Why You Can (And Should) Require Vendors to Pay for Your Photos

We know photographers work so hard to get the perfect shot and create the perfect images for your client. We also know the frustration when someone uses your work without consent for their own marketing and advertising.

Although many wedding vendors often work together, that does not mean you have to give your copyrighted works to vendors for free, and it also does not mean that these vendors automatically get to use your images for anything they want (even IF they try to say they can in their own contract with the client).

We want to help you retain ownership of your copyrighted works, but also help you make some additional income by licensing your images to other vendors.

First and Foremost, Do Photographers Have Sole Copyright Ownership Over Their Images?

Yes! Under U.S. law, specifically, The Copyright Act of 1976 and Title U.S.C. 17, original works of authorship are protected. This, under case law and the statue itself, includes pictorial and visual works such as photography.

Copyright protection exists the moment your work is created and fixed in a tangible form that can be seen either directly (in a physical form) or with the aid of a machine or device, such as a digital/film camera and computer. This means you have copyright ownership over your photographs the moment you compose the shot, click your shutter button, and the photo transfers onto your memory card or film. If you want to know more about copyrights and how to protect them please see our blog Photography copyrights: What you should know! 

With all this in mind vendors should NOT be using your photos without your permission. This is considered copyright infringement and it is against the law. If a vendor claims they own the right to their creative art showcased in your images, they are mistaken because there isn't any copyright ownership over those works since they are often not 'fixed' or 'original' enough to receive copyright rights. Here is a good blog going more in depth on that issue.

To help protect yourself from infringement we recommend you make it known to every vendor that they can only use your photos if they license them from you first.

Should I License My Images To Vendors? And Should I Do It For Free or For A Fee?

Absolutely, but it can come with a fee. Those photographs and the related digital images are your hard-earned work product and like most businesses you want to have multiple streams of income coming from that work product. Also, there are more complicated legal issues that can pop-up if you constantly give away your photographs complementary to be used by vendors. TLP’s take on this is that every vendor who wants your photos should be paying a fee along with signing a licensing agreement before they can use your photos.

As the photographer, we recommend you to get a list of all the vendors involved with the wedding or event from your client at the time of retention. Once you have that information you can then contact the vendors, introduce yourself, talk about prep for the event, and use the opportunity to let them know that they may be able to license photos from you after the event (complimentary or for a fee). Explain your fees upfront and if they seem interested and you trust the vendor you can send them a contract to review. If this is a new vendor you are working with, we recommend you hold off on sending them a contract until you have worked with them, have seen them in action, and also trust them. You are not obligated to license your photos to every vendor you work with. We recommend licensing to vendors you respect that do a good job! You want your photos to be associated with highly respected businesses you have enjoyed working with. When you have mutual respect for one another you will not only receive monetary gain but more referrals and long-lasting relationships with other vendors.

For some reason in the wedding world, in particular, vendors seem to think they have access to your photographs automatically and can use them for free without permission.

Think about this: a venue would NEVER let you use its premises without permission and a fee, a florist would charge you at least wholesale pricing to create florals for a styled shoot, and a DJ just isn’t going to give you their equipment to use for our own event. They shouldn’t expect the opposite from you.

The issue regarding vendors thinking they have access to your photos, or some type of intellectual property rights to the creative art within your photos, is really about whether vendors' creative works at a wedding or event are copyrightable. Copyright law requires that works be fixed in a tangible medium to be eligible for protection, which temporary event designs often do not meet. It’s all determined by the ‘fixability’ and ‘originality’ of your work. Despite creativity and value, floral arrangements, tablescapes, and similar decorations are often considered temporary installations, might decay over time, and thus do not qualify for copyright protection. As a result, photographers own the rights to their images, even if those images prominently feature your designs. Again, here is a good blog going more in depth on that issue.

Thus, offering vendors the opportunity to license your photos from you does not mean you give up your copyright rights, instead, you are protecting your work product from unlawful infringement by giving vendors the opportunity to license your photos right off the bat. You are setting the expectation of the value of your work product.

The decision then to share the images with the other vendors complimentary or with a small fee attached is up to you!

You could simply email all the vendors at the wedding an event a link to your highlight images or full gallery free of charge. This would be a complimentary way of licensing your images to the vendors in exchange for proper credit and attribution to your photography business. This is a great way to build credibility and a good reputation in the industry. Just be sure to clearly explain in the email what that license to use includes! SEE BELOW FOR AN EMAIL TEMPLATE! ↓

Or, you can license your images with a fee attached. Usually this is a small amount, but that indicates to the vendors that you do indeed own the copyright rights to your images, that you value that copyright, and are protecting your assets.

You could also do a mix of both of these options by allowing them, say, 5-10 photos complimentary, and if they wanted to use more they could pay a small fee. Be sure that you further explain that anything beyond social media or website usage would be an additional fee. 

The Legal Agreements You Need To Make It Happen!

There are two kinds of licensing agreements you can have vendors sign when allowing them to use your photos:

• A Non-Exclusive Licensing Agreement and

• An Exclusive Licensing Agreement

A Non-Exclusive Licensing Agreement allows you to give a limited license to a vendor to use your photos for commercial purposes. A Non-Exclusive Licensing Agreement does not give that vendor sole use of the photos, but rather it gives you the freedom to sell your photos to multiple vendors for multiple reasons. That way, you can determine how many photos you want to allow each vendor to use for commercial purposes and how they are allowed to publish them (via only website and social media or, say, charging a larger fee for billboard use.) Now, if a venue wants exclusive use of the photos with their venue in it there is a way to do that through an Exclusive Licensing Agreement.

An Exclusive Licensing Agreement should always have a larger fee attached because you are giving that vendor sole use of your photos and no other vendors (oftentimes including you) can use them. Whatever licensing agreement you choose to bind your vendors to, we always recommend attaching a licensing fee! KNOW YOUR WORTH!

One other tip from TLP: Make sure your clients have signed a model release so that you can license the photos to “third parties”... aka vendors…. You can find a model release form HERE if you don’t already have a clause in your existing contract.

TLP’s Take

You have worked so hard on your business and your photographs and digital images are LITERALLY YOUR MOST VALUABLE ASSET, so do not give away your hard-earned photos without a clear understanding of what the vendors can do with those images!

You own the copyrights on your photos, and when vendors ask for photos, you need to present them with a licensing agreement, or, at the very least, explain via email what they can and cannot do with your images for their marketing and advertising purposes.

If you'd like to go the more non-formal route, here is a template email that you can copy & paste when you send over the images to vendors:

"Dear [Vendor's Name],

Thank you for reaching out and expressing interest in using the photos from [Client's Name]'s event held on [Event Date] at [Venue Name] for promotional and marketing purposes. It's always exciting to hear someone wants to feature my photography work.. 

I am more than happy to grant permission for the use of my copyrighted images. In exchange, I ask that you credit my business [Your Photography Business Name] in all instances where the photos are used. This credit can be in the form of a mention or tag, such as:

Images by [Your Photography Business Name]

Please let me know if you have any specific requirements or formats for the images you need. 

Additionally, I would appreciate it if you could share with me the details of where and how the photos will be used. This helps ensure consistency and enables me to share on my own platforms, further promoting our collaboration. In full transparency, I am happy to grant you a limited commercial license to use the images on your social media and website. Please refrain from sharing these photos to anyone else or in another capacity without my permission.

Thanks again for reaching out. I look forward to seeing our work highlighted in your marketing materials!

All my best,,

[Your Full Name]
[Your Photography Business Name]
[Your Contact Information]"