electric shimmy

Alot of you know that I am also a professional photographer. I lug around what seems to be my 10 lb camera and carry it like an infant, because really it is like my 4th child! I have it at alot of local shows big and small so I am sharing this post not only on my Photography blog but also my dance blog:
——————————————————————————————————-
The subject of copyright can get confusing sometimes. The most important thing to remember is that the photographer owns the photo. Make sure you get permission to use it! I take ALOT of photos, mostly of my family or just life events, but I do bring my camera to local shows. The 1 and only reason is because I want to get awesome shots of my performance. I set the ISO (camera speed), shutter speed, and f stop and take some practice shots and hand over the camera to my husband or a friend and hope for the best. Typically ALOT of editing in Photoshop occurs, and if I am lucky I get a couple of great shots! I often take shots of other dancers, because hey, after all they are my friends and I want them to have great pictures too right? ( and I can’t help myself) I usually snap ALOT. By ALOT I don’t mean like 20, I am usually snapping away the whole performance, but I delete most of them and only save 10-15 of the best because my computer can only handle so much before it crashes. I then spend 2 hours loading all of them (because my card reader is a dinosaur), and a couple hours “processing them to jpg images”. Sometimes I like to give them an extra artistic boost= added Photoshop time. Then I crop to a web image, splash my logo on it, and upload to either Facebook or a Smugmug gallery to share. Just so you know the images that are posted online are 720×480 with a resolution of 72 dpi. What does that mean? Well basically it means it looks great online, but not so good printed. Now if you save that image and print it you should not make that bigger than a wallet size, simply because the dimensions are too small. What happens when you blow up photos larger than they should be is that they become all pixel-y. (Is that a real word?) Anyway, so don’t do it! What makes it worse is if you are doing that to photos you save off of Facebook. Facebook is altering the resolution already to the original image, so you are not getting the original, crisp, clean, wonderful quality photo that the photographer intended you to have. (Facebook is a Demon it not only sucks you in and monopolizes all your time but also messes with your wonderful images too, curse you FB!)

{2012 New Year= New Rules}
The following is my policy. I want to be clear as to what can and cannot be done with the photos I take of you:

1. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE CROP OUT MY COPYRIGHT!! (ANY COPYRIGHT REALLY) EVER . The photographer, not the model, dancer, band, person, kid, dog, or whomever was in the photo owns that picture. If someone else other than the photographer alters the photo that is copyright infringement! And it makes me mad! If you crop it for profiles photos on Facebook, that is one thing and probably the ONLY time I would allow, then please add a note saying “Photo by Woodland Willow Photography”.
—What happens if you crop photos and post them, is you allow ‘others’ to steal them and use them as their own work. When a photo has no watermark or logo anyone can say ‘ Hey, I took that photo, isn’t it great?’ I might even see it published somewhere. I know someone can take a photo and crop it themselves and it has happened, but let’s not make it any easier for thieves, and believe me, they are out there. I have already had it happen once.

2. If you have purchased photos from me whether from a photo session, or a show you can use them for your website, blog, facebook, other networking sites, fliers, postcards, business cards, other promotional materials that you make, or other agreed upon stuff. Any PURCHASED photo that is online needs to either (a) have a logo or watermark which is preferred or (b) have a photo credit somewhere near the photo (if possible). (This is not necessary for printed promotional materials.)

3. If you have NOT purchased the photo but are using photos that you have saved or that I have shared with you:
If I share a photo on your Facebook wall it was put there out of the goodness of my heart. You can have it on Facebook, or a blog, or even your website (if I said it was okay). It may NOT be cropped. Photos that are not paid for are not allowed to be used in any promotional materials unless you purchase the High Resolution Image.

4. If you would like to use a photo for publication such as an article, magazine, newspaper, ect you need to contact me first. Please do NOT use the low resolution images that I have posted online as they are not High Quality and does not represent my work in the best way possible. I may require you to first purchase the high resolution image if you plan to publish the image. The image will have a copyright and cannot be cropped in any way.

5. Please do NOT play with my photos in Photoshop or any other Paint-like program. I am the only artist in this art studio! I don’t want anything changed or edited, thanks!

6. If you are unsure about the usage of a photo, please contact me first!

I truly appreciate everyone’s support over the years with my business and I value your business. But in order to continue to take photos I have to protect my photos and their value. Over the last 6 years I have had photos stolen, copyrights cropped, images blown up, and photos printed without my consent. I need to put some stricter guidelines in place from now on.

Please know anytime I photograph a show the photos ARE available for purchase. The low res web images are sometimes shared on Facebook or previewed on Smugmug. If you want the high res you need to contact me directly for pricing.