Photographers Editing and Proofreading Services

Eleven months before the wedding, the couple books a photographer and pays an $800 deposit. They believe they are buying the photographs. What they have bought is a day's shooting, a selection made by somebody else, a number of edited images nobody has agreed, a delivery date nobody has named, and a license nobody has read. Each of those becomes a question in the week after the wedding.

The documents we edit for Photographers

Shoot agreements, the schedule of what they promise, usage rights and licensing explanations, delivery timing, and the scope of selection, editing, and retouching are where a photographer's promises are actually made, and they are what we edit. It also covers album, print, and product documentation, wedding day timelines and coverage, cancellation, postponement, and illness terms, model and property releases, commercial licensing terms, and permissions for portfolio, social media, and client use of images. Our editors attend to the agreement that says what the client receives.

What the editing involves

The list of what the client receives is where a photography business either satisfies a client or negotiates after the event, and it fails when a package name stands in for the content. A couple who bought "the full day package" cannot tell how many images they get, in what form, or when. The promise is better written as countable things: a minimum number of edited images, a resolution, a method of delivery, a delivery date, and a clear position on whether unedited files are included.

The selection is the photographer's professional judgment, which the agreement should say. A client expecting every frame does not know that a thousand exposures produce eighty photographs, or that the reduction is the work rather than a restriction. The editing scope belongs there too: color and exposure work on every delivered image, and retouching of a person only on the images chosen for the album.

The license is the most misunderstood part of the transaction and the source of most bad feeling, so plain wording matters more here than anywhere else. A client generally wants to know three things: whether they may print, whether they may share images online, and whether they may pass files to family. An agreement answering those in a sentence each, and stating what the photographer retains, removes most arguments before they arise.

The photographer's own use of the images needs an opt-out, because a couple who did not expect to appear on a website feel exposed when they do. The timeline for the day is worth agreeing as a document of its own, naming the moments that must be covered: the first look, the ceremony, the family groups, the toasts, and the first dance. A couple who assumed the getting-ready hour was included, and a photographer who assumed it was not, have already agreed to different weddings. The position on illness and postponement deserves the same honesty, including what happens if the photographer cannot attend. Agreements written this way produce clients who recommend the photographer.

Confidentiality and the limits of our role

Everything you send us is treated in confidence, including agreements, client correspondence, and unpublished images. We are editors, not photographers or copyright advisors, and we offer no opinion on licensing, rights, or what a package should contain. What we can do is make the agreement say what the client will actually receive.