Out of business photographer...?

Question

My wedding photographer went out of business a number of years ago, I'd like to get more copies of a specific photo. Are the rights to it now mine? And if not, how do I obtain the rights?

Answer 1

It depends on the contract you signed with your photographer. In any case, contact the photographer and ask for the negatives since he/she is out of business. If he is unwilling, he will probably ask you to purchase the rights from him. Good luck.

Answer 2

I would simply forget the photographer if he is out of business.

Take the prints that you want down to a professional photography processor and have them make both all the prints you want, asking them for negatives, and to have the pictures scanned onto a disk at a high resolution.

Then go home, save the digital images on the disk to a flash drive card, one or two gigabyte, however many it takes, and save them in that format.

The photographer has not rights in my estimation, you paid for the pictures and you paid him to take them, they are yours just as if you bought them at Walmart.

There are excellent scanners out there now that have "digital ice" on them that will correct any blemishes in the prints that you have a adjust the colors to where they should be.

Answer 3

Try to locate the photographer and ask for reproduction rights. If this is not possible, as long as you do not sell the picture, you should be well within legal rights for reproductions. The copyright of a photograph is generally to protect the photographer so that no one can claim they took the picture or sell it for profit.

Answer 4

Youd have to contact the photographer. or if you have the photos, scan them and order reprints online.