Ownership of actual wedding photos

Just read an interesting article about who actually has ownership of wedding images after you are hired to shoot a wedding. I still didn't get who actually does own the rights. There were a lot of reader inputs that agreed & disagreed. I'm sure it would have to be stated in the contract. I wonder how many photographers actually keep the rights when it's work for hire. Supposing the bride entered it into a contest & it won - or the photographer won an award for the photo. Can I get some input on this by the pros!

Soulful wrote in post #17477655
I'm sure it would have to be stated in the contract.

exactly.

I have it written in my contract that I retain copyright and that I transfer rights for personal use only to the client. My contract also includes a model release paragraph.

I really do not have any interest in owning the photos. If I want to use them on my website or Facebook, I'll ask permission. And if that's not cool with them, fine. I stipulate in my terms and conditions that that the client has copyright. I feel this also gives prospective clients more confidence in their privacy, which many people value.

As far as entering them in competitions, I've never seen a competition where it hasn't been a condition of entry that YOU, the entrant must have taken the photo. BTW - competitions are a dime a dozen these days. hardly a day or two goes by without me receiving an email inviting me to enter some fancy named, usually starting with "International ...... Competitions are ran as money making ventures, however there are some worthy ones.

Thank you guys for your info - very interesting. There's so much more to shooting weddings than just taking the actual photos, so much that can get you in trouble lol!

Copyright ownership laws vary from country to country so it would depend on where you live/work. In the majority of countries the photographer owns the copyright by default and should grant a license to the client to use the images in whatever manner was agreed. The only time a client would get ownership* would be if the contract had a clause that transfers copyright ownership to them.

As for "work for hire" there seems to be a lot of confusion around that. "Work for hire" only applies if you are an employee (a freelance photographer isn't an employee) or you signed a work for hire agreement AND the work being done matched the nine criteria necessary for a work to be considered work for hire. Wedding photographs don't match the nine criteria so they wouldn't be work for hire.

As a result the client wouldn't be allowed to enter a photograph into a contest without the photographers permission.

* As mentioned above some countries have different laws. In Australia and New Zealand a client who commissions a photographer and pays them owns the copyright. This also used to be true in Canada but the law was recently changed.

Thank you for the great information.

Has to be written in the contract. I retain all commercial rights for use with promotion (my website), etc. Client only has personal use rights in order to make prints.

Client has "Permission to Print & Display Copyright" the photographer must retain the Full Copyright....