500 Wedding Ideas - how much should I charge someone to give them rights of wedding photos?

how much should I charge someone to give them rights of wedding photos?

Amateur wedding photos please answer if this should be based on the nuber of photos and give price accordingly If I only charge this Im now finding out about two different weddings for those who have answered previous wedding questions! Please respond to the question being asked, not what you assume.

Public Comments

You should not charge for this at all. You have already been paid for service, and the photos are pictures of THEIR wedding. If I buy a purse, I don't also have to pay for the right to carry it.
Wait.You are trying to charge someone for the rights to their own wedding photo? That's just completely ridiculous. The only way you can hold on to those photos is if they didn't pay you for the service. Which I'm thinking that they did. The married couple can now take you to court if they wanted for with holding what is rightfully theirs. You have to give them their photos. The second they paid you for the service, they also paid for the "rights" to those photos. You are an amateur wedding photographer and its obvious you still have a lot to learn about how to run your business. You should definately think about looking to a more experienced wedding photographer to get your stuff right. Good Luck
you want to know how much to charge a couple for the copyright of the pictures youll take and youre not even a professional photographer? in short,nothing - they havent paid you to take pictures in the first place,you should just give them copies when you have them developed the couple it seems would already be the copyright holders anyway
The other people who have answered here do not seem to understand your question. Photographers get paid to come to the wedding and take picture and to provide copies of the pictures. But, the photographer owns the rights to the photos he takes of the bride and groom--the bride and groom do not own the rights unless they purchase the rights to the photos. As for how much you should charge for the rights, I don't know.
If they are amateur pictures, give them the rights. Only some professional photographers retain the rights of the pictures, but it is an outdated practice in this time and age of digital photography. Nowadays wedding photographers have prices that include their rights to the pictures since there are no "negatives" to hold on to and there is no exclusive way to make prints anymore due to technology. In any event, since you are not a professional, you should give the couple their pictures as this is a service like any other, is not like you are an acclaimed exclusive photographer. Good luck
You should not charge them anything. If you're not a professional photographer you shouldn't be charging couples for the rights of their own photos.
Speak with a lawyer about this. It may be that since you are not a professional photographer that the photos you take at a wedding are not your property to sell. Or, if you are a professional, then the actual ownership and distribution rights should be spelled out in your contract with the couple. The charges are up to you. If you want information as to how much to charge, speak with a number of photographers in your area (100 KM radius) to determine what would be considered "usual and customary." You may also ask them about publication rights and fees for those as well. Finally, please be aware that unless your clients are celebrities, the chances of your photos being valuable are practically nil. Moreover, being an amateur, you may not have much of a legal leg to stand on should you choose to try to sell the pictures. See a lawyer.
If you are hired as a photographer, the standard fee in MY area ranges from $10-25 per photo, up to about $500-1000 total fee. It also depends on the total cost of the package you are selling them and the level of your experience and professionalism. But you need to draw up a legal contract. Do not give them the rights to the photos, just reprinting rights! There is a difference. If you totally give up the rights, you can't even use them in your portfolio to show future clients. Just give them reprinting rights, with the caveat that you still retain full rights and that you cannot guarantee quality if they have them printed by a lab you have not worked with. I'm sure you are aware of color variations at places like Walgreens/Walmart photo labs... If you are a guest, taking pictures of a friend's wedding (not THE wedding photographer), then you don't charge them a dime to get those pictures printed on their own.
Contrary to some of your posters, whether you are amateur or professional, you own the rights to photos you take, not the couple who is pictured. Owning those rights and providing future photos is how photagraphers make their income - it is NOT just that day that they took the photos! It is up to you. What you charge for the day of taking photos is completely separate from the actual photos - that is for your time and effort. Most wedding photographers expect to get compensation for 2 sets of usable photos (all the photos). Estimate what you would charge in profit for that and include that in your price. My sister was charged a flat $500 for full rights to her photos, and received both the negatives and the CD, but that was some years ago. In my scrapbooking group another gal paid $750 to get the reprinting rights (CD only since most are using digital cameras now). The photographer still owns the photos. I agree with other posters though. If you are not the official photographer, I'd just ask them to give you a few bucks for the cost of the SD card or CD you give them. If you were a family friend pushed to replace a professional photographer, charge more. You deserve it since it took away from your time as being a guest.
The key words (yours) are: "Amateur wedding photos". You should charge for rights at all. The photos should belong to them entirely. You should feel lucky to get some experience of this sort as a photographer.
Your question most likely arose out of someone wanting to post their wedding photos on Facebook or YouTube and was denied because they did not own the rights. Many people don't realize a 'signature' is embedded in every digital photo with the camera's make and model, and the 'owner' if that person has completed the online registration. Laws are different for the various media types such as Print media, Online media and reproduction rights. Another aspect many people don't realize is that if you take a picture of someone, you must have that persons permission to publish it in a public forum. A woman recently successfully sued an ex-friend for 'identity theft' when he published photos of her in a compromising embrace with another man. Every person has the basic legal rights to their 'image'. As you are still building a business, I would give them (written) permission, signed by both parties for one specific place such as Facebook, for $1, but specify you must be given photo credit "used with the permission of John Doe, Photographer" and continue to retain all legal rights. I would also get written permission to use their 'images' in your portfolio. Lastly, visit a professional photographer and ask for a copy of his contract. You are wise not to simply give stuff away without consideration, however I would fully inform myself of the laws of your state/country at a reputable source rather than Answers. Good Luck
There is no law that says you have to be a working professional photographer to charge for your images. There's no union, or oversight board or anything. As the photographer that created the images, they're yours. you own the copyright, and you should retain that protection so you can use the images for things like portfolios, and web sites etc. Most wedding photographers will assign the rights to post images on the web, and print the images to the married couple only as part of their wedding package, but the photographer retains full copyrights. If the married couple really wants full copyrights to the images you should charge at least as much as it would cost to reprint the set of images, a satisfactory fee for web use, and enough to cover your loss of access to the images. You may be an amateur now, but who says that will always be the case? Don't give away your hard earned property with out proper compensation.