Photo copywright

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Nic
Posts: 148
Joined: Thu Oct 13, 2016 4:12 pm
Location: Albion California zone 9

Photo copywright

Post by Nic »

Is there a way to mark that a photo is copyrighted, all of mine in habitat are, and I am not sure how to mark them.
There is no cactus you can't eat, but you just might regret it if you eat the wrong one.
mikej
Posts: 71
Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2016 8:04 pm

Re: Photo copywright

Post by mikej »

The best approach depends on why you want to mark them. At least in the US, no copyright notice is necessary (though I'm not a lawyer, etc.); so if you were just worried about not being able to assert copyright, you don't need to mark them. If you still want to, just to have somewhere with your name, one way is to put it in the photo's metadata. This is invisible, so it won't have much effect on other people (though some services that print photos will reject such photos, for instance).

If you just want to get credit in case other people share it, the most common way is to watermark the images, often in a corner or along the bottom or somewhere inconspicuous. This is fairly easy to do in image editing software. You might include the URL of your website so that someone seeing the image might come see your other photos.

If you want to deter theft, you could get more aggressive with the watermark, by making it somewhere that's hard to get rid of by cropping. This also tends to distract viewers, though.

There are also ways to invisibly watermark an image, in such a way that the information is hidden in the pixels (but not visible to the eye)--the term for hiding information like this is steganography. These watermarks can still be decoded even after fairly dramatic resizing and cropping. They can be used to later show an image is yours, but like the metadata approach, other people won't be able to see it, and thus won't be deterred. You could theoretically use them to prove ownership, however.

As far as specific software tools, that would depend on where you want to use them (iPhone/iPad, Android, Windows, Mac), but you can certainly do basic watermarking and metadata on any of those platforms.
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Nic
Posts: 148
Joined: Thu Oct 13, 2016 4:12 pm
Location: Albion California zone 9

Re: Photo copywright

Post by Nic »

It's more that there my dad's, and being a decent photographer, he copyrights all his pictures, and when I use his images, he prefers me to mark them as such.
There is no cactus you can't eat, but you just might regret it if you eat the wrong one.
DaveW
Posts: 7369
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2012 2:36 pm
Location: Nottingham, England/UK

Re: Photo copywright

Post by DaveW »

These days with modern technology and software available on the web most watermarks can be removed or cloned out. Also if somebody abroad stole your picture can you afford a to fight a legal case, probably in their countries courts for the sake of a picture? The only safe way of retaining copyright in the Internet era is to never post a picture on the web, but then what's the point of taking pictures if you cannot use them?

Some say only posting small low quality pictures, not much better than avatars is best way to retain copyright since they will not be stolen for commercial gain, but then who wants to look at those, you might as well not post them anyway. A copyright stamp may deter most, but be aware it does not give 100% protection from theft.

http://www.whoishostingthis.com/blog/20 ... es-stolen/

Software available often claims it is only for legal purposes, but obviously it can be used for illegally removing copyright stamps too and is freely available on the web.

https://www.theinpaint.com/inpaint-how- ... cture.html

http://www.softorbits.com/photo-stamp-r ... rmark.html

There are even video's on YouTube on how to remove copyright stamps. Don't believe therefore that there is any completely safe way of copyrighting a photo if you post it online. If youngsters can hack into national security computers, removing copyright stamps would be a doddle for them, and as said it is more likely to be stolen abroad where you cannot really take action against the person stealing it than in the West.
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