Blog - SilverGenes Photofix

Photography and Law: Can you use that photo online?

Did you know the minute you take a photograph it’s copyrighted?

Once you post it on the Internet, you do not lose your copyright. You own all rights to that photo. The same thing applies when you are looking for a photo to use on your blog or any other project. We’ve all seen images on Google that are exactly what we’re looking for – but can you just use them? They appear to be on several different blogs so it must be okay, right? No, it’s not okay.

What if it’s just a generic photo of a city street with no people?

It doesn’t matter. Unless you took that photo, you have no right to use it in any way without permission from the photographer.

So how can you find the photos you need?

There are sites like iStockphoto, Shutterstock and Dreamstime where you can purchase the photos you want and sometimes can download featured photos for free. Photos on these sites are completely safe to use and all model releases have been obtained prior to it being posted for download. It’s worth creating a special folder for free images and downloading them as they become available. It’s a good way to start your own database of great photos but be sure and read the licensing agreements about how the photos can be used. Each site may be slightly different.

More great sources

Another valuable resource is Flickr. There is a Creative Commons section where photographers allow others to use their photos under various conditions. For instance, under the attribution section, you may use the photos as long as you properly credit the photographer and link back every time you use it. It’s as simple as adding something like: Photo courtesy J. Winslow on Flickr and adding the link. There are other sites, like this one, where photographers have placed their photos in the public domain but that doesn’t mean you can use them. If there are people in the photo or recognizable buildings or commercial brands, you will need a model release. Stick to generic photos and you should be just fine.

Another popular site is morgueFile. It’s a great site for free images but be aware free does not mean public domain. The photographer retains copyright so be sure and check to see if there are any restrictions. Most are fairly straightforward but some may have variations.

A new twist on photography comes from a site called PhotoRogue. They will go out and take that elusive photo for you at no charge! Mind you, they are pretty up front about what they can and cannot do but it’s all very reasonable. The galleries are fantastic!

For the motherlode of information on where to find free photos, have a look at this site. It gives you links to 50 websites that offer photos at no charge. The same caveats apply though. Just because it’s free doesn’t mean there aren’t issues with people and recognizable brands so use care.

As for the photo on this post? It was purchased from iStockphoto so I don’t have to worry about model releases. It’s been done for me and as long as I follow the rules of licensing, everything will be fine.

Launching Timed Exposure

Beginning Saturday, August 13th we are launching our weekly RSS email digest that will keep you informed about what’s been added to the site without having to go to your reader or visit the site to check. Saturdays seem like a good time to sit back with a cup of coffee and relax while you scan some ideas for your photography, books and scrapbooks, and your ongoing restoration projects.

This is a special service for our members only. If you are reading this on the site and haven’t joined yet, sign up now for FREE!

I hope you are getting out and enjoying the summer. Take lots of pictures!

May 30, 2011 Update

The site has been undergoing many changes in the last couple of months and now the feed has been updated, too.

Once you start researching family history, a lot of information can start piling up quickly! A new article with suggestions about how to organize your genealogical information has been added.

More will be added on a regular basis and updates will be posted in the News blog. Thank you to all for your patience during this reorganization and expansion time!

Evening Light

You can hardly tell there were a million mosquitoes biting like mad when this was taken but the light made it all worthwhile. Photo was taken at Gull Harbour on Hecla Island, Manitoba, Canada. I set up a tripod on the bank and waited for just the right moment. This was taken at the changing of the guard, when the sun sets and the moon rises.

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi with a 75-300mm lens at 95mm. Shot in RAW at ISO 100, f/4.5 and a shutter speed of 0.4 seconds.

High Key

Trying new things involves a little risk and a lot of experimentation. High key is something I had never tried before and there is a lot to learn.

Overexposing slightly was the first step and it was important to avoid any blowout in either the background or the subject. This was shot indoors on a drab winter day in natural light. The camera was set to shutter priority mode which is Tv or S on your camera dial. Read more about this setting here. Film speed was set at 400 ISO, shutter speed at 1/50 second (use a tripod) at f/7.1 with the lens at 45 mm. No flash was used.

Using natural daylight and a piece of white paper on the left side to reflect light and another sheet under the eggs on a soft background resulted in this shot. There were problems that I may have been able to overcome if I had set a custom white balance and used manual settings. Converting to black and white solved the problem of reflected yellows in the heavier shadow areas.

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Through Rose-Coloured Glasses

Ontario evening sky colours are different from those on the prairies. They are softer with shades of pink that blend subtly with the orange sherbet colours closer to the sun. This photo was taken in high quality JPG format on the way to the convenience store with the Fuji F10, a little point-and-shoot that continues to amaze me with the way it handles low light.

In Photoshop, it was opened in the ProPhoto RGB colour space in order to avoid clipping the warmer colours and adjusted in Curves. This is my favorite colour space for processing everything, especially photos with yellows, reds, and oranges. These are the first colours to be clipped in smaller spaces. Then it was cropped with perspective to straighten the streetlight and horizon.

Sharpening was done lightly with the High Pass filter, image was converted for web colour space and resized. It’s not a spectacular shot but rather an everyday memory. It captures a brief moment when the world was filtered through a rose-colored sunset.

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Restoring November Light

A Little Work in the LAB

These photos were taken in the late afternoon with a Canon Digital Rebel D400. After experimenting with various settings, I settled on Tv for more control over exposure and set the focus to Manual. The shadows had deepened and the colors were bordering on surreal but when I brought them into Photoshop, the images seemed drab and lifeless compared to what they had been in reality. I didn’t want to increase the saturation and risk blow-out in any of the channels – my days of increasing saturation were over shortly after I discovered that everything did not have to look like it had been shot in the Amazon jungle. I have old photos processed in my early Photoshop days that now belong to a category called “What was I thinking?”

Bringing back what we saw in the first place

So… to bring back a sense of what I had seen along the forest trail, working in the ProPhoto color space, I converted the images to LAB mode and gently steepened the curve in the A and B channels, leaving the Lightness channel alone. I reduced the effect about 50% and switched back to RGB for a little sharpening using the High Pass filter before converting to sRGB IEC61966 and reducing the size for web. The final result is much closer to what prompted me to take the photo in the first place!

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Patterned Curtain

These are my first digital photos taken with a Sigma SD9 about 8 years ago. Because there was an expanse of white fabric in the foreground, exposure was lowered to capture more detail outside. Same problem though in low light situations – noise present in the foreground. Again, minimal adjustments here. Shadow Highlight with masking brought out detail in the curtain on the right side of the window but once again, Levels had to be adjusted to avoid confusion in the shadow zones.

LESSON LEARNED:

It’s much better to slightly overexpose than underexpose. The math of digital photography maintains more information at the light end and allows more detail to be recorded and rescued when needed.

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Washed Light

Photo taken at Upper Canada Village about 8 years ago with a Sigma SD9 in RAW and adjusted recently in Aperture and Photoshop. This is what should be an impossible shot but I was going for the mood of deep shadow in the interior. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of noise in the low light areas so made minimal adjustments to these areas. High Pass filter was used to Sharpen and a final Levels adjustment was used to unify the shadow zones. If I were doing this again, I would make multiple exposures at the time of capture.

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Road to Minnedosa

Photo taken with the Canon Rebel D400 in the early afternoon along the side of the road. This is not the optimal time of day for a shot like this but I was there and the cloud was there. The ISO was set at 400, shutter speed 1/500 sec, f/18 and a 28 mm lens. We were on a road trip and I had been taking shots from the window hence the higher ISO. I wish I had taken the time to make some better adjustments. This was shot in RAW, cropped and levels adjusted in Aperture. Sharpened with the High Pass filter in Photoshop and then masked before final sizing and converting to sRGB color space for web.

Click on the images for an enlarged quick popup view.

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