dannac Loc: 60 miles SW of New Orleans

Thank you !

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

A photographer selling a photo would be "commercial use". And while someone walking down the sidewalk may have few privacy protections because they have no expectations of privacy, I think that unless the guests at the birthday party were advised beforehand that their images would be subject to commercial sale, they could easily argue that at a private party they have an expectation of privacy. I think it is a really bad idea to try to sell photos of anyone from whom you do not have permission, especially if those images were not taken in a very public place.

Spirit Vision Photography Loc: Behind a Camera.

We market our images through Fine Art America and Zenfolio.

www.spiritvisionphotography.pixels.com

Russ

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Selling a print is not defined legally as "commercial use". Using a print to promote or advertise another product or object is commercial use. Hence you can make a portrait of a person, and sell the copies of the portrait to anyone. A person who purchases a copy may not use it to advertise shampoo, for example, without getting a release from the person who is pictured. Probably putting the picture on a T-Shirt and selling the shirt will be a commercial use. Note that it is the user, not the photographer, that must have a release. (Of course no smart user will purchase an image that requires a release unless the photographer says there is a release. Either the user or the photographer would be risking legal action if either of them falsely claim there is a release.)

An interesting example of how that works is that you can use a picture you took, even if it is a portrait, in a book... if it is not used on the cover. If you shoot a portrait of your neighbor and put that on page 10, no release is required. Courts have ruled that the covers are essentially advertising for the book, hence if the portrait is used on the back cover you need to have a model release.

At a private party the property owner can authorize, or deny, the rights to take photographs.

But "commercial use" is based on privacy, which is State law not Federal law, hence it is not specifically defined and may vary in different jurisdictions. The safe course of action is always to get a model release if there is any question about the actual use.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

Can't be stopped. That's why it's important to think of them as "files" rather than "prints".

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Both great sites.

Armadillo Loc: Ventura, CA

Mr. bobmcculloch, mentioned Fine Art America(FFA) having some protections, he is correct; they also include the addition of watermarking the display images. More importantly, they provide a method of creating a secure catalog that requires a login and password to view the photos in the catalog.
Since you are writing about a party that friends and relatives attended there should be no problem displaying anybody's photograph within a secure environment. Once you create the catalog, set a login password to the catalog, you get a URL to the catalog you can include in an e-mail as a text link, or a hyperlink.

The advantage to using FFA is in the time, shipping, and processing costs for the prints. If you have a PayPal account all sales go into your PayPal account after a 30 day warranty time period. The sales products are very good and cover overthinking from traditional mounted/framed prints to metal prints, shower curtains, and coffee cups.

Give then a once over.

Michael G

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

BudsOwl Loc: Upstate NY and New England

Were you an attendee at the party or hired to take the photos. As an attendee, I make my photos freely available to the other guests, on the other hand, if I were hired to take photos then it depends on the contract. Am I to provide a digital file to the host or am I allowed to sell photos to the guests?
Bud

jamesl Loc: Pennsylvania

I know people that tried that, but it doesn't necessarily work. Usually, if it displays on your screen, you can go into the browser temp files and copy at from there into another directory. When someone showed me that, I just started using much smaller low-res pictures with a watermark and that pretty much takes care of it.

CatMarley Loc: North Carolina

Easy Save versions at small size and low res unsuitable for printing and/or watermark them. For example: The actual portrait and the advertisment

(Download)

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Only post "proofs" that are relatively low resolution... too small to be practical for printing.... and put a watermark on them.

I limit my proofs to 700 pixels on the long edge. A 4x6 print really needs at least 1000 to 1500 pixels (170 to 240 ppi) and I would usually supply a minimum of 1800 (300 ppi).

Also, proofs are only very lightly edited... perhaps straightened, cropped a little, with slight tweaks to color and exposure, if needed. They are only going to be seen in small sizes, so aren't finished anywhere close to the level of images that are ordered printed or for some other "higher" purpose. I do this quick editing in Adobe Lightroom and it usually takes less than a minute per image. I also cull out duplicates, bad shots for any reason, at the same time, typically only post proofs of about half or less of the total shots I take. Once an order is placed, I use Lightroom again to locate the image, make any minor changes that are possible in Lightroom, then pass the full size image off to Photoshop for finishing work. Occasionally I use some other software, too.

And, I put a watermark on them.... It's my name and the URL of my galleries. I then let people "share" my proofs freely via email, Facebook, etc... no charge. That's essentially free advertising for me and actually a good thing. I usually see an uptick in website visits and sales when there's a discussion online that includes some of my shots.

Here's a recent example of one of my watermarked proofs:



The watermark is partly transparent, gray type with a white outline, so that it will read clearly on virtually any image. I made up the watermark in Photoshop, saved it as a PNG file with a transparent background, and use Lightroom to add it automatically during Export batch processing and uploading to my online galleries. Fast and easy.

Finally, all my proofs also have embedded copyright information in the EXIF (part of it is recorded by my cameras, but additional info is added automatically during Lightroom Import). Of course EXIF metadata is very easy to delete. But doing so - i.e., deliberate removal of copyright protections - can result in up to $30,000 enhanced fines... per instance.... so long as copyright has been properly registered.

I only upload the "full size, finished, un-watermarked" image after an order is placed requiring it. Can't really finish an image until it's exact usage, anyway. This is also a time saver... no sense in fully finishing all the images I post online, if only a limited percentage of them are going to actually be used. If the a digital download is purchased, I embed licensing info in the EXIF. For prints and other products, that's not necessary.

Yes, many sites do prevent visitors from "saving" shots with a right click... But there apparently are ways of getting around that (I have no idea how.... but I can assure you that most 12-year-olds do!). So don't rely upon this feature alone.

wesm Loc: Los Altos CA

Hi, have you or others here used this site? Are there other sites you could recommend?
Thanks,
Wes

Armadillo Loc: Ventura, CA

Wes,

I am currently using FFA and have been a member for three years. I have sold prints over the years, and sold to a private package delivery service local photo art for their local hub facility. For the local facility, they found the photos on FFA and purchased the digital file from me.

FAA provides the option to watermark all your images, or just the ones you select when the visitor select the high-resolution view, and when the visitor selects the thumbnail high res. view a watermark is automatically applied.

All the image views are presented at the low internet file resolution for faster downloading in international countries.

It is true, that if the user knows his/her web browser inside-out they can go to the browser cache folder and save the image to their hard drive for later use, or processing, but those folks must be able to identify a digital file from an encrypted name.

If a user employs a screen capture application, like Snippet, SnagIt, or the right click/save as function; the screen capture function will save the image at the resolution the monitor displays.
If the user copies the image file from the cache folder all they will get is the resolution of the files saved to the web server.

The essential point is this; if you are going to post a file on the internet, there is nothing you can do to keep someone from copying it and using a degraded version somewhere else. Pasting an ugly copyright notice in the center of a display version of a photograph is a great way to turn off a potential buyer.

FFA employs all the security protections available to them to secure your art work, if you want to sell your photographic work you must put up with the potential theft of your photos, or keep all your photos in a bank vault.

If you are interested in selling your art on more products than a glossy sheet of paper take a look at the product lines you can offer through FFA. All their products are available to the international community with fulfillment centers world-wide to reduce international shipping costs.

Michael G