Digital Camera World » photo sharing

Photographers’ copyright under threat by Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill?

jmeyer — Thu, 02 May 2013 10:00:46 +0000

If you upload any of your photography anywhere – and we’re going to assume you do since you’re reading a photography website – you’ll no doubt have heard about the recent changes to UK law which could have a profound impact on every photographer.

The new Enterprise and Regulatory Reform bill has somehow managed to arrive without too much uproar from the photographic community – until now.

Amy Davies, of our testing team, takes a look at some of the issues around the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform bill that should be of particular concern to photographers.

What it states is that anybody can use “orphan works” – or photographs and other artworks whose author isn’t obvious after a “diligent” search. Quite what constitutes a diligent search isn’t yet known, but, it sounds like something which could be pretty damn hard to prove either way in court.

If the metadata from your image has been stripped and somehow ended up floating about the internet without your name attached to it – then somebody could end up using that for commercial gain.

Let’s face it, the chances of an individual photographer having the time, energy or funds to chase after huge corporations is pretty slim – could this open the door for photographers to be ripped off, leaving the rest of us in less demand as “free” artwork becomes easily accessible.

Of course it’s also true that the vast majority of people may never know they’ve had work effectively stolen and used for this purpose, but the knock on effects for the rest of the industry could be pretty severe.

It would seem the best way to protect your photography is to attach a watermark – something which many photographers are against since it can distract the overall image, or to register the work as your own… something which costs time and money.

With the speed at which uploads are made to Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and the like, it’s a pretty unrealistic scenario for the majority of ordinary photographers.

Although it’s been over 30 years since the government has done a U-turn on legislation such as this, the photographic community certainly isn’t taking this lying down.

A new e-petition attempting to force a rethink of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill has so far garnered over 14,000 signatures (at the time of writing).

Who knows what the outcome of the petition will be, but if you care about your copyright, then we suggest you attach your name to the ever growing list.

We’ll keep you updated with any progress that’s made – but in the meantime, let us know what you think about the new legislation over on our Facebook page.

Take Our Poll

iPad Pictures: how to download photos to your tablet

jmeyer — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 02:00:00 +0000

When Apple released its new tablet earlier this year, many photographers’ eyes widened at the 2048×1536 screen resolution of the new iPad. Pictures could suddenly be viewed in much better quality than previous generations – at a resolution of 3.1 megapixels – higher than most computer monitors. What’s more, the 9.7-inch 264ppi display comes close to the 300dpi we like to print at.

While you can’t currently use your iPad to control a camera directly there’s plenty you can do in terms of organising and sharing shots. The clear, bright screen makes your an excellent way to showcase your work, with the touchscreen making it easy to navigate smoothly between your iPad pictures.

You can also apply basic edits to your iPad pictures, from applying retro filters to brightness and contrast adjustments, and it’s even possible to process Raw files. Apps are also available to organise, rate and caption your images.

The iPad’s wireless internet capabilities also mean you can send your photos to friends, upload them to the internet and post them on Facebook.

Step-by-step how to download photos to iPad

01 Camera connections
The official iPad Camera Connection Kit (£25) comes with a USB port and an SD card slot. This means any camera can be connected, but remember to pack a mini-USB cable if you’re going to be connecting a CompactFlash-equipped model. The USB port doesn’t function like the general-use port on a computer – this one’s only for connecting cameras, and only for iPads.

02 Check your settings
Older cameras need to have PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) mode enabled before they can be connected over USB, so if your iPad reports that the connected USB device is not supported, dive into the camera’s menus to enable PTP. The device connected to the iPad needs to have its own power, as the tablet doesn’t supply much through the USB port.

03 Watch the download
Images download reasonably quickly, although if you’re transferring a large number of Raw files it can still take a while. Even a Sandisk Extreme 60MB/s CompactFlash card doesn’t come near USB2’s maximum data transfer rate of 480MB/s, so this is one area in which card speed is a definite bottleneck, and a faster card can make a serious difference.

04 Where next?
Mac users can sync the photos already on their iPad with iPhoto, or import the highest-rated images in their Aperture library to turn it into a mobile portfolio. Photoshop Elements and Lightroom users have similar options, accessed through the photo-organising section, and these work on Windows as well. Images can be posted to Flickr (share them with us at www.flickr.com/groups/photoplusmagazine), Twitter or our wall at www.facebook.com/PhotoPlusMag, as long as you have an internet connection.

Top Tip
It’s possible to edit both Raw and JPEG images on your iPad. For JPEGs, Apple’s own iPhoto is a powerful app in its iPad incarnation, offering red-eye removal as well as tweaks to brightness, saturation and sharpness.

While it’s possible to edit Raw files, the options for doing so are fewer, and the tablet’s limited power makes it a slow process.

Note, too, that the uncalibrated screen means colours may not be accurate when viewed on your monitor. PiRAWnha (£2.99) and PhotoRaw (£6.99, free version also available) offer Raw options similar to Digital Photo Professional’s.

How to start a photo blog when you have no money

jmeyer — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 14:00:55 +0000

There are so many ways to get your shots on the internet that it’s hard to know where to start. Ideally, you want something free, easy and which doesn’t require any software, and we’ve got the perfect thing: a Google blog. Below we’ll show you how simple it is to start a photo blog when you’re on a tight budget.

We’ll also show you step by step how you can add full portfolios to your blog once you have it made. Here’s how to do it…

1 Sign up to Blogger
First, go to www.blogger.com. Click the big ‘Create Your Blog Now’ arrow, bottom right. Choose a name for your blog and check the blog address you want is available.

2 Choose a template
Next, you’re asked to choose a template. You can customise these later to create your own individual ‘look’, but for now we’ll pick the ‘Scribe’ design.

3 Start blogging!
We’ve skipped the screen where you compose your blog entries because the instructions are pretty clear. Instead, we can show you the finished blog with its first post.

Adding a portfolio to your photo blog

Although you can use Blogger to post pictures individually, it’s not really designed for online portfolios. This is where you need another Google service – Picasa Web Albums. You don’t have to be using Picasa itself, but if you are you’ll be able to upload (and update) albums from within the program itself. Here’s how to get involved…

1 Sign up to Picasa
Picasa has a sign-in link in the top right-hand corner of the window. If you don’t already have an account you can use this screen to create one.

2 Choose your photos
Once you’ve done that you can right-click on any folder or album and choose ‘Upload to Web Albums’. You don’t need to worry about resizing images…

3 Upload them
That’s taken care of in the next window, where you can also take care of the privacy options. Choose ‘Unlisted’ or ‘Sign In Required’ if you want to restrict access.

Big changes to Facebook photo viewer

samanthacliffe — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:08:31 +0000

Your Facebook photos will be taking on a new look. Facebook has announced the next big thing in recent changes made to the social networking site: high-resolution and full screen photo viewing.

As of yesterday, Facebook’s photo viewer will automatically display photos in the highest possible resolution, which they say can be up to 4 times bigger than before on large displays.

Facebook users will now start to see options to expand photos to be viewed full-screen. In Firefox and Chrome, you can click the arrows at the top-right corner to view photos in their full screen, high-res glory.

Does this hint at Facebook’s ambitions to poise itself as a rival to popular photo sharing sites such as Flickr and 500px? Or is it simply trying to increase its edge over Google+, which has become popular among photographers?

Bad Photos: UK’s worst photographer crowned

jmeyer — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:58:17 +0000

Stop press. We’ve found Britain’s worst photographer.

Stuart McGhee has trumped hundreds of bad photos to win the title of Britain’s Worst Photographer.

Launched by photo experience company Red Cloud Days, the competition invited bad photos from inept photographers all over the UK to compete for a free photographic training day with Red Cloud Days.

Red Cloud Days’ founder, Lee Bown, said: “All the entries were fantastically awful however, Stuart’s entry really ‘shone’ for us. Whilst we found all the photos funny, Stuart’s ‘glowing baby’ entry proved to be incompetent on so many levels.”

Stuart added: “I am extremely surprised to have won. Family and friends already see me as bad photographer; this award makes it official!

“The picture is of our daughter Jasmine is known in the family as the ‘demon child’ photograph and is brought out for a laugh every now and again.

“My wife bought me the latest photography equipment just before Jasmine was born, but I had no clue how to use it. Our daughter is now two and a half, and as you can see, I still need to improve.