a word of warning to people posting photo's on GC

I don't think I made myself clear when I said about the photobucket I didn't mean the ones in the comps etc .
I wondered if your album can be looked at even if you have it set to private.

To be honest I don't think any of mine would be good enough for someone to want to copy anyway so I'm not that bothered:D
It's just the thought of someone being deceitful copying peoples work and not asking first.
I am no way able to understand all the technical side to it I just do it for fun.

 

This is an age old problem, a problem if you want it to be !

Here's a photo of mine..



This photo is now on your computer hard drive in your home or place of work (whereever your viewing this topic), its how the net works. Everything you view, text, graphics, images, photo's, flash animations etc gets downloaded to your pc's temp folder and your pc puts it all together for you to view. If 1000 people view this topic then my photo above will be copied 1000 times onto 1000 machines.

Its only a deterrent to disable right click or require logging in to view pictures and in my honest opinion..a complete waste of time, energy, and simply inhibits you, the viewer.

So, whats to be done? How can you stop these thiefs? Only one way you can do that...and thats not to post the photo's in the first place. There we go..no more probbles and troublems. But then we dont have the interest of viewing others work, so what can we do then?

We can watermark them, like so..



You can write your name in a corner somewhere, thats sorted it out right? Wrong! a thief will just crop it off. Okay then..we write our name accross the centre of the photo, that will do it right? Wrong! Lok at the photo above..©Steve Randles was not part of the photo when I took it..it detracts from the image as it should not be there. We can reduce its opacity, that will reduce its effect right? Partly right yes, it will reduce its effect but at the same time its that much easier to clone out, and it still detracts from the photo.

Personally, I reduce all my photo's to 250kb's or less and they are generally no longer than 800pixels on the longest edge. Lets look at some figures

Original Photo 10mb 4000 x 2500 pixels
Posted Photo 250kbs 800 x 500 pixels

The posted photo is one fortieth the size of the original in file size and quality and one fifth of its original size in pixels, quality is decreased to just about as low as it will go before the photo deteriorates, download and zoom in to the shot and you will start to see "problems" with it, these problems would not be there if you had printed the photo out from the original file. This is just about all you can do to protect your photos for viewing online, and is the best method I know of, experiment with your own photo editing software to see how low you can get the filesize before the shot deteriorates (I use Photoshop).

If someone wants to steal my photos for other purposes, fine, let them get on with it if they want the inferior files. If they want quality then I'm open to receiveing pms or enquiries about such, which I have had in the past all over the web, whereupon I have negotiated reasonable rates and my photo's have been used for whatever purpose the enquiry was about (this is NOT a plug by the way). If I do find a stolen shot in use commercially then I question it and seek recompense (which I have done in the past).

I always see it as flattery when I hear that someone has used my photo as a desktop background or similar, you should do too!

Steve...

 

Thanks for taking the time to explain things Steve.:thumb: I don't understand half of it so will ask Mr Kandy when he gets home.:confused:

It is one thing to have our photo's pinched by possible lurkers,but to actually make a profit from it just isn't on.I have often thought that some of mine would look nice as canvas prints but havn't really had the time to do much about it yet.

If this shop is going to start selling our photos,then they could at least give us all royalties for each one sold.We might as well get something back for all the time and effort we put into taking and uploading the photos in the first place

 

thanks jjdecay for the tineye link, a great tool. as you say, it may not be my photo, and I don't want anyone to think i'm accusing any members of stealing my image. That wasn't the reason for the post. This entire thread could be a waste of time, save for the discussions etc it has raised, when my parents check back at the shop with my print.

capney - i'm not sure if my parents know the name of the shop, but they will probably be able to give a description of its location?? TBH, they are up that way most weekends as they have a static van just outside Malton. But thanks for the offer!!

SteveR - thanks for great info, I realise that there is very little can be done to stop people using images, I will be reducing the resolution in future, perhaps you could give a tutorial on how its done using PS or elements. I've found your previous tutorials excellent and very easy to follow.

I agree it is flattering when someone chooses to use an image as screensaver, wallpaper etc and I have absolutely no problems with anyone on here doing so. equally, if you want a copy of original files etc,just ask i'd be more than happy to oblige!!

I will continue to post photo's in the comps etc, it hasn't put me off at all. I just thought that it may be of interest. I will try to keep you informed when my parents check the image.

happy snapping!!

 

glen..just a suggestion..do your parents have a camera phone? If so I suggest that would be an unobstrusive way to get any needed evidence...

A tut on how to resize using photoshop and photoshop elements is on its way.. I actually thought I had already posted one here..

Steve...

 

"Flickr is quite good in that if you try to save the image you get a blank, an the image itself is in Flash or somesuch which makes it harder, but I can still take a screen-grab to get the image if I want it."

you don't even have to do a screen grab you just use ad-block plus to block Flickr's clear gif image (spacer.gif) and then you can download any image you like...

 

"and then you can download any image you like..."

Except that its in Flash, not an image, isn't it?

(Although knowing very little about Flash I don't know if that's a hindrance, but I expect [naively?!] that Flickr have put some thought into it)

 

Hi glenw, sorry to hear about your problem.
If I was you I would expose the problem to the gallery owner (of course you have to be well sure that they are 100% your pictures and be able to prove it ) and surelly he must be able to get to the source of the person who printed the canvas.
so far we only know that he/she has good taste !!
it would be interesting to know the outcome.

 

I didn't think it was possible without using a password Lyn. BUT IT SEEMS TO BE.
I've tried to get into yours with no luck yet - I'll try again later - as I think I probably can.
But as an example here's an unpublished (on here) pic from the Photobucket of one of our esteemed mods. Hope you don't mind *****!:D I'm doing this purely for the purpose of research and awareness raising. I've absolutely no interest in 'hacking' sites - only in security and privacy.
I first developed a sneaking doubt about the security of Photobucket a couple of months ago when a friend posted pics on another site and the link he posted led to his whole site. I'm still trying to figure things out properly.

 

Lyn - I've had another look at your Photobucket site and I can't get in without the password so it seems your files are safe(ish).
However there are other contributors to GC who might like to review their privacy settings on Photobucket. I've only looked at couple but I've just got into another contributor's PB site - took 5 seconds.

 

Dosnt it just make you sick that there are always people out to make a quick buck.:( I dont know if there are laws against this sort of thing but there should be. 02

 

No it's just an image not in flash:thumb:

 

The other thing to be aware of re copyright is competitions where the organisers claim the right to use your photo anyway and anywhere they like, not just the winners pics but every pic submitted without any payment or acknowledgement

This site has loads of information on which competitions do this.
http://www.pro-imaging.org/content/view/177/153/

For example the Gaurdian weekly competition has this in their terms and conditions

They don't just want it for themselves they want to be able to sub license it to a third party and maybe crop it edit it however they want!!

Microsoft's "iconic Britain" started out as another rights grabber.

Bluddy world's gone mad.

 

And/or very greedy Mike!