Best Practices for Attribution
Have you been struggling to figure out the correct way to give photographers and other visual artists credit for their work? Read this.
Have you been struggling to figure out the correct way to give photographers and other visual artists credit for their work? Here's how to do it:
1 - GATHER INFORMATION
If you have an image or found one online, first check its copyright status. There are three ways to do so:
Watermark
Look at the picture carefully to see if there's a watermark. If it has been watermarked, it will show a copyright symbol ©, the year that it was taken, and the name of the author/agency.
© 2012 Royce Rumsey/Auto-Focused. All rights reserved.
TinEye
Go to TinEye and upload the image or paste its URL. Sort list by Oldest to find when it was first posted to the internet or look at best matches for pages that have already correctly attributed the image to its author.
Google's Reverse Image Search
Go to Google Images and click on the camera icon to upload an image or enter an URL. Look at "Pages that Include Visually Similar Images" to find websites that have properly attributed the picture to its author.
2 - CORRECTLY ATTRIBUTE IT
There are many ways to do it, so first CHECK IF THERE AREN'T INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO PROPERLY ATTRIBUTE PICTURES ON THE PAGES YOU'RE GETTING THEM FROM. Websites like Wikipedia and Flickr offer formatted attribution captions that you will only have to copy-paste. In case there aren't, follow the formats below.
If image is under Creative Commons licenses (CC), follow TASL:
“Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco” by tvol is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Title? “Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco”
Author? “tvol” – linked to his profile page
Source? “Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco” – linked to original Flickr page
License? “CC BY 2.0” – linked to license deed
For more information on Creative Commons best practices for attribution, click here.
If image comes from a News Agency, write author/Agency — and the link to the source:
Photo: Joan Smith/AFP — and link
Photo: AFP — and link
If image is copyrighted, write what the watermark/caption says and add a link to their website, when possible:
© 2012 Royce Rumsey/Auto-Focused. All rights reserved.
or
© Royce Rumsey
or
© Royce Rumsey | drivetribe.com/t/auto-focused-Aqgt8gFrQUS1vlhdkwbbHA
If image belongs to a commercial establishment, do this:
Photo: ABC Co. Ltd. All Rights reserved.
Photo/Image courtesy of ABC Co. Ltd. [Joan Smith, etc]
Photo/Image reproduced by kind permission of Joan Smith.
If image doesn't fit any of the above, write this:
Photo: "[Title]" by [Author] - and link
3 - ASK FOR PERMISSION
Even if you follow all above, a copyright holder still can ask for their image to be taken down from DriveTribe. The only way to prevent having your post deleted and having to redo it (yikes!) is to ask for permission to use the material.
I messaged Royce to use that picture but because I'm anxious and irresponsible, I didn't wait for his response to publish this article. That means that he has every right to leave a nasty comment here and ask for me to remove his picture, which I will have to do immediately and without complaint.
When using pictures, try to go the other way around if you want to save time. Go to places like Flickr and Wikipedia, and search for images that are copyright free. Use their attribution tools and you won't have to write anything.
To Copy-paste 'Attribution,' click on 'Download all sizes.'
For more information on Copyright Law, read the links below:
Copyright Law of the United States
Full text of the Berne Convention
P.S. NEVER caption your image with "Photo: Google Images/Pinterest/etc"
You should give credit to the authors, not to a search engine. Google does not own the image you're adding to your article.
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Comments (10)
Thank you Pat, this is an important skill to have even though most people don't even consider it. You're making Drivetribe a better place!
An extremely informative article Patricia but sooo much to take in to avoid breaching copyright Like Aurelie familiar with IP and Creative Commons. Some great tips on how to source and reference correctly via Google
Thanks for the guide, Pat. Unfortunately, I'm lost with the credits even if I'm obsessed by the intellectual property/copyright. I knew some tools you mention but I've never used them until now.
Hi congratulations - your post has been selected by DriveTribe Design Ambassador for promotion on the DriveTribe homepage.
How do you go about copyrighting your own images? I don't add any watermarks but have started adding my name to any published articles. I'd be annoyed to find someone making £$ out of my images so is there a guide anywhere that you know of? Bearing in mind I'm pretty lazy I'm hoping there's a simple solution!
You can do like Royce Rumsey does, he adds a watermark to all of his work. That doesn’t avoid people from cropping your photo to remove your watermark, but’s it’s a way to prove the image is yours.
I just add my name to the caption, but my photos aren’t good enough for people to want to steal them.