Photography

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Here's an interesting article and comments related to who actually owns the photographs one uses to sell on eBay. (I thought about posting this in the eBay thread, but decided it was more appropriate here.) Alan

"On eBay, who owns the photos that sellers upload with their listings? That's a question Brian Cohen posed on the AuctionBytes Blog in July, and we posed this question to readers in the form of a survey.

Brian felt that sellers owned their photos, but that once an item sold, the photo (if not watermarked) should become fair game for the bidder/buyer to use as they see fit."

Continued here: http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y13/m09/i24/s02

I have just looked at the article that "Big Al" gave us a link to and its pretty much as I expected, so I will put a few more of my own views here...

One contributor says he takes a lot of time over creating his pictures with resizing and cropping etc, and feels the picture is his copyright at the time of creation and then when that picture is used on an auction site, to show what the seller has to offer, he still has copyright, no the host of the auction.

This I feel is correct and the auction host should not and cannot, then take control of the use of that picture, unless permission is sought from the originator of that picture.

If the seller is selling something particularly rare and sought after, the auction host may want to use the picture for future illustratative purposes and it should be obvious to the host that permission should be asked and a royalty paid every time the host uses that picture.

Watermarking images is very popular but not totally secure, unless the mark is electronic or in the form of large words running right through the image.

In general, the sort of collectibles that we, on this forum buy and sell, are relatively common, its only the intricate details, or rare overall colours, that may make one model more desirable than the next, so as a guide for submitting pictures of models to an auction site, put the model in front of something that you would reconise again, on a sideboard or kitchen table with clutter on it, place the model on a very bright red or blue cloth or card, leave the clutter far enough behind the model so it is not in sharp focus, that way, the auction host is very unlikely to want to use that picture again and because of the background clutter, it is a simple copyright protection method and you would have issue with someone copying it, because you would, (or should) reconise the picture as yours.

If you don't want to clutter up the pictures of your 'Reverse colour wrecker truck', the best method of protecting your images, is a very old idea but it works, you simply write your name and address on a card and place it near the model, take several pictures to make up a set, make a duplicate set and post that duplicate set, back to your own house, that way you have a dated post mark on the envelope and a set of pictures with your name on them. Later if you see pictures on the net somewhere, you can compare it with your set and start to enquire as to where the picture has come from or who is using it.

Overall control of the use of pictures, should remain with the picture taker, its worth spending a little time and effort to make your pictures unique to you, this way they can be identified as yours, in any future missuse.

By no means have I covered everything on this subject, but hopefully I have given some extra guidance and I am sure this will be talked about again, the subject of copyright of pictures is important, so any forum members who have experienced any issues with seeing their images used eleswhere, please tell us your story, but I don't think there will be many of you, it just does not happen as much as we think it does.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

A forum such as this depends on detailed descriptions of models, often accompanied by photographs. While most of us are OK with the model descriptions, a lot of us are struggling with the photographs, so what follows, is an open to all members look at photographing models.

The methods described are what have worked for me in the past and hopefully still work now, but like all hobbies, it is open to your own interpretation, and adaptation to your models.

The equipment we have access to today, is far easier to use than that of previous film based equipment, and a camera nowadays can be found in virtually everybody's home, I mean look, you can now use a mobile phone!

The subject of cameras automatically brings with it...'Technical jargon' and it's the one thing manufactures will use to impress you, into buying their camera, however, as I mentioned in an earlier posting on this subject, there're all designed to do one thing, take pictures, but how they take pictures will differ from one camera to another, even cameras from the same company can be different in the way they capture a picture and how you operate the controls.

I won't intentionally use 'jargon', I will try and work round it, or explain what the 'jargon' means, so if you think some of my hints, tips, descriptions and/or instructions, are 'long winded', I appologise now.

I will assume that your pictures will be for the forum, so will consist of good general views and some close-ups.

First type of picture we can all take...'The Snap'

'The Snap'.jpg (14.47 KiB) Viewed 1252 times

The sort of quick convenient picture taken with a mobile phone or basic cheap camera, the subject is out of focus, the background is dark, but not dark enough to hide the clutter!

Pictures like this are fine for proving a certain model exists and as I always say..."A bad picture is better than no picture at all". If you are restricted by your equipment into taking this sort of picture, there are several things we can do to improve it.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

SUBJECT OUT OF FOCUS.

Probably the biggest problem in taking pictures, we will get too close to the subject, it's not necessary, but if you can't manually adjust the focus, you can't help it, and you're probably holding the phone or camera anyway!, inducing more chances of the subject being out of focus.

You need to rest the camera on a firm object, like a bag of sugar, or preferably a small bag of sand, anything that will get the camera off the same surface of the model, so its higher than the model, but allowing you to nestle the camera into the bag, this will give you the chance to angle the lens in the right direction of the model, if you can, you want to get down to the viewfinder and check that you have got the model more or less in the centre of the frame, and because you are using electronic equipment, you can keep taking pictures all the while you are making adjustments, no film to waste!

I don't recommend staying down low with the camera for all the pictures, use the self timer function, they all have it, even mobile phones.

You want to have a distance of three or four feet between the model and the camera, this will give the camera's wide-angle lens a better chance of keeping everything in focus, including the model.

Again, keep taking the pictures and you will have many to choose from, for the couple that stand out as a bit special, they are the ones you want for the forum.

INTERESTING FACT

How do they get those stunning pictures seen in glossy magazines?
Professional photographers takes hundreds of pictures, they don't pay for the memory cards or the batteries and no more than three, maybe four images will actually be chosen from a set!
When cameras were film based, three or four rolls of film would be used-up on the subject, be it a classic car shoot or a celebrity shoot and only one or two single pictures would be kept and used!

[matchbox360]

Well Ghosty, I'm only an amateur photographer, but I've found certain methods work well for me. First thing is a rock solid tripod.. has to be totally rigid and stable. If you see my 'arrangement' pics, I had to take them from well-nigh overhead, like a 'plan view'. I did this by shortening one (extended) leg of the tripod and resting it on a higher object, giving the tripod a 15-degree 'tilt'. No jokes, a feather could topple the whole thing over (onto my cars), so I had to be very careful.

The lighting used is another important factor. I've experimented with all manner of flash and artificial lighting but find a combination of ambient household light and noon-time daylight gives the best results (at this time of year). Then, after I've captured a few nice pics and haven't goofed the arrangement, there's the 'post-processing' which I do in Photoshop, adjusting brightness/contrast, saturation, sharpness etc, and scaling the image down to the required size. There's much more to it of course, but these are the basics.

Best of luck in your photo-pursuits!

Cheers,
Ken

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Hello matchbox360, thank's for your valid comments, all welcome at this table.

This first posting, titled...'The Snap', is intended for the cheap cameras and in particular, mobile phones. A lot of forum images are taken on phones, but they can not be fitted to tripods, so the intention is to try and get round this with ideas on how to keep it firm and steady, Tripods are certainly the way to do it and they will be talked about during these postings. so, while on the subject, if members for some reason find themselves in possession of a Tripod, but still only able to use a mobile phone for their pictures, then fix the phone to the Tripod with rubber bands or non-depositing tape, (tape that will peel off again and leave a sticky deposite), but, anyone using 'Tablets' for their pictures, (they can take remarkably good pictures these days), I would not attempt to fix it to a Tripod, hold it as steady as you can or place it on a firm surface and again, use the self timer function to actually take the picture.

Thank's again matchbox360, hope to see some more comments from you soon, as these posts progress.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[matchbox360]

Hi Ghosty,

I might add that I'm using one of those screw-in/clip-on adapters to affix my camera to the tripod. Unfortunately, most mobile phones don't have the threading for this, so have to be hand-held, or as you suggested, rubber-banded or sellotaped to the tripod. In the case of my 'arrangement' pics, the lens is usually far above the arrangement itself, so it's imperative that the camera be completely steady when the shot is taken, or blurriness will result.

Thanks for the tips, and 'happy snapping'

Cheers, Ken

[GHOSTHUNTER]

You have progressed from a camera-Phone to a half decent Digital still Camera, but unless you have read the instructions and had a play with it's settings, the first picture you take indoors will look something like the one shown below.

As good as modern Cameras are, they still do not know the difference between the different types of light, natural or artificial. The example below was taken on a Camera set up for natural daylight and as soon as you take a picture indoors with the lights on, the Camera will produce pictures with this overall amber cast, the Camera setting for 'White Balance' should have been set to 'Fluorescent', 'Tungsten' or 'Incandescent' light conditions, and to make the setting easier to adjust, it will be labelled as 'AUTOMATIC' and the Camera will sense what lights are being used and adjust accordingly, that way your pictures will come out with a more natural look too them.

Wrong Camera setting..JPG (18.43 KiB) Viewed 1171 times

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Right, you've sorted the 'White Balance' so the picture is more natural, but now its too dark, even with the flash working, its still not properly illuminated.

Too dark..jpg (11.04 KiB) Viewed 1167 times

Unless you have a fairly well specified still Camera or Bridge Camera, the built-in flash units are just not good enough to give a wide spread of light. You would be better off taking the picture during daylight hours and putting the model on a table near a window or actually taking it outside.

The built-in flash units are handy when it comes to using some 'Fill-in' flash light, where you are adding some extra light to the subject, there may be a part of the model that is still a little dark, especially those darker coloured models where a little extra light will help to show more detail.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Here is the 'Amber Cast' picture now taken with a correctly adjusted 'White Balance' setting and this has made the model look more natural, so it is worth taking time to just take the picture, see what colour it is, adjust the Camera and take another one and because its all Digital, you just delete the bad pictures.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

The too dark picture has now been replaced by a floodlight picture. If you look at the shadows below the model, this tells you a floodlight was placed just above the rear of the model and another one above, but to the right and this has resulted in a nice spread of consistant light.

For this particular picture, the model was placed on some light grey card, it could have been anything that would lay flat like a sheet or pillow case and grey was chosen because it is a very neutral colour and Cameras like the colour grey, it soothes their little electronic circuits!