general question about posting

[celksy]

I am hopelessly naive about all of this, but how do you all have the courage to post your photos on this site? I'm not speaking so much about them being critiqued, but do you not worry about them being stolen and used?

(Not that I think my photos are so great- they might indeed be bad art, but they're my bad art and to a worse artist than me they might look good.)

[Mad Aussie]

It's something you get over. We only post them up in a small size (800x600 suits me) so they couldn't be used for much anyhow other on other websites. When, or if, you ever go pro with your photography, worry about it then.

[mbrager]

Welcome to the forum. For me the whole point of taking a photograph is so that someone else can see something I saw, but they weren't there at the time, and the photo makes it possible to share the experience. About stealing and using pictures, Flickr attempts to address this issue by allowing the users to set a level of licensing for their pictures. Creative Commons — Attribution 2.0 Generic — CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en_CA)
I notice your question about blur in another thread. If you post the picture you'll get some great help and comments.

[Iguanasan]

I'm hoping someone will steal one of my photos. That way I'll know it was worth stealing ;)

I photograph to share - not to eat - so I may be more bold than some. I have just decided that no matter what you do to protect your images there will always be someone who will steal them. True of most things, not just images. I have decided to trust that most people are honest and if someone wants to buy one of my images I'd much rather have them all over the place for them to be found. I can't sell them if you can't see them. That being said I really haven't sold any so what do I know? :)

Cheers!

[AcadieLibre]

Anything that is posted on the web can be stolen. Use small size like M.A. mentions and make sure you do not use higher than 72 dpi for the web and don't post anything print quality. All you can do is make is difficult and any of that you can get around. If I play on selling it I do not post it on the web, a few times I have posted pics and then decided to print them I just hope they were not stolen, you can not live in fear or you end up not posting anything at all. I am very selective and cautious about what I post but I still post. You can also use something like Digimarc (http://www.digimarc.com/) or do the occasion photo search with Tineye (http://www.tineye.com/) which is a reverse image search. And if you decide to use a Creative Commons license go here first it helps you choose which license is best for your needs. Creative Commons Choose a License. (http://creativecommons.org/choose/) Creative Commons License may not be in your best interest, so learn about licensing and copyright laws if you want to protect your images to the best of your ability. As they say knowledge is power.

[celksy]

Interesting comments; thank you all. I'm not really sure what my problem is. This is all very new to me-- I'll continue to read and maybe post something now and then. This seems like a nice community and I look forward to learning.

[Marko]

Welcome to the forum Celksy!

This is a VERY common fear and you've hit your problem on the head....it's all very new to you.
I've been posting online now for over a decade - my fears were identical to yours when I started....but honestly this way of thinking is on its way out. The Internet has globalized planet earth.

Some of the very best and highest paid photographers in the world post their stuff online where it is probably stolen by some....

Best way to protect your work is never post any images online....but that's no fun! Because once it is posted online, in any format, it can be copied. There is NO SOFTWARE or platform on the planet that I know of that can prevent me from saving any image to my computer via the print screen command.

Just post them at about 200k or less (that's what I do). Then if people do steal them - they get mush when they try to print them.

Hope that helps - Marko

[susan]

I'm hoping someone will steal one of my photos. That way I'll know it was worth stealing ;)

I photograph to share - not to eat - so I may be more bold than some. I have just decided that no matter what you do to protect your images there will always be someone who will steal them. True of most things, not just images. I have decided to trust that most people are honest and if someone wants to buy one of my images I'd much rather have them all over the place for them to be found. I can't sell them if you can't see them. That being said I really haven't sold any so what do I know? :)

Cheers!
most excellent :-)