Through the Lens - CLOSED

Death of the Wedding Photographer by Dominic Lee, AMPA

       Last year many customers were asking, can you please shoot film? This year they would accuse you of being a dinosaur for not shooting digital.

But recording a wedding digitally is at least ten times more work than it was on film. Yet the price has not altered significantly in the past few years to cover the extra skills, equipment and time required.

       We were well and truly sucked in by the sales pitch which promised us an easier life if we went digital. And don’t you just feel like smacking a customer in the kisser when they say “it must be sooo easy for you now with digital”?

       

       Where does that leave the customer?

They too have also been well and truly sucked in by the digital hype. Believing they are getting a bargain upon discovering a chancer who offers them “the lot” on CD. But how many brides will do more than email 2 or 3 of the 1000 images to every friend & relative they have in the world?, consigning the rest to their hard drive, leaving that age-old tradition of the wedding album, falling on its knees.

      

       As for the album manufacturers!

They continue with the hype, telling us that their latest breed of album is the future. When in fact by the time the wedding comes around and the Bride & Groom leave the studio with their all singing, all dancing magazine / book style digi-album, the Fashion Police are hot on their tail with sirens blaring.

      

       So where does that leave the photographer?

Check out an old copy of the Golden Pages and you will notice two things when you compare it to the current issue. (1) Many experienced photographers have dropped “weddings” from their listing.

And (2) many new budding photographers that placed ads a few years ago are no longer listed!

Copyright Act, a waste of time! by Dominic Lee

        We recently photographed a group of 10 and after airbrushing all of them, changing heads on 3 of them, removing designer logos and adding a missing tooth, the client bought a 10x8 and asked for a high res file to be emailed to Snap Printing who would print a 30x40 inch canvas for 100 Euro including VAT!

          Naturally I told them that they should ask Snap Printing to provide the studio facilities, the photographer and the retouching skills. They were shocked, believing that because they bought one print that we the photographers were not actually entitled to make any more money from the job, while Snap Printing were.

         I spoke to the staff at my local copy shop and one of them believes that if the photograph they copy is of the person requesting the copy then the copyright law does not apply as no one else can possibly own the copyright of a person!!!!!! (Read it three times if necessary, it beggars belief but that’s what the man said).

        The manager pointed out that the customer operates the copy machine and simply pays the cashier, which exonerates the company from copyright law, as the staff don’t see the photographer’s sticker on the back of the photo (Another jaw dropping excuse).

         There was a great song & dance when the Copyright Act was introduced but what good has it done us if the copy shops don’t know or care?

         Clearly these lawbreakers need to be educated and regrettably the best way to do this is to catch one of them in the act and sue them for breach of copyright, which, according to the Copyright Act 2000 can result in a heavy fine, and confiscation of all copying equipment on their premises. The word would spread fast as it did in America where you would simply embarrass yourself if you dared to ask a copy shop to reproduce work, which is copyright imprinted.

        Until then, avoid selling small prints for silly money, (sell the image not the piece of paper) as unscrupulous copy shops look at wallet size proofs as a licence to print money. Try pricing your work at a premium for the first print irrespective of the size and then sell extra copies of that print for silly money. Make sure the copyright sticker is visible and includes the words “Extra copies may be ordered from XYZ”.

Regards,

Dominic Lee.