Wedding Photographer Held to Account for
“less than professional” Photography

By Joel Hecker, Esq

A contract to photograph a wedding obligates the professional photographer to fulfill not only the terms of the contract but to produce images that are of professional quality which cover the traditional scenes of the wedding. This was the finding after trial in a recent New York case which held that the photographer had breached the contract when he failed to adequately perform his obligations.

The contract required the photographer to photograph and videotape a wedding for a fee which was paid in full. The photographer was obligated under the contract to provide three professionals at the wedding and 70 pictures for the wedding album.

Things started badly when, the day of the wedding, only two professionals showed up, a photographer and videographer. (The third person would have been the helper who carries the studio lights.)

The testimony was that a total of 360 photographs were taken. The defendant’s two witnesses testified that they were in the business for 40 years and 14 years, respectively, and that the images taken were of professional quality .

The plaintiff, on the other hand, asserted that the images taken were not representative of those samples shown to him in the defendant’s sample wedding albums, and were amateur with respect to positioning, poses, and lighting and failed to adequately commemorate the wedding. The Court, after viewing the images, sided with the plaintiff.

The relevant law states that a party contracting for services to be performed can “expect performance with the reasonable care, skill and diligence owed generally by practitioners in that particular trade,” and that there is an implied promise in a contract to perform the contract in a skillful and workmanlike manner.

The Court found that “weddings are unique and, hopefully, once in a lifetime events.” The Court further found that the wedding album is a time capsule which memorializes those special moments and traditions to be enjoyed over and over again from generation to generation, that there are no second chances to capture a once in a lifetime moment, and that the album contains traditional events such as family pictures, cutting the cake, toasting the bride and groom, throwing the bridal bouquet and removal of the bride’s garter belt.

The Court then determined that there were very few images of the bride and groom and their families, that the majority of the images were poor in lighting and composition, were dark, blurry and unfocused, and overall appeared to be amateurish and not of professional nature.

Since the video was acceptable and there was no contractual allocation of the purchase price, the Court ordered the photographer to return one-half of the purchase price with interest.

The moral: there are unstated obligations in contracts for professional photography services which require the photographer to deliver the requisite professional quality images. There is just no substitute to acting professionally and doing the job right in the first place!        

Attorney Joel L. Hecker lectures and writes extensively on issues of concern to the photography industry. His office is located at Russo & Burke, 600 Third Ave, New York NY 10016. Phone: 1 212 557-9600. E-mail: HeckerEsq@aol.com.