Hello! We have a wonderful photographer and we've already contracted with her. She does have copyrights on her photos - I totally get that - it's her intellectual property. We have read her contract and still have a few questions about our rights with the photos and want to ask here before we ask her: based on the parts of the contract below, can you tell if we'll be able to upload our photos onto websites like photobucket and facebook, or email them to our family? Also, will we have the rights to print our photos from elsewhere? We are getting a DVD with all of the high resolution images from our wedding day photography and our engagement session. We also have access to her online proof gallery. The photos that are in the online proof gallery and the ones on the DVD have been edited slightly for color correction, contrast, and tonal adjustments. Any prints we'll get for our wedding album, or any prints we order from her from our engagement session will have her custom editing done to them, which is really beautiful. Our final question would be whether anyone buys photos from their photographer and receives them in digital form, rather than physical form. Obviously, we would pay for her to do the editing work she would do to enhance the digital proofs, but it would be more beneficial for us to have them in digital form. 6. Copyright & Reproductions ...(photographer) shall own the copyright for all images created at the event and shall have exclusive right to make reproductions... make reproductions for the Client or for the photographer's portfolio, web site, studio samples, printed promotional materials... 7. Client Usage The Client is obtaining photographs for personal use only and shall not sell prints or authorize any reproductions by parties other than (photographer)... It is a violation...to allow photographs taken to be reproduced or altered in any manner including but not limited to electronic scanning via personal scanner, "screen capturing," or reproduction via photo lab or self-service kiosk. SO FAR, THIS SEEMS TO CLEARLY STATE THAT WE HAVE NO RIGHTS TO THE PHOTOS, AND TO PRINTING THEM ELSEWHERE, BUT SECTION 11 SAYS... 11. Release of Digital Negatives (Photographer) will release the high-resolution files (digital negatives) to the Client...These files will be delivered on multiple CD's or DVD. By releasing the digital negatives (photographer) authorizes the client to use the images contained on the CD for personal use. (Photographer) is not responsible for the quality of enlargements from these files that have been taken to a non-professional and/or consumer photo lab. The images may not be sold or published without the written consent of the photographer. Photographer will retain the copyright of the images contained on the DVD as well as the exclusive rights detailed in section "Copyright & Reproductions." Upon releasing the digital negatives to the client (photographer) is released of all liability for archiving all of the files. Thanks for taking the time to read this and for any help you can provide with our initial questions!
