I've become a bit of a Pinterest addict again after not having used it for several months. It is a wonderful source for inspiration of all kinds, and you can find some interesting stuff there. Very interesting, indeed. A few days ago, I looked through someone's board of wintery images when suddenly I saw a photo that looked somehow familiar. It was one of those "uploaded by user" ones with no link or reference whatsoever. I could see a little watermark on it, though, so I clicked on it to view it in a bigger size, curious why it looked so familiar. Well, when I saw the watermark, I knew why it had looked so familiar - it was my own photo!
I had taken this photo and uploaded it to Flickr about 2 years ago. I haven't used Flickr in quite a while now, and never renewed my Pro account after it expired over a year ago. Apparently, the photo was uploaded to Pinterest about 3 weeks ago. Where that user got the photo from, I don't know. Is it still visible in some Flickr group pool, even though in my own photostream, only the latest 200 of my 1500+ photos are visible? And how did they manage to download it in the first place, considering that I disenabled downloading from Flickr? I really have no idea.
Up- and downloading photos and sharing them on sites like Flickr, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest etc. is ever so easy these days. Unfortunately, relevant information such as references to owners and creators, credits and links back to the original website get forgotten and lost even easier.
For some time now I have become more careful about how and what I repin on Pinterest. I try to follow back every photo I like to see if it links to the original website with all the relevant information provided. If it only links to back to one Tumblr site after another, I don't repin it, even if, as in some cases, the artist is mentioned. Unfortunately, there are so many rather 'careless' pinners, and I can only imagine that these people are neither painters, photographers or otherwise active creatives - or they would be much more aware of how much time and effort goes into creating a painting, art journal page, photograph etc. and how one would like to be given the credit for ones work. And there are also many people who would actually like to know who the artist of a certain photograph, artwork etc. was, but with no information whatsoever, it is simply impossible to find out.
This is why I've started, soon after I got my first DSLR, joined Flickr, and started learning about photo editing, to add a watermark to my photos. I know that there are a lot of people who are not very fond of watermarks, but then there are also a whole lot of people out there who don't care where a photo comes from, so it is up to you to make sure that you put the information right on it and to get the credit for it that you deserve.
And it's really no big deal to add a watermark. And you can even be creative with that too. I use a PNG file I created in Photoshop Elements to slide over any photo in no time. You can even use one those free and easy to use photo editing sites like PicMonkey to add text.Personally, I think the best waterwark is your blog/website address, but
unfortunately when I created my blog, I chose a rather long and
inconvenient name, so I just use my "name" instead and hope that if
someone googles it, it will lead back to the right source. It's easy to
create a watermark in f.ex. Photoshop, and you can find numerous
tutorials for them.Whatever you use, just make sure it has your name on it.
How upsetting! She didn't take it by pinning with pinterest, she took it, the uploaded it. I could tell you at least 3 ways to do it wihtout the person knowing, but is not the right way to use pinterest notr to use someone's art.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, it is a good thing you watermarked!
We should not upload anything we care about without a watermark,I always do, even if it is also kind of easy to remove if someone *really* wants to do it :o(
I was so happy to see you commenting on the pin questioning the lack of link to Kay! Well done!
DeleteThe only thing to prevent any kind of misuse would be not to upload anything at all, which would be a pity. I agree, there's probably no foolproof way to protect your images, if someone really wants to steal them, they'll always manage. But watermarks at least help with those you just don't care or think about it.
DeleteThanks for posting a comment on the pin!
Gracias por los consejos. Saludos.
ReplyDeleteI think most people are just clueless. Because pinterest started as a personal thing, a place to collect images for their own inspiration, not to drive traffic to blogs, etc, which people do now, people have never learned to use it properly. It's only in the last few month that people have started taking copyright on pinterest seriously. Better late than never I guess, but not nice for artists who have put hours of love and energy into their work. I love the visual element of Pinterest, but I too stopped using it for ages, trying to work out what to do. It gave me such a bad feeling. I considered closing my account completely, but decided I'm not quite ready for that yet, so am now going through all my old pins to make sure they're accredited properly, deleting pins I'm unsure of. Long tedious job, but better safe than sorry. Did you see the discussion on this on my fb page a couple of weeks ago?
ReplyDeleteYes, I think that's the problem, that Pinterest is now mostly used for repinninig pins rather than the visual bookmarking tool it originally was intended to be. But I must admit that I also enjoy repinning most, as there's so much inspiration and wonderful ideas to be found there, and one can discover new blogs and websites via the pins - provided there's a link. I've started going to all my pins too, but it's a lot of work.
DeleteI remember reading about you having posted something about Pinterest but couldn't find it anymore - must go and have a look at your FB page now!
This blog (http://makingamark.blogspot.nl/2012/02/pinterest-how-to-prevent-your-blogger.html) has written several posts about Pinterest and how to prevent your images being pinned. Look for the other posts marked 'pinterest' too, very interesting. Hope this is helpful.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link, Judy. I didn't know it was possible to prevent your images being pinned. That's good to know :)
DeleteVery interesting. Thanks for the info about pic monkey....very useful!! Love the branch shot too!
ReplyDeleteThe whole internet is a minefield for artists and photographers. I do love pinterest and usually pin my own artwork on there via my blog and I do always have my copyright watermark on it. I do like to repin pins - things like cute animals/amazing tattoos but I'm guessing that if they've been pinned in the first place it's ok to repin them -and I always get notified when mine are repinned so that isn't a problem. I guess, like you discovered, the problem is when someone manages to take an image from somewhere else entirely and upload it without reference. I've never done that on Pinterest. I have discovered how difficult it is to credit the photographer though as when I've seen a photo I'd like to use as inspiration for a painting I try to find out who took it and discovered that it's on a 'wallpaper' website and that they apparently just sweep the internet looking for images which they take illegally - it's so difficult to control.
ReplyDeleteFor those who have an iPad - check out this tip on by blog:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sketch-mad.com/2012/07/great-tip-for-watermarking-your-images.html
It gives you the name of a fantastic, super easy app that makes watermarking easy to do in under a minute :0)
I haven't done the watermark thing but you know what- I need to do that. Thanks for the nudge!
ReplyDelete