Copyright & Licencing

Personal Use of Photos (The Standard Copyright on all our Photography Bookings)

The Copyright Designs and Patents Acts assign the copyright of all images to the photographer even though you are paying to have them. You will be granted printing and duplication rights for the image on payment, this gives you permission to use them for yourself.  All digital negatives (computer files) remain the property of ER Photography.  You will be supplied with a copy of the edited digital negatives for your own non-commercial use unless specified in the booking, full commercial licenses are available for purchase.

You do not have permission to use Photographs before payment in full of the relevant invoice(s) without the Photographer’s express permission in writing.  Any permission that may be given for prior use will automatically be revoked if full payment is not made by the due date.  This means you must pay the invoice before you can use any of the photos.

 


Photographs for Commercial Use & Business Promotions

A written agreement must be reached with the Photographer before the Photographs may be used for commercial or business promotion.  Where the use of images which breach the Licence to Use, further charges may apply.   This means if you only have the standard license then you can not use the images to promote your company either sole trader, limited or organisation on your companies website, social media, print or any other form of advertising.  A written commercial license can be provided but charges for this license apply.

 


How We Use The Photos

We have full permission to display any photograph taken on our jobs to promote our business in advertising, brochures, magazine articles, websites, sample products etc.  When you book us and pay an invoice you are automatically agreeing to our Terms Of Business, we have the right to use any photographs we have taken in whatever media platform we require.   We generally only use photos for our own website by doing a Blog of the job and selecting a limited number of images to promote.  We also use images for Facebook, Twitter & Instagram and will tag in companies to link promote and spread the love.

 


The Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988

1. Who owns the copyright on photographs?

Under law, it is the photographer who will own copyright on any photos he/she has taken, with the following exceptions:

  • If the photographer is an employee of the company the photos are taken for, or is an employee of a company instructed to take the photos, the photographer will be acting on behalf of his/her employer, and the company the photographer works for will own the copyright.
  • If there is an agreement that assigns copyright to another party.

In all other cases, the photographer will retain the copyright, if the photographer has been paid for his work, the payment will be for the photographer’s time and typically an allocated number of prints. The copyright to the photos will remain with the photographer, and therefore any reproduction without permission would be an infringement of copyright.

Examples:

  • If Bill Smith asks Peter Jones the photographer to photograph his wedding. Peter Jones will normally provide a single copy of the prints as part of the fee, but any additional prints Bill or his family and friend want must be ordered via Peter as he is the copyright owner and controls who can copy his work.
  • If Bill Smith engages the services of XYZ-Photos for the same job, and Peter is an employee of XYZ-Photo who instruct Peter to take the photos, XYZ-Photos will be the copyright owner and control how they are used.