photocopying professional pics?

[etwahl]

we saw our pics today and they turned out gorgeous! even better than i ever hoped or expected. we ordered a TON (read: way too much money!) but i wondered about making photocopies of them after the fact? would we be able to get a GOOD photocopy? and if so, where would we go to get a good copy? i'm thinking of just if our family wants more pictures than the ones we ordered them.

also, do most photographers agree to give away digital (small versions) for showing family and friends? i didn't ask, but didn't actually think about it until i left. i figured probably not because they wouldn't want you to get prints made from the digital versions.

Tammy,
Mom to Lauren Genevieve
03/12/2003
www.evantammy.com

[new_mommy25]

I'm glad your pics turned out so well. When we had pictures taken my grandma asked for a 5x7 of a particular picture. It would have cost a ton to reorder so I just went down to Kinko's a made a color copy. It turned out really well and even if it hadn't it cost abou 99 cents.

[lizajane]

funny... this just came up the other day at my fav photo developing place. a woman was trying to get a copy of a print made, and the employee explained the deal to her.

the photographer owns the copyright to your photos. making a reprint of the photo (without negatives) or photocopying it would be copyright infringement, and therefore illegal. it would be "stealing" from the photographer. so he wouldn't copy this poor woman's picture that was taken in 1991 by who knows who.

all that said... i am the one who told her to take it down to kinkos and make the color copies herself! kinko's won't do it for you, because they know it is copyright infringement, too!

i might feel a little bad, knowing that i could easily order more prints from the photographer and pay him/her for his/her work. but this woman had no idea who the photograher was and just wanted to give her kids pictures of their deceased grandparents.

so... i guess the point of my little story is... you can make a color copy. it will come out pretty well. it is technically illegal, so no one will do it for you. so if you do it yourself on the sly, i won't think any worse of you because i am pretty sure that i have done it myself in the past.

[etwahl]

oh wow, i didn't even think about it in terms of being illegal or copyright infringement! that actually makes sense though... i actually don't really see us needing any extras considering all that we bought, but i just had this vision of mil coming at christmas and saying she wanted a copy of everything we had ordered. BUT we can tell her if she wants more copies, then we'll just give her the price list from the photographer!

Tammy,
Mom to Lauren Genevieve
03/12/2003
www.evantammy.com

[houseof3boys]

Tammy - Liza did a fab job of explaining the whole copywright thing and having someone else make the copies for you at Kinko's. That being said, you can do it yourself on the self service copier and as long as it is a newer color copier and calibrated properly you will get a very decent copy. It will be on the regular copy paper though unless you managed to find some laser paper that was nicer stock. Do not use photo paper for an inkjet though!!!

You could also take it to one of those Kodak machines that will do enlargements. The quality is fair to good on those but it is on photo paper.

You could also do a high res scan of one of the photgraphs, burn it to a CD and then take it to get printed. I did this with a 400 dpi scan of a 5 x 7 and it printed great!

Lots of tradeoffs! Some photo places will give you the negatives if you order a certain amount of sheets as well (Wolf/Ritz camera does).

[mharling]

If you have a digital camera, you could take a picture of a picture and then upload it to Ofoto, Shutterfly, Snapfish, etc. to order prints.

Mary & Lane 4/6/03
http://www.shutterfly.com/osnt.jsp?i=67b0de21b356c32425b2 - Halloween Pics!

[heidi_timms]

Yes, it is copyright infringement, but I think that if you have ordered a decent amount of photos and spent a good amount of money with the photographer, then they aren't losing out.

I heard ofoto and shutterfly doesn't check the copyrighted photos. You can scan the photos and order copies. Our Kinko's has a Sony photo machine, like those Kodak ones at Target and I have made copies there that have come out well. It scans the picture and they look pretty sharp and come out on photopaper. It was $1.99 for 4 wallets, which was affordable.

~Heidi
Mom to Kailey Ashlin
4/27/03

[luvbeinmama]

I've tried making copies (a couple years ago) of prof pics on the Kodak machines, and one time it did it, and the rest of the times I tried, the machine told me it couldn't make the copy because it was a prof pic! I guess the machine can pick up something in the professional paper (??). So that route may or may not work for you.

[AngelaS]

I've heard you can also ask the photographer for a permission to copy letter. If they give you that letter that gives you permission, you can have copies made without it being illegal. :)

[miki]

There are also some exceptions depending on what state you live in. When I lived in NY and got married, my wedding photographer told me that a year after taking the pictures, I was entitled to make copies from the negatives myself without her written permission.

[vikivoly]

I have to admit, being a professional photographer that this thread rubbed me the wrong way. We make a living off of the reprints. It surprises me that so many people don't realize that. I've actually had people call me and ask for a letter of permission to copy my print at Wal-mart because their enlargements were cheaper!! Duhh!! Photographers are artists. They should compensated as such.

If your happy with your pictures, which it sounds like you are, then reward your photographer with an extra reprint order if needed. Ask your photographer how long he/she keeps the negatives on file. He might be willing to sell them to you after a period of time.

[etwahl]

vicki, that's exactly what i said above. for some reason, i wasn't even thinking about the photographer keeping all the negatives either (duh). that's why i asked in the first place. am glad i found out the deal. and yes, we love our pics, and ordered so many i don't know where i'll put them all ($$$ too!) and if any relatives want additional copies, we will just give them the photographer's price list. i talked to her, and she said we can get reprints at any time.

now we'll have to figure out what to do with framing. we want nice framing, and she'll do that too, but i also want to check out "our" framing place. since we spent so dang much on the photos, i'd like to save "a little" on framing if we can. i can honestly say i never imagined professional pics costing us so much, but after seeing them, it is SOOOO worth it. she did a great job.

sorry this thread bothered you, but it was really started by me because i really had no clue (maybe it's mommy brain) now i do, and i certainly respect everything said here.

Tammy,
Mom to Lauren Genevieve
03/12/2003
www.evantammy.com