The DO’s and DON’Ts of “stealing” images from your photographer

Last month one of my favorite photographers, DrewB shared on one of her blogs Mom*Tog advice for other photographers and for clients on the correct way to go about “stealing” images off of the blog for things like facebook or your own blog to show off your wedding or family pictures. She very graciously added that other photographers could share this post for their own clients and I knew it was the perfect post to share on a rainy day! Well, its not quite raining here in Newport News, but word on the street is that its about to start snowing, so that counts right?? ;0) Here’s the link to her actual post so you can see the original, and make sure you check out both of drew’s sites linked above, I think I check her Mom*Tog blog even more than her photography one since she is always generously posting all kinds of tips and tricks for photographers, as well as lots of pictures of her super cute little guy Brayden. Drew, thanks for letting us share this and for being so willing to help other photographers!!

Personally, I love when a client pulls an image off  of my blog for facebook or to share on their own blog! Its a great affirmation to me that you loved your images and you want to share them with people! I get excited about your images and always have a ton of favorites, which is why I have a blog to share those favorites with the internet world and show off all my amazing clients instead of just uploading them all to your private gallery and calling it a day. When I tell my clients that their pictures have been blogged, I usually encourage them to “steal” a couple to share on facebook (ps- you should be my friend there too!) but here are some good DO’s and DON’Ts for what to do with those images!

1)  DO ask your photographer what their specific policy is on taking pictures off of their blogs.  Some photographers encourage it and some don’t allow it.  If this is important to you this is something you should ask BEFORE you hire your photographer!

2)  DO include your photographer’s name and website under the images (a link would be super nice!).  That’s just the polite thing to do :)

3)  DON’T crop out their logo.   Most photographers use their blogs to advertise their work and do so as a courtesy to give their clients a sneak peek.  If a client crops out the logo then how will other people know who took the picture? If you have paid for digital negatives, you can reupload the image once you receive your negatives, but PLEASE don’t crop the image that you pull off of the blog!

4)  DON’T edit the picture in any way.  Taking the pictures is only half of a photographers job.  The other half is editing.  If you think you can do a better job or want to edit out some of your wrinkles or use selective coloring please don’t show and/or tell your photographer.  That is super insulting.  If you don’t like your photographers editing enough to want to edit it yourself than maybe you need to find another photographer next year.

5)  DON’T try to print from the files on the blog.  For me specifically I know that the files I upload to my blog are too small to be printed in a 4×6 size.  It’s not cool to invest in a family session and then print the images off of the blog and not pay for prints.  The result will be a very grainy, low resolution image that will look nothing like the image on the blog.. big bummer! Make sure you know how much the prints cost before the session to avoid sticker shock.  Same goes for scanning prints that you already bought.  Not cool!  It makes me sad when I see pictures FRAMED in their homes with my logo still on there!

As Drew asked when she did this original post, feel free to repost this on your blog or facebook, just please give a little shout out to Mom*Tog and a link there would be much appreciated!!

Because every post is better with a picture, he’s a little preview of what’s coming tomorrow!! :0) j2Happy Friday!

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  1. Christine Pries says:

    Excellent information … and I can not wait to see your blog about my most handsomest boy EVER 8-)

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