Image Security

[Edd]

How do you guys protect your images online ????

Is there anything special about some of the hosting websites or are you just relying on watermarking etc.

Ed

[bob_r]

Ed,

My image hosting site will allow the images to be linked, but you can flag a gallery to disallow it. It would be much more useful if they had that option for individual pics rather than galleries. As for protecting my images, I don't and my hosting site doesn't either. If someone wants an image bad enough, there are ways to copy them. Even watermarks (which I hate) could be removed with some work. My hosting site does show how many times an individual image has been linked and if it's more than I've used, I'll usually flag the image as "private" so it won't be visible. After a month or so, I'll change the flag back to public.

[gldiana]

I watermark all my images, and I also reduce them to 72 DPI so prints will be very low quality. I never post more than 800 pixels for the longest side.

[Edd]

Thanks Guys,

I don't like the idea of water marking but if it stops some people then it must be worth it.

We have found a website where right click and copy functions (such as Edit - Copy) are all disabled but it seems a bit pricey to host your images on there.

Ed

[Bonish Photo]

Smugmug will allow you to right click protect your images. It also allows you to have a watermark that is added as a layer, so you dont have to take the time to put the watermark on each image, it's just sort of hovering over the image. This way if someone wants to purchase any of your images, the watermark isnt on the image, but if they want to copy and paste it, it has a watermark to deter them.

They also allow you to password protect your galleries incase you dont want certain people looking at certain galleries. Say they're a personal gallery, one that might contain adult content or any other reason, you can protect each gallery separate by placing any password you'd like.

Here is a personal coupon ( cge80uNDMZZ1Y ) to add in the 'Email / Coupon' field on the signup form if you want to receive $5 off the sign-up fee

[gldiana]

Same with Zenfolio.

http://www.lucadiana.zenfolio.com

[Bonish Photo]

Hey Shawn, just click onto http://www.smugmug.com and there should be a link that will bring you to a sing up page.

cge80uNDMZZ1Y there is a coupon code to enter that will save you $5 if you join. There are various account options to choose from depending on how much you want to upload. Standard account doesnt give you the options of selling the images, but a pro account will give you unlimited storage options, availabilty to choose your own prices set custom waterwarks...etc.

Sumgmug has the best customer support bar-none!! The only customer service that is near their friendliness is Wimberley. I cant say enough about how nice these companies treat us when we call to ask questions or talk shop. How many times do you call to ask a question and spend an hour on the phone just talking shop about photography!? Almost unheard of in this day in age of outsourcing.

[FB3Studios]

Shawn,

There isn't anything you can do that will protect your image if someone wants to have it. All the right click blocked stuff is childs play, simply download the page to your desktop or easier view source and get the original address for the photo and it is yours.

Watermarks are a little harder but not much.

The internet runs at 72 DPI so there is no need to have any larger files than that posted. Like Luca I post only under 600 pixels in size mostly.

You can post your photo with a clear overlay but that is really not that hard to get around.

To be honest there is really nothing you can do to keep the serious from taking your images, just post them in low quaility and small so they can't do much with them.

I have actually seen someone take a photo of a photo at a show and then pass it off as their own.

FB3

[bosphoto]

If you post only very small images as others have mentioned, say 600-800 pixels at most on a side, then you should have to worry too much about them being taken. Smugmug, Zenfolio and others make that easy to restrict your original size image to a very small size automatically. I usually put one small version out there for everyone to view, and then password protect the gallery and only let your clients download the full size.