Wedding photographer - no digital negatives a deal-breaker?

[HopeDream]

Hi wise brides!

I'm trying to pick a wedding photographer an met with one I really like, but she doesn't give digital negatives.

We will get a cd/dvd with fully edited nice shots - both full sized and web optimized, so we'll be able to print as many as we want in any size at Costco or wherever.

She will own the digital rights to the images and we are permited to use them for home use and to print photos. We can crop the images but not edit them.

What do you think? Should we hire her? Should we keep looking?

here's her website http://www.alexandrahunt.net/

 

[slg47]

Re: Wedding photographer - no digital negatives a deal-break

this wouldn't be a deal-breaker for me...

how many photos are on the edited CD?

 

[HopeDream]

Re: Wedding photographer - no digital negatives a deal-break

She estimates about 100 good shots per hour she's working. She shoots with her dad- a retired studio photographer.

 

[vc10um]

Re: Wedding photographer - no digital negatives a deal-break

That doesn't sound like a deal-breaker to me, either, so long as you think she's charging a fair price for her deliverables. She takes lovely photographs (from what I saw) and if you liked her, I'd go for it.

My photographer delivered pretty much every decent shot she and our second shooter took. That meant we had over 300 pictures of the ceremony alone (which was only about a half hour!)...which is a lot to wade through. It's been both a blessing and a curse, honestly. A blessing because out of the 15-ish pictures of me putting DH's wedding ring on, I can choose the one that I like best for each album (my parents, his parents, and our own)...none of which are the same image. But a curse because going through and picking out which of those images was the best in each case was, frankly, probably a longer process than it should have been, LOL!

No matter how many images are delivered, you will have trouble choosing ones for your album, I can guarantee.

My current obsession with black and white photography would lead me to ask her, however, if that was considered editing and, if it was, what the cost/process was for having her edit a color image to black and white, if I prefered it that way. This might not matter to you, though, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

 

[4ever]

Re: Wedding photographer - no digital negatives a deal-break

I think most wedding photographers retain the rights to their photographs. Why shouldn't they? Photography is an artform, it's like expecting someone to paint your portrait and then give you the rights to use their painting as you want and potentially profit off it without the artist having to be recognized. It's the same with not being able to edit the photos; should you be allowed to paint over the sky after they have finished the painting so it looks like night time?

As their policy stand, are they going to inconvenience you in anyway? As long as you can still print photos as you wish, post them online as long as credit is given and your photographer asks your permission to submit photos to a competition or magazine, I don't see any problem.

If I wanted an artist to relinquish these rights I would expect to pay a lot more for the privilege.

 

[Gypsy]

Re: Wedding photographer - no digital negatives a deal-break

If her license grant to you for the use of your photos is broad enough to allow you to whatever you want (including the right to post on FB, Youtube, your wedding website), and you have no issue with the fact that she owns the pics and can use them however she wants (in any kind of advertising or promotion or anything she wants) then I don't see why not.

Not all photographers retain their rights. Some give the clients the rights with the stipulation that THEY are the ones with the license to use.

I would expect to pay more for the rights, and less for a license agreement though. So if her price is comparable to others that retain the rights, but less than those who grant you their rights, then that's okay.

 

[aviastar]

Re: Wedding photographer - no digital negatives a deal-break

Deal breaker for me. Love to have the edited photos, and happy to let the photog use them however they see fit, more than happy to give credit whenever I post them, but I am a photoshopper myself and I often love photos or bits of photos that would normally not make it to a 'best of' round. I have hired and paid you to photograph my wedding I want access to every photo taken that day, so I can make the cuts. I am simply too picky, expecially about photos of myself, to let someone else make those kinds of decsions.

 

[Amys Bling]

Re: Wedding photographer - no digital negatives a deal-break

Deal breaker for me. Love to have the edited photos, and happy to let the photog use them however they see fit, more than happy to give credit whenever I post them, but I am a photoshopper myself and I often love photos or bits of photos that would normally not make it to a 'best of' round. I have hired and paid you to photograph my wedding I want access to every photo taken that day, so I can make the cuts. I am simply too picky, expecially about photos of myself, to let someone else make those kinds of decsions.

This is me to a T. I like to have control and wanted every single pic.

 

[4ever]

Re: Wedding photographer - no digital negatives a deal-break

Deal breaker for me. Love to have the edited photos, and happy to let the photog use them however they see fit, more than happy to give credit whenever I post them, but I am a photoshopper myself and I often love photos or bits of photos that would normally not make it to a 'best of' round. I have hired and paid you to photograph my wedding I want access to every photo taken that day, so I can make the cuts. I am simply too picky, expecially about photos of myself, to let someone else make those kinds of decsions.

This is me to a T. I like to have control and wanted every single pic.

I am a control freak but I kind of felt the opposite to above about the photography. I picked a photographer who is very reasonably priced but I don't get all of the photos she's taken, nor will I get to see them. She takes the photos, chooses 70-100 odd of the very best of the day, edits them and presents them in an album and on a CD. I'm having a small wedding, so this number of photos is perfect and I just do not want to spend hours and hours combing through 1000's of photos, many of which will be very similar, only to agonise and stress about which photos my arms look skinnier in or whatever. To me, it's just not worth the time or stress and having seen the albums she's put together, I trust her judgment.

 

[slg47]

Re: Wedding photographer - no digital negatives a deal-break

Deal breaker for me. Love to have the edited photos, and happy to let the photog use them however they see fit, more than happy to give credit whenever I post them, but I am a photoshopper myself and I often love photos or bits of photos that would normally not make it to a 'best of' round. I have hired and paid you to photograph my wedding I want access to every photo taken that day, so I can make the cuts. I am simply too picky, expecially about photos of myself, to let someone else make those kinds of decsions.

This is me to a T. I like to have control and wanted every single pic.

I am a control freak but I kind of felt the opposite to above about the photography. I picked a photographer who is very reasonably priced but I don't get all of the photos she's taken, nor will I get to see them. She takes the photos, chooses 70-100 odd of the very best of the day, edits them and presents them in an album and on a CD. I'm having a small wedding, so this number of photos is perfect and I just do not want to spend hours and hours combing through 1000's of photos, many of which will be very similar, only to agonise and stress about which photos my arms look skinnier in or whatever. To me, it's just not worth the time or stress and having seen the albums she's put together, I trust her judgment.

yeah I am kinda the same way...I figure I am paying for her artistry/eye/editing/expertise! we get 500-800 photos from the wedding...I think that is enough!

I guess it just depends on what you are comfortable with...like I said I feel like I am paying for the photographer's editing skills and the final product.

 

[Amys Bling]

Re: Wedding photographer - no digital negatives a deal-break

SLg- all photos on my DVD were edited, I just got to have every photo taken. But if you are getting 800 photos that certainly is enough! I felt like for me, the photographers that were giving a cd of only the photos I selected for the album weren't enough as I wanted
More than just those 150 photos.

 

[Gypsy]

Re: Wedding photographer - no digital negatives a deal-break

Yeah, I guess that's a great point about how many pics you get. I didn't get EVERY shot taken. But I got well over 800 pics just from our wedding.

My photographer gave us the digital high resolution images on several CDs of all the 800+ images she edited. I could do whatever I wanted with them, and the copyright was mine but she has an unlimited license to use. It was important to me to own our copyright though.