How to Survive Photo Sharing

There is a plethora of photo sharing sites on the internet that range from the largest of the all with millions of members to smaller sites that specialize in film or specific areas of photography. This is a list of pointers for anyone wishing to take part in any of these sites.

1 Read the Terms of Service

More often than not a lot of creative sharing sites have buried in their terms of service conditions where they can use your photographs in anyway that they want. Essentially the photographer is forwarding their copyright to the site for as long as they are a member and have photographs or work on the site. This can be something minor where the photographer gets credit for the work to where the site uses the work in whatever way that they want and without giving credit. That can mean using the preschool graduation photos of your kid to promote video games.

2 Check out the Type of Photographs Shown

Look through the site you are thinking of putting your photos on before uploading. Most sites regulate the work shown rigorously to make sure nothing pornographic is being shown or that is hate group related. This can range from the hooligan that uses a telephoto lens on their local beach, a person I believe to tie in a number one on the depravity list alongside paparazzi in the photography world, to someone promoting hate. It is worth it to take a look at what you are joining before you show the world your photos there. You want a site that cares about what its members are showing. Don't be a prude either because nudity has been a part of art for a long time. However, there is a fine line between artistic nude and porn.

3 Sometimes Bigger Isn't Better

Bigger sites generally offer a whole host of options and a variety of incentives to show your work on their site. They want to entice people into showing their work so that they can get more traffic. This usually means one thing, advertisements. Smaller sites use adverts to stay online. Bigger sites use adverts to pay for all of the options and incentives offered to bring in new members. Sometimes these sites forget about old members like a cellular phone company once they have gotten you to sign up for another year of service. The difference is that you can leave the photo sharing site without a penalty of your first born.

4 Research

Look around and don't just pick the first one that you find at the top of a search list on any popular search engine. The site at the top usually gets there because they pay for that spot. Remember that this is your work and your photographs of either your family with special moments that you are choosing to show to the world or it is your art work, you want your work respected and shown in the best place, not the first place on the list because you didn't bother to look around. There are a lot of places on the web that compare the services of various sharing websites. Many of them are independent and don't get a piece of the pie for a good ranking, when in doubt, Google it because someone out in the world of cyberspace will have an opinion about it.

5 Customer Service

It is a boring thing to think about when you are faced with the best deal known to man. Unlimited bandwidth, free linking, slideshows, and every option in the world are great but think about it because there is always a catch. Usually the catch is that you have taken your first professional job and are about to post photos and/or your daughter has just made the funniest face, you have taken a photo of it,and you can't upload anything. There are no emails telling you there is a problem. You look in the forums or blog for the site and there is no posting of a problem and there is no telling when it will be fixed. Meanwhile you email Aunt Gladys the photo and/or you lost credibility with your client because of bad customer service.

6 Protect Your Work

When uploading a file it is best to reduce the size in Photoshop or whatever program you use. The standard size for showing on the web is a maximum width or height of 800 pixels and lowering the resolution to around 100. It is also good to think about putting your copyright statement on your work. Sites that offer a no right click where it makes it more difficult for a person to download someone else's photos is great but that doesn't mean that it cannot be stolen once a person views a photo because it is stored on their computer.

There have been instances of stealing on every site that I know of, part of protecting your work means picking a good site that will back you up when someone does take your work. It is very unlikely that the owners of the site will go to court with you but on various sites I have seen people's photos get stolen and then on the same site show up again. Some sites will back up the person claiming work is stolen and some will pretend it never happened. The better of the sites take some sort of action. Don't think that it won't happen because if your photos are any good someone is bound to take them.

7 Groups and Cliques

Everyone has had that moment in grade school when they are at lunch and look over to see a swarm of people hanging around one or two people, the popular group. It is no different on a photo sharing site. There is going to always be someone popular and someone who lurks in the corner despising them. Probably it is best not to be either one of those people or even one of them that swarms around them. In rare cases these peoples' work is good; most times it is a knock off of another photographer. People might say that you can't copyright a style, idea, or technique but it doesn't make it right for someone to rip it off.

8 So you're a Pro

Having a pro account on a photo sharing website doesn't mean that you are a professional photographer. It also doesn't mean that you aren't a pro because you may very well be. Saying you are doesn't make you one. It would be like saying that you are famous or brilliant. Picasso could get away with acknowledging that he was brilliant because he was. On the other hand having thousands of comments on photos doesn't mean that you are brilliant either. It just means that people like your work. If you are a pro, the downside to all of this is that being popular doesn't make sales. The people who are most likely to buy art or a photograph generally are not on photo sharing sites. People who share photos generally are hobbyists, want to learn about photography, or are sharing family photos.

9 Critiquing

99.9% of sharing sites are not critique sites. Most sites are filled with people who love photography but it is not their day job or they didn't go to school for it. In other words, the world is not full of art students. It is full of regular people with a small percentage who know how to critique, those would be the art students and some of them don't critique well either. Critiquing takes a lot of time and dialogue between the artist and the people looking at their work. It is nearly impossible to do online. If that is what you are looking for it would be best to join a photography group that meets weekly to discuss work. Keep in mind that the more critiquing you do the less work you are doing whether you are doing it online or at the library on Saturday morning when Three Stooges reruns are on. The more work you do the better you get at it. Critiquing is nice but once you have a grasp of the basics it is better to go from there and make your work your own.

10 That Guy/That Girl in Three Parts

That Guy/Girl Part One: When you pick the perfect site you will always find the nut of the group and they are bound to stop by and give their opinion whether you like it or not. That guy/girl will not be nice; they may even have had a few cocktails before they stopped to take a look at your latest and greatest work. Don't take it to heart. Just because some guy can quote Henry Bresson with accuracy while intoxicated doesn't mean they know what they are talking about and they are bound to quote Bresson.

That Guy/Girl Part Two: Nuts come in all shapes and sizes. The internet has a lot of them because it is easy to get online and anyone can do it. Don't give out names of the people in your photos and don't post the cute photo of junior mooning the mailman because it is most likely going to end up on a site just south of the worst place known to man. A lot of sites give the option of making some photos private for friends and family. Use that option especially with children's photos.

That Guy/Girl Part Three: We all love to have friends and contacts. Some people think it is a validation of their being to have as many as possible. Choose carefully and check out the work of the person who wants to make you their friend. You don't want to end up with That Guy/Girl as a contact. It is probably best to avoid the person with references to sexual positions in their name as well or body parts. Just to be sure. Also, don't be afraid to get rid of that friend who turns out to be a nut.

The last thing to remember is that photo sharing is supposed to be fun and a learning experience. People can learn more about looking at the work of others than reading a book about doing it. Ask a writer the best way to learn to write and he or she will say that the best way is to be a reader. The same is with photography. You learn by looking. A writer will also say that the best writers are not found in English departments. They are out exploring the world and/or what is on their mind. Again, the same goes for the best photographers. They are not in a stuffy room with a bunch of pretentious people discussing techniques or anything technical at all, they are out documenting the life and lives around them, or what is in the head.