Protecting photos online

DicksPix · Apr 26, 2011

Hello, I just joined this forum so please tell me if I am posting in the wrong place. My first question is about posting low resolution photos on facebook and other places on the internet. What size or resolution should I use so the photos are useless to anyone that wants to print them out?

480sparky · Apr 26, 2011

1 pixel square should do it.

McCoy · Apr 26, 2011

Just put a watermark on them.

Bitter Jeweler · Apr 26, 2011

...because watermarks can't be removed.

Judobreaker · Apr 26, 2011

Basically you shouldn't be asking yourself what you can do to prevent it, but what you can do to prevent people printing your work as a high quality image.
For that you can do a rather simple calculation:

Say you would start being annoyed if people printed your work at 15x10cm or larger.
Usually for high quality printing people use a DPI (dots per inch, sometimes also referred to as Pixels Per Inch) value of 300.
However if you're not too picky you can easily do with 250 DPI.
This would mean that for a 15x10cm image at 250 DPI you would need an image of 1772x1181 pixels.
If you publish your photos some smaller than that people will have a hard time printing your works in good quality.
Say you upload your images at 800x600 people would only be able to print at 135 DPI which is quite easily noticeable because of the rather bad quality.

Adding a watermark to your image would definitely make it harder to steal the image though usually not impossible.

Overread · Apr 26, 2011

Watermarks also come in two kinds

1) The kind that cover a large area of the photo. This adds more protection since to remove it takes longer and can prove to be more of a challenge - however it also obstructs a large component of the photo. This rather counters the view of showing the photo itself online

2) The kind that tend to be smaller and located in an area where its is not obstructing the main view of the photo itself. These are clearly more easy to move, but being unobtrusive they are more likely to be left on if shared online only (thus free advertising of your name and website) and also means that it won't be jarring viewers that you're showing your photos to.

As said above the best methods are to reduce the size so that the ability to use the photo is significantly reduced. 800*600 through to 1000*something smalller are the typical sizes that you see most photos online and on most displays these size are large enough to show needed details.

KmH · Apr 26, 2011

The bottom line is watermarking and reducing image size don't keep people from stealing photos off the internet. The only sure way to prevent theft of your photos off the internet is don't put your photos on the internet in the first place.

I would not post photos larger than 400 px on the long side for Facebook.

For other places on the internet, it would depend on the place.

DicksPix · Apr 26, 2011

Thanks a bunch for all the input. I know that we can't stop everybody from using our photos without permission, but I now have a good idea how to keep the honest people at bay.
Thanks again.

skieur · Apr 26, 2011

Two considerations:

1. Is someone going to be able to make a lot of money copying and using your photos posted on the net? If, not, is it worth the bother to try and protect your posted shots?

2. If the answer to the first question is "yes", then perhaps you should not post them at all.

skieur

RaynaMcGinnis · Apr 26, 2011

I tend to use the smallest size that can be posted without loosing obvious quality. Sometimes this takes some experimenting.

On facebook this tends to be about 600 on the long side. My thumbnails on my website are quite small (200x300 I believe) and my larger images are about 600x800. Anything bigger, I place a watermark on it.

adversus · Apr 26, 2011

1. Put low-res photos on the internet, people think you suck at photography.
2. Put high-res photos on the internet, without an annoying watermark smack dab in the middle, people think your pictures are awesome (skill not withstanding), but may get stolen

But I'm a hobbyist, not a pro. I'd be stoked that someone thought my photography was good enough to steal.

kundalini · Apr 26, 2011

Well, if I were posting up picures for DicksPix, I'd make sure they were at least 12" schlong.

Derrel · Apr 26, 2011

kundalini said:
Well, if I were posting up picures for DicksPix, I'd make sure they were at least 12" schlong.

Jose can you see, through the Tequila glass's shimmering, what so sloppily we drunk, at the twilight's last beaming, what so proudly we snorted.....zzzz.....10:00 PM....