Into the Night Photography

Reply to Tips, Helps, & Tutorials for Night Photography

nobody@flickr.com (Steven Christenson) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 08:21:02 -0700

I coined the "500 rule" in 2008. Before then I had only ever heard about the "600" rule. In any case, both are crummy rules. In the end it's more a matter of aesthetics than mathematics.

The point of the rule, of course, is to get "still stars" rather than streaks, but there are lots of assumptions to consider!

Perhaps the most popular article is on how to find the Milky Way. For those who haven't seen it with their eyes, I so recommend finding a dark place to take a look.

Reply to Promoting your night photography via Creative Commons

nobody@flickr.com (Steven Christenson) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 07:49:51 -0700

Steven Christenson posted a reply:

I disagree with Trey. He is successful not because of his CC attitude, but because he is successful.

I believe that failing to put a modest watermark (brand) on your image is a marketing failure. If I find, for example a beautiful Milky Way over Devils Tower on Pinterest I may have little chance to discover the real image or artist because, as is often the case, that image though originally on 500px or Flickr was copied by hand to someone's blog (under CC) and was reposted from there to Pinterest - same thing happens if the image first winds up on say Tumblr which makes copies of and not links to images. Supposing I WANT to license or buy the image or I just want to learn more about that photographer's work: it is nigh impossible - without something ON the image - to figure out who actually owns the image, so it's a lost opportunity.

What good is it to the creator that his image is loved by millions who have no idea who he is, or how to reach him? How many famous painters are there who don't sign their images? Name a pair of jeans, a purse, or a cola that doesn't have branding on it!?

Moreover, the act of stripping out a watermark itself shows intent to steal a copyrighted work and makes prosecution that much easier when needed.

In other words, the CC thing is not really a problem, it's the full size un-credited / un-branded (watermarked) image that I see as the problem.

And by extension, the watermark should at least include a name by which you can be found on the internet. "SC" (my initials) wouldn't match anything. Obviously an "offensive" watermark is the wrong way to go (e.g. one that seriously mars the image).

By the way there is another "upside" to branding your images... people will see your brand and let you know that your image is being abused - has happened many times for me!

PS I wonder what Trey & co would do if you wholescale took his image and posted it on Flickr as your own. Anybody want to try that? I'm sure it happens! Hell, it's happened to me.

Reply to Has anyone shot the Trona Pinnacles at night?

nobody@flickr.com (Steven Christenson) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 07:00:26 -0700

Steven Christenson posted a reply:

Laura, just a little searching in Flickr will show you many shots. I lead workshops at Trona at night, for example.

There is light pollution toward Ridgecrest and toward Trona, but it's generally dark enough to see the Milky Way:

Has anyone shot the Trona Pinnacles at night?

nobody@flickr.com (Laura Zirino) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 10:09:58 -0700

Laura Zirino posted a new topic:

Hi everyone-I saw a picture of the Trona Pinnacles and thought they might look great under the stars. Has anyone tried this? China Lake and Ridgecrest are nearby and I'm worried about light pollution. Does anyone know how dark the skies are out by the pinnacles? I just did a search on the Dark Sky Finder and I'm not optimistic but I thought I'd see if anyone has firsthand experience. Thanks!

Reply to Promoting your night photography via Creative Commons

nobody@flickr.com (David Kingham) — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 16:53:22 -0800

David Kingham posted a reply:

I've been using CC non commercial for almost a year now and couldn't be happier. I no longer worry about the petty uses of my images and gladly share. Yes, there could be a lot more attribution than there currently is, but that's because there's currently no easy way to do it, until there's some automated way to pull the info from the metadata or something similar this will continue to be a problem. But, I just don't worry about it. Stipple is trying to make this better, but right now it looks like a glorified pinterest.

I do register my images with the copyright office every quarter, and when I find a commercial infringement I will be on the phone with my IP lawyer very quickly and will be excited for a big paycheck.

Reply to Tips, Helps, & Tutorials for Night Photography

nobody@flickr.com (M. Monteiro) — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 11:15:45 -0700

M. Monteiro posted a reply:

Do you want to know where to find the Moon during the next night?
Or even where to find the Milky Way ?

Check it out here : http://www.stellarium.org/

Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.

Reply to Tips, Helps, & Tutorials for Night Photography

nobody@flickr.com (IronRodArt - Royce Bair ("Star Shooter")) — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 04:52:42 -0700

IronRodArt - Royce Bair ("Star Shooter") posted a reply:

Here are some tips on photographing fireworks displays.

Reply to Promoting your night photography via Creative Commons

nobody@flickr.com (IronRodArt - Royce Bair ("Star Shooter")) — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 02:18:24 -0700

IronRodArt - Royce Bair ("Star Shooter") posted a reply:

I'm still UNDECIDED about Creative Commons. After seeing Trey Ratcliff's success with CC, I decided to do a test about two years ago. I put up a dozen images under the CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs. There is no doubt that CC exposure increased the popularity of these images; however, I was appalled by the number of people who used my images on their websites without giving me credit. More importantly, most did not give a link back to my website, even though there were clear requirements for doing so. But the biggest revelation, was the number of commercial uses of my images without contacting me for a license!

This is one of those test images. A Google Images search shows over 100 appearances of this image on the Web, and less than 10% are credited or linked back to me! Click on the image, and see for yourself:

In defense of the CC model, it only takes a few popular blogs, without attribution, and dozens of other bloggers will copycat the image on their blogs. I discovered this last year, when a popular blogger posted this All Rights Reserved image of a Maui waterfall without attribution. Within a week, over 170 websites had posted this image, and most without attribution to me! So, having a clear "All Rights Reserved" copyright is no guarantee against thievery.

I may decide to give the power of CC another try, only this time I will take Trey's advice and register my copyright on each test image before I enter them into the CC arena. For those of you not familiar with the benefits of copyright registration, there are many attorneys who will take on a copyright infringement case on a contingency basis (usually 30% of the fees collected). This is because the U.S. Copyright Law allows for up to a $150,000 statutory damages award, and actual damages or loss in profits do not have to be proven --only that the offender willfully infringed on the copyright! (I'm talking about those using your images for commercial purposes, without licensing or getting permission from you.) This hefty damages provision in the law causes many offenders to settle out of court.

Reply to Promoting your night photography via Creative Commons

nobody@flickr.com (IronRodArt - Royce Bair ("Star Shooter")) — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 19:08:55 -0700

IronRodArt - Royce Bair ("Star Shooter") posted a reply:

PRO Creative Commons: Trey Ratcliff is an HDR photographer also known for his world famous Stuck in Customs travel photography blog. Like Dave Morrow, Trey also makes his full-resolution, Nikon D800 images available to the public via a Creative Commons non-commercial license. You can download his images from either Flickr or via his SmugMug site. Despite this easy access, he is still able to sell prints via his site!

Trey has the philosophy that art is meant to be seen and not hoarded. His licensing policies are designed to balance the costs that go into creating and sharing his images with the desire to provide inspiration through his images on the internet and around the world. This philosophy and licensing model has been extremely successful for him.

In a blog about Why Photographers Should Stop Complaining About Copyright and Embace Pinterest, Trey also shared more background about his Creative Commons marketing strategy. Here are a few quotes to entice you to read the whole article:

"Sharing isn’t the future; it’s the now. ...if you want people to see your work in all its glory, it needs to be available at maximum resolution with no watermark. This is my opinion."

"I’ve been doing this for over five years under the Creative Commons Noncommercial license, which means anyone can use my images for personal reasons such as blogs, wallpapers, etc., but they must contact us for commercial licensing. It has resulted in my images getting 100′s of millions of views in the past few years; and emerging in the last six months in Google+, where open sharing has helped me to get over 3 million followers. When I share images there, the results go crazy because of the multiplication effect. For example, the 'End of the World' image has been viewed more than 35 million times. None of this would have happened if I had the opposite attitude towards sharing."

35 Million Views!

"Despite what fear-mongers have told you, everyone will not steal your images. Most legitimate companies will work out a proper licensing arrangement with you. Even though I use Creative Commons Noncommercial, I still license my images with the Copyright office. This enables us to sue companies that do not go through the proper channels. There was a well-publicized case lately where we sued Time for using my images in an ad for their iPad app. But that is another story. The point is that most people do not steal, and on those edge cases where it does happen, you have many reactive options."

Reply to Promoting your night photography via Creative Commons

nobody@flickr.com (IronRodArt - Royce Bair ("Star Shooter")) — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 15:53:11 -0700

IronRodArt - Royce Bair ("Star Shooter") posted a reply:

CON - dislikes Creative Commons: After offering all of his photos under a CC license for several years, Stephen Heron, has removed all his photographs from the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. "I am unhappy with the way it has worked out," says Steve. He is now re-licensed all his photos under a full copyright / All Rights Reserved.

Steve is a retired newspaper sub-editor living in Dublin, Ireland, and does photography as a hobby. He loves sharing his photos with the world, and the CC model gave him a lot of exposure. Unfortunately, he began discovering that way too many people were taking advantage of his generosity and never giving him credit, let alone a link back to his Flickr site!

He still tells bloggers that they are welcome to use any of his photographs providing they give a link back to his photostream; and anyone else wanting to use his photos are required to contact him first to discuss terms. He has also limited access to his images on Flickr, and displays nothing larger than 800 pixels.