Photo details- high vs. med resolution dvd and copywrite?

[Green with Envy]

Does anyone really understand the difference between being offered photo negatives on dvd with med resolution or high resolution? i gather med resolution is not the best for printing pics larger than 5 x7. Our photographer says we will have over 1000 pictures and we don't need her to go in and color edit or make all 1000 + pics worthy of printing on huge canvas... do they edit every picture if they offer high resolution dvd?

Another thing... our photographer says we get lifetime rights to reproduce all pics... but she still technically owns copy write. Does this matter as long as we can do whatever we want with our dvd negative? or is this pointless because the medium resolution dvd is only fine for smaller prints? Thus- if we want 8 x10 framed photos for parents gifts... we have to pay inflated print prices via photographer?

 

[Barcelona]

As long as the images have a minimum of 240 dpi, they will be fine to print. Digital files can be color corrected/adjusted by doing what is called batching. By performing an action in Photoshop, the changes are made to all the images without continued input. The photographer can then go through the images and select ones that need additional editing. I highly doubt she would edit every single picture individually as this would be very time consuming.

No photographer will give up copyright if they know what is good for them. By retaining the copyright, this allows her to use the images in her advertising, sample albums, etc. The copyright does not prevent you from making copies, it only prevents you from selling them.

 

[wannaBMrsH]

I would make sure that you have all the high resolution images. When we did our engagement session, we asked for all images in high resolution and then had the photographer edit about 20-25 of them for printing. This allowed us to be able to crop our photos and still be able to produce the same size images.

For example, there is one photo where we are in the street kissing, but in the raw image, there is a car in the bottom left corner and an LED street sign on the right side. By having the high resolution file, we were able to crop all of that out and still maintain a great quality size file to print that photo in 8x10 for my bridal shower.

You really should always try to get the highest resolution possible. Some photographers will tell you that this will not allow them to put the images on one CD. Smile very politely and say, "That''s okay? How much more is it for the second blank CD? or would you like me to provide the blank CDs?" (They cost about 6.99 for a stack of 20 at Target).

As far as the copyrights, unless you are looking to sell your images, it''s okay to have only reproduction rights.

 

[Green with Envy]

I am assuming she only wants to provide medium resolution because then we will use her for printing rather than edit and print any images on our own. Correct? She offered high resolution in her brochure, but was helping us cut costs and in our face-to face meeting offered us lower prices than in the printed brochure... and then only med resolution dvd.

It is confusing because she said the pics will still be good quality when printed at smaller sizes... but then we can't do our own photoshopping or zooming? good to know.

We are spending the money to have her help with the wedding album (I know it makes it way more expensive... but we have no editing talents of our own!) and would not be ordering too many prints... but having the option down the road for ourselves is important.

 

[honey22]

I don''t know how it works in the US, but down under, the bride and groom own the copyright to all their wedding pics, unless they sign them away in the contract. I would check your contract carefully, there is probably wording somewhere that gives her back the copyright.

 

[MonkeyPie]

If the photographer had you sign a contract, I would dig it out. See what it says about copyright. Generally, a photographer will keep rights to the photos IF they want to be able to use them in future advertising, ect., but it will say that in your contract. Some people will opt to not be in any future advertising, which is your right to ask for.

As for the resolution, I would go with high reso just because it means you can print larger. For the standard 8x10''s, a medium resolution normally will work out just fine, but it''s better to go higher if you can - what if you want a bigger print down the road and you don''t have the file size for it? It will save you time to go higher.

Also, since she doesn''t want to have to edit all 1000 - which seems weird to me, all my local photographers edit everything they give to the client - make sure you get a chance to sit down with her and have her professionally edit a handful, somewhere between 20-50.

 

[Green with Envy]

We have not signed the contract yet so I am trying to understand everything BEFORE signing. I don''t mind if she uses any of our pics for her own promotion... just as long as I can do everything I want with my pics for my own personal use.

She DOES edit all the photos offered to us via the DVD. her point was that if we take the DVd and print our own pics- that is fine. However she said she does EXTRA fine tuning, etc for any photos we use for the album or any specific prints we order with her. If we choose to get a very large canvas or something we would HVAE to use her if only given medium resolution prints and that, of course, is way more expensive than doing it ourselves.

The inflated prices for prints and stuff was crazy. We are spending a lot of money to get an amazing photographer... but then we can''t afford to buy the pictures after the wedding!

I asked her about other options and still waiting to hear back. It almost seems like if we can''t get the high resolution pics... it should be a deal breaker? or how much EXTRA do people pay for these things?

Ugh.... bleeding money!