Approached by venue to use wedding photos

Hi all

I was approached by the venue of which I did a wedding at a couple of months ago. They want a usb with all of my images of the wedding.

In their words "We are in the process of finalising new wedding packages for the hotel and would love to use some of your images of course recommend/credit your services on our current packages"

How should I go about this? What should my conditions be in order for myself to potentially gain more work and allow the venue to promote their own business using my photos?

Thanks guys

Lucas

LucasCK wrote in post #17319861
Hi all

I was approached by the venue of which I did a wedding at a couple of months ago. They want a usb with all of my images of the wedding.

In their words "We are in the process of finalising new wedding packages for the hotel and would love to use some of your images of course recommend/credit your services on our current packages"

How should I go about this? What should my conditions be in order for myself to potentially gain more work and allow the venue to promote their own business using my photos?

Thanks guys

Lucas

First off;

Obviously, don't give them a USB with all of your images. Give them at a minimum edited selects.
Two; how exactly are they going to recommend you? Is their any guarantee of getting payment? Do they pay you any sort of a fee if your customers use their venue, and vice versa?

All of the details need to be in a written, preferably notarized contract drafted by a lawyer. I am not a lawyer, and I'm not a wedding photographer, but I can see that it'd be pretty easy for them to get the better end out of this deal.

I'd be selling the venue a license to use them with very strict conditions for their use.

Personally I don't vendor network other than having venues etc recommend me organically and not because of any prior arrangement. If a venue does a bad job I don't necessarily want my business to be associated with them.

Any good venue will recommend who they deem to be exceptional suppliers regardless as it is reflects better on the venue for a client to have the best experience possible.

LucasCK wrote in post #17319861
I was approached by the venue of which I did a wedding at a couple of months ago. They want a usb with all of my images of the wedding.

First question - do you actually have the rights to license your images for commercial use. I don't know what Australian law says about image rights but in the US the bride/groom/attendees have the right to control the use of their likeness for commercial purposes (which is why models are asked to sign a model release). If you are not 100% sure on the law regarding this issue you should consult a local IP lawyer.

Secondly, (just thought of an even more important point) do you even own the copyright on the images. Australian law is different from most of the rest of the world, in that Section 35(5)(a) grants copyright to a client for a commissioned work rather than to the photographer. If you have a clause it your contract that assigns the copyright to you then this won't be a problem but without such a clause you would have no rights to the images at all.

Thirdly, vague promises of credit/recommendation are worthless. You need a contractual agreement that specifies exactly what you will get in return for them using your images (unless they are going to pay). Put simply it would cost them a lot of Au$ to create those images themselves so you should be sure to get your money's worth in promotions. Examples would be...
1. Prominent placement for your logo/contact details in their promotional literature for a defined period.
2. Exclusivity - you are the only tog they recommend for a set period of time.
3. First in list of recommended companies after that exclusive period
4. etc.

Dan Marchant wrote in post #17319941
First question - do you actually have the rights to license your images for commercial use. I don't know what Australian law says about image rights but in the US the bride/groom/attendees have the right to control the use of their likeness for commercial purposes (which is why models are asked to sign a model release). If you are not 100% sure on the law regarding this issue you should consult a local IP lawyer.

Secondly, vague promises of credit/recommendation are worthless. You need a contractual agreement that specifies exactly what you will get in return for them using your images (unless they are going to pay). Put simply it would cost them a lot of Au$ to create those images themselves so you should be sure to get your money's worth in promotions. Examples would be...
1. Prominent placement for your logo/contact details in their promotional literature.
2. Exclusivity - you are the only tog they recommend for a set period of time.
3. etc

Personally, my studio session contract all of my customers sign before their session say that I have full copyright to the photos and may use them for any purposes I see fit with no further compensation to the client. That's to protect me for using the photos in advertising, but would also cover this.

Whether a blanket declaration like that is legal in your jurisdiction is something you need to verify with your attorney.

Thanks guys. Ill try and setup a meeting with the person who contacted me