Posting Alamy images on Instagram

[rickboden]

Hi All,

I'm aware there is a long thread on Instagram and also a blog post by Alamy but I have a specific question that I didn't see addressed.

 

Specifically posting your Alamy images on Instagram and the question of protecting them.  Are watermarks necessary?  ...and it seems to me that in order to be really effective, a watermark would have to cover a lot of the image  which would degrade from their IG quality.  I also think having even a small copyright watermark probably keeps a image from being picked up (re-posted) by a big account like NatGeo, etc.  Just wondering where everyone stands on this.  And I also wonder if Alamy has a stance on this.

 

Secondly, what are the best ways to reference the photo in case someone wants to buy it?  Tag with Alamy and Image number?  As you can't post a web link with a picture that seems to me to be the only way.

 

Here's my Instagram page in case anyone wants to look.  I do mostly aerial and landscape.  I'll follow back anyone who follows me.

 

For some reason I couldn't post a link to my Instagram page but just search for workabove and it should come up.

 

Thanks

 

Rick Boden

 

[MDM]

I just put a small watermark at the bottom as big watermarks are out of place on Instagram. The images are low res anyway. For me, the benefit of raising profile for my wedding business far outweighs any worries about image theft. I post a lot of different types of images which may be a mistake but maybe not as people have booked me for weddings on the basis of my landscape work. 

 

I think what you have already is probably fine as you have a link from your bio to your website so you could just link up front to Alamy from your website if you want. You could also say something in the captions that the images are available as stock and again have something up front on your website. Anyone who is interested in buying images is likely to check your bio in any case. 

 

[rickboden]

Thanks very much!  I appreciate your thoughts and glad to have my method confirmed.

 

Rick Boden

[MDM]

Others might think differently of course 😊

[Young]

Hi Rickboden. 

 

Recently I just started posting my photos on instagtram, I put my copyright on my pic to post it.

But I wander if its better to watermark at the bottom. (I’ll see)

 

I put my alamy portofolio link to my profile for I can’t put web link to my photo.

 

And I post my photo with photo ID by Alamy.

 

 

 

[rickboden]

Thanks, I have my work website linked rather than Alamy although there is a stock link there.   I just realized the last image I posted to IG, I forgot to mention Alamy.  I'm thinking that maybe a good solution for me would be to end the description with something like "Available as a stock photo on @alamyltd as image #12345"