Sharing photos in social media?

[RileyShiery]

Most of my work is wildlife and nature stuff, I am enthusiastic about nature and share lots of my work on Facebook/Twitter.

Is that a no-no? I am completely new to this business and sort of worried that sharing my photos will hurt me/the value of my work.

 

Do any of you share your work on social media? Do you take any precautions or make any special considerations before you share?

 

Thank you!

-Riley

[TokyoM1ke]

Not talking about social media particularly but the things I always consider are:

• All copyright information embedded in JPGs (the metadata)
• A notice somewhere saying that all images are copyright with all rights reserved, no copying or linking without prior written permission etc.
• Minimum useful resolution
• Watermark (copyright notice) where appropriate

For social media it's really important to look at the actual license you grant by uploading your images.  You also need to watch out for changes in licensing conditions.

 

I'm don't rely on photography for my income, so I am perhaps a little more lax than many here, but I do know that social media is a minefield!

[Martin P Wilson]

Most of my work is wildlife and nature stuff, I am enthusiastic about nature and share lots of my work on Facebook/Twitter.

 

Is that a no-no? I am completely new to this business and sort of worried that sharing my photos will hurt me/the value of my work.

 

Do any of you share your work on social media? Do you take any precautions or make any special considerations before you share?

 

Thank you!

 

-Riley

 

On some social media platforms you may be giving the site owner unlimited rights to redistribute your images in perpetuity with no right to cancel, including making sales for money if they so wish. If you have any ambition of making an income yourself or keeping control of your work Mike's advice is very sound (read the small print carefully and understand the implications). If you still want to post on social media you should probably do so only with a prominent watermark.

 

The alternative is to only post links to the images, not the images themselves, from your own or a library web site (like Alamy). But still read and understand what rights the social media platform is claiming.

[Niels Quist]

Have a look at Alamy's tweets and retweets including photos with Alamy's watermark. To the right on the contributors main page. I would be worried about the ones without visible watermarks due to the colours, though.

[CandyAppleRed Images]

When I was active on Flickr I had lots of stolen images. It soon stopped when I put my own watermark on but that is a time consuming exercise in itself.

[Robert M Estall]

If you had an apple tree in the front garden by the road, it might be a long wait before someone walked up the path, knocked on your door and asked if they might buy one of your bright red apples.

 

If you put your photos on social media, you might get some compliments, you might well get images nicked once in a while.

 

If you put them on Alamy you might get some sales, but that also might involve a long wait. You might still suffer the occasional infringement, but you would stand a reasonable chance of recovery.

 

Me, I never share photos on social media but I'm getting old, miserable, and trust just about no one. So that's a bit sad perhaps.

[Abiyoyo]

On top of the above recommendations I will upload the images in low resolution, 72dpi, and low size.

[MariaJ]

There's a useful discussion here:

 

http://discussion.alamy.com/index.php?/topic/4858-social-media/?hl=%2Bsocial+%2Bmedia

[MDM]

When I was active on Flickr I had lots of stolen images. It soon stopped when I put my own watermark on but that is a time consuming exercise in itself.

 

If you use Lightroom, it is very easy to create an export preset with a watermark which can be plain text or an image - quicker than using Photoshop actions. it can take a little time to set up what you want but that is the capital labour. 

[Ed Rooney]

 

Me, I never share photos on social media but I'm getting old, miserable, and trust just about no one. So that's a bit sad perhaps.

 

 

Sounds about right to me, Robert.   And I don't do social media. 

[Keith Douglas]

I followed that thread from November with great interest. Before that I'd gone through a "put everything on flickr" phase to a "put nothing on flickr or any social media" phase. As someone pointed out in the thread, the best way to protect your images is to not put them on social media or anywhere on the internet. But if you do, you are missing out on a powerful marketing channel.

 

I think you just need to be careful about what you share and how you share it, particularly in relation to resolution and watermarking. If someone's going to pinch a low resolution image for a blog, well there's not much you can do about it, and the chances of them paying for it anyway are slim. What's the risk of the image getting stolen? What's the benefit to you of putting an image at risk?

 

Over the last couple of months I've embraced Facebook as a marketing tool. It's been great in terms of results. I've had two photography related products that I have market tested and sold almost exclusively through Facebook. As well as generating sales, and profit in its own right, it has also generated more interest in my photography or related products such as prints. And that's just Facebook - I haven't had the time to get the other channels up and running!

 

So, I'd say, be careful, but if you don't use social media you may be missing out on a powerful marketing channel (depending on what you are selling).

[fotoDogue]

When I was active on Flickr I had lots of stolen images. It soon stopped when I put my own watermark on but that is a time consuming exercise in itself.

 

 

If you use Lightroom, it is very easy to create an export preset with a watermark which can be plain text or an image - quicker than using Photoshop actions. it can take a little time to set up what you want but that is the capital labour. 

 

 

In addition to watermarking, Lightroom also comes a Facebook Publish plug-in that allows you to upload directly to specific areas of FB that's similar to the Flickr plug-in.  

[Doc]

I followed that thread from November with great interest. Before that I'd gone through a "put everything on flickr" phase to a "put nothing on flickr or any social media" phase. As someone pointed out in the thread, the best way to protect your images is to not put them on social media or anywhere on the internet. But if you do, you are missing out on a powerful marketing channel.

 

I think you just need to be careful about what you share and how you share it, particularly in relation to resolution and watermarking. If someone's going to pinch a low resolution image for a blog, well there's not much you can do about it, and the chances of them paying for it anyway are slim. What's the risk of the image getting stolen? What's the benefit to you of putting an image at risk?

 

Over the last couple of months I've embraced Facebook as a marketing tool. It's been great in terms of results. I've had two photography related products that I have market tested and sold almost exclusively through Facebook. As well as generating sales, and profit in its own right, it has also generated more interest in my photography or related products such as prints. And that's just Facebook - I haven't had the time to get the other channels up and running!

 

So, I'd say, be careful, but if you don't use social media you may be missing out on a powerful marketing channel (depending on what you are selling).

+1

 

I have recently started a FB photography page for people just to see my images. i do watermark them very obviously though. Feel free to have a look  

 

Kumar

 

https://www.facebook.com/kumarsriskandanphotography

[RileyShiery]

Thanks everyone!

I really appreciate you all contributing, I think I just needed to hear other people positions on the subject. I find myself weighing on one side the possibility of having my work stolen, or used by Facebook as part of the "Royalty-free, transferrable, use license" implicit in their terms of use VS the marketing potential of sharing my work in that channel.

 

Having weighed everyones input here, and continued my research, I think I will be continuing to share. I have always watermarked the things I share, and I will be re-evaluating the size of my shared images (1200px @ 72ppi) to make them smaller and less useful.

 

Thank you again, I am really glad that I have finally gotten my butt in gear and begun uploading here at Alamy, there is a really great community of folks here and I have a lot to learn!

-Riley

[digi2ap]

Note how many museums/galleries use social media by sharing blog posts or pages to social media from their own site to avoid uploading images directly to the social media platform. Seems a sensible option to me.....although I don't bother with sharing to social media currently. 

[Alexandre Fagundes]

It helps bring traffic to your portfolio

I watermark them with two watermarks, one is very obvious at the right bottom, the other vety faded, kind of invisible in the middle.

If somebody edit or crop the bottom, I could use the other one to prove it is an unathorized copy

[TokyoM1ke]

Thanks everyone!

 

I really appreciate you all contributing, I think I just needed to hear other people positions on the subject. I find myself weighing on one side the possibility of having my work stolen, or used by Facebook as part of the "Royalty-free, transferrable, use license" implicit in their terms of use VS the marketing potential of sharing my work in that channel.

 

Having weighed everyones input here, and continued my research, I think I will be continuing to share. I have always watermarked the things I share, and I will be re-evaluating the size of my shared images (1200px @ 72ppi) to make them smaller and less useful.

 

Thank you again, I am really glad that I have finally gotten my butt in gear and begun uploading here at Alamy, there is a really great community of folks here and I have a lot to learn!

 

-Riley

 

I normally go for 650px on longest side (ppi is irrelevant), just FYI.

[RedSnapper]

I tweet every AlamyLiveNews story i file....

with a strong watermark:

[mickfly]

I've avoided having a Facebook 'Photographer' page for many moons as I don't shoot weddings, and it seem that even in my town the way it works is, get camera (any kind) for Christmas, buy three issues of any digital photography mag, shoot a waterfall on a tripod, a landscape on a tripod, a water droplet splash, on a tripod, then in January start your 'Anyname Photography' Facebook page, and offer to shoot weddings and everything else for almost free, whilst sending as many pics as possible to the local TV channel for the weather slot!

This usually fizzles out after about 12 months when you buy your first drone and start making videos, and posting them everywhere for free.

Joking apart, I posted for years on Flickr and am now reaping the rewards of the infringements, and I also started a Facebook page so I can test the water with different ideas.
My website has made me sales, but sorely needs updating, and as I work away in summer (with little internet access) I can set a schedule for my facebook page to post any image I choose at a later date.
I also have a friend who has made sales visa his FB page and also floods it with new images constantly, without watermarks, but he makes more on historical infringements than he does on new sales I believe.

I've added my Facebook page to my sig, below.