Digital Watermarking in Wedding Photography

[mogster]

My FI is an amateur photographer and I'm, well, just particular. We're looking for a photographer and haven't gotten very far. Is it unrealistic to expect digital copies without watermarks, possibly even RAW files that we can post process ourselves? The photographer should certainly get credit for his/her work, but I find big honking watermarks on pictures that I'm paying for rather irritating. What are your thoughts?

 

[sba771]

I have all my photos without a watermark. You just need to a find a photographer who gives you the rights to all your photos. Every single one I spoke with let me own mine. Keep looking! If you let us know where you are maybe we can help.

 

[vc10um]

I have all my photos without a watermark. You just need to a find a photographer who gives you the rights to all your photos. Every single one I spoke with let me own mine. Keep looking! If you let us know where you are maybe we can help.

This, exactly.

I will say it's highly unlikely you'll be able to get them provided RAW, as may photographers will prefer to do their own processing. But I have every last acceptable image our photographers shot at our wedding in .jpeg files printable up to like 20x30. Same applies to the images from our engagement sessions.

 

[jstarfireb]

I have all my photos without a watermark. You just need to a find a photographer who gives you the rights to all your photos. Every single one I spoke with let me own mine. Keep looking! If you let us know where you are maybe we can help.

Ditto! My photographer gave me the rights to all the photos and a DVD with all the high-resolution images, no watermarks included.

 

[centralsquare]

We did not have watermarks. Talk to your photographer and agree on this prior to signing anything. He/she may require you purchase more than one book, etc..essentially you may have to pay more but you should get your photos!

 

[4ever]

Keep looking - I did find one photographer who had a really cheap package which was basically, turn up, take pics, send DVD with raw images although we did end up going with a different photographer who provides prints and digital images for about $500 more

 

[sillyberry]

My photographer provided all images (1409 of them) in high-res on a disc.

At the same time, I received all images with web resolution and those included her watermark in the lower left-ha,d corner (and a request not to crop that out when I posted them anywhere). To me that was more than reasonable.

As for RAW - I've heard numerous photographers say the biggest part of their job comes AFTER all the pictures are taken. I imagine many would be reluctant to give up that part of ensuring beautiful photographs.

 

[mogster]

Thanks so much!! The wedding will be in the Bay Area if anyone has any recommendations.

 

[Amys Bling]

I have all my photos without a watermark. You just need to a find a photographer who gives you the rights to all your photos. Every single one I spoke with let me own mine. Keep looking! If you let us know where you are maybe we can help.

Ditto! My photographer gave me the rights to all the photos and a DVD with all the high-resolution images, no watermarks included.

Ditto my package comes with a high resolution DVD of all images- no watermark.

 

[rosetta]

I have all my photos without a watermark. You just need to a find a photographer who gives you the rights to all your photos. Every single one I spoke with let me own mine. Keep looking! If you let us know where you are maybe we can help.

This, exactly.

I will say it's highly unlikely you'll be able to get them provided RAW, as may photographers will prefer to do their own processing. But I have every last acceptable image our photographers shot at our wedding in .jpeg files printable up to like 20x30. Same applies to the images from our engagement sessions.

Same here!

 

[Clairitek]

I think most of the photos you're seeing that have watermarks on them posdted around here are probably hijacked from blog previews. A lot of the brides here have photogs who blog their shoots and will post a sampling of the images before handing over the whole lot. In that case it seems to be a good idea to watermark the images so random people on the internet don't try to pass of the photogs work as their own.

Neatfreak got married in the Bay Area and I loved her photographer. I'll contact her and ask her for the name again (can't recall) and come back with it!

ETA: As did Gypsy. I also loved her photos. Violet02's pictures were also amazing but she got married down the coast a bit. I'll find out the name of that photographer anyway.

 

[mogster]

I think most of the photos you're seeing that have watermarks on them posdted around here are probably hijacked from blog previews. A lot of the brides here have photogs who blog their shoots and will post a sampling of the images before handing over the whole lot. In that case it seems to be a good idea to watermark the images so random people on the internet don't try to pass of the photogs work as their own.

Neatfreak got married in the Bay Area and I loved her photographer. I'll contact her and ask her for the name again (can't recall) and come back with it!

ETA: As did Gypsy. I also loved her photos. Violet02's pictures were also amazing but she got married down the coast a bit. I'll find out the name of that photographer anyway.

Thanks so much Clairitek! I look forward to any recommendations that I can get.