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Have any ladies out there had experience with purchasing the rights to your wedding photos (or engagement photos)? I am trying to decide if I should purchase the rights. This would give me a disk with every photo my photographer took (over 300) in its original size and quality (hi-res).
I’ve done the math and for the price the photographer charges for 40 - 4×6 photos, I could buy the rights and print them myself through a local or online service. I’ve already paid so much for the photo services, and I just want to make sure that the amount I’m paying is reasonable.
Thanks!
Katie, Texas
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Share this post: Open Question: Paying for Photo Rights
The only problem with this is that you might lose any editing the photographer does when he/she sets them up for printing. Photoshopping really makes a difference in photos, and if you aren’t getting the edited pictures you may be disappointed. However, if you are buying the rights to the already modified photos, its probably worth the investment!
I’d rather edit the photos myself. I am actually in the design field so I could edit from the digital original photo.
I would definitely purchase the photo rights. Ordering photos from photographers is a racket. My friend is a professional photographer, and the place he orders his photos from charges him only 20 cents a print for 5×7 and 35 cents a print for standard 8×10s. If you are able and willing to do the work yourself,and you don’t want a professional album or have the time to spend to make on, then I would definitely purchase the rights.
Besides, 25 years down the road, you might want more copies of those photos made and your photographer might not be available to provide that for you.
i’m just surprised that you have to pay for them. our photographer includes a cd of all the photos taken. period. maybe, in the end we are paying for it though with the price of the package? either way, i say YES. i would pay extra for them. already i’ve edited lots of my e-pics and bridal pics. shutterfly and other similar services have free offers and i’ve already ordered free prints by using the hi-res photos from our photographer. and after the wedding i’ll probably make a little album for my mom using shutterfly. i love having that control 
Getting the rights was a very important criterion for me - I like control. This way, I’m free to design photo books (mypublisher, etc) & I can get prints for 10 cents at yorkphoto.com.
Like Milka, rights over our photos was important for DH and I. My BIL is also a wedding photographer who was a GMs in our wedding, so he’s going to make the photo book for us. Also, I wanted to create one myself. DH knows how to use photoshop so we had everything taken care of.
would you be buying the rights in lieu of purchasing any prints from the photographer?
personally, i do think the quality of the photographer’s prints are significantly better than an online vender… and the service you get for post-processing (i.e. photoshopping) is really worth the expense.
so, unless you are able to photoshop your own stuff and really spend that time doing that to 400 prints, then i would pay for it.
my photographer is including 200 prints in the price of the package, but giving me the entire set of photos (~900) on a high def DVD, so that i can reprint my own - probably the less “special” pictures, i’ll be printing via online service.
the engagement prints i purchased confirmed to me that the quality of the photos are really archival - the paper is much thicker, the colors much more true to life.
the question is…why are you having to pay for them at all! negotiate to have the digital files included in the price or keep shopping for a photographer who will provide them!
too many of us brides get suckered into paying extra for things - just because we’re getting married and vendors think they can take advantage of us!
regarding prints - take the digital files (or negatives, whichever you have) to a high end photo store and have them developed yourself. i’ve heard ritz camera is a good one - my wedding photog takes his photos there to be developed!
Well I can’t change photogs now - I’m already married!
thanks for the advice. I’m handy in photoshop so I think I will purchase the rights ($300). I can print and reprint as much as I want. He’s giving us a CD, some 8×10s and some wallets for free but the CD is viewing quality - not printing!
thanks for all the help!
The rights to the photos (CD of all photos taken) is included in my photo package. It was very important to me to have the rights so that I could generate additional photos down the line. I am having my photographer edit, create the albums.
Having the rights are great. You are lucky your photographer even will sell you those rights. After i paid for my photography, i had the option to buy a disck of our images for $600. I wrote the check and received the disk. the images are the lowest resolution possible and I can’t even print a clear picture for anything above wallet size. When i asked him about it he says he simply will not provide the rights and the disk was $600 - not the rights. So basically I can do NOTHING with this disk. i cannot even make a power point presentation because to fill a slide with one photo distorts the picture enough so that it is grainy and blurry. I am very upset and do not know what to do….So be careful - make sure your photographer TELS you the resolution and DPI ahead of time!
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