Are we being unreasonable? re Photographer

manda1205

Background; We got married 28th May, we found a friend of a friend to do our photos, he has only done 1 other wedding (his niece) and mainly does portraits as a hobbie(he is not a professional), but what work we had seen was very good, he also was pleased for the experience. He drew up a contract and we paid £380 for 100 6x4 prints and a DVD slideshow, which he has supplied.
Now, niavely, we thought the DVD would also have useable prints on, which is doesnt. Before wedding he wasnt sure on what his costs for reprints would be and as he was friend of friend we trusted they wouldnt be too bad, as he knew we had a low budget.
Now as the DVD doesnt have useable files, we asked him if and how much they would cost. He has now said he will charge us £20 per picture to put on a CD, that means a £2000 bill for all our pics on a CD for us to use!!!!
We're are really upset by this.
He is also now charging £4.99 for reprints 6x4 and he seems to think he is reasonable. We have compared with other local photgraphers, and most do packages which include a CD with use of prints for around £600.
What do you all think? Where do we stand? What would you do?
We feel we're now held at ransom by this guy, who seems to be all out to make as much money out of us.

Dizzie77

Hi Manda
I didn't want to read and run - so I'll try and help!
Did you have a contract with this man? I am guessing not, if he was a friend of a friend - this could be a problem if you want
to try and get him to do something.

Have you spoken to him directly? It may be that something is being lost in translation.
(especially if things are done via email - I recently asked for a quote for a 20m marquee, when I actually wanted a 20' mini marquee!!)

If you speak to him and his charges are still the same, I would point him in the direction of other local photographers and their
price lists - also remind him that a good photographer is found by word of mouth, and if he has all these additional charges
that weren't mentioned up front, it would be difficult to recommend him to friends and family.

It could just be that there is something confused - or perhaps he has worked for Olan Mills or similar and is used to ripping people
off for their photos...!

Keep us posted.

Degeneratemoo

£2000 is a joke. Not sure what you could do though... was there a contract at all? Perhaps citizens advice or trading standards could help?

TamVilla80

He is taking the micky! Are you sure there is no way of getting the pictures off the disc? If you can view them, there has to be a way of getting them off - have you got a mega clever techie person that can have a go?

Sammy85_2

I went to visit a fairly new photographer the other day and all his packages only includes a dvd. If you want the copyright its £20 per photo or £450 for the lot.

Some of the really posh photographers dont offer the copyright at all and some offer it for a small charge of £100-200.

I feel for you but it is something that should have been clarified at booking. Perhaps if you sit down with him and present him the prices of reputable photographers in your area then you can come to some kind of compromise?

Good luck, i hope you get it sorted.

Degeneratemoo

TamVilla80 wrote: »

He is taking the micky! Are you sure there is no way of getting the pictures off the disc? If you can view them, there has to be a way of getting them off - have you got a mega clever techie person that can have a go?

The pictures would like have been put into a slideshow and then converted to a video file so there would be no way to get the original photos back. Depending the presentation of the photos you could potentially 'screen grab' the pictures from a paused DVD but they would like not be very high quality...

manda1205

Thank you all, yes he drew a contract up, he wanted to try and be slightly professional, but in his words he did state its just a hobbie, which he would like to take further, but he knows he needs more experience etc. The contract does state he owns the copryrights. And that he will give us 100 6x4 prints and a DVD slideshow. (although we thought you would still be able to get the files, wrongly obviously)
We have only been speaking via emails, but he has made it quite clear he doesnt want to give up rights to the photos, and seems to think all good photographers dont. He thinks £20 a pic is fair. We have now searched all local photographers and given him links with their costings which all include a copy of photos to use as you wish. We're now waiting to hear back from him.
Its all such a shame though, as now it makes it awkward with our friend, and he had seemed so genuine and pleased to do the wedding for expereince, not to make loads of money out of us.
Tamvilla80 - I have thought of this, and tried googling it, it does seem poss with some types, and we do know someone in IT, so may ask him to see if he can hack it.

manda1205

Sammy85 wrote: »

I went to visit a fairly new photographer the other day and all his packages only includes a dvd. If you want the copyright its £20 per photo or £450 for the lot.

Some of the really posh photographers dont offer the copyright at all and some offer it for a small charge of £100-200.

I feel for you but it is something that should have been clarified at booking. Perhaps if you sit down with him and present him the prices of reputable photographers in your area then you can come to some kind of compromise?

Good luck, i hope you get it sorted.

Thank you, my only thought is, he's not a professional though, we took quite a gamble with him as he could have ended up with only a few good pics.
Our main point with him, is that he knew we were on a tight budget and the other photographers we looked at were obviously in our budget range (around £600) and the ones we looked at included a CD with rights. Unfortunately for us we trusted him and didnt think he'd charge so much afterwards, and yes with hinesight we should really have got him to outlay all costs before hand.

Lexxi

I think there are some photo shops that are able to do it, but I'm not sure of the quality or any details, I just saw advertising outside a shop.
£380 seems a lot for someone who does it as a hobby, I've been in touch with a photographer who charges little more than that who is an experienced photographer but is moving into wedding photography.
Also if he has put the pictures onto a dvd then he already has them on his computer and if they are on memory cards then it won't be much to put them back on his computer, it's got to be less hassle than creating a dvd that you can't take the images off! £20 is outrageous especially if he is just starting out and wants to build a career, it does seem like he is trying to take advantage, or he's rather misguided

Sammy85_2

We're using a fairly new photographer, they've only done 2 weddings so far. Its £900 for a large Graphistudio album and a CD with all the photos and copyright. I think they charge around £400 for photos on disk only.

Taking a bit of a gamble with them, but i cant afford the £2k that the established photographers up here charge for the package we want.

Dizzie77

Manda - do you think he wants to retain the rights because he wants to use your photos to show the wedding work he can do?
If it is a new move for him into weddings, maybe that is the case?

If it is - maybe you can come to a compromise that you are free to use and reproduce "his" photos and he is free to use them
as his portfolio/on his website.

I really hope you can get it sorted out. If you do have a contract, then take it, along with the copies of your emails to your
local trading standards.

Fingers crossed he will see that he is being completely unreasonable and relent! x