Expert: Tricia Scott-Sahler - 8/9/2007

Question
whew! so much to learn... briefly, I am just a newbie at this stuff....how do I
protect my pics when I send them out to various companies to potentially garner
their business (so they cannot use them in any way) Or should I? Should I just
use Stock agencies? Thanks in advance, Darrel

Answer
Darrel,

As soon as you click the shutter on your camera, you own the copyright.  You can protect your copyright in a few ways.  Register with the copyright office.  www.copyright.gov/ You should have a copyright notice on your images on your website also.

Stock agencies are a good way to go, but you will have to split your earnings with them.  If you are sending images to corporations via the web, make them small jpegs so the can't be reproduced well but still look good on the screen (72 dpi).  If you are sending hard copies of prints in a portfolio, you can remind the viewer on your contact page that the images are Copyright 2007 Darrel ___.  

Hope this helps!