Who owns the Copyright ? Photographer, Model or the client ?

An interesting incident happened yesterday. Just like always, me and few friends gathered at a nearby restaurant for the dinner after a photo exhibition held by local photographer. I noticed that one of our photographer friend was not in mood. Once we set for the dinner and cracked some jokes, I asked him is everything ok ? Then he shared a very interesting ( tragic for him ) thing happened to him. Let me share it with you.

My photographer friend was hired by a local showroom vala for one day photo shoot. The showroom owner had negotiated a lot with my friend to cut down his fees and arrange free model and promised that he would hire them again and pay more once his business grows. My photographer friend had hire one good looking model from the city on low pay stating the whole shoot is low budget shoot. The model had agreed.

Once the shoot was over, my friend was paid the small amt which was finalized mutually after the showroom owner's cry story. Two weeks after the shoot, my friend found his photographs in big hoardings by that showroom, in full page ads of all big news papers and every where. My friend realized that the showroom had no money only him but spent huge amount on publicity using his creative work. Initially he was told that those pics are taken for showroom's official website only. Having realise that he was fooled by his client, my friend uploaded and shared those pics on stock photography website thinking, he should sell those images through stock photo websites and make money from his photography work which was not rightly paid by his client.

As no brand name was visible in photograph, my friend went on using pics. He also sold the usage right to local ad agencies with whom he had tied up  Now, the agency, not aware of whole story, used the image for its client who is competitor of my photographer friend. They published the ad in local magazines. That showroom owner who fooled my friend, now felt cheated seeing the same photographs being used by his competitor. He called my friend and threatened to sue him. Now, on the other part, that model who was paid little amount, got furious after knowing that her photographs are being used by multiple showroom owners for big publicity campaign. Now she felt cheated. She thought my friend and showroom wala exploited her. Now she demands 3 times money of his work from my friend and also spreading this story in the photography and modelling community here. As I am not much into gossiping I could not smell it from industry peers but when I come to know it from the hero himself ;) I laughed and felt bad at a same time.

I told him following things :

- The first mistake you did was to do a low budget shoot for a future promise of  good work, without signing such contract.
- The other mistake you committed was not having patience and start selling images even without talking to your smart client. Yes I use the smart client and not fraud client. He smartly used him and paid what he had committed. And He has not yet said no to my friend for high budget photography next time.

- The other mistake he committed was of not taking model into confidence  If his client cheated and he felt like getting compensation for it, the other stake holders also deserved the same. I adviced him to share the complete story to that model and pay her what ever she wants. Because you are in the business where it takes years to make name and you lose it so easily only for few mistakes.

This case leads to the question that...... Who owns the Copyright ? Photographer, Model or the client ?

- Let me tell you there can not be one perfect answer for this. Let me explain.

Normal Case :

- When client reaches you to certain kind of work, you give him quote for the work you are exclusively gonna do for him. You hire model and makeup artists for that particular shoot. Client pay you the predecided amount, you make payments to model and other stake holders, and client uses the images for the promotion and branding of his products and services. Client can not sell those image and make money from those photographs. And same applies to the photographer, model.

A case where Client holds exclusive copyrights and can make any type of used of it. Can sell them too.
- When someone who does not want pics for himself but want to run photo agency or something similar, he may hire photographer and models, pay them awesome amount as the client is going to sell those photographs commercially. The photographers and models won;t mind untill they are paid the right amount for such shoots.

A case where model holds exclusive copyrights and can make any type of used of it. Can sell them too.
- When it is case of celebrity portfolio shoot. Any celebrity would hire photographer and have exclusive rights over his/her photographs. Of course the photographer will be paid good enough.

A case where Photographer holds the exclusive copyrights over images.
- This would happen, when photographer is paying high amount to model and will charge less to his client. many cases a client who wants 5000k  shoot done for 1000, would be happy to do so. The photographer will do so as he will be paid money by client which he can use to cover modeling cost and then have exclusive right over the images and try to sell them on stock photography websites.

A case where Photographer and Model jointly share copyrights.
-This is a rare case. I know a photographer in our city who had tied up with 4 models. They together come out with different concept, arrange a shoot and make out pics and put them for sell on stock photography websites. Whatever is earned from the images is equally distributed amongst all.

Btw, My friend is now less worried and have asked the model to correct her mistake and spread the news that she was not cheated ;)

Mission Covershot on National Geographic Channel

One of world's top Magazine and TV channel , national geographic took initiative to organise world's first Photography reality show which started 3 weeks back. 3 episodes have already been finishes and 4th episode will be aired on Natgeo channel at 10 p.m. Out of thousands of photographers from across India, they chose 8 finalists who are fighting for the Natgeo cover shot. Only one lucky photographer will win the title and opportunity get his/her click on National Geographic Magazine. 

Team behind the show recognizing best photography talent in today's digital era
Jury Members : Nagesh Kukunoor , Ami Vitale and Host : Shibani Dandekar

Main episode Mission Covershot telecast time : 10 pm every Monday

Complete Retelecast Schedule for Mission Cover shot :

Mon, 10:00PM , 

Tue, 12:00PM, 

Thu,  2:00PM,

Sat,  4:00PM

Sun, Apr 21 7:00PM

Amateurs Undercharge to hurt Professional's business ?

Not really. Look at the discussion took place on this topic at one of the photography community on Facebook.

The Group Admin posted :

Anybody with a camera (or smartphone) who enjoys taking pictures thinks life would be much sweeter if they just became a professional photographer. Well, it's really not that easy and, in fact, amateur photographers who decide to "make the jump" to becoming a pro can do a lot of harm by lowering the value of the occupation through undercharging clients. (Not that long ago Time magazine paid just $30 for an image to use on its cover, which is typically a $3,000 value.)

Replies it Received :

Sunny Gangar  :

When market is having less of talent and more of the demand, its called a market where Talent decides its worth. 

The time has changed and so is TIME mag. they once were the only one who used to list ou ppl and honor them.. now a days every state in US has one such local mag.. thus the ppl referring to TIME may have also reduced.. call it cost cutting or smart bargain .. ultimately their covers do say a lot then words could possibly do.. 

I will say if i were an editor of the front page of TIME i would definitely give a chance to big shot professionals.. but if i also knew that there images are very costly .. i would go out a bit and give interview the second best who is aparently new in the market as a photographer and has shot an image which i feel is apt for the months cover page..Since i am the new age editor who also needs to be a a good bargainer too.. i will say "buddy you got talent and i got market.. lets say i will tip you a bit more then you could get for this image + you will get a lot of coverage too.. lets say it will be a win win situation"

Plus if you notice for any amateur photographer, its really nice to get that big exposure.. cas then they will go in more deeply and get the best of their images on still life reels. So when you say amateurs have badly hampered the market, i will say its the bad karma of those highly talented but yet awfully expensive professionals who paved the way for such equally talented and yet called amateur photographers come shoulder to shoulder to them.. 

One more point - just because its cheap doesn't mean ppl will buy it.. and also just because its costly doesn't mean someone cant get it ..Since images are nothing but a photographers vision.. one can't possibly compare two photographers even if they are equipped with same tools of excellence..

Mark Preston  :
As far as under cutting goes, try getting an accurate price guide for an image. Near on impossible. If Pro's do not divulge what they get for an image how do others know what to charge. Guess that's what happens when there isn't an open market.

---------------------------

Admin :

Its when we consider ourselves to be pros only then the dog fighting starts and we run after the bone. Competition is good but then it should be healthy and not simply under cutting or spoiling someone else's broth... think about it? 

Reply to Admin by Ashley Wills :
But if the pro does good work and good business they should have no worries about losing clients. When rants about other amateur photographers come from the pros, I think that hurts them more than someone charging less for a session.

By Sunny Gangar  :

yea .. not spoiling others broth.. 

think it this way " if i think my image is worth $30 it means its $30 for me " now why a pro thinks that "that mongrel spoiled my business"" ! isn't it outrageous.. who is he to judge the cost of my image.. if he thinks its more worthy .. common buddy even i know even then you wont purchase it from me ... rather you will say lets negotiate..

Liked the Photography Gyan ;) ?

Photography is not about cameras gadgets and gizmos

Last time when you went to your favorite restaurant and loved the food they had made, you would tell them that it is because of the nice kitchen they have, nice cookers they have, nice plates the food was served in ?

No. You loved the food food because the chef and cooks there poured in lots of efforts to make delicious food that you would lick your finger. They took the right ingredients in the right quantity and mixed them in right order and burned them for right time. Had they made any mistake in this process, you would not have loved the food though the utensils used by them remains the same in both the cases. Yes utensils are tools without which they could have not cooked so tasty food items. It is not the tools, but the people who use the tools.

Same logic applies to photography. If it was ever about Camera, Gadgets and gizmos, all canon 5D holders would have become best photographer. Camera is just a tool which helps photo artist to capture his vision.

Of course camera matters. And expensive cameras some time necessary in professional work, but just owning them does not make you better photographer.  The difference a good camera will make is the control  over light, colours and depth of field. It will not tell you what to click and what not to click. A better photographer is the one who uses god given lens i.e. to see the things differently. Whether you use film camera or dslr, Mobile cam or ipad, they are just tools. A better photographer would come out with better images with anyof this tools while a bad pr ordinary photographer would take bad or ordinary tool with great  gadgets. Hence...Photography is not about cameras gadgets and gizmos :)  Try more time behind improving your vision then searching about various cameras, lenses and accessories. 

Best Photography Books

Yes, Photography is art. Art is all about practical  But camera is a tool a photo artist uses to explore his artistic talent. There are number of books published by number of of authors over the period of long time in various parts of the world covering the topics like ...How camera works, Is photographer Art ?, Studio lighting  Types photography, Dark room editing, Digital photography, Film photography, HDR photography, etc.

Clicking more and more pics will make you good photographer however there is no harm in reading some books to give a direction to your artistic journey. Today in this blog post, I am sharing with you the list of few photography books about technicalities and artistic side of photog.

Best Photography Books :

Henri Cartier-Bresson - The Modern Century
Ansel Adams - Classic Images
Within the Frame, David duChemin
Stephen Shore - The Nature of Photographs
Visual Poetry, Chris Orwig
The Mind's Eye: Writings on Photography and Photographers.  - Cartier Bresson.
The Photographic Act. - Philippe Dubois
Understanding Exposure - Brian Peterson
The Moment it Clicks - Joe MacNally
The Photographers Eye - Michael Freeman
Waiting For The Light - David Noton
On Photography. - Susan Sontag. 
Camera Lucida. - Roland Barthes.
Dianne Arbus - Revelations
Dorothea Lange - Photographs of a Lifetime
Anne-Celine Jaeger - Image Makers, Image Takers
The Fundamentals of Photography - Helen Drew
Landscape Photography - Tim Fitzharris
Joe McNally's "The Moment It Clicks"
"Digital Photography" books by Scott Kelby
John Szarkowski's Looking at Photographsd
Pilgrimage by Annie Leibovitz
The Americans by Robert Frank

Note : I have not read all of them but these are the recommendation by various experienced photographers who have benefited and have improved their work on the basis of leanings they derived by reading this books.

Feel free to buy them online from Amazon, flipkart, infibeam or any other eCommerce portal or bookstores like Crosswords and others.