iPhoneography - should I sign/copyright my images?

[AlyZen]

Hi, new here. Hope you veterans can help advise. I am an iPhoneographer; I take photos with my iPhone4 camera and then manipulate them using various Apps. (You can see my work on Flickr under the name AlyZen Moonshadow). I was advised by several friends to put a small signature on all my images, to protect them from being used illegally. So now my images have "(c) AlyZen Moonshadow" on the bottom right or left of the image.

Several of my iPhone Art images are being exhibited at a gallery in the US. There are 40 iPhoneographers being featured, on 40 iPad screens as an installation. Now the Gallery has asked me to remove my copyright signature from my images, saying it's a collective exhibition and therefore signatures are not allowed? (This was not mentioned in their Call for Artists, BTW).

What should my response be? Should I stick to my guns, or should I give them my unsigned images? Help, please!

 

[jackerin]

What should my response be? Should I stick to my guns, or should I give them my unsigned images? Help, please!

I would provide unsigned for galleries, but keep the signed for the internet.

Though having a copyright sign on the images will not stop anyone who wants to use them illegally. It's a half-minute fix to do in Photoshop to crop out the copyright sign for anyone who is so inclined.

 

[mackmgg]

I would provide unsigned for galleries, but keep the signed for the internet.

Though having a copyright sign on the images will not stop anyone who wants to use them illegally. It's a half-minute fix to do in Photoshop to crop out the copyright sign for anyone who is so inclined.

Yeah, the watermark doesn't really stop people who want to use the photos illegally, but it's still nice to have. For galleries, you can give them the photos without the watermark. Even without that there, you still own the copyright to the photo. They still can't legally resell the photos, even without the watermark.

 

[thatisme]

If you are concerned, imbed your copyright into the exif of the pic. You can watermark your pics, but in a lot of cases, it turns possible purchasers / displays off, but it doesn't really prevent theft, so it's a double lose proposition for you.

Your best bet is to imbed the copyright, then register your works with the copyright office. At that point, you have done all you can, then it's just a matter of remaining vigilant.

 

[Keleko]

I checked out some of your pictures on Flickr, and they look pretty good!

Can you list the various apps you use? I saw Photoforge mentioned. What else do you use?

 

[AlyZen]

Thanks

Thanks for the replies, guys. Looks like I'll have to keep copies of unsigned images for future gallery exhibitions? That said, this is virgin territory really, as my images only exist as JPEGS or on the iPhone, so there's no printing off unsigned prints for the gallery. Everything so far is done online on virtual galleries.

Keleko: I use many Apps, here are some of my most-used ones: Iris Photo Suite 1.4, Bad-Camera, ScratchCam, King Camera, Camera+, Photo Wizard, PhotoForge2, Touch Retouch, FotoMuse, DXP, Photogene, PictureStudio, FX Photo Studio, InfiniFX, QBRO, Filter Mania.

I use the App: Impression to sign my finished images, it's more of a signature than a watermark. I consider my work Art rather than just Photography, which is why I digitally sign them, to show that it was created by me. So, when the gallery asked me to remove my signature for the exhibition I was really taken aback...if this were Oil or Watercolour paintings, you wouldn't dream of asking the artist to remove their signature, so why do it with iPhoneography?