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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to scan nursery photos?

51 replies

sunchild77 · 03/12/2009 13:48

DS1 has just returned from nursery with the annual photos, which are really LOVELY and £25 a pop.

There are 2 sets, one of DD1 on his own and one of DS1 and DS2 together. Problem is I LOVE both sets of pics, but can't afford £50 for both... I can just about afford one set, but tbh both sets are really nice and I want them both....

Mr DS1's friend's dad says he'll scan them for me for nothing, (he's already done his DS pics) I could pay £25 for one set and scan the other....?

Oh it just feels so wrong! Ahhhh what to do?
What would you do?

OP posts:
carocaro · 03/12/2009 16:43

Just take pics with your own camera. All that posed crap is hideous.

The photographers has to make a living and it takes the piss to scan them.

However they are expensive and he/nursery should be aware of the reason why you won't be buying them, might make them lower the price next year.

Maleeka · 03/12/2009 16:52

Scan away! Our pics always used to have the PROOF stuck over the childs face, but they have changed photographers and the last pics we had, had the PROOF stuck right at the bottom so a quick crop and we're good to go!

I've ordered a set for us, and quite frankly it was expensive enough and we have loads of rellies wanting copies, so i know we'll just scan the set we didnt order and bobs your uncle.

Toffeepopple · 03/12/2009 17:06

I wouldn't scan them. The place that did DS's early school year photos has gone under and it is such a shame as they were a great local business.

It would be fair to ring them and negotiate a discount as you have two packs or just ask for one small one of one of them.

Firawla · 03/12/2009 20:52

i would prob scan them tbh, if they were nice but not nice enough to buy the lot. i dont think its such a big deal
its not as bad to do so if you have atleast bought the one set and just scanning the others. to buy nothing and scan the lot may be a bit much..

sunnydelight · 04/12/2009 11:45

So if you want something, but it's too expensive for you to buy, it's ok to steal it but you justify your behaviour by saying that it was too expensive in the first place? I'm guessing you wouldn't be that comfortable with theft if you thought you would get caught.

shinyrobot · 04/12/2009 23:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CardyMow · 04/12/2009 23:47

LOL @ theft...ALL my relatives in my (very large) family want copies of the school photo's, So I pay for one A4 size photo in each pack (that was £28 for my daughter, and £16 each for one of DS1, one of DS2 and one of DS1&DS2 together). That was a total of £76 the schools wanted in the space of 7 days, with only 24 hrs warning before the pics were taken. It's not as if I haven't paid for the photo, that photo then belongs to ME! (the bits they send home have PROOF written all over them, you HAVE to buy one copy). THAT was enough of a stretch, we basically ate beans for that whole week, OF COURSE I'm going to scan them and make copies for my family!!

purplehat · 04/12/2009 23:52

The price of 'photos is outrageous in my opinion. I would feel guilty scanning any at all, but a little less so if I bought one set and scanned the other!

TruthSweet · 05/12/2009 11:21

Loudlass - you own the print of the image not the copyright of the image itself so by copying the image you are stealing from the photographer. They took the photo, processed the image, cleaned up the image, adjusted colour balance etc so it's not just point and click for a professional and 5 minutes work.

Also, the photographer or studio as the owner and copywrite holder of the image, has the legal right to decide how it is reproduced. So by scanning it you are in breach of copyright.

To those who think that the photos are unsolicited so you are entitled to keep them with out paying under direct selling laws, that would only apply if the photos were sent to your address and you hadn't given consent for your DC to be photographed.

You collect them from school on the understanding that it is to view the prints and you might then wish to purchase the prints so if you keep them you are stealing.

Could you justify not returning a car you took for a test drive to the dealership?

SoupDragon · 05/12/2009 11:22

It's theft and you know it.

Lulumama · 05/12/2009 11:24

agree with mazzy and loudlass

and you know what, you don't have to buy them!!

if you don;t want to, take a lovely pic of your DCs and print and give your relatives

i presume these are not just bog standard school pics, but ones you had to opt in or out of ?

SoupDragon · 05/12/2009 11:28

"Its not like she is scanning them instead of buying them."

Er, that is exactly what she's it doing! "I can just about afford one set, but tbh both sets are really nice and I want them both...."

PfftTheMagicDragon · 05/12/2009 11:29

Sure, there's something you want and you can't afford it....just take it anyway!

What could be wrong with that?

CardyMow · 06/12/2009 21:51

Yeah but TBH the copies my family will get ARE NOT the same standard as if they were direct from the photographer, and we know that, but I don't have the £150 it would have cost to get full packs of photos of each child, and it's not fair to get them for one child and not the other, it's the only way I can do it. I don't have a camera, so it's NOT like I can just take any old photos of the kids, I understand the theory of what you're saying, and 2 yrs ago, before I was signed off sick from work permanantly, I'd have agreed, but now I'm on such a limited budget, and I can't NOT get them, or how would I explain to the boys that I did it for their older sister, but I'm not going to for them....MAYBE if the school photographers didn't charge such unreasonable prices, no-one would resort to scanning the pics for others.

kitty4paws · 06/12/2009 22:50

I have just finished a 12 hour day taking family photographs on top of weeks of even longer days taking and processing school photos.

My self and DH have just gone self employed as photographers and if every photo that we took was paid for then the price would come down for everyone.

Schools can take up to 30% of the SALES from a schools photographer, every proof card costs 50p, for EVERY child in the school.

My Dh can spend 2 full days finishing photos from a school of 200 children on top of the whole day spent taking the photos in the first place.

Add in the time to process the orders, the lab costs , the cost of equipment, maintenance and insurance and our £13 for 2 , 7x5 prints is not outrageous.

If you don?t want to buy the photos then don?t.

Photographers simply can not be in business and sell prints for a few quid each, it just isn?t cost effective.

We know people scan photos, but please don't try to justify it buy buying one but scanning the others, theft is theft.

Divatheshopaholic · 06/12/2009 22:55

just paid 34pounds for 4 pieces of nursery photos.
they are ridiculious, i should ask them not to take photos next eyar.

kitty4paws · 06/12/2009 23:02

If they are to expensive then don't buy them

Kaloki · 06/12/2009 23:03

It's theft.

Actually in the grand scheme of things, although you are talking about the prints being expensive, you aren't just paying for the prints, you are paying for the photogroahers time.

Picture yourself in their shoes, you've done a days work, produced some work. Then you charge them for the end product and they decide actually they'll just copy your work. Would you think this was ok? Or would you agree it's theft?

Plus as Kitty4paws said, the schools take a part of it.

Diva > that is a much better idea than the other posters who think copyright theft is ok.

Divatheshopaholic · 06/12/2009 23:09

well kitty, yes 34 pounds for 4 little photos is loads of money.
i dont scan, full stop[nerrrr]

kitty4paws · 06/12/2009 23:14

As DH is a photographer I have never bought any nursery or school photos and asked the nursery not to take any of my DCs photos as I wouldn't buy them.

I didn't want the photographer to spend time and money on a product I wasn't going to buy.

We always photograph siblings together and then individually so a family with more than one child can still have them all on a photo but only pay once.

It would be very difficult in schools to single out children not to be photographed (?vulnerable" children of course are the exception)

kitty4paws · 06/12/2009 23:16

Diva, I know you don't scan, just saying that if you don't want to pay £34 then don't

PfftTheMagicDragon · 07/12/2009 15:34

Well loudlass maybe you should take the £25 you would spend on the photos and save it towards a camera of your own.

Just because you can't afford it, doesn't mean you should get it for free anyway.

Snapper99 · 12/09/2010 18:59

kitty4paws is spot on.

But I would say that as I am a photographer.

Some posters mis understood the OP. It wasn't £25 for one photo, it was£for a set of pics.

People who aren't involved in an industry aren't aware, or conveiently ignore the costs incured in that industry.

I can assure you that school photography is not a liscence to print money.

If every parent scanned and bought nothing all the togs would go out of business overnight.

I you feel something is too expensive, don't buy it.

moominmarvellous · 12/09/2010 19:17

Well I considered doing this with DD's nursery pic, as they were given to us in the form in which we would buy them to take home and consider i.e. no proof or anything on them.

I didn't though, and bought three copies in two different sizes of the same pic for the grandparents and us. Just felt a bit mean scanning it.

choufleur · 12/09/2010 19:22

The price of school/nursery photos is astronomical. I book professional photographers for work and they charge in the region of £50-60 an hour. And that includes CDs with all images on them.

I wouldn't blame you for scanning the images but it is in breach if copyright.

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