A wedding is a personal event, which is always captured by a photographer and, increasingly, by a cameraman who records the event on video.

Following is a slightly intriguing reflection on the subject of who owns copyright of image and video material and how it would be correct to share them on the Internet.

Let's start with the assumption that both the photographer and the videographer are commissioned, that is, they get paid for their work. The price ranges are generally from a few hundred to a thousand euros, and a little more when aerial shots are added.

Wedding captures for manufacturer marketing?

The first fundamental question is how much the service provider can deal with with your marketing? For example, is the photographer allowed to add his own watermark to the wedding pictures or to add “Company X presents: Mari and Jüri's wedding“?

If there is really such a desire, the customer, or the bride and groom, must be informed about it in advance if the service is correct. The more professional the maker, the less you see him.

Sharing wedding photos online

In the world of photography, the situation is much simpler and more understandable than in the case of video. The photographer takes pictures, selects the best ones, processes them if necessary, and hands them over to the bride and groom on a medium (CD, DVD, memory stick) or privately uploaded. Some also use a solution where the images are uploaded to an agreed web page.

I can't imagine that there would be a wedding photographer in Estonia who would upload the pictures to their Facebook wall or make them public in some other way before the bride and groom see them.

In the video world, the situation is more complicated, because both the bride and groom and the video service provider often lack opportunities and awareness. I believe that most wedding video makers also hand over the video file in physical (DVD, memory stick) or downloadable form, but generally the video is uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo and a link is sent to the bride and groom. The bride and groom will review and share the link with participants. Nothing seems wrong.

What is wrong?

The bride and groom should decide before ordering the video service, as public maybe their big event could be later who could be part of it via video:

1. Themselves and the wedding guests
2. Themselves, the wedding guests and a wider circle of acquaintances
3. The whole world

Accordingly, the service must either be ordered or made public by yourself upon receiving the file. More private options are as follows:

1. For YouTube, the video should be uploaded off-register (unlisted) that is, it can only be seen by those who know the video link.
2. In the case of Vimeo, it is possible to put a password on the video and share it only with the relevant parties.

In both cases, it is possible to make the video public to the whole world, but in any case, the wedding video uploaded to the Internet must be owned by the bride and groom - that is, the video must be on an account with passwords for the bride and groom, who can add their own links and description to it and, if necessary (before the next marriage), make it private or delete it.

Similar to agencies and production companies, wedding video producers should supplement their expertise with the ability (or additional service) to create their own branded YouTube or Vimeo channel designed with wedding images for the client.

In case the producer wants to use the video in his portfolio, an easy option is to link it from the client's account (also by asking for it in advance), but the bride and groom can give the right to upload it to the producer's account as well. If there is a wish that the whole world does not see the full-length wedding video, the bride and groom can ask to make a separate shorter video for the portfolio.

Summary

There are many good wedding photographers and video service providers in Estonia. If you are one of them, when arranging the service, let us know in advance how you will hand over the product later or where you want to upload it and what the options are.

If you are one of those people who are still planning their party, I recommend ordering someone to videotape the event in addition to a photographer. Generally, a wedding is a big-budget event, and later it's good to remember where the money went.

Certainly, when ordering a photo or video service, you should feel like a customer who is buying a "product" for which you own all the rights. If you want your wedding photos not to have the logo of the service provider and not to be uploaded to the internet where you cannot take it down yourself, please let us know when ordering.

Probably the easiest solution is to create a separate website for the wedding, where the participants have information about the event before the event (which can be changed on an ongoing basis) and after the party it is possible to remember the event in the form of pictures and videos.