There are a lot of misconceptions about what one can do with digital images. This wasn’t an issue in the film days when everything was on a negative and you had to physically make a print. Today, getting prints is only one of the options, and getting images, both low or high resolution — with or without a logo — can easily get confusing for anyone not in the business.
At JPG we will take thousands of images on a wedding day, and we only want you to relive the day through the best moments. This means we deliver 500-plus high-resolution JPG images that you have lifetime personal use rights to. This means if you want to make a million 4×6 prints of you and your sweetie making out in the middle of the city, go right ahead. Not all photography studios do this; some require you to make additional purchases to get rights to your images or deliver them years later. At JPG, the first day you see them you’re able to download and use images by sharing them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., print them out, order prints online, hang them on your fridge, you get the idea. (By the way, we also offer a wide variety of superb quality albums if you’re more interested in that approach to physical photos)
When you share them in public view, such as social media, we request that you use a version of the photo with our logo, or at least say who took the shot, JPG Photo & Video. This helps protect us and you, because sadly there are many unethical photographers who steal other artists’ images to bolster their own portfolio. On your personal social network page, it’s always wonderful to receive photo credit, but if you forget, just add us now. A business on the other hand, simply put, should know better. By passing something off as their own, a business is violating copyright law. Copyright is defined as a form of intellectual property protection provided by the law of the United States of America. Copyright is automatic!
We’ve been honored that many publications, both broadcast and print media, have shared our photos or distributed them through their media networks. Before this can happen, we need to talk about the usage because first, we want to make sure we have your blessing and ensure the image won’t be edited or altered in a way that would damage your reputation or ours.
When JPG Photographers document your day, it is done is a RAW image format. RAW simply means the most information possible is being captured by that camera. There is a lot of confusion, however, about customers who want to acquire their RAW images. A RAW image is generally worthless to most people. RAW images can’t be printed or posted. They must be converted. At JPG, we edit our images from RAW and convert them and edit them to a format easy accessible to you.We never give out RAW images because they are our original work and every image should get a boost from powerful editing software which is common today.
What to ask about image usage when hiring a photographer:
1. Ask if you will receive any form of digital files. If so, ask how you can use that file.
2. Ask about the file size, because there is a big difference between a low resolution that will look great on Facebook, and a high resolution that you will need to make a 5×7 print.
3. Find out when and how you will be able to get the images. Is it instantaneous? Is it two years later?
Below is a compilation of photos of ours used in publications in which we were properly credited…
