Notice... don't give your photos away

Interesting. I mostly deglect my FB page since it never seemed to do anything for me. Maybe I just need to spend more time with it.

ETA: I noticed that when uploading pictures for my regular FB page there was a "Standard" upload and a "High Resolution" upload option. Does anyone know if Facebook automatically resizes hi-res images unless the hi-res option is selected?

PeaceFire wrote in post #11082787
Interesting. I mostly deglect my FB page since it never seemed to do anything for me. Maybe I just need to spend more time with it.

The key to getting your FB page to work is tagging. It is, however, (at least for me) a challenge to get the couple or others to come and do it.

will continue to resize and degrade slightly before uploading to facebook. not a problem here.

I offer a package where my clients can buy a DVD of high rez images. One client this past summer did just that. In a few weeks I got an email from her (I could tell from the email that it had been sent to her entire address book), asking me to join Facebook so I could look at 'her' wedding photos! I looked at them and, sure enough, they were mine. I've always been aware of this problem (and still manage to sell prints through my online store all the time), but this was the first time a bride has ever had the temerity to ask me directly to look at images that I hold the copyright to. When I replied to her, in a nice way, she had no idea that posting such images was illegal. And indeed it may not be for long. Facebook has a lot of money and those with lots of money tend to get public opinion, then legislation, to go their way. The solution? Jack up the price for the high-rez DVDs.

PhotoMatte wrote in post #11100423
I offer a package where my clients can buy a DVD of high rez images. One client this past summer did just that. In a few weeks I got an email from her (I could tell from the email that it had been sent to her entire address book), asking me to join Facebook so I could look at 'her' wedding photos! I looked at them and, sure enough, they were mine. I've always been aware of this problem (and still manage to sell prints through my online store all the time), but this was the first time a bride has ever had the temerity to ask me directly to look at images that I hold the copyright to. When I replied to her, in a nice way, she had no idea that posting such images was illegal. And indeed it may not be for long. Facebook has a lot of money and those with lots of money tend to get public opinion, then legislation, to go their way. The solution? Jack up the price for the high-rez DVDs.

interesting

PhotoMatte wrote in post #11100423
I offer a package where my clients can buy a DVD of high rez images. One client this past summer did just that. In a few weeks I got an email from her (I could tell from the email that it had been sent to her entire address book), asking me to join Facebook so I could look at 'her' wedding photos! I looked at them and, sure enough, they were mine. I've always been aware of this problem (and still manage to sell prints through my online store all the time), but this was the first time a bride has ever had the temerity to ask me directly to look at images that I hold the copyright to. When I replied to her, in a nice way, she had no idea that posting such images was illegal. And indeed it may not be for long. Facebook has a lot of money and those with lots of money tend to get public opinion, then legislation, to go their way. The solution? Jack up the price for the high-rez DVDs.

that hadn't even crossed my mind yet... will definitely have to address with clients.

I think this is the only way to stay ahead of the game. Once we release the photos in any format, they're fair game for piracy (kind of why Adobe products cost so much, IMHO). If they've already paid a premium for their images they might also be less likely to share them for free, so it's a win-win!

I'm afraid a lot of people don't care.

There's a chap in my son's rugby team who has four photos on his Facebook that have a watermark on that says "It is illegal to download this photo".

I just found this out after reading this thread and doing a quick search.

See here if you're on FB http://www.facebook.co​m …18994111.288534​.629889111

A lot of people assume that because they are in the photo it is their photo.

PhotoMatte wrote in post #11100423
I offer a package where my clients can buy a DVD of high rez images. One client this past summer did just that. In a few weeks I got an email from her (I could tell from the email that it had been sent to her entire address book), asking me to join Facebook so I could look at 'her' wedding photos! I looked at them and, sure enough, they were mine. I've always been aware of this problem (and still manage to sell prints through my online store all the time), but this was the first time a bride has ever had the temerity to ask me directly to look at images that I hold the copyright to. When I replied to her, in a nice way, she had no idea that posting such images was illegal. And indeed it may not be for long. Facebook has a lot of money and those with lots of money tend to get public opinion, then legislation, to go their way. The solution? Jack up the price for the high-rez DVDs.

You're kidding, right? Your client wants to show off your photos to hundreds of potential cilents and you hit them with talk of illegal activity? Why on earth wouldn't you want your photos to be seen by as many people as possible? After a wedding I upload a selection of discretely watermarked images to my FB business page and tag the couple in, you cannot get better free advertising. Then you get people commenting and liking photos and their friends see that they've commented and it's all happy times.

OF COURSE a bride is going to call them 'her' photos, it's her day and you're the guy she paid to cover it, it would be ridiculous for her to say "Here are my photographer's photos guys!"

You can't fight Facebook, not should you want to, this is the best facilitator of word of mouth advertising that's ever existed, I just don't understand some people. Worst case scenario you lose out on a few low value sales to guests, best case scenario you book a bunch of high value weddings out of it.

when you upload your pics to FB, they compress them, so I find that if I downsize my pics first, then upload to FB, they don't always look good and I hate to put crappy looking pics on FB....so...I guess if they are that desperate to download a watermarked pic from FB, then so be it <wink>

When I export from Photoshop, I always make sure to do a quick resize to 720px on the long side, and add "web" to the file name.

Makes it easy for people to know which to print out and which go on their facebooks. Though I still get calls every now and then saying that the prints are "all funny looking.... OH! I needed to print the ones without web, ok."

Ya I have done this for a long time luckily. created a 'facebook' export preset in lightroom. it keeps everything at 700 on the long edge at maximum. and everything gets watermarked for facebook too. good habit to get into!

Simple. Stay off Facebook.

OK, that's easy for a 50-something like me, not so easy for the online generation, but I only see risk. The identity-thieves out there are having a bonanza, thanks to social networking sites. Some of them are really quite clever, and you'd be amazed at what they can harvest from just a few sites - your name, age, gender, where you live, what you look like, where you work, the name of your spouse - even your dog's name. You might think, "it's alright. My info is spread around." but these people are like detectives - they look you up, then your friends, then your workmates pages..........Armed with this information and a bit of criminal guile, they CAN impersonate you.

So, if you're going to use social networking sites, just bear this well-intentioned advice in mind. Then write it off as the ridiculous imaginings of a stupid old fart. At your peril (cue fiendish movie laugh).

If you're always worried about that you may as well live in a hole and never leave, let alone have a business that deals with people on almost a daily basis. I am not concerned by the whole Facebook thing, still. What I do now (something I've changed since this thread started) is have the high res images then make a separate folder and resize all images to 700 on the long edge and slap my logo on that. I then reduce the quality to 60. This helps make it almost impossible to print and also loads WAY faster! Poof, problem solved. No need to freak out about it and stop using what is likely to become the most valuable resources for not just photographers but almost every other business and business owner available. And best of all- it's FREE!

I'm not really sure how having a Fan Page for my photography company is going to lead to anyone knowing my dogs name or who my friends are. Heck, it won't even tell you what my real name is or list the people who like my page anymore. I think you're confusing a Fan Page with a Personal Page and these are two very different things.