RightsClick recently conncecte with photographer Vanessa Joy. In this video, she raises some important copyright issues related to event photography. Before discussing those issues, we strongly recommend that photographers retain all their copyright rights. Work made for hire (WMFH) agreements mean that the hiring party owns all the rights. These should be entered into with caution and, ideally, only for substantial compensation.
Venue Vultures
The first issue Vanessa mentioned running into is venues demanding that she transfer copyright rights to the property owner before allowing her to proceed with photographing, for instance, a wedding, Bar Mitvah, reunion, etc. We assume this would be a nonexclusive license so the venue can use the photos for promotional purposes, but still, that ain’t right.
The event host/wedding party hired you for photography, and the venue is paid (usually quite a lot!) for use by the same host. If the venue wants to prevent you from photographing the event, it can take that up with the host, and we imagine that will not go well for the venue. Separately, if the venue wishes to use any of your photographs for promotional purposes, it should make that request of you separately and expect to pay a licensing fee commensurate with the intended use. But don’t let the venue bully you into signing away your rights.
Vendor Vultures
Vanessa also raised a similar issue about event vendors like florists and make-up artists. Apparently, she has experience with those suppliers asking the event host to sign over the photographer’s copyright rights. As Vanessa rightly said in the video, “That’s not how the law works!” Unless the photos are made under a WMFH agreement, you are the creator and copyright owner. And just as no one else may sell your physical property, the client who does not own your copyrights may not grant permission to anyone else to use your work.
Artisans and craftspeople bring extraordinary talent to enhance events, and especially when so much marketing today depends on feeding social media, it is no surprise that the caterer, florist, make-up artist, wedding planner, et al. would love to use your photographs to show off their latest work. But they need your permission, not the permission of the event host. On related note, some vendors consider their work protected by copyright, and in most cases, it is not.
It is doubtful that floral arrangements, make-up, food display, or event design could ever qualify for copyright protection. Although tattoos or body paint may be protected, this would only be a consideration if you were to license a photograph with one of those elements for some purpose unrelated to capturing the event. All that said, it is possible that another vendor may have a valid copyright claim – ice sculptures may be the best example. Even if you don’t have explicit permission, there is a strong case to be made that anything provided for a wedding is with the implied understanding it will be photographed. If you want to use those photos for something beyond delivering to the client, that’s when you should think more seriously about getting permission.
Every time we hear from a professional like Vanessa Joy, we learn something new. And it seems that when the professional photographers arrive at events, the copyright vultures soon appear—even ones who don’t mean to cause harm. Your rights are an essential investment in your career, and you should never be pressured to sign them away. Even if you want to grant permission to use an image for free, we recommend formalizing that with a written license agreement.
To maximize the protection of your rights, we also urge you to build the small registration fee into your budget for an event and to register your photos before even proofs are delivered to your client. And that’s why we built RightsClick to make registration a process you can do in a matter of minutes.
