Photo/Model Release required for wedding photography

[rcheung07]

For some lucky reason I'm always getting brides with a husband who's either in a law firm or is a lawyer or on a path to becoming a lawyer and they always have issues with a photo release. "The wedding is a private matter and I don't want my images posted all over the net." The model release is a standard form I pulled from the net but modified to my needs. I know it doesn't say "images only used for my website" but don't people understand that for the most part the displaying of our work is the only promotion we really have before meeting a client. The release does mention third parties, etc, I figured this would cover my ass if I were to submit a photo for a contest. Am I right on this?

I really need help now, this is now the second time. I had to drop the first job because of this issue. How do wedding photographers deal with these issues? Non-advertising additional fee on the job?

All help is appreciated guys.

[Dennis_Hammer]

I have two model releases, one very generic basically letting me do as I please. The second is for the balkers it releases use for web and/or promotional uses. Now that said portfolio use never needs a release and if you mark your galleries separately one for wedding customers to view for their use. And another as a portfolio your covered. But when they say No to both (only once so far) I shoot the wedding anyways after all its just one wedding and you would use just a few images anyway. Plus as I said you can use every single one in a port if you wanted to.

[rcheung07]

So they don't want their images used on the internet. Do I charge a 25% lost of bsuiness potential fee?

[Dennis_Hammer]

I guess you could if you don't want to do the wedding or get referrals. And its hard to prove loss of business, crystal balls and all haven't been reliable since gypsies stopped stealing children. It boils down to if you want the job or not. Not every wedding is going to produce that photo that you have to have to make your business explode. Like I said everything is still useable in your portfolio.

[rcheung07]

Hey Dennis,

Thanks for your help so far. What do you mean "everything is still useable in your portfolio?" How does this work if I don't get a signed release? I know the release is for commerical/advertisement but isn't a portfolio an advertisement in a sense.