For Photographers

If it’s on the Internet…

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Let’s say a photographer owns the copyright to a photo. Without any other agreement in place, if that photo was published in a newspaper, would the photographer still own the copyright to that picture? Of course they would.

What if the photo was used in a book, on a billboard or on TV? Would the photographer still own the copyright? Yes they would. The medium in which the picture is used doesn’t affect copyright. Surely this is obvious.

So why do some folks think that a picture “found” on the Internet would have no copyright?
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Negotiating from the get-go

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You might think that negotiating is about the client and photographer haggling over price. But negotiating involves much more than that.

Earlier today, I went shopping for a new suit. At a clothing store, the salesperson didn’t ask what kind of suit I wanted but instead she asked why I needed a suit – at what type of events would I be wearing the suit. [Help the customer get what they need and don’t just sell to them.]

Instead of letting me choose suits from the long racks of clothing, the salesperson selected just two suits for me. [Make it easy for the customer to decide and avoid overwhelming them.]

“I think you’d look great in either of these two. Which do you prefer?” she asked.
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In The Bag

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When shopping for a decent light stand bag, you might find that most stand bags are too small, don’t have wheels or are very expensive.

If you carry just a couple of stands and umbrellas, this may not be an issue for you. But if you need to carry a trunkful of stands, an armful of softboxes or umbrellas, a few rolls of 52″ background paper and more, there is a solution.

Go to a golf store or sporting goods store and check out golf travel bags. These bags are designed to transport a golf bag full of clubs and, in some cases, even a small golf cart. They often have big outside pockets to hold various golf accessories.
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Memory Lane

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Remember the old days when soft drinks came in glass bottles? After the drink was gone, you could return the bottle to the store and get a few cents back. When you were young, you might have collected a handful of bottles and returned them to a store to get your “reward”: three bottles returned = one free Popsicle; five bottles returned = one free chocolate bar.

What do you do with old compact flash memory cards – 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, etc?
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A bit of noise

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It’s common to shoot business portraits against seamless background paper. It’s also common practice for a photographer to create a tonal gradient on that background rather than having a flat tone. A gradient adds a bit of depth to the photo by separating the subject from the background.

The problem with a tonal gradient is that when the finished photo is saved as a jpeg, the file compression can cause the gradient to posterize. The amount of posterization also depends on how “steep” the gradient is.

A small amount of posterization won’t be noticed by most customers nor will it be visible in print or online. But many photographers want to deliver the best possible image to the customer.
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An Open Letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper

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As reported by The Globe and Mail (and here), CTV, Toronto Star, Macleans and others, the Canadian federal government (or probably more accurately, the Prime Minister’s Office) is planning to amend Canada’s Copyright Act so that the government can freely use any “news” content for any of its political advertising without the permission of the copyright holder(s).

“News” is in quotes because it’s only vaguely defined as being any published content that features any politician acting in their capacity as a politician or anyone who might be seeking a political position, or relates to any political issue. News content can include video, photographs, text, audio and music.

“Published” seems to be defined as being published, broadcast or otherwise made available, in any media, to the public. This includes any TV news broadcast or any other news program, news radio programs, newspapers, news periodicals, and news web sites including everyone’s favourite news site, Youtube.
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A Photo Opportunity Without Any Opportunity

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Yesterday I photographed a press event / photo op / reception in Toronto. It had bad lighting, bad staging and bad media flaks. It was run by the Prime Minister’s Office.

For “security reasons,” the media had to be searched both by police and by sniffer dog. The audience? They just walked in.

There were lots of rules for the media: where to stand, where not to go, what not to shoot. Reporters weren’t allowed to ask any questions nor interview anyone. The audience? They could do anything they wanted.

The audience was standing and the three political VIPs (Canadian Prime Minister and two European Union presidents) were seated on a low stage. This meant that when the three were seated, (far enough apart to prevent a group picture), they could barely be seen by the photographers and TV cameras who were on a riser at the back of the room:
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