Question on safety of Smug Mug Photos Please Help

Katmitchell

Hello,

I have a question concerning safety of right click on photos..

I understand how to post photos and how to utilize external links etc..

My question is this..

when you go into customize where you are hosting the picture in a specific gallery, you can set it up to protect your photos from right click.. I did this... and when I attempted to right click my photo it prevented it... GREAT..
The problem is when I went to post the photo and share it on digital grin using the external links, when I right clicked in there, it allowed me the option to save image as to my hard drive...


Am I doing something wrong? I had to enable external links in order to post the pic, however, now my photo can be downloaded... Does this mean that smug mugs external link safety only works within our "own" galleries?

What do I do and what are my options?

Thank you in advance for your time and help...:dunno

Kat

Andy

Hi Kat,

Right click protection works when you are on your SmugMug site. Once you put a photo on Dgrin, or Ebay, or a blog, then they are no longer right click protected.

More on right click:
http://blogs.smugmug.com/pros/2008/07/04/right-click-protection-and-image-security/

bandgeekndb

Kat, the best thing to do in this case is to create a separate gallery for posts on external forums, like dgrin.

That way, I only post the pics there that I'm going to post on a forum or blog, and I make sure if I'm worried about a pic being taken, I heavily watermark it. I believe "custom" watermarks is a pro-only feature, but you can do the watermark on your own machine before uploading.

do a quick search for watermarking around here, or ask for assistance and you'll be on the right path.

Hope this helps!
~Nick

Katmitchell

Thank You Guys
ok,, just wanted to be sure I was not missing something obvious..

thanks for the link Andy.. you guys are great on here and I have never seen the likes of such A++++ customer service.. thank you........


Nick,

Thank you as well... I did set up a separate gallery because I wanted to become an active part of the smugmug and digital grin family and wanted to begin entering competitions. Problem is that the rules prevent us from watermarking our submissions... I did put a copyright mark on there and that is allowed..

so, I will have to just take the risk.. Most submissions I am not worried about, but currently I have some up there that run very close to a print series I am working up...

All the same.. thank you both very much...

Have a wonderful day..

Kat

fredjclaus

Andy already answered the question but I wanted to add a couple things. When you are changing settings on the images in your gallary those settings only pertain to the gallery itself. If you post the picture in other places, unless there is an option to protect the picture in that secondary place as well, you are unprotected.

A couple great ways to protect your images;

1. Reduce the resolution and the images size. This way the file looks great on the computer, but if they try to print it out or save it for other things, the quality will be terrible.

2. Add a watermark. Just adding the "Copyright 2009 - All Rights Reserved" watermark on the bottom of the image, will prevent people from wanting to enlarge and have it printed.


Hope that helps some.

Fred

Katmitchell

Thanks Fred
I will definitely at the very least get the copyright on there..

I appreciate you taking the time to help...

thanks
Kat

fredjclaus wrote:

Andy already answered the question but I wanted to add a couple things. When you are changing settings on the images in your gallary those settings only pertain to the gallery itself. If you post the picture in other places, unless there is an option to protect the picture in that secondary place as well, you are unprotected.

A couple great ways to protect your images;

1. Reduce the resolution and the images size. This way the file looks great on the computer, but if they try to print it out or save it for other things, the quality will be terrible.

2. Add a watermark. Just adding the "Copyright 2009 - All Rights Reserved" watermark on the bottom of the image, will prevent people from wanting to enlarge and have it printed.


Hope that helps some.

Fred

Llywellyn

Katmitchell wrote:

...and wanted to begin entering competitions. Problem is that the rules prevent us from watermarking our submissions... I did put a copyright mark on there and that is allowed...

If you're referring to the DSS Challenges here on DGrin, the Smuggy gallery you post your entry to also has right-click protection, so it's safe there. If you're posting your photo to the Challenges forum for feedback, you can use a watermarked version of the image. Just be sure to remove the watermark before uploading the photo to the gallery.

Katmitchell

Thank you
Thanks... I had no idea I could do that.. that is helpful... I have to design and make a watermark up in photoshop for the next challenge and have that ready...

Kat

Llywellyn wrote:

If you're referring to the DSS Challenges here on DGrin, the Smuggy gallery you post your entry to also has right-click protection, so it's safe there. If you're posting your photo to the Challenges forum for feedback, you can use a watermarked version of the image. Just be sure to remove the watermark before uploading the photo to the gallery.

Candid Arts

So I just read a couple of posts here, but if I get this right, if I upload a photo to my smugmug, and have it right click protected, it's good to go. But if I use the share (get a link) option to post an image on dgrin, that photo isn't right click protected anymore? I just went and checked a couple photos that I've posted on dgrin that are right click protected, and the right click protection still worked.

That kind of worries me if the right click protection goes away on photos I use the share>get link option to post a photo...

ChatKat

Share Button Disabled
I have disabled the Share button/post alink button on my public galleries. I have some non-public galleries for posting to Dgrin and other places when I want to post a link. It's the linked photo on other boards that cannot be right click protected. I also don't share the images that I find have commercial value for sale. I also post only small images. The Smugmug watermark is large and somewhat transparent - just enough that it will discourage the thieves.

Katmitchell

Now I am confused all over again....lol
I am confused now too... if this works for you and not me.. I post the same way. I upload to smug mug gallery and then grab the photo link from there..

one interesting thing I noticed though.. When I first grabbed and posted the links, they worked here and I had not yet enabled external link sharing, yet they still showed up.. I wonder if there is a loop hole and as long as you disable sharing perhaps they stay protected? and you can still post here?

Not sure.. Andy says that they are not protected on Digital Grin..

maybe it is a glitch in your account?

I dunno..... I am so new at this I am winging it....ear

Kat

ChatKat

Three are several settings:
Right Click : On or Off
Share Button - allows links to be generated with a button on your site
External Links: On allows photos to appear in other websites and Off does not.

When External Links are tunred off, then your images won't show outside Smugmug - you get a big X. It's gallery by gallery.

So I copy photos I want to post on boards to a gallery that is unlisted (private - not visible on my website and not visible where External Links are ON unless I am signed into my site . Those photos can be right click copied. Either you share or your don't in a gallery.

Turning links off won't allow photos to appear elsewhere.

Katmitchell wrote:

I am confused now too... if this works for you and not me.. I post the same way. I upload to smug mug gallery and then grab the photo link from there..

one interesting thing I noticed though.. When I first grabbed and posted the links, they worked here and I had not yet enabled external link sharing, yet they still showed up.. I wonder if there is a loop hole and as long as you disable sharing perhaps they stay protected? and you can still post here?

Not sure.. Andy says that they are not protected on Digital Grin..

maybe it is a glitch in your account?

I dunno..... I am so new at this I am winging it....ear

Kat

Candid Arts

Ok, so I think I'm getting this. Posting the photo with the share>get a link button on dgrin doesn't change the right click protection on YOUR SPECIFIC website, but wherever you posted the image (i.e. dgrin, ebay, whatever) the photo is NOT right click protected. Got it. That makes more sense, and how I figured it worked. This kind of confused me for a second, but I think I got it squared away now.

Thanks for the clarity.

Katmitchell

yes thanks
all clear now..

Kat

denisegoldberg

Candid Arts wrote:

...That kind of worries me if the right click protection goes away on photos I use the share>get link option to post a photo...

Right-click protection isn't really protection. You are kidding yourself if you believe any photo you show on the web can't be easily grabbed - even from your right-click "protected" galleries.

See http://blogs.smugmug.com/pros/2008/07/04/right-click-protection-and-image-security/.

--- Denise