Wedding Photos & Watermarks

[Spencer]

So it is less than two weeks until I will finally be married and I have decided to get the digital copies of all of our photos (engagement, bridal and wedding photos), of course for a small fee....

My question to all that are out there is; Am I asking too much to have the photographer leave off his trademark/watermark? If this is a necessity then how would one go about removing this eyesore? Maybe it's just me but I definitely do not want to be looking at "Rod Bishop Photography" on all the pictures no matter what how small it is on the photo.

[pegdragger]

Are they proofs or the actual photos? If they are proofs, the watermark is on there so you don't go make copies and not pay him for his work (which is illegal for you to do). If they are the actual copies, ask him to give copies without his watermark.

[Diamond Lil]

Rob, I agree with Michael completely. If you are paying for and receiving copies the watermark should not be included.

[Spencer]

These are for copies and I understand the legalities involved with the digital rights to photos. What I am looking for was if I was out of line to ask him for copies without the watermark on them. From what you all are saying it seems like I have every right to ask him to leave them off especially since I am paying for them.

[Diamond Lil]

That is how I would approach it Rob.

[Spencer]

Thanks for the help! I just talked to the photographer and he said he would just do the embedding in the metadata! He also told me that he subscribes to some service that notifies him when any of his photos are uploaded to sites such as this or myspace, etc. Although this is not against his typical agreement to do this it does increase the risk (for me) that somebody else could copy that photo and break our limited copyright & usage agreement.

[Diamond Lil]

How complex it all has become. I'm glad he is working with you.

Question though, what in the agreement makes it so that you are at risk?

[Spencer]

That's a great question Lil. I should have the agreement tomorrow and know more. I've just been going on what he has told me verbally. I'll post the agreement up tomorrow for some feedback!

[Diamond Lil]

Hmmmmnnnnn......

[texasv-rod]

Lookin forward to it, Rob! Gonna have the two kids in tow. My wife has a baby shower to go to.

[Max]

Rob he can put a tag in the photo and with photo shop you can remove it if you want to post a photo. Not sure why they would even go that extent for a wedding photo you are paying for but it sounds like your doing business with the wrong person IMHO. I can understand the value of digital ownership but these are wedding photos and not some major sporting event or some other function that the photos would ever have any great value to anyone else. Digimarc is what most subscribe to and it is full of flaws IMHO.

[Diamond Lil]

Max has expressed my concern with this man's restrictions; You are paying for the photos, they are of your wedding and you should be able to use them as you wish.

[pegdragger]

Glad you got the answer you needed. There are actually a few proams out there that can fin your pics online. One of them is called PicLens. It searches the web for your pictures.

[rjrivero]

Rob he can put a tag in the photo and with photo shop you can remove it if you want to post a photo. Not sure why they would even go that extent for a wedding photo you are paying for but it sounds like your doing business with the wrong person IMHO. I can understand the value of digital ownership but these are wedding photos and not some major sporting event or some other function that the photos would ever have any great value to anyone else. Digimarc is what most subscribe to and it is full of flaws IMHO.

Shoot Max, Maybe these will be really "GOOD" wedding photos......:p