Selling photos online... official MoneySavingExpert.com discussion

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  • anewman
    anewman Posts: 9,200
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    Use highest quality and resolution settings available. If the image is only just short, you could add a border in photoshop and save at highest quality possible.

    Looking at the specs the coolpix 885 is old in terms of modern technology (2001) and only 3 megapixels. I own a similarly aged and specced camera, an olympus c-3030, which no doubt cost about £400 in it's time, it has some of the more professional options, like shutter and aperture priority settings etc, rather than bog standard point and shoot, but unfortunately is worth very little now.

    Probably a decent camera to get now is the Canon EOS-400d. Probably the best balance of price, quality and features. They'll sometimes be mentioned in grabit while you can when they turn up cheaper than usual and the £50 cashback offer is on.
  • cbr_2
    cbr_2 Posts: 12 Forumite
    My experience of selling prints through Art markets, Craft Fairs and through personal contacts is that any subject can sell to the right person. I have sold traditional landscape and local landmarks (e.g. Clifton Suspension Bridge here in Bristol), but also more unusual images e.g. graphic images of reflections, shadows etc.

    But as others have pointed out, the quality has to be there. Even the 'man in the street' can tell the difference between a good quality print and an image taken on a 'cheap' camera.
  • Thanks cbr. I was just being curious really. I know people can and do buy the strangest things (My chinese friend raves about pics of rampant horses in warlike garb and yellow dogs on cushions and is convinced us Brits will love them too) I accept I'm not commited or good enough to print and try selling at fairs. A friend, Gill Flett, produces some fab, professional stuff with tremendous effort and skill...I wouldn't dream of comparing my "snaps" to her work. Perhaps a new camera for Christmas!!
  • JennG18 wrote: »
    that's exactly the same problem I had... it only wants an image size of 10mb not a file size... if you use photo shop go to Image - Image Size and it says at the top of the little box the image size, you can increase the size in there but if you increase it to much it distorts it... when I had increased the pixels to the size they required my image size was 12Mb but the file size was only 3Mb and thats what they wanted... the image size of 12Mb not the 3Mb... if that makes sense

    I uploaded some picture to them a week or so ago and haven't heard anything back yet

    Hi there, Thanks so much for your advice. I'm having a go and my Mb are getting bigger (but I'll read photoshop tutorials in a minute!) Let me know if you get any photos published or even sold! Good fun for winter! Cheers!
  • Jake'sGran
    Jake'sGran Posts: 3,269 Forumite
    In the 80's we went to Venice and I was really inspired to take pictures with my SLR. One in particular I liked very much and had it blown up and framed.
    Blow me, driving to work one day, I saw this picture on the back of a bus advertising Thomson holidays. Do you think the people who process films ever spot a good one and send it to someone who is likely to be interested?
  • shopbot
    shopbot Posts: 1,022
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    Jake'sGran wrote: »
    In the 80's we went to Venice and I was really inspired to take pictures with my SLR. One in particular I liked very much and had it blown up and framed.
    Blow me, driving to work one day, I saw this picture on the back of a bus advertising Thomson holidays. Do you think the people who process films ever spot a good one and send it to someone who is likely to be interested?

    I believe that if it was your photo then you would have a legal claim. You owned the copyright as you took the photo and as long as you had not signed this away then no-one has the right to use it without your consent. If you it was being used to sell holidays then someone would have been paid for that photo. The difficulty is proving it was your photo you saw. I have seen a photo on the internet that I could have sworn was mine at first glance. At second and third glance I still thought it was. After a good 5 minutes of minute inspection I realised it was just very similar. In a place like Venice so many photos are taken of the same subjects that some photos will be very similar. Search for photos of St Pauls Cathedral with the Millenium Bridge in the foreground and you will see what I mean.
  • Well blow me!! I've just had a lovely email from British Images saying my photos are just what they want!! 2 are "live" but whether anyone wants them or not is another matter. Chuffed or what! Thanks everyone for sharing great advice. I feel like I've won an oscar. :D Constructive criticism welcome - see my "buckets and spades" and "Best in Show" veggies in Food. And yes, I should have framed them a bit better!
  • jamlaw
    jamlaw Posts: 32 Forumite
    niccy wrote: »
    I do however have a query , when does a photo (that could theoretically belong to someone else) become so manipulated and altered that it is then yours?
    Is it when the original photographer can no longer recognise it ?

    Hi, Just followed all the way through this thread, as it is of particular interest to me. I saw that no-one had picked up on niccy's question, and couldn't resist throwing in my two-pence worth (for free of course!!)

    I would have to say that the copyright to a photo will remain with the photographer up to the point where he chooses to sell that copyright. If you were to take one of my photos and manipulate it and pass it off as your own (on the assumption that the copyright isn't mine anymore) without my permission, then you would be in breach of copyright. Strictly speaking, you would have to get permission from the photographer first before you would have any legal claim to the copyright.

    If you have modified the photo such that the original is not recognisable in any way, then the photographer may find it difficult to prove that you started with their photo, but this should not excuse the changes in the first place.

    Hope that answers the question!

    (nb - Cool, my first post! Thanks to all those who have inspired me so far on this great and helpful site!)

    :) James
  • jamlaw wrote: »
    I would have to say that the copyright to a photo will remain with the photographer up to the point where he chooses to sell that copyright.
    That's true.

    There are also competition sites and some website where the small print says, as a condition of either entering a competition or uploading pictures to the site, that you assign the copyright to the organiser/owner or that you grant them an unconditional license to use your picture. If you're entering a competition it's going to be with one of your best, and you might end up not being able to use it on your own website. So it's a good idea to read the small print very carefully before you sign or agree to anything.
    jamlaw wrote: »
    (nb - Cool, my first post! Thanks to all those who have inspired me so far on this great and helpful site!)
    Yes, this is my first post too, having browsed the site for ages this is the first time I thought I might have something to offer so I had to sign up really quickly. :)
  • chrisbur
    chrisbur Posts: 4,031
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    ejw wrote: »
    That's true.

    There are also competition sites and some website where the small print says, as a condition of either entering a competition or uploading pictures to the site, that you assign the copyright to the organiser/owner or that you grant them an unconditional license to use your picture. If you're entering a competition it's going to be with one of your best, and you might end up not being able to use it on your own website. So it's a good idea to read the small print very carefully before you sign or agree to anything.


    Yes, this is my first post too, having browsed the site for ages this is the first time I thought I might have something to offer so I had to sign up really quickly. :)

    Completely agree and this trick is being used on a lot of big sites as well, check out the terms and conditions on the ITV and BBC websites.
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