If you wish to use any images from our blog for use on your own website, our copyright is as follows:
Any photographs posted on a web site must be credited: “Photographer RE” and a link provided to “www.photographer-re.com”
Publication or tampering with the photographs is strictly prohibited without prior written e-mail consent from R.E.PhotoDesign, LLC.
A proof of your publication must be supplied before we will consent to the use of our images. This is to insure that out image, and our clients, are not used in a negative way or in a context that is not fitting for the image.
If photographs are supplied to you by our clients:
Client shall not sell photographs nor authorize their reproduction by parties other than The Photographer. Client is authorized to reproduce and publish photographs only in connection with personal use of displaying photographic prints and print announcements of the Wedding / Event, provided however that Client shall use its best efforts to require the publisher of such photographs to print an accompanying credit substantially as follows: ”Photo © by Richard Esposito. All rights reserved.”
Any Photographs or negative files supplied to the Client who then uploads said files to any websites, including but not limited to Facebook and Flickr, is required to have the Photographers Name and or Logo displayed on the image. Failure to do so will be considered a copyright violation for reproducing the image.
Facebook, Flickr, and image sharing websites:
This is about our Facebook, Flickr, and other image sharing website policies when it comes to uploading our photographs. With the explosion of Facebook both on a personal level and on a business level we’ve had to make a few adjustments with our clients rights to use our wedding photo negatives as you wish. Our terms and conditions have always covered this current issue, but we need to make it even more clear now.
Posting/uploading any photos that I have supplied to you, onto Facebook or any website, is a copyright violation. This is because 1) The uploaded image shown on Facebook is considered a reproduction of the original and I do have to give specific rights, in writing, for reproductions of our images. 2) My business information is not on the images I supply you and, in most cases, a link to my website is not being supplied in the Facebook album or more importantly in the comments of each image upon upload. These policies are stated in your contract terms and in the readme file on the USB drive (or CD) that was supplied to you. It’s especially important for us because when viewing photos on the pages of your friends who have been tagged in the photos, my information is not there. I do not ask for this simply for marketing purposes, but for a bigger issue.
The bigger issue is that this is also a copyright problem with third party applications on Facebook because they can use images you upload for ads without anyones permission. Obviously this is a major issue with photographers! This is why we take control over uploading images for you. To stop applications from using any images you upload I highly recommend you change your Facebook settings. Log into your Facebook account and go to Settings > Facebook Ads (You will now get a message about this issue being a rumor). Set the drop down box to “No one.” Refresh the page and make sure the setting is saved.
Another copyright issue that we as photographers face is that our work is stolen by other photographers and used on their websites as their own. I know that I can do more to protect our images from this, but it would mean putting our logo across the middle of the image in some way. I don’t want my business information to ruin the photo, so I keep it minimal and off to the side. It’s easy for anyone to steal the image and crop the logo out. All I can do is cross my fingers.
Besides the copyright issue, believe it or not, Facebook is our #1 source of advertising. It is the #1 referrer to our website. It is one of the best viral marketing strategies out there. We simply lose that ability without our information attached to each image.
From now on, upon request, I will supply you not only with your negatives, but a separate folder containing images for use on Facebook or other online publications. This will also help you because the Facebook images I supply are about 11% of the size of the full size negative. These images are tuned specifically for Facebook and will upload a lot faster.
