Selling without having photos stolen

ReneesEyes

Hi,

I'm a pro user, but hesitant to sell photos from my site. Even with right-click protect on, a client was able to take images off my site and used them. Now I am putting my copyright on each photo and making it 72 res before uploading. If I were to sell prints at high res, what would stop someone from just taking them? I would't want to put a copyright on the ones available for purchase.

Also, even if you right-click protect on in your galleries as a pro user, if someone is "browsing" from smugmug.com they can right click your photos from there. Why?

Thanks
www.reneesumner.smugmug.com

Mike Lane

ReneesEyes wrote:

Hi,

I'm a pro user, but hesitant to sell photos from my site. Even with right-click protect on, a client was able to take images off my site and used them. Now I am putting my copyright on each photo and making it 72 res before uploading. If I were to sell prints at high res, what would stop someone from just taking them? I would't want to put a copyright on the ones available for purchase.

Also, even if you right-click protect on in your galleries as a pro user, if someone is "browsing" from smugmug.com they can right click your photos from there. Why?

Thanks
www.reneesumner.smugmug.com

The only thing you'll get when you right click and save is a transparent spacer.gif image. That doesn't mean that there aren't other ways of getting your images. But consider that the large sized image at 72ppi is not going to yield any worthwhile printing results. Ceratinly anyone who only wants a crappy print of an image can get it no matter what you do (I could just do a screen grab and crop in photoshop, you can't possibly stop that). My thought is, let people get the crappy prints if they want. Let them see the large sizes but hide the original sized images. If they like it, they'll buy it. If not, then they won't be able to get anything useful out of it.

limbik

Watermarking an image only shows up on the web version, correct?
(If it is done via smugmug of course) So you can still sell your images and they are protected from screen grabs even. Perhaps I am mistaken

Andy

limbik wrote:

Watermarking an image only shows up on the web version, correct?
(If it is done via smugmug of course) So you can still sell your images and they are protected from screen grabs even. Perhaps I am mistaken

watermarking only shows on the web version, correct. not on a sold print.

Andy

ReneesEyes wrote:

Hi,

I'm a pro user, but hesitant to sell photos from my site. Even with right-click protect on, a client was able to take images off my site and used them. Now I am putting my copyright on each photo and making it 72 res before uploading. If I were to sell prints at high res, what would stop someone from just taking them? I would't want to put a copyright on the ones available for purchase.

Also, even if you right-click protect on in your galleries as a pro user, if someone is "browsing" from smugmug.com they can right click your photos from there. Why?

Thanks
www.reneesumner.smugmug.com

renee, hiya

the simple fact is that if it can be seen on a visitor's browser, it's already in their computer as a .jpg file. and as mike said, folks can alwyas do a screen grab.

-L sizes are not suitable for much of any sort of print.

cheers

ps: if you can think of a better way, please let us know right click is only a mild deterrent, as stated above.

portellimagery

I have watermarks turned on in my galleries, but I am thinking it is more distracting than I want. I am debating that if I disable originals and right clicking, I should remove them because they are taking too much from the pictures. I didn't realize the "large" size wasn't really that large. The one thing though is somebody at work (who had his pic taken at Sturgis) was asking how he could download the pic for free, so I guess people do put effort into trying not to pay.

Andy

disabling large sizes

portellimagery wrote:

I have watermarks turned on in my galleries, but I am thinking it is more distracting than I want. I am debating that if I disable originals and right clicking, I should remove them because they are taking too much from the pictures. I didn't realize the "large" size wasn't really that large. The one thing though is somebody at work (who had his pic taken at Sturgis) was asking how he could download the pic for free, so I guess people do put effort into trying not to pay.

fyi: if you feel the large size is too large, you have the option to disable larges from showing up

JamesJWeg

I have walked up to trailers at a race and seen my photos printed on plain paper with a bubble jet on the wall of the trailer, with the Smugmug watermark "PROOF" boldly accross it. I do not think that is a sale lost, they would never pay, some people are just too damn cheap. BTW, the price I had for that gallery was a rediculasly low $4.99 for 8x10.

James.

limbik

Ahh, this is part of the reason I constantly request custom watermarks.
Not only could we protect our images, but we could do it to the level we individually see fit. Some of us could add a large watemark for high security, while others would be happy with a tasteful signature somewhere near the edge.

portellimagery

limbik wrote:

Ahh, this is part of the reason I constantly request custom watermarks.
Not only could we protect our images, but we could do it to the level we individually see fit. Some of us could add a large watemark for high security, while others would be happy with a tasteful signature somewhere near the edge.

now limbik is on to something.... I second that idea (unless it has been seconded somewhere in the distant past) I am newer here and haven't gone too far into the history other than though searches trying to find how to do stuff.

ReneesEyes

Hi all,

Thank you for the input, and the clarification on whether the PROOF prints or not. I would love a customizable watermark!

Andy, I love your infrared photography. It inspired me to try it--but it didn't turn out like yours. You are very talented.

Thanks,

Renee

Andy

ReneesEyes wrote:

Hi all,

Thank you for the input, and the clarification on whether the PROOF prints or not. I would love a customizable watermark!

Andy, I love your infrared photography. It inspired me to try it--but it didn't turn out like yours. You are very talented.

Thanks,

Renee

thank you so very much, renee

ann

If you reduce the resolution of the photos to 72 dpi can you still print a good pic from smugmug? If you watermark it yourself you cannot use smugmug for purchasing directly due to your watermark. Does anyone receive large sales from the galleries or is just for friends or advertising purposes and locked galleries? I did not realize how easy it was to steal photos. Thanks

ReneesEyes

ttmcadams wrote:

If you reduce the resolution of the photos to 72 dpi can you still print a good pic from smugmug? If you watermark it yourself you cannot use smugmug for purchasing directly due to your watermark. Does anyone receive large sales from the galleries or is just for friends or advertising purposes and locked galleries? I did not realize how easy it was to steal photos. Thanks

If you sell it at a resolution of 72, it will print horribly. However, if you sell at 300ppi with your watermark, it would print with your watermark, I believe (think Olan Mills ). I sold some T-ball photos to parents because I was not out to make money and that was OK. I have a reunion photo coming up, and may set it up so they can order from smugmug to minimize my shipping costs/responsiblities and to make it easier for them...now that I know it doesn't print PROOF. They could also purchase t-shirts easily.

As for trying to sell large amounts of prints from a gallery, I would not try that myself until smugmug offers custom watermarks.

Hope this answers your question--just my 2 cents.

Renee

ann

Thanks for your reply.