask a Wal-Mart photo manager to copy it, they would refuse. They misinterpret the word “copyright” to mean “copywrong,” That is to say: Copy?….. wrong!
In a way I guess it is tricky for the Walmart employee. They have a blanket policy and risk a reprimand (or worse) for breaking it, even if it makes no sense. Walmarts aren’t about to provide copyright training. The answer I guess is if you can use a proper outfit, print out a “release” on headed paper or scan and print it yourself.
Comedy Update:
Heh, couldn’t resist adding this.
Technorati Tags: photography, processing, printing, walmart, news, tips
Photography Permission Denied
Here’s the scenario. You know there is a pretty cool place you want to photograph (non-commercially) but you also know even though the exposure would be good for them they might not take kindly to you “sneaking” some pics without asking so you write off and ask permission.
That’s what Thomas Hawk did, and they said no. Even though there is already a bunch of pictures floating around and he might bring in some much needed attention for the museum.
This place I had never heard of until he wrote about it, The Neon Museum, thinks keeping images of it protected helps with their mission of “cultural enrichment for diverse members of our international community” (it seems they only want to serve the international community of ‘driving distance from the museum’).
I just got back a rather disappointing email from the Neon Musuem in Las Vegas. I had written to the museum to inquire about taking photographs of some of their neon signs this past weekend while in Las Vegas. I’m not going to link to the museum. You can find them on Google if you want. For those of you who don’t know what the Neon Museum is, it’s a boneyard of sorts of many of the old Las Vegas neon signs. It’s a place that these signs go to die and the non-profit Neon Museum states their mission as “to collect, preserve, study and exhibit neon signs and associated artifacts to inspire educational and cultural enrichment for diverse members of our international community.” Unfortunately their policy with regards to photography does not seem to fit with their stated mission.
What they should have said was “If people can see your pictures for free who is going to visit and put money in our donations box”. Then they would have a point. It would be tempting for Thomas to just go and sneak some pictures like everyone else but then he would lose his moral high ground, I really doubt he will stoop to that.
It’s not an easy thing, on the one hand without publicity no-one will visit so they close, on the other if people can see the stuff without visiting they close any way. Really they should be smart and work out a limited way that he can take some pics and they get good coverage without giving away the whole thing. Until they do that, they are just making their mission a joke.
Technorati Tags: photography, ethics, issues, news, rights
My good news is Strobists Dilemma
What a coincidence. On the same day I give away a photograph for free to be used by British Airways inflight magazine I read this from Strobist
Try to resist the cheap thrill of being paid (very little) for a photo. The true expense of that action is that you ultimately deprive someone who has devoted their life to shooting professionally much of a chance of financial survival. If you are good enough to work for pay, you are good enough to work harder and raise the standards of the profession, not devalue them.
On the one hand I can totally get your point David, I really do. And you know, I do feel a little guilt for giving my photograph away (thanks for ruining a great moment in my photography career! heh).
Having pondered on it for a little while though here are my thoughts
- If I say “no” someone else will say “yes”.
- The only person I would be depriving is me and sorry but depriving me hurts a lot more than depriving you from where I am standing.
- How the heck am I supposed to build a portfolio if I have to charge what you consider fair rates to people who consider those rates anything but.
- The people who want cheap or free will not pay more than that.
- What makes the photography industry any different?
My last point needs some clarification. Consider web sites. A company comes to me and says “I want a web site to sell my widgets”. I say “That will be $£xx,xxx.99″. They say “Whoah, my neighbour’s nephew’s friend’s sister can do it for $£x”. I say “Go get them to do it then and come back to me when they make a hash of it”.
If an industry gets commoditised it is because that industry is doing a poor job of selling itself. What is the difference between me building a website and the 12 year old kid with a copy of Dreamweaver? Oh, probably more than a million pounds in profit on the clients bottom line, and I can prove it, but I am not going to do it at the kids rates. You have to decide what the difference is between your photograph and some kids $1 stock photo. If there is no difference who’s fault is that? Not the kid and not the customer, that’s for sure.
Technorati Tags: strobist, stock, photography, news
Photographer Ethics: Should the camera never lie?
Two stories about Newspapers “doctoring” images, one laughable, the other more serious from The Digital Photography Weblog
the Charlotte Observer has sacked a staff photographer for altering the colour of an image to, as he states, “to restore the actual color of the sky”. He said the color was lost when he underexposed the photo to offset the glare of the sun.
OK this is plainly ridiculous, the “truth” of the story was restored by this superficial change, who cares what colour the sky was though really? So either way, an over reaction right? How about this one …
The Miami Herald’s Spanish-language sister paper acknowledged Friday that it manipulated two photos to make it appear that two Cuban police officers were ignoring prostitutes gesturing to a tourist.
In this one the image was intentionally created to show a false impression of Police neglect of the prostitute problem. As far as I can tell this photographer was not sacked.
Technorati Tags: photography, news, law, ethics, media
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