I want to start a new website (upgrade) and all of the pictures of my wedding cakes are taken by me. I am no photographer! How can I get the copies of the professional photographer's pics? Can I just ask the brides? Should I offer them something in return if they email me a pic in x amount of days/weeks/months?

Actually, the copyright of the photos taken by the professional photographers belongs to them, not the bride. You'll need to contact the photographers themselves to request a copy of the photo and a copyright release allowing you to publish the photo on your website. Most likely, they will require you to credit them on your website.

yeah ask the bride for the photographer info and contact photographer. in most cases copyright belongs to photographer. sometimes they hand over negatives to brides. ask about it during consultation.

do photogs still use negatives?

I always ask the photog for copies and they are usually more than happy to provide them to me as long as I put "Photograph by XXXXX" on the picture. I've only had one charge me for the pic, others are very nice. I make sure to ask for a digital copy so that I can put it on the website.

Also, I ask for the name of their photog at their tasting appointment as well as on the actual contract.

same as Jill. I would always flag down the photog at the wedding (since I was usually there as the caterer during hte event) and tell them that I forgot my camera and I wanted to hire him/her to take photos of the cake and/or buffet for me. Do the card exchange. Every single time I asked a photog to take photos for me, they generously emailed me a copy for free and I credited them when I posted the pic on my site.

Photog's are pretty cool folks!

Also talk to them about trading website links.

Mike

I set up a nice backdrop and do editing on mine and take my own pics whenever possible. I'm not taking the chance on the photographer capturing just the right angle or lighting I want displayed on my site. I forgot to takepics about a month ago of a HUGE setup I did. It's nice that the planner is slowly forwarding pics as they come in from the pro but so far, all the pics have the bride and groom, and the cake is only halfway in the frame. This was a 4 tier with two 2 tiers on each side....that's the shot I want, the cakes! Still kicking myself for that one.

Ok, so I will start asking who the photographer is during the tasting & note it on the contract.

Usually I am the only one there when I'm setting up the wedding cake...maybe the florist is there & the dj is starting to set up but that's it. Isn't the photographer usually at the wedding ceremony before the reception?

Actually I've NEVER seen the photographer while setting up a cake!

You could always just ask the bride who the photographer was then contact them diroctly. The photogs around here are very willing to give you good prints, especially if I link to them form my website.

I have an area written into my terms of contract that states that I will be contacting their photographer for a photo of the cake. Simple as that; then you have everything covered! Ask the photographer!

Yes, us photogs are pretty cool Debi!

Most photographers have switched over to digital, especially wedding photogs, much much easier to edit photos, and if needed look at them right away to make sure you have some good pics of the wedding party if needed. Sometimes the little kids get ansty.

Wow! I just went onto one local photographer's website to find her email address (because I know she did a wedding where I did the cake) and there is a picture on her website that shows part flowers, part wine glasses and part cake - and it's my cake! That's so cool! I can't wait to see what other pictures she took of the cake!!

Thanks for the advice everyone!!

By the way...are photographer's generally a lot more expensive than cake decorators? (My last tasting couple was going on about how it's robbery or something & you can't even keep the negatives - I was like....soooo, how's that strawberry cake?! )

Lol....they probably say the same thing when they sit down with the photog, abuot the cake decorator!

Photography is an art... you can't put a price on it really. I have seen a very wide range, but if you want GOOD pictures of your day... you have to pay. This is 8+ hour of their time on the day plus endless hours of editting images. I wouldn't think anything of dropping $3,000.00 plus on a wedding photographer. It's the difference between getting images you will treasure, and horrid snapshots that look like your 2 year old could have taken them.

Anyone can take a picture, but it takes mad skillz to capture moments that covey emotion... and do it well.

(can ou tell I like photography as much as I love caking? )

Oh... and as far as the original question, I take the pictures that I am puttng on my site. I am not a pro, but I can't leave it to the wedding photog to get the right picture. Nor can I afford to have someone come over and take them for me before I leave (or have a session with dummies.

I do always like to see what the photog captures though.

We cheaped out on our photog. We simply did not have the money to pay a professional. Through an aquaintance, I was introduced to a college student who did photogrpahy mostly as a hobby, but had some professional equipment. She was slower than a professional might have been (for example, didn't have an assistance to load cameras, and she only had 1 camera) and I didn't get some of the shots I'd been hoping to get (didn't help that DH and groomsment were hamming it up prior to the wedding which led to less bridal shots of me ), but in the end, our day was documented and we have plenty of good pics for an album and to hang on the walls. Had I been able to afford the $1500-$2000 (which was what pretty much all the pros in the area charged) for a professional, I would have done it, but, ultimately, 7 years later, I'm happy with what we had. We did have the ceremony videod for free by a friend (made a lovely DVD for us as our present).

With wedding budgets, it all comes down to what's the most important to you? For us, our budget, including honeymoon was abut $7,000, with my parents contributing $3,000 of that. We just simply couldn't devote a 1/4 to a 1/3 of the budget on photos without sacrificing a bunch of other stuff that we deemed more essential.