Why Crediting Your Photographer is Important
I know for us, photographers, this can be a very sensitive topic. We get so excited when we see our clients share our photos on social media. We do a little happy dance and we know you must LOVE what we created with you, if you are sharing it with the world. However, when we don’t see a credit to our business or page anywhere on the post, we immediately feel sad, discouraged and honestly slightly confused. Who knows what I am talking about? Yea, I know you do!
I honestly feel like the reasons clients omit a credit to a photo have nothing to do with any bad intentions. I think for the most part, people just forget or they don’t know any better. I was there too - before I came into this industry, even before I worked in marketing and publishing, I had no idea Google images you find online belonged to anyone, and that you actually had to get permission to use them. And I wasn’t educated on the reasons I should tag my maternity photographer on Fb, so I never did.
And while paying for photography service to create images for your family or your business gives clients access to using those images in accordance with the license or model release, it does not give away the ownership of intellectual property. Unless you bought out the copyright. More on that later. But as a rule of thumb, any work created by a photographer for a client, paid or not paid, remains in the ownership of the creator, the Photographer. And even if the model release or agreement you signed with them (and especially so if you didn’t sign anything) does not mention anything about this, crediting your photographer whenever it makes sense is still a good idea. Here are a few reasons why.
Word of mouth is still our best marketing
When you affix our page to your posts or mention our name in the footer of your website, you help us grow. Your friends, business colleagues and followers can quickly find us through your links and tags. Its like you’re leaving a testimonial for us (and the best kind!) every time you post our work! It’s the way our business grows and how we network. With you sharing the author of your photos, you are also helping your friends get their photos done by someone you love working with - us, and if you love what we have created for you, wouldn’t you want to shout our name from the rooftops? I know I would!
We remain the author of the work
Unless you purchased the copyright out from the photographer (and there are few instances why businesses would want to do that), your photographer is the creator, the owner, the author of the work, and, like you would with a book or artwork, adding the name is simply the way it should be. It is not about writing paragraphs about the photographer and who they are, it’s really just a way to acknowledge them.
It’s the industry standard
You see it everywhere: in magazines, on blogs and articles, books, there is always a photographer credit somewhere next to the photo. A lot of the times it is determined by the creative license, and is the right way to do things from the legal stand point. Businesses simply are not allowed to use someone’s work without a written permission and a credit affixed to the image. Our work is no different. Putting a tag next to the post is the easiest way to stay compliant with the creative license. Licensing images for use in specific places like billboards and book covers, is also the industry standard and can bear legal consequences if you don’t have the right to do so.
We take pride in our work
And when you share with your network, that we are the ones who co-created it with you, you show us that you are proud of it as well. Working with you may have been the highlight of our year, and having you tag us means the word. Simply put, it’s the nice / right thing to do! Just like when we tag you and share about what you do as a business! With you tagging us, it’s like you are saying thank you again and again, and giving us a virtual high five! What’s better than that? Especially as a women-owned businesses - we support each other by lifting each other up!
Hopefully after reading this, you are a little more educated about why crediting your photographer is good practice. Nothing makes us happier than seeing our name in your photos. It takes two seconds, but worth so, so much!