How To Protect Your Photographs Online

In this day and age, posting photographs online has become the norm, and whether you’re a beginner or a professional, a large portion of your work is sure to end up in the digital world. 

While this broad exposure to a vast audience is a major advantage, it also comes with a downside.

Theft.

A vast number of photographers have had their images stolen, used without their permission, or credited to someone else who’s claimed them as their work. And, while it’s almost impossible to stop every kind of intellectual property theft, there’s quite a bit you can do to protect your photographs online. 

Let’s look at a few ways you can safeguard your images:

Ensure You Have Clear Usage Terms

If photography is a vital part of how you make your money, then you need to have clear terms of use on your website. 

These terms of usage can be linked to any image, particularly if someone attempts to download or save a picture from your site. This way, anyone visiting your site will immediately know you’re serious about the protection placed on your photography and will take the necessary legal steps to safeguard your pictures. 

A clear usage terms agreement on your site coupled with enforceable copyright protection will enable you to recover any damages and legal fees relating to the unauthorized use of your imagery.

Check The Usage Terms When Posting Online

If you post your photos on social media or on any online platform that doesn’t belong to you, be sure to check their usage policy too.

Some platforms claim ownership of images posted, and you’ll likely agree to this when accepting the terms and conditions policy (always check the small print!). This means they may use your photographs as they see fit, and that you waive your ownership rights once you have loaded them onto the platform.

Copyrighting Your Photos

The next and perhaps most obvious way to safeguard your images is through a Copyright. In most major countries, any image created is automatically copyrighted to the person who took it. 

While automatic copyright creation is normally sufficient, take it one step further and register your most valuable photos with an official copyright protection agency. This can be time consuming for large numbers of photographs, so you may opt to only register the images that are high in potential resale value. 

Copyright data can also be added to the RAW metadata information of your file. While this doesn’t always carry across online, it’s concrete proof of ownership, should this be called into question. 

Watermarking Your Images

Watermarks are an obvious way to protect your images, and while they can distract from a photograph, they’re a very effective way of stopping copyright infringement. If your photos are used without your permission, they will be instantly recognizable as yours, as they bear your name.

It’s highly advisable to watermark all your images, even if just with a logo, name or website URL in the corner of an image. You can reserve large full photo watermarks for your more valuable commercial photography, or for photos that clients have yet to pay for. 

Also, be sure that your watermarks are easy to read and your brand is clearly identifiable, otherwise you defeat the purpose of including them. Adding these watermarks is simple and can be done in batches with editing tools such as Photoshop or Lightroom. 

Another option is to include digital watermarks or barcodes that are not visible to the human eye but can be detected by computer software. This software tracks the unauthorized use of your images online and alerts you if there’s an infringement. You may have to pay for this service, but it will pay off if you make a living from your photographs.  

Make It Difficult For People To Copy Your Photos

If you have your own photography website or online portfolio, you can make it harder for people to copy your images without your permission. 

Just some of the techniques to do this include breaking up your images into smaller tiles, placing them behind a transparent background, and disabling the right click Save As option. If you opt to disable the Save As functionality you can include a pop-up that advises the browser that they can contact you to purchase the image or for permission to use it elsewhere.

Alternatively, you can load low resolution images that won’t copy clearly, or small images that cannot be blown up. This will stop anyone from being able to use your photos for print or large media ads, as the image will pixelate when enlarged. 

How To Find Out Where Your Images Have Been Used Online

If you have followed all the above steps but want to check where your images are being used online, there are a few resources available. 

The most obvious free tool for this is Google’s image search. You can paste your image in the search and run a reverse image search, and it will list any sites that feature your photo.

Alternatively, there are free and paid-for apps and services that allow you to search the web for your photos.

When you find an image that’s been used without your permission, the best course of action is to contact the person or company in breach of copyright. Bring the matter to their attention and ask them to remove the image or contact the platform where the image is posted and request that it's deleted. 

If this is not done, you may have to seek legal counsel and assert your rights in having the image removed. 

Intellectual property theft is a reality we all have to deal with, and as a photographer, you need to protect your work in every way possible. 

You can use all or some of the above options to safeguard your images and still benefit from all the exposure you’ll enjoy online. 

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