Digital file version of Portraits taken onboard?

[neworlensladi]

Does anyone know, or has anyone had any experience with inquiring about getting the digital version rather than the printed version of the portraits NCL takes throughout a cruise?

 

I understand the whole premise of them making more money from printed, but i would be willing to pay more, and I was considering bringing a "keychain usb" storage thingy, in case they are willing, but cannot burn a disk....that way they could plug and tranfer....and all computers have usb. Plus, all those pictures are taken with digital cameras....

 

I'm going to try for it, but if anyone has any info on this and which ship they got their info from, i would greatly appreciate it.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Hope it finds you well.

[Snowrose]

While I can't answer this question directly, I do know that they were capable of burning discs on the Spirit. I remember the advertisements on the TV channels for bringing your film to the desk to have it processed into CDs.

 

Teri

[jerhardt]

Does anyone know, or has anyone had any experience with inquiring about getting the digital version rather than the printed version of the portraits NCL takes throughout a cruise?

 

I understand the whole premise of them making more money from printed, but i would be willing to pay more, and I was considering bringing a "keychain usb" storage thingy, in case they are willing, but cannot burn a disk....that way they could plug and tranfer....and all computers have usb. Plus, all those pictures are taken with digital cameras....

 

I'm going to try for it, but if anyone has any info on this and which ship they got their info from, i would greatly appreciate it.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Hope it finds you well.

 

Being a freelance photographer myself, I can tell you that they would not accomodate this request despite how much sense it makes.

 

You see, the digital file, is actually considered the digital negative and thus enabling you to print as many photos as you wish from that negative with no royalties going to the original photographer. It's kind of like them handing over the 35mm negative to you (even though they will still retain a copy). In photography world, this is a no-no.

[MsMiMi]

I inquired about this last week onboard, and was told no. Which really sucked because the Star prints only on Glossy paper (which I don't prefer) and charge a lot more than the other cruiselines I've been on. But, whatare ya gonna do?

[Snowrose]

Since the full answer appears to be no, probably the best thing to do is have someone take a picture of you with your digital camera. That's what DH and I did. I've been on cruises before and I've found the regular cruise portraits just aren't worth the money.

 

OTOH, I have to admit that I did see some professional, non-cruise type family portraits displayed along with the cruise portraits and I thought those were very well done. But it must have been quite expensive.

 

Teri

[johnql]

Being a freelance photographer myself, I can tell you that they would not accomodate this request despite how much sense it makes.

 

You see, the digital file, is actually considered the digital negative and thus enabling you to print as many photos as you wish from that negative with no royalties going to the original photographer. It's kind of like them handing over the 35mm negative to you (even though they will still retain a copy). In photography world, this is a no-no.

You are certainly correct in pointing out the copyright issue concerning professionally taken photos. However, I just wanted to note that most cruise lines (the photo departments, actually, since it's subcontracted out) have no problem granting copyright waivers to passengers who ask for them. This is, of course, done with the understanding that the purchased photos will only be copied for personal use, not commercial gain.

[jerhardt]

You are certainly correct in pointing out the copyright issue concerning professionally taken photos. However, I just wanted to note that most cruise lines (the photo departments, actually, since it's subcontracted out) have no problem granting copyright waivers to passengers who ask for them. This is, of course, done with the understanding that the purchased photos will only be copied for personal use, not commercial gain.

 

True that they are sub-contracted photographers, but they still in essence work for the cruise line, and thus the cruise line owns the photo and the digital negative. I would find it hard to believe that a cruise line would sign over the rights to a digital negative knowing fully that the client could take the negative to Wal-Mart and have an 8x10 done there for a fraction of what they charge.

[johnql]

True that they are sub-contracted photographers, but they still in essence work for the cruise line, and thus the cruise line owns the photo and the digital negative. I would find it hard to believe that a cruise line would sign over the rights to a digital negative knowing fully that the client could take the negative to Wal-Mart and have an 8x10 done there for a fraction of what they charge.

You're right - they don't sign over the rights to the digital negative. But they do routinely grant copyright waivers to people who request them in order to make copies of the printed photos (ones that they have purchased, of course).

 

For instance, here's a link to an online request form for a copyright release. This is for the photo service that handles shipboard photography for Celebrity, HAL and Royal Caribbean. They will routinely grant a copyright release to customers.

 

https://www.image.com/html/guest-postcruiseCopyrightReleaseForm.cfm

 

I know Princess also has a boilerplate release that passengers can obtain. I'm not certain how NCL handles this, but it's probably not that different.

[jerhardt]

Interesting. I also notice that this is only available post-cruise.

 

However, getting back to the OP question, the copyright release wouldn't cover the handing over of a digital negative.