professional or serious photographers: how has a website w/galleries

[chammer]

I was just being a little... extreme.

you still are. people are trying to *help* you, and you're not being very polite. the answers we get are sometimes not the ones we always want to hear, but it doesnt make them any less helpful or that they are attacking you personally.

 

[RodeoFotocom]

This is a real issue IMO. I only post photos in my gallery in thumb size. I see other Rodeo Photographers photos all over Facebook with PROOF across them. I do agree with the poster above that people will steal anything they can from the web nowadays.

 

[damonb]

Watermark is one option. You also don't want to put larger images on your website or photoblog...smaller sizes means that the photos wouldn't look good if someone tries to print them.

 

[iamacyborg]

There's no way to protect your images, the only thing you can do is put stuff online that'll have limited use.
Edit them down to 72 DPI, cut them down to a lower resolution, stop hotlinking from your site. That way, even if someone does try to steal them, they won't really be able to do anything with them, other than just post small images online.

 

[damonb]

"Instead of trying to keep people from coping your photos, make it so that any copies will help to promote your business. Use a web address for a watermark, add contact information to the metadata."

Excellent advice, or a watermark over the image is another option. Keep in mind that smaller images on your website aren't going to turn into quality prints - so that should alleviate some of your concerns. If someone tries to print an 8x10 from an image size of about 200 x 200, then they will be getting a really crappy print.

One thing you could do: Ask buyers to contact you directly if they would like to buy a print, or use a service (Smugmug, Fotomoto.com (work there), Redbubble, Etsy, etc.) to give folks an easy reason to buy a quality print.

The internet age is tricky because it comes down to distributing your work over profit, which may lead to additional leads for other work.

 

[ncphotographer]

Add a watermark. That's the best way. Even then, they can be "stolen" if they don't mind the watermark.

Make your watermark your web address as well, so if the image IS "stolen" at least other people will see your website address.

 

[manaheim]

I embed a trojan into the jpegs that when viewed beyond a certain date causes the entire machine to implode, creating a small black hole in their home or office, immediately sucking in everything within a 10' radius.


btw, setting the image quality low enough so that when the image is blown up does a nice job to keep the theft levels down as well... since there isn't a heck of a lot they can REALLY do with a 600 pixel image that can't be printed on anything bigger than a 3x5 without looking awful.

Aside from that, not much you can do. It may happen. <shrug>

 

[craig]

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Love & Bass

 

[creative_one]

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Wrong thread dude!!!

 

[bluewaterjon]

What I do is put a url as my watermark in a place that makes getting rid of it unusable, but makes the photo still look good enough to impress people. I know that this way works- or at least I think I do- because I get emails from people saying they saw my gallery and they loved the work, and then I also get emails from people saying they loved the gallery but why do I have to put a mark on it (which means they wanted to use it for free).
In my business which is fishing and travel photography, if I don't do this, my images will be used in ads and so forth online, plus it makes it so that I can't sell it again as they already have a decent copy to enjoy.
Plus with these type of url watermarks, I feel comfortable sending them out to editors I don't even know because it has my contact info. I have gotten some big gigs this way, by images that were passed on.
Here is an example:

Jon Schwartz, Bluewaterjon.com
Bluewater Jon Schwartz: Fishing articles, photography, travel, stories, and adventures