EOC Week 5: Copyright Process for Photographers

“Copyright infringement is not a matter of if; it’s a matter of when” (Harrington John, Best Business Practices for Photographers, pg 321).  People steal images and it may be yours.  It is so easy to get access to photos (especially if it is on the web already, so being prepared for the ‘unexpected’ is very crucial to photographers.  After taking a photograph, you are establishing the point of creation, which also means you have the ownership once the photograph is taken.  However, to make it official you must but the little c with the circle, your name, and the date.  For example, © COPYRIGHT 2011 KRISTINE ALBERTO, is the format I use to copyright my photographs.  There are many programs that have a section to embed the copyright information into your metadata.  Another way to make it official is to create a narrative about the photograph.  I did not know about this way until recently, and all that is needed is a small paragraph.  And in this small narrative paragraph it should include information about when you did the photograph, who modeled in the photograph, who was involved with the photograph, where the photograph was taken, the who, what, when, where, and how; and also all the other little details about the photograph.  By doing this, it proves that you are the owner of this photograph and that you created it.