#powersearching #protips for photographers and artists

#powersearching   #protips  for photographers and artists

via Yanik Falardeau 

Originally shared by Darren Neupert

Are your photographs being ripped off?  Do you know how to find out?  Do you even care?  If so, read on and find out how I discovered my work for sale across the internet.

I recently had breakfast with some fellow photographers and one of the topics we discussed was online theft of photos.  I’m not talking about someone downloading your work to save as their desktop wallpaper.  I’m not referring to the lady who makes a print of your work to hang in her workout room.  I’m talking about the websites that download the highest resolution possible and then put them up for sale.  You know the sites.  They offer membership for $4.99/month just for access to the hi-res copy of your work.  To add insult to injury, the member’s only copy can often contain the original watermark, the © Copyright information along with the artist’s name.  I can imagine even worse offenders out there… and this only relates to web usage, not print or other media.

I have tried sites like tineye.com with moderate success.  But, with services like tineye, you have to read the fine print.  They search for the entire image only.  That means if someone cropped your photo or altered it in any way, tineye will not find it!

Enter Google Image Search

While destroying a plate of eggs and sausage, a fellow photographer turned me on to Google Image Search.  I was a bit skeptical at first, but decided to give it a try.  I started using it a couple of weeks ago and I must say I am shocked at how many of my images are out there for sale without my knowledge.  It has been a real eye opener and has forced me to rethink the way I share my images online.  Gone are the days of full resolution 300 DPI shares.  Gone are the days of no watermark.

So, how does Google Image Search work?  Google searches for not only the entire image, but also bits and pieces.  It will search for a thumbnail made from your image.  It will even find similar images to yours.  That means, if someone crops your image or alters it in anyway (removing your watermark), Google will find it like a pig rooting out a truffle in the forest.

It’s so breathtakingly simple.  First, go to images.google.com.  Second, click on the little camera icon on the right side of the search box.  If your image is already online, you can copy the URL of that image and past it into the search box that popped up when you clicked the camera icon.  Conversely, you can drag and drop your image into this search box.  A third option would be to upload your photo.

Now, click on the search button and let the fun or, in my case, the nightmare begin.

You may or may not find that your images are being ripped.  If you do, first try to go through the website and report the image as being copyrighted, etc.  A lot of sites have a “report” button under the image.  Sadly, most of these buttons are entirely useless.  The same usually goes for their email address to their copyright people.  I had one bounce on me just a week ago… but, not like I expected much from it.  After your attempts to contact the website admin fail, just go straight to their host and issue a DMCA takedown notice.  Depending on the host country, these notices can also fall flat.  I’m discovering that it’s almost best to just let some of these images go and clamp down on future online presentations of my work.  It’s either that or break out the lawyers, guns, and money.

I hope you find Google’s free image search tool useful.  I wanted to share it with all of my photographer friends after I discovered my own work being nicked.  Be careful with your work and don’t think for a second this can’t happen to you.

Please re-share this post if you find it useful.

Darren Neupert