How do I track down where my image has been used?

[Walnutter23 5]

Hi! I have been submitting to Alamy for a couple of years and have been fortunate to sell a few images. I was wondering if there is a way of knowing where sold images have been used? I used Google image search and managed to track down their online use but is there a way of finding where they have been used in print publications? Or is that not possible? The description next to my sold images gives the print run and says it was a newspaper or magazine but which one?

[sb photos 101]

46 minutes ago, Walnutter23 said:

Hi! I have been submitting to Alamy for a couple of years and have been fortunate to sell a few images. I was wondering if there is a way of knowing where sold images have been used? I used Google image search and managed to track down their online use but is there a way of finding where they have been used in print publications? Or is that not possible? The description next to my sold images gives the print run and says it was a newspaper or magazine but which one?

 

Unless someone spots an Alamy image in print and posts the details in the monthly 'Have you found any Alamy photographs in xxxxx (month year)' thread it's very hard to track down images in print. I've tracked down my images used online, then found them in the print version of the magazine, but had to view the magazine to find them. Even images licensed for on-line publications don't always show via a google image search. I wish there was an easy answer to your query.

 

[Lisa 9,283]

Also try searching by Image ID number in case it has been reported on 'Have you found any Alamy photos'.

 

My BBC sales description:

Country: Worldwide
Usage: Editorial
Media: Editorial website
Industry sector: General business services
Image Size: Any size
Rights cover a single article published on websites, social media and syndication of articles to third party platforms on all media and platforms worldwide in perpetuity.

 

My Sun Newspaper sales description:

Country: United Kingdom
Usage: Editorial
Media: Newspaper - national
Print run: up to 2 million
Placement: Inside and online
Image Size: 1/4 page
Any placement in paper and online. One use in a single editorial article used within the print and digital versions of a single publication. Digital usage includes archive rights for the lifetime of the article.

 

Edited October 24 by Lisa

[Bryan 10,645]

Try both Google Image Search and Tineye. You can also do a word search for your pseudonym, you can sometimes find book usage that way.

 

Need to take include Alamy in the search but specifically exclude  Alamy.com, i.e. search for  your_pseudonym Alamy -Alamy.com

 

As mentioned above, you will only find a small percentage of the uses this way.

[sb photos 101]

37 minutes ago, Bryan said:

Try both Google Image Search and Tineye. You can also do a word search for your pseudonym, you can sometimes find book usage that way.

 

Need to take include Alamy in the search but specifically exclude  Alamy.com, i.e. search for  your_pseudonym Alamy -Alamy.com

 

As mentioned above, you will only find a small percentage of the uses this way.

 

I'd forgotten about searching via pseudonym, it can pull up images not found by the Google image search. The suffix -Alamy.com is a must to stop masses of images at Alamy being found. I recently had an odd result against my pseudonym, referencing a front page picture on a Red Cross report pdf. It wasn't my image and in the document was credited to another photographer, weird.

[Cove Images 16]

I'm a bit late to reply, but thought it worth adding something.

 

When searching for my images online I'll do a Google image search with my name surrounded by quotes, then "Alamy", then -alamy.com (so it doesn't show results from Alamy's website).

If it's a recent sale, then seeing as most publications don't credit with your name, I use the same search without my name as part of it, and restrict it to only look at the last 24 hours or week.

 

Also on Google you can search for books, and I haven't noticed those results showing up for a standard search. I've found several of my book sales by using the same search as above, but in the "Books" section. You can't restrict by time, and it shows a lot of irrelevant results, but I've found that the first results are the ones that match my search exactly, but the rest are not worth looking at.

 

Also this website hosts some magazines, and it's possible to find magazine uses by searching on your name plus Alamy.

[wiskerke 2,649]

28 minutes ago, Cove Images said:

When searching for my images online I'll do a Google image search with my name surrounded by quotes, then "Alamy", then -alamy.com (so it doesn't show results from Alamy's website).

 

Try this for a cleaner result:

"your pseudonym" alamy -site:alamy.com -site:alamy.es -site:alamy.de -site:alamyimages.fr -site:alamy.it

 

wim

[Cove Images 16]

3 minutes ago, wiskerke said:

 

Try this for a cleaner result:

"your pseudonym" alamy -site:alamy.com -site:alamy.es -site:alamy.de -site:alamyimages.fr -site:alamy.it

 

wim

 

Thanks for that Wim. I have tried -alamy.* before, but from memory I think that may have either not worked or stopped working. I do generally find that the other domains Alamy use don't appear as much in searches as the .com domain, so I don't usually bother filtering those too. I guess it depends how many results you expect to find whether it's worth filtering them out or not.

[wiskerke 2,649]

1 minute ago, Cove Images said:

 

Thanks for that Wim. I have tried -alamy.* before, but from memory I think that may have either not worked or stopped working. I do generally find that the other domains Alamy use don't appear as much in searches as the .com domain, so I don't usually bother filtering those too. I guess it depends how many results you expect to find whether it's worth filtering them out or not.

 

That could work either way 😉

Many images from Alamy's own other sites or from distributors' sites, but few published images could easily lead to the needle in a haystack feeling. Hence the filtering.

Contributors with live news pictures will even benefit more of filtering out those own sites.

 

For my own images I found that also distributor dijitalimaj.com turns up quite a lot in a search.

This could well be because my name is still in some of my legacy keywords.

So (for me) the ideal string for the moment is:

"your pseudonym" alamy -site:alamy.com -site:alamy.es -site:alamy.de -site:alamyimages.fr -site:alamy.it  -site:dijitalimaj.com

(Paste all of this in the Google Images search box of course.)

 

wim

 

[Walnutter23 5]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone, I will try some of them when I get a minute.

[IanDavidson 186]

This is quite an important issue.  95% of my work is live news.  I am lucky if I identify 10% of the usage using all the methods described above.  Today I have contacted Contributor relations over one of my live news weather photos (and I do very few of these) taken in June used by two national newspapers, neither newspaper have reported the sale.  

 

So, how many unreported sales do I have of which I know nothing.....

[Sally 1,242]

11 hours ago, IanDavidson said:

This is quite an important issue.  95% of my work is live news.  I am lucky if I identify 10% of the usage using all the methods described above.  Today I have contacted Contributor relations over one of my live news weather photos (and I do very few of these) taken in June used by two national newspapers, neither newspaper have reported the sale.  

 

So, how many unreported sales do I have of which I know nothing.....

I upload low res versions of all of my news images, sold images and zoomed images to Copytrack.  It has found uses that I would have never known about - some of which Alamy can chase (usually one particular newspaper) and others which Copytrack can chase (they take 30%).  I have had one pay out so far from them and a few more in the process.

Edited November 3 by Sally

[LawrensonPhoto 508]

52 minutes ago, Sally said:

I upload low res versions

I am just about to sign up, when you say low res what are you sending them, 600px wide at 90%? or smaller bigger, any help would be appreciated

[Allan Bell 1,683]

1 hour ago, Sally said:

I upload low res versions of all of my news images, sold images and zoomed images to Copytrack.  It has found uses that I would have never known about - some of which Alamy can chase 9usually one particular newspaper) and others which Copytrack can chase (they take 30%).  I have had one pay out so far from them and a few more in the process.

 

Do You use the LR plugin?

 

Also how do you tell legal use images from illegal use images?  The reason I ask is that the search engine will surely return both if found.

 

Allan

 

Before I sign up.

 

Edited November 3 by Allan Bell

[British Gent 63]

I haven't used the your_pseudonym Alamy -Alamy.com method before and it's instantly led me to some old sales. Delightful. Thanks for the tip.

[Sally 1,242]

6 hours ago, LawrensonPhoto said:

I am just about to sign up, when you say low res what are you sending them, 600px wide at 90%? or smaller bigger, any help would be appreciated

I generally upload a 1,500 kB version. It’s all free and you can request an increase if you need to upload more images.

Edited November 3 by Sally

[Sally 1,242]

6 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Do You use the LR plugin?

 

Also how do you tell legal use images from illegal use images?  The reason I ask is that the search engine will surely return both if found.

 

Allan

 

Before I sign up.

 

I do use Alamy Lightroom plugin if that’s what you mean. As for legal versus illegal, it depends if I have licensed an image (easier for me since I only license via Alamy). If I have, I check with Alamy whether it is for that use, or they have a ‘relevant download’ or it is a repeated use, and if not let Copytrack chase it.

 

i should say that there are a lot of the dud websites that exist simply to copy images or ‘wallpaper’ sites that are unchaseable because there is no way of contacting the owner. Nevertheless, still some uses to be found that are worth going after.

 

(i should also add that it was Rich Dyson who pointed me in this direction.)

Edited November 3 by Sally

[Young 24]

On 31/10/2019 at 11:54, wiskerke said:

 

Try this for a cleaner result:

"your pseudonym" alamy -site:alamy.com -site:alamy.es -site:alamy.de -site:alamyimages.fr -site:alamy.it

 

wim

 Thank you for the information. 

its amazingly useful. 

i already found one photo which i’ve never sold on a site 

[Allan Bell 1,683]

19 hours ago, Sally said:

I do use Alamy Lightroom plugin if that’s what you mean. As for legal versus illegal, it depends if I have licensed an image (easier for me since I only license via Alamy). If I have, I check with Alamy whether it is for that use, or they have a ‘relevant download’ or it is a repeated use, and if not let Copytrack chase it.

 

i should say that there are a lot of the dud websites that exist simply to copy images or ‘wallpaper’ sites that are unchaseable because there is no way of contacting the owner. Nevertheless, still some uses to be found that are worth going after.

 

(i should also add that it was Rich Dyson who pointed me in this direction.)

 

No I was referring to the Copytrack LR plugin. Here at the bottom.

 

Allan

 

Edited November 4 by Allan Bell
Changed LT to LR

[Sally 1,242]

2 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

 

No I was referring to the Copytrack LT plugin. Here at the bottom.

 

Allan

 

Ok, no I didn’t know about that but looks useful and I will investigate. Thanks!

[Allan Bell 1,683]

3 hours ago, Sally said:

Ok, no I didn’t know about that but looks useful and I will investigate. Thanks!

 

You are welcome.

 

Allan

 

[aphperspective 171]

On 31/10/2019 at 11:15, wiskerke said:

 

That could work either way 😉

Many images from Alamy's own other sites or from distributors' sites, but few published images could easily lead to the needle in a haystack feeling. Hence the filtering.

Contributors with live news pictures will even benefit more of filtering out those own sites.

 

For my own images I found that also distributor dijitalimaj.com turns up quite a lot in a search.

This could well be because my name is still in some of my legacy keywords.

So (for me) the ideal string for the moment is:

"your pseudonym" alamy -site:alamy.com -site:alamy.es -site:alamy.de -site:alamyimages.fr -site:alamy.it  -site:dijitalimaj.com

(Paste all of this in the Google Images search box of course.)

 

wim

 

Thanks Wim tried it and got a hit straight away, American Magazine so lets see how long the unauthorised use form takes to work. 

[Sally 1,242]

On 31/10/2019 at 11:15, wiskerke said:

 

That could work either way 😉

Many images from Alamy's own other sites or from distributors' sites, but few published images could easily lead to the needle in a haystack feeling. Hence the filtering.

Contributors with live news pictures will even benefit more of filtering out those own sites.

 

For my own images I found that also distributor dijitalimaj.com turns up quite a lot in a search.

This could well be because my name is still in some of my legacy keywords.

So (for me) the ideal string for the moment is:

"your pseudonym" alamy -site:alamy.com -site:alamy.es -site:alamy.de -site:alamyimages.fr -site:alamy.it  -site:dijitalimaj.com

(Paste all of this in the Google Images search box of course.)

 

wim

 

Brilliant. Just found a photo I took in Liverpool in a credited book use published on May 31st this year. Also one there by Ken Biggs of Albert Dock.

 

https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Liverpool_Beyond_the_Brink.html?id=x8SbDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y

 

 

Edited November 4 by Sally

[LawrensonPhoto 508]

Found one of mine, yours sally and Carolyn Jenkins here:

https://gossipela.com/2019/07/26/europe-heatwave-photos-disguise-the-big-climate-change-problem/

Are these legit and what do i do about it?

[sb photos 101]

48 minutes ago, LawrensonPhoto said:

Found one of mine, yours sally and Carolyn Jenkins here:

https://gossipela.com/2019/07/26/europe-heatwave-photos-disguise-the-big-climate-change-problem/

Are these legit and what do i do about it?

 

You would assume they are legit as they are all credited, but it's over 3 months since they were used. Time to chase up Alamy?

 

Recently found one of mine, a pic of Carrie Symonds, again correctly credited, and was expecting it to show as a sale at the end of last month, but it didn't. Will have to look into it.