Trouble With Models Claiming Rights

[TiffanyC]

Originally Posted by HoneLynn

So she stole the content from you? I would be pursuing that with an attorney as well and go after the 3 sites *your* content is showing up on. Sounds like someone needs a nice little C&D letter.

Also, make sure you watermark all your content. That way if it comes down to it, you are the only one in possession of the original content. 9times out of 10 the photographer is the one that owns the content.

I've tried a few watermarking programs out there but all of them take away from my picture quality and I can't figure out how to do it with photoshop. Do you by any chance have a link somewhere that I could read more on how to do it?

[tigermom]

Originally Posted by TiffanyC

I've tried a few watermarking programs out there but all of them take away from my picture quality and I can't figure out how to do it with photoshop. Do you by any chance have a link somewhere that I could read more on how to do it?

The way I do it with photoshop is creating an action (just recording one where I make a watermark on one image), then batch process folders with that action. You may need separate actions for vertical and horizontal, or you may be happy with one action for both.

Of course, when you sell to someone, you'll need the non watermarked version, but I would agree that if you're giving the model copies, you need to give her watermarked copies only.

[HoneLynn]

Originally Posted by tigermom

The way I do it with photoshop is creating an action (just recording one where I make a watermark on one image), then batch process folders with that action. You may need separate actions for vertical and horizontal, or you may be happy with one action for both.

Of course, when you sell to someone, you'll need the non watermarked version, but I would agree that if you're giving the model copies, you need to give her watermarked copies only.

Bingo. Photoshop actions and batch processing is the best way to do it.

[TiffanyC]

Originally Posted by tigermom

The way I do it with photoshop is creating an action (just recording one where I make a watermark on one image), then batch process folders with that action. You may need separate actions for vertical and horizontal, or you may be happy with one action for both.

Of course, when you sell to someone, you'll need the non watermarked version, but I would agree that if you're giving the model copies, you need to give her watermarked copies only.

Thanks! Why didn't I try the batch processing before with that? I do it for everything else. Thanks for the helpful hints. I was stupid and gave her a membership login and that's how she got all the content. I'll have to spend a few days....or weeks....watermarking and re-uploading everything.

Thanks again everyone for your help.

[papagmp]

Originally Posted by tigermom

The way I do it with photoshop is creating an action (just recording one where I make a watermark on one image), then batch process folders with that action. You may need separate actions for vertical and horizontal, or you may be happy with one action for both.

Of course, when you sell to someone, you'll need the non watermarked version, but I would agree that if you're giving the model copies, you need to give her watermarked copies only.

I always shoot in raw (nef) format - burn a dvd of the original nef files, use adobe raw file converter to adjust image color and exposure (if needed) then save the files as PSD files - I then back them up again (sans watermark).

Now split the psd files into two directories, landscape and portrait. Create an action to drop your watermark on all images in each directory and automate the action using the batch function now burn to dvd again (with watermark)

I then run use the "web photo gallery" option on the .psd files to create the 3 different size .jpg files and thumbnails that we use on the site. Burn the web galleries to dvd.

I then ftp the images and thumbnails to the site and run our add script - after ftp I only have about three minutes work to set primary and tour (teaser) images.

By backing up the images at each stage, I reduce the loss if a dvd gets scratched - I often burn two copies of the original nef files on shoots that I know went well.