PhotoWalkPro

Yesterday, Flickr added to their collaboration with Getty Images by allowing its users to now place a “Request to License” link under he license on the image page. If someone wants to use the image, they can click on this link and a Getty representative will send a Flickr Mail to the owner, letting them know that someone wants to license their image.

In order to set up this feature, you must go to the Privacy & Permissions section of the Your Account settings. Located at the bottom of the Global Settings section, you will see Make you photos eligible for invitation by Getty images. Click on the edit tab and then select the Enable the “Request to License” badge section and then save your changes.

Now if someone clicks the license link on your photo page, they will end up at a page that looks like the one below, which explains the process to the person wanting to license the image and then gets them rolling.

Once Getty receives a request, the requester will be put in touch with a Getty representative who will help handle details like permissions, releases and pricing. As the owner of the image, if the price or terms are not agreeable to you, you can simply say no. But if everything looks good, you can end up making a little scratch from your photo through very little effort on your part.

The only thing I don’t like about the License Link is that it is Global in nature. This means that if you turn this feature on, it’s on for all of your images, not just the ones that you would like to make available for licensing. That means someone can contact you about licensing your Thanksgiving photos just as easily as they can for you Landscape work. Not perfect, but then again, maybe I want to make a few bucks off that picture of Uncle Ed carving the bird. Just make sure that everyone at the dinner table signs a release before dessert.

Migrating to Lightroom 3

The other day I was talking about the release of Lightroom 3 and how I didn’t think that the beta catalog could be imported into the official release version. I was basing this on information that a friend at Adobe told me when the beta was first released. It wasn’t long after I wrote that post that people started writing in to tell me that they were able to import their catalogs. I figured I had better check with the one person that would almost certainly have the answer, the Lightroom Killer Tips guy, Matt Kloskowski. Matt confirmed the import and, since I was apparently not the only person asking this question, he decided to write a post over at his blog on just how to go about importing the Beta catalog. If you are making the move from the beta to the official release, make sure you give Matt’s post a quick read.

Unified Color Offering Free HDR Webinar

If you have any questions about HDR PhotoStudio software or general HDR techniques, join Unified Color for a free Webex seminar this today, June 17th at 5pm PT. One of their HDR experts will walk users through the different tools for ways to achieve the best HDR results. Space is limited to only 24 participants – so reserve your seat now! Here’s the link.

Oprah wants your Nature Photos – Forever

I received a comment recently on one of my old posts about Photo Contests from blog reader Marianne Bush. It seems that Oprah’s website had made a call for submissions of nature photos. The website asks -

“Are you a great photographer? We want to see! Share your beautiful and inspiring images of nature to help create the Breathing Space Gallery on Oprah.com.”

What they don’t tell you in that catchy little pitch, is that by sending in your image, you are relinquishing all rights to your image. Here’s what it says in section 4 of the Terms and Conditions statement:

“Harpo shall exclusively own all known or later existing rights to the Submissions worldwide and shall be entitled to the unrestricted use of the Submissions for any purpose in all media now known or hereafter discovered without compensation to the provider of such Submissions.”

That’s a pretty steep price for getting an image posted in a web gallery. If you would like to check out the rest of the rules, you can find them here. Just remember, if you are going to enter your photo in a contest or other similar such venture, be sure to read all the rules and conditions first before giving away all your rights.

Photo by dullhunk

There was a lot of response to my post yesterday, so much so that I wanted to pass along a couple of things that were left in the comments as well as emails that I received. First off, let me say that I in no way was blaming my iPad for the app’s ability to download images from Flickr. I also was not blaming Flickr either, although I have to say that their default/suggested settings do make it easier for images to be downloaded and improperly used.

Is it wrong to download someone’s image for personal use?

That’s a tricky question and one that I’m sure will have supporters on both sides. Let me ask you a slightly different question. Is it wrong to illegally download music if you are the only one who is going to be listening to it with no plans to share or distribute? The law says yes. Funny though that we don’t see a lot of arrests being made for folks downloading an image from Flickr to use as a screensaver, even if it has a copyright symbol right there on the image. There is just a different attitude about things like that, even though there really is very little difference.

Why does Flickr allow this?

Hey, Flickr is a photo sharing site, emphasis on the word SHARING. They are all about making it easy for you to let others see your work, and if you are putting your images there, you probably want your work to be seen. Also, if you have friends or family that look at your images, you might want them to be able to download and or use your images as well.  There are all sorts of reasons that people want to allow images to be downloadable. Another big reason is that photographers want to share large versions of their images (just because they look better that way). The only way to actually display a large version of your image on Flickr is to make it downloadable to others. Then, and only then, will you see the All Sizes link, which leads to the larger size images, and more importantly, the Download link. This is one of those settings that I would love to see Flickr change. Why you can’t display a version larger than 500 pixels wide without the download option is beyond me.

Clicking the All Sizes icon leads to these options -

So are programs that use the Flickr API just evil?

Nope, in fact the use of the API is how a lot of photographers get discovered. For example, the photographer who’s work I found the other day that spawned yesterday’s article, Danny Irvine, is an incredibly talented photographer and I might have never discovered his work had it not been for the API. The fact is that there are tons of programs using it for a myriad of reasons, from blogs to simple Flickr discovery programs. In fact Flickr has a whole page dedicated to websites and programs that are using the Flickr API called the App Garden. Many of them simply comb though Flickr looking for popular or new images and then present them for viewing using a non-Flickr application. Usually clicking on the image will take the viewer directly to that phorographer’s Flickr page, but not always.

So is there any way to keep the API from using my images?

Supposedly there is an API opt-out that will keep your images from being used by the Flickr API. If you look in the Your Account section of Flickr, under Global Settings, you will see one of the options labeled – Hide Your Stuff From Public Searches. By editing this option, which is set to No by default, you should be able to hide your images from 3rd party sites using the API. I say supposedly because I have had some folks tell me that there stuff still comes up occasionally.

What if I don’t mind if someone uses my pictures?

Hey, that’s a personal decision and one that only you can make. Something you might want to consider is using the Creative Commons license, which has gained a lot of popularity over the past couple of years. The image you see at the top of this blog post is actually one that I found using a Creative Commons search in Flickr. With the Creative Commons, you can assert different rights and restrictions for your images from “May be used with attribution” to “Non-Commercial use only” and a few other choices as well. All of this can be set up within the Flickr account settings.

So should I even use Flickr?

I do, as do hundreds of working pros and amateurs around the World.  It is an amazing site that offers numerous ways to communicate, share, learn, teach, inspire, and get inspired.  What you should do though is decide how you want your images to be used/viewed and then take some time to really explore all of the settings and options. Don’t just opt for the defaults without even looking and then complain when someone uses your image in some way that you didn’t approve of.

After all, if you don’t tie your food up in the tree, you can’t really blame the bears for eating it.

Probably not but it’s not as far-fetched as it sounds. The other day I was browsing through Apps on my iPad and came across one called Explore Flickr (also available for the iPhone). The description of the app says that it will allow the user to browse hundreds of the top daily images on Flickr, find beautiful wall paper and lock screen images, view photo details and browse photo comments right on Flickr.com from within the app. And then there was this one other feature that really caught my eye, “Download high definition images direct to your iPhone or iPad photo library“. This last item seemed a little curious to me so I downloaded the app to check it out. It was free after all.

After installing, I opened the app and was greeted by a screen full of thumbnail images fed by Flickr.

I have to admit that there were a lot of great looking images and I was enjoying tapping on the individual images and seeing large, beautiful versions of them. After all, the iPad does have a kick-butt screen. As I explored the images, I noticed that there was a small gear symbol up in the corner so I gave it a tap and up popped a couple of actions; one said Save to Photo Library and the other said View Photo on Flickr.

I also noticed something on the particular image I had opened. There, at the bottom of the image there was writing, which read Danny Irvine Photoraphy ©. Seeing that, I couldn’t help but wonder why it was that I could just download the image and use it if Danny had clearly marked it as copyrighted. I decided to use the option to view the photo in Flickr, which opened up the Flickr web page for this image. When the page opened I discovered two things. First, Danny Irvine is an extremely talented landscape photographer. Second was this statement below his images, which read “All images are © Danny Irvine Photography, All Rights Reserved. You may not use, replicate, manipulate, redistribute, or modify this image without my written consent“

So if it plainly states that Danny’s images can’t be used for any purpose without his permission, how is it that I was able to download it directly to my iPad? It’s actually due to the Flickr API. For those that don’t know, an API is an Application Programming Interface, which allows a software program to interact with other software. In this case, the Explore Flickr program is using the Flickr API to locate and display images from the Flickr pool. The problem is that this app, like so many others that use the Flickr API, can bypass the photographer’s wishes by ignoring copyrights.

So how can you fight this sort of problem? Well, the first thing you should do is to make sure that you have asserted your rights within the Privacy & Permissions section of Flickr. Under the Defaults for New Uploads section you can set your license to All Rights Reserved.

Next, and probably most importantly is to set your download permissions. Under the Global settings section you should set the Who can download your stuff option to Only You.

If you have this option set, the only one that can download your images is you, while signed into Flickr. This was apparent when I selected a different image on my iPad and saw the message below.

With so many many stories of folks having their Flickr images used without their permission, it only makes sense to lock them down as tight as possible so that they can be enjoyed but not taken.

By the way, I want to give a huge thanks to photographer Danny Irvine, who gave me permission to use his image for this article. You can check out all of his work on his Flickr page or visit his website to see more of his fantastic photos.

It was a hot am muggy weekend here so I spent some quality time with my computer, catching up on a lot of great blog material. Some of this stuff is just too good to keep to myself so I thought I would share some with you.

» Lightroom Learning from Adobe -

If you are new to Lightroom or just looking to see what is new in the latest version you need to check out the latest series of videos from my friend Julianne Kost from Adobe. Julieanne has a series of 10 video tutorials that will lead you through all the new features of Lightroom 3 plus other great stuff like workflow tips, creating black and white images, publishing slideshows, making great looking prints, and much more. Check out all of her free videos on AdobeTV.

» Looking For Adventure?

My friend Laurie Excell hosts a series of photo adventures every year and they always fill up fast. I was checking her blog this past weekend and noticed that she has some vacancies left but you had better act fast. There’s just one spot left in each of her final four adventures this year including one spot in her upcoming Storm Chase Adventure, which kicks off on June 20th. You can find out about all of her adventures by clicking here.

» Jason Moore’s Big Photo Contest -

Last year fellow photography blogger Jason D. Moore ran a summer photo contest and it was such a big hit that he’s cranked it up once again. This year you need to submit five images on a theme of your own choosing. That’s right, you pick the theme, come up with five images, and upload them to the Flickr group. Make sure you check out Jason’s contest page for all the details.

» Tech Profile  – Starring Your’s Truly -

Terry White runs a weekly feature called Tech Profile and this past Friday, I had the pleasure of being the latest subject in the series. It’s a quick peek into my geeky world and I am totally thrilled that Terry asked me to participate. You can read the profile and all the other great content Terry puts out at Terry White’s Tech Blog.

» A Flickr Group for my Photowalk -

This weekend I took a few minutes to set up a Flickr group dedicated to my World Wide Photowalk that will take place on July 24th. The group is only open to those that are officially registered for my photowalk in Georgetown and will serve as a location to post all their images from the walk. The official photowalk page is only for contest entries so in order to let everyone show all their images I created the group. If you are registered for my photowalk, please take a few minutes to join the group. If you are a fellow leader I highly suggest you create a group for your photowalk. It really is a great way to fully share the day with your fellow walkers. You can find my group here.