Friends Editing Your Photos...

[rachb]

So I have a situation that I would love some advice from like-minded people about. I am in training for the Army, and a class acquaintance and his girlfriend came to my home and stayed the weekend with me. During that trip, I shot some impromptu photos for them, did a bit of editing, and posted them on facebook so she could tag herself in them. Well, a few days later I saw some photos that my Photography page had been tagged in, and it turned out to be photos that the woman had edited herself and then tagged my page in them. She didn't butcher them, but she did some "enhancements" that look nothing like the other photos on my page (coloring, muddy black and white..) I detagged the shots, but not before people had already commented on them and she gave me credit for them.

I am the photographer in my friends group, and often people will edit my shots to their "creative" liking, but this is the first time someone has ever tagged my page in them. Has anyone else had this happened? Is it just a shrug it off thing? I'm building my portfolio, and would rather not have people see things that aren't even really my work.

Would love your advice or stories! I am not a confrontational person, so that makes it a bit harder.

[dmann]

I don't have facebook so I can't exactly relate but this is what I do. I type up a letter and put the letter in with their disc. I address the editing issue as follows:


I am still learning the editing process. if you have any suggestions for me regarding your images I will take them into consideration and can re-edit to your liking, of course this is in moderation.
I do NOT give permission for my images to be edited by anyone other than myself. Not only is the editing a learning experience for me at this point, but it also represents my work. My artistic style is reflected through the images and even at this early stage in my photography I do have a reputation to uphold. I would be more than happy too however, edit your images for you if you want a certain image in sepia, B&W or otherwise. Just contact me through email.

Hope that helps a bit

[Stephanie C]

Can you set your privacy settings for your page so that people can't tag your page? That might be the easiest, and most non confrontational way to do it.
And you could send the person a message saying exactly what you said in this post. That you are building your portfolio and don't want things that are not entirely your work linked to it. I, personally, would find that to be a perfectly acceptable reason for not doing it, and would not get offended.
Good Luck.

[faeriegodess612]

A simple contract would solve this problem. Even if it's something you type up yourself, if its on paper, and its signed by them, it is binding and will hold up in court if you wanted to go that far. I know its just a hobby right now, but the thought of possible legal action can be enough to scare some people off from doing it. Other than that, just tell them politely that you dont appreciate them editing your photos.

[Ginger Pixie]

I use facebook for social networking, but have no business.

If you adjust your privacy settings, you can approve tags before they are applied. I have this setting as I hate it when people post TERRIBLE photographs of me and think I would love the entire universe to see them.

On a different note - it drives me bonkers when my 16 year old daughter edits photographs I have spent time processing to get WB etc spot on, and suddenly they appear with crazy tints or saturated to the point that makes my eyeballs explode. Her argument is that I chase her around with my camera, so she should be able to make herself look "better" if she feels like it. At least she takes the credit for her edits though!

[CheaperKings]

If you're seriously trying to build a port, don't do it on fb. If someone came to me and said "hey! check out my photography portfolio on fb!" I'd pass...

[SwissJon]

Don't put "portfolio" photos on a private facebook account and expect people not to do whatever they want with them, that's what Facebook is there for. If you want to have a "professional page" do that separately from your private account, and state on it that you do NOT welcome edits of any of your work, that your work is copyrighted. Do not give people access to the originals, and as soon as you see someone that has gone specifically against this, send them a polite message asking them if they'd be kind enough to remove your photos from their account. If that doesn't work, send them a less polite takedown request.

However, since you did this on your own private account where you are not portraying yourself to be a pro photographer, since you have no such agreements in place, everything that's happened is because you acted in a non-professional manner, and people have treated you as a mate. This is ever so common and totally allowed in the Facebook rules. In this case, I'd just shrug it off. You might just want to ask them politely to remove the comment linking you to the photo, but that's about the best you can hope for. Be polite about it.

I went to a wedding in the summer where my best friend got married. I sent a link where she could download a copy of all the photos I took. She downloaded all of them and sent them on a cd to all her friends, a lot of them wound up heavily editied on FB. I hadn't told her that she couldn't so it's my lookout. To be honest, I don't care.. I got a lot of complements on the photos, and if I had been a pro, I've no doubt I'd have got more work from this "mistake"..

I can really understand people wanting to have a professional image with professional level photos, but if you're going to act unprofessionally, don't expect people to know and act as if you were a pro. It's that simple, act in the manner you expect to be treated, but don't expect to keep your friends.

[rachb]

Thanks for all the advice. I am not going to push it any further with her because I de-tagged the shots, but I just wanted to know if anyone else had had this issue, and if I run into it again what courses of action I can take to prevent this. SwissJon, I have never portrayed myself as a "pro" to them or anyone else- we were just messing around downtown and I took some shots of them that would come out better than the camera phone they wanted me to use. The only issue I had with the photos is that her editing was completely different than my style, and I didn't want her pp work credited to me... but just because I wan't acting like a "pro" (how does a pro act?) doesn't mean that I should be totally okay with people editing my work then crediting me with it! If she had put the edits on her page without mentioning me, no problem here!

[phaither]

i think you said it perfectly- you want the photos on your page to be solely yours. if anyone else's PP was applied, it isn't solely yours and that's why you de-tagged. end of story. no judgement on the friend's editing- it simply isn't YOUR editing. perfect.
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