Posting and Sharing

Ok, it’s the digital age! And photographers of all ages want to show off photos. No worries! Sharing photos helps get exposure.

We saw your photo and would like to use it without paying you. No, no, no. But I thought that was how it works. No, no, and no. But we love you’re work and our company/social media media/website/magazine has lots of exposure for you, it will get you exposure. No, no, and no.

Sounds good to get exposure but the truth is that by the stats I’m not going to get the clients I want and will probably not actually get me any projects out of it. If you are looking at my photo, then something already has gone right with my marketing strategy.

The reality of dealing with businesses is that they have to get permission to use some one elses work, that may include a fee in some if not all cases. And one more thing, if a person is in the photo, a model release will be needed.

Photographers own the copyrights of the photographs created. From there many options happen. Oh, this includes cell phone cameras, toy cameras, dslr, and any thing else used to create an image. So definitely get the photographer’s permission.

So, here is the thing when you are sharing photos online, make sure you know what the site does with photos. This can range from being just for looking all the way to a site for others use them. Read the user terms. Same goes for contests, those could end up being for photo gathering instead of buying stock.

Want more insights:

Trey Ratcliffe Licensing/creative commons is my go to reference.

Read Contest Rules

You need the photographer’s permission before submitting, and find out what they are doing with the photo.

Model Releases and more forms

Model Release via ASMP

Joe Rollerfan Rollerderby compensation

Seek out legal advice and services when your photo has been used incorrectly.

Believe it or not there are a lot of abuses out there. It’s scary to think that photographers will use your photos on a site just to get business. Also, there are lots of people roaming the internet to grab what they can, and yes that activity shows up in our stats.