Preventing others from taking pictures

[nstock]

This can be difficult. When doing formals I never mind a FEW shots but if someone is shooting over my shoulder that is a no no.. IOW I tell them to NOT take pictures until I say they can. If I am doing a formal session of just the bride and groom and the "other" shooter is interfering (causing the subjects to look off etc.) I tell them that is enough.

 

IOW as the photographer I can control the situation. Most of the time, Uncle Ed etc. taking pics is not a problem. However, if the person is really annoying then I say something. My pictures are going to be better than Uncle Ed anyway.

 

The exclusive photographer clause is for other professional photographers, not for Uncle Ed.

[john_aceti]

My situation was not a wedding but an event where I was photographing a playboy model (clothed) with exotic cars outdoors. While we were doing the shoot a crowd started forming trying to take photos of the model after I set up the shot. When they did this we immediately stoped, had the model turn away and and had my assistant tell them they were not allowed to take a photo of the model while we had her posed. Some seemed a bit confused but she would explain that the set up, the lighting and the pose is the intellectual property of the photographer and is not to be copied without permission.

 

We act and assume that it is that they are copying our intellectual property and we have full rights to dis-allow any other photos being taken of our posed subjects. Maybe I am wrong but we have a really good lawyer just in case. :-)

 

I spoke with another photographer about this same subject regarding wedding photos. She mentioned that she will say to them politely that their cameras are triggering their flash and the bride and groom has gone to great expenses to have us take professional photos. Please respect their wishes by not taking photos of our posed session. - (Humm a bit more politically correct I guess)

[kim long- cincinnati, ohio]

Sometimes the shoe is on the other foot, believe it or not. At my sister's wedding, the *hired* photographers actually 'stole' some of my *amateur* 'setup' shots. I was the matron-of-honor and didn't take tons of photos, but I had a few I had in my mind that I wanted of my sister and my young daughter, who was the flower girl. I'd steal a moment when the photographers were (presumably) elsewhere, and then, like magic, poof! There was one of the photographers swooping down to get the shot I'd set up. Didn't make a very professional impression on me, personally, at the time. :-/ I'm sure the paid photographers wouldn't be thrilled to know that my sister actually had quite a few prints made of shots I took that day. On my honor, none were of any scenes set up by the paid pros. I'm more into the P&J style so I guess it's not as big an issue. However, there is one 'posed' shot she has an 8x10 of... nothing extraordinary, but it was one I'd set up and she liked my version better than the one the professional photographer took a second later. *ducks flying tomatoes*<div></div>