Folks who pay to print at your local stores

perhaps you could avoid shops like these and get your prints done in a more personal shop than this. I run a small shop and I know the skills of my customers so I have a better judgement on what is copyrighted stuff and what not.

 

A newsreader (female and British) ran into trouble with some of these jokers, when she wanted some family pix printed. With some of the pix featuring young kids having fun in the sun (HER kids...), the pix were passed to the police. She was never actually charged with any offence, but the story carried on for weeks...

I wouldn't touch these cheap 'n' cheerful print shops, for lots of different reasons. Pay a few $$ more and deal with people who know what they're doing...

 

The kids were actually, Shock horror, in the bath! It was Boots who called the police in and Julia Somerville was the newsreader.

 

Yeah, that was it. It should never have been made into a public issue... or even a private one.

 

Apparently (I've just been reading) it was because one of her, male, friends went to pick the photos up and the shop assistant thought it was a bit odd that a bloke would be picking up photos of kids in a bath.

 

There have been some pretty impressive lawsuit losses over copyrighted images, so Wal-Mart's can be pretty picky- especially new ones where they actually pay attention to their training.

Funnily enough, I've never had an issue, though I tend to sell 8x10's printed there. Though the one I use the most often was one where I'd had conversations with some of the employees when they were admiring my shots - but maybe that triggers mostly on portraits and I rarely get portraits printed at Wal-Mart.

In any case, they've got a release form that they can keep on file at the store that you can fill out that indemnifies them from you violating someone's copyright. They should have offered you one of those- and that's what you should ask them for if it happens again.

Of course they're copyrighted, you hold the copyright.

 

If you want REALLY good prints, dont go to walmart - pay an extra couple of dollars and take them to a reputable shop that changes their chemicals regularly and knows what they are doing.

You will be happier, and so will your clients.

 

The Wal-Mart by me changes chemicals often and runs test strips frequently (I've watched them do it.) My prints are consistent, and even as they cycle through staff they seem to keep hitting the mark. The only issue I've ever had was when I went to a different Wal-Mart in another state and the pictures had roller marks on them (Broken Frontier- they knew about it but didn't stop printing 8x10's) They reprinted them at my local Wal-Mart after a single email to customer service, and even though I'm using that set as proofs, If I matted one up and sold it, I wouldn't have any QC issues. Just like any other mini-lab in the country, it depends on how motivated, knowledgeable and interested the staff are- the difference between a mini-lab and a pro-lab is a lot, but the differences beteen mini-labs can't really be pointed out by what store it happens to sit in- even between two from the same company.

With the pro-lab I use (Delano Color Imaging in KS,) I can say "Print this exactly" or "Print this and make it sing." and expect consistent and as-good-as-it-gets results. With Wal-Mart, I have to do more up-front and check, but the one by me seems to have fewer issues than most camera store labs I've used with the possible exception of Penn Camera about 20 years ago. When I worked in Maryland I used to be about three miles from District Photo in Beltsville, and I can say for sure the only thing less consistent than comparing two mini-labs is a comparing output from the same maxi-lab.

YMMV

 

This is why I have started getting any person I take pictures of which I think I might one day print to sign a model release.


And as someone above said, the images are copyrighted. You are the copyright holder, and only you have the right to print or copy them, unless you give someone else the right in writing.