At my wedding a photographer was included in the wedding package. They told me that I would get an album of 55 images and it would cost more for a larger album. When it came time to choose and order our pictures we consented to that additional cost. However they want to charge me 300 dollars just to get digital copies of all the pictures taken with a full copyright release. I never signed anything authorizing them to copyright my image nor did I sign anything saying they could use my image commercially on their website for advertisement.

All Answers To Questions

A professional photographer has a copyright to all pictures they take. This does not give them the right to use your photos. It protects them from you having copies made through another processor. The $300 would release that copyright to you, so that you can make copies through whatever company you like, or even on your own. The copyright does not give the photographer any rights to use your images other than to sell them to you.

Are you kidding? $300 for copyright is *cheap*. You don't have to sign anything, the photographer owns the copyright whether you like it or not. He is under no obligation to give you anything other than the 55 pictures you contracted for, and most photographers wouldn't release copyright at all. The digital files are not included in your original purchase, the photographer has every right to charge more for them. If you actually read the contract, I bet you *did* allow them to use the images on their website.

A wedding photographer's copyright ONLY extends to forcing you to order extra copies through him. That copyright doesn't convey any right to use the photos in any other way.