I’m also pumped to share that fellow Taneytown entrepreneurs RUST by Justin Staudinger and Taneytown Dance Center share in my joy as an Honorable Mention. I love being neighbors with two fantastic and businesses (and people) thriving in Taneytown, Maryland.

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The value of professional photography begins with the belief that your investment in a photographer will produce returns on your investment. If first impressions are based on visual appearance, then your advertising & marketing visuals should be priority number one, whether they are graphics, photographs, or video.

A professional photographer has (hopefully) the ultimate combination… a creative eye and technical lighting abilities. Photography is a medium of light, and a photographer typically knows how to use light best to highlight their subject. Professional photographers also make a point of harnessing high quality equipment. From the camera to the lenses, to studio lights and light modifiers, to the post processing programs that enhance your photos, we have the tools necessary to compliment and control our light sources and create images that explode with color and detail and WOW factor!

How many people buy your product or service when you have cell phone photos on your DIY website? Then imagine how many people would buy the same product or service on a professionally built website with professional photos? It’s all about who looks more serious, because when a business takes my money, I expect to get what I paid for, back. We are all looking to establish trust with our ideal customers, and a professional look does just that.

Follow the link below to learn more about tips and tricks and other advice to prepare for your photo shoot. All the advice is directed at those booking a portrait session, but applies to the team in your business office, as well as your family, children, and high school senior portrait sessions.

INSPIRATION REFERENCE:
Refer to Kelly Heck Photography’s “What to Wear” Guide and other helpful details to look your best for Photo Day! www.kellyheckphotography.com/what-to-wear

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The photographers and artists that create these pieces are the rightful owners and are trying to make a living off of their efforts; stock agencies help artists sell their work. In other words, if you use an image Mr. Artist created and it helps you sell your product, Mr. Artist deserves a cut of your profits. If you made the first double cheeseburger, wouldn’t you feel jipped that McDonald’s took your idea?

So who is responsible for payment in one of these instances? Stock companies state that the website owner is the party responsible for payment, not the website developer. You always need to ask where your visual imagery came from.

1. Did you or your team create your website in-house with images you found?
2. Did you or your team send images to your web team to use on your website?
3. Did your web team magically find those images?
4. Did your previous web team provide those images to your new web team?

Now that the moral part of my article is finished, let me elaborate on copyright infringement.

“Copyright is a form of protection grounded in the U.S. Constitution and granted by law for original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression. Copyright covers both published and unpublished works.” (Learn more at www.copyright.gov.) If you have used a stolen image that is copyrighted, the owner or stock agency has the right to bill you up to three times (3x) the standard usage fee. In addition, you would be responsible for both your legal fees and the other parties legal fees should the matter go to court.

What do you need to do to avoid this? First, be careful where you take your images from. Second, become educated on the subject. If you see the word “free”, it doesn’t always literally mean “FREE”.

Very few photos are free; only PD photos (explained below) have no copyright attached. In other cases, the original photographer usually owns the copyright of the image as the creator. To use a copyrighted image, you need to purchase a license. In the case of free and creative commons images (explained below), the license is free. On the other hand, paid “stock photography” requires that you pay for the license. This license defines the expected use of the image (usage refers to a number of factors including but not limited to how large the image is, where/how it is used, how long it is in use, and the expected size of the audience or geographic region). It’s important to understand that buying a stock image does not make you the owner or copyright holder of the image – you are buying a license to use the image. The following buyers glossary was borrowed from www.budgetstockphoto.com.

GLOSSARY

Stock Photo – A stock photo is simply an “off the shelf” image that was taken with the intention of being reused in a design, web site etc., this compared to having someone take a custom photo for you. Stock photos can be obtained either free or by purchase. The term “stock photo” is used to differentiate these images from those which were taken as artworks, or for documentary or editorial purposes.

Public Domain (PD) – Public Domain images are images that have been made available for free use and have no terms attached. Typically the choice of subjects and image resolution or quality is limited.

License – A license describes the terms which you agree to when you ‘buy’ an image for use. These conditions typically prohibit you from reselling the image or using it in certain predefined ways. When you ‘buy’ an image you are in fact buying a license to use it, you are not buying the copyright of the image, a common misunderstanding amongst amateur image buyers. Licenses vary from site to site, so always check to be sure you can use the image in the way you intend. There are two main license types in stock photography: Rights Managed (RM) and Royalty Free (RF).

Creative Commons – Creative Commons is a system of licenses which allows photographers to provide their work for free under certain well defined conditions. These conditions typically exclude the image from being used in commercial applications and ALWAYS stipulate that the photographer be attributed where the pictures are used. Many photographers use creative commons as a way of promoting their work in front of a wider audience.

Microstock – Microstock is a term applied to Royalty Free stock photo agencies who source their images from not just professional photographers, but also amateurs via a strictly controlled review process. Microstock sites are a marketplace for thousands of photographers to sell their work to you, but buyers only need to deal with the agency itself. Most sites allow you to buy credits that afford you a number of downloads of varying resolutions. Most also Microstock agencies sell vector illustrations and some sell stock footage (video).

Resolution – Strictly speaking, the term Resolution refers to how many pixels (the smallest elements of a digital image) are displayed or printed in a defined area (i.e. 300 dots per inch – 300dpi), but the term is often used to refer to the dimensions of an image in pixels (e.g. 1200×1600 pixels). The higher the number of pixels, the larger you will be able to print or display the image without losing quality.

Subscription Images – Subscription Images allow you to pay a monthly or annual fee to access a pre-defined number of photos as you need them. This is a lower-cost option if you need images on a regular basis.

Editorial Photo – The term Editorial Photo is usually applied to images of events or celebrities. Editorial Photos have special license terms applied to them; they normally cannot be used in advertising or promotional material.

Extended License – Extended License is a term used by stock agencies to allow images to be used in more applications than normally allowed. For example, to resell a photo as a derivative product like a framed print, website template, poster etc., you need to buy an extended license or merchandise license. These types of licenses cost more than standard royalty free licenses.

Royalty Free (RF) – Stock photos which are supplied for unlimited use (within the license terms which do sometimes include restrictions) are called Royalty Free because you do not pay a royalty each time the image is used or for how many times it is displayed. Microstock images are sold as RF. (Note that this term is missleading – RF images are not “FREE”.)

Rights Managed (RM) – Rights Managed is usually the most expensive way to buy stock photos, but has some key benefits in exclusivity, as rights managed images are strictly controlled. With Rights Managed, you pay to use the image or images on a per use basis. For example, you may use a RM image on an internal page of 10,000 copies of a magazine, or on the front page of a web site for 1 year.

Attribution / Credit Link – An attribution or credit is piece of text or web link displayed alongside an image when you use it. Unless used in editorial applications paid stock images almost never require a credit. Conversely a large majority of free stock photo licenses stipulate some kind of ‘credit’, as do all creative commons licenses. In this case, you can think of the attribution being made in lieu of payment to the photographer. If you use the images without giving the credit, then you will be breaking the terms of the license leaving you open to legal action. Many people find themselves in this situation when they simply download a photo they see in the internet and use it.

Just two more terms to cover and then you will know the basics regarding the use of online images:

Non-Exclusive – Non-Exclusive images can be sold to others and be used elsewhere. This is important to note if you do not want a competitor or another business using the same imagery as you. McDonald’s, for instance, would be silly to buy a non-exclusive image of a juicy hamburger because Burger King could swipe it up too. Imagine the damage this would have on both companies’ reputations. Non-Exclusive images should not be used in your organization’s branding where image recognition should cause one to automatically think of your organization, product or service.

Exclusive Images – Exclusive Images cannot be sold to others, only the one buyer is granted usage rights. It costs a lot more, but is good for brand identity.

If you find free clip art online, make sure you read the license agreements. They are very much like agreements on any website… very easy to look over and click “I agree to the terms” without taking a glance, but they contain very important information. Every website, agency and individual photographer/artist has their own licensing rules, so take care in checking each image.

Finally, we recommend you check your website and any online media (print media is also something to double-check). Question any images in which their source locations are not accounted for and consider replacing them.

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This paper is for those who are not professional photographers but who wish to take their own photos or use photos from their current collection. These tips will help you enhance and optimize your photographic imagery.

TAKING THE SHOT

Lighting is the most important part of your photo shoot.

If your shots are located outside, morning and late afternoon/evening light is best. Harsh, noon sunlight is very difficult to work with, as well as spotted sunlight (under trees, for example). However, noon on an overcast day produces soft and diffused lighting which is very nice to work with.

If you are working indoors, overhead light is best – remember that if you are using artificial light, you want to try and manipulate it to act as the sun would.

Remove the clutter because less is more.

Your subjects are the most important part of your photos, so do not distract the viewer with clutter and poorly planned sets. If unrelated items in the foreground or background do not enhance the shot, find a way to avoid or hide them.

EDITING YOUR PHOTOS

When hosting a photo shoot, you usually take multiple shots of each composition. You want to capture various angles, looks and emotions. This means you have a lot of photos to go through. This process is called editing. Editing is selecting the final photos that you want to use. This is often confused with retouching or enhancing, the next stage.

RETOUCHING & ENHANCING PHOTOGRAPHS

Before delving in, remember that the better your photo is to begin with, the more you will get out of it. Put effort into creating a well shot photograph and do not rely on photo editing programs to fix your mistakes.

Photo editing programs like Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Paint.NET are great for adding an extra kick to your images. Here are some features you should know about: Levels (right) adjusts your exposure. This chart is commonly called a histogram. It allows you to read your image’s exposure. Your exposure should have a little pure black and a little pure white, which is indicated by the Input Levels touching the left and right sides of the histogram. There are two ways to adjust the Levels. First, slide the pointers/arrows along the histogram. Second, select one of the three eye droppers on the bottom right corner and click within your image; the grey eye dropper works like a digital grey card – select an area in your image that should be pure grey with no hue and your image will color balance! It’s really cool; play with it as well as the black and white droppers (which will make the selected area pure black or pure white and you will get all sorts of dramatic results.

Color Balance (right) adjusts your overall hue to look natural. The human eye automatically adjusts for hue changes when moving into different lighting like tungsten, fluorescent, candle-light and sunlight, but the camera can’t. If you find the Levels Grey Eyedropper (discussed in Levels) difficult to use, this is an alternative. Use the sliders to adjust an image’s hue. If it is too cyan, move the Cyan-Red slider towards Red to level out the hue. You can also pinpoint areas of your image by selecting Shadows, Midtones or Highlights.

The Healing and Stamp tools are invaluable tools that you will love. Are there spots in your images from dust on your camera lens? Was there a piece of trash in the background that you didn’t notice? Does your subject have blemishes or acne? These tools will come to your rescue! The Healing Brush (left, left) resembles a band aid. It is handy when you want to remove a blemish from your image and need to copy the surrounding pixel pattern to make the area of interest fit in smoothly. You select an area by holding down the Alt key and clicking the area of the image you would like to mimic. Release the Alt key and click with the mouse over the blemished area you would like to remove.

The Healing Brush not only copies the pixel pattern, but it adjusts the pattern to fit the colors! See the tree trunk sample to the (left, top); I have selected the tree trunk pattern and painted it over the softly focused backdrop where you now see a green-hued trunk texture. The Stamp Tool (left, right), on the other hand, copies an area exactly as it looks. The blemished skin sample below is a good example. These tools also allow you to adjust their hardness/softness, allowing for a gradated edge or a very sharp edge.

This blemished example is what you can achieve with the Healing Brush and Stamp Tool. In a matter of seconds, I removed all serious blemishes from this patch of skin. Play with these and adjust the transparency too. You can use this to dull wrinkles and lines under the eyes, reduce glare on the “T” area of the face and much more.

CROPPING vs. RESIZING

Cropping your images is not the same as resizing. Cropping an image cuts out part of the image for a more flattering composition. Resizing an image adjusts the size of the image both in height/width and file size. Print and Web graphics require different pixel ratios, so images need to be resized based on their intended use.

DPI or Dots Per Inch is referenced when printing. Images in prints should be between 240 and 300 DPI. When you are resizing an image, you need to set the PPI or Pixels Per Inch somewhere between 240 and 300 PPI.

PPI or Pixels Per Inch is referenced when used in web or digital presentations. Computer monitors display at a resolution of 72 PPI. This is especially important to remember when placing images and photographs in your website. You should always make it a habit of resizing your images to 72 DPI at the exact height and width you need them when applied to digital media. For example, adjusting the width and height in web-code produces a visually smaller image, but it does not actually reduce your image size. If you don’t resize your images for web, your site will load super slow and nobody will stick around to see what your website is all about.

Have a great time enhancing your digital photography!

To view a full white paper on photography technique, read “Exposure, Shutter Speed, & F-Stop Explained”, written by me!

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