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Grr! Animal Photos for Animal Rights |
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Our animal rights motto: The greatest threat to people is ignorance. The greatest threat to animals is ignorant people. | ||||||||||||
Glossary
Aspect ratio
The proportion of width to height (or length to width) of a photo.
Bitmap
An image made up of pixels. Two popular bitmap formats are GIF and JPG. The titles of bitmap images are sometimes suffixed .bmp. A bitmap image is also called raster image.
Creative Commons
See the Appendix: Creative Commons Licences, below.
CMYK
See RGB.
Dimensions
The width by height of an image, variously measured in centimetres, inches or pixels). See Pixel and Resolution.
DPI
See Dots per inch.
Dots per inch
The number of dots of ink per inch to print or scan an image onto paper. A printing term that can be confused with ppi (pixels per inch), a digital image term. See Pixels per inch.
File Format
The method used to save digital images for storage on a computer hard drive or other kind of storage device and for transmission by email. Several file formats exist, such as JPG and GIF.
File size
The file size of an image is the amount of space on a computer's hard drive used to store the image or the amount of memory a computer needed to handle the image. Often measured in megabytes.
FTP
A program you can use to send files from one computer to another. FTP is short for File Transfer Protocol.
GIF
A popular file format that does not require much storage space. GIF Stands for Graphics Interchange Format.
Grain
Granular appearance of a digital image or a print. Grain is more noticeable with higher ISO setting, longer exposure time or enlargement.
Interpolation
Increasing the resolution of a photo.
Image
A digital photo or some other kind of digital illustration like a sketch or montage produced on a computer.
JPG
A format for storing files, such as digital images. This kind of format can compress an image file size by up to 90 per cent without loosing much image quality. Also called JPE, it stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, the organisation that developed the technique. The title of an image stored in this fashion is suffixed with ".jpg" or ".jpeg".
Licence: royalty-free vs rights-managed
Photo stock agencies sell licences to use images, not the images themselves. A licence to use an image is granted to someone when they pay a fee for the licence. Two basic kinds of licence are a royalty-free licence (which Grrafix offers) and a rights-managed licence. Their details differ from one stock photo agency to another, but the creator of an image always retains its copyright. Having a royalty-free licence means that you can employ the image for as many times and different uses you want. However, you do not have exclusive use of the image (other buyers can use it at the same time as you). Rights-managed licences are complicated and multiple times more expensive. To calculate the price for an image you would have to know how you intend to use the image, such as what will be its media (eg book, brochure, web site), industry (eg publishing, advertising), distribution area (eg local, national, international), dimension (eg a quarter or full printed page or its web site screen size), circulation (ie how many printed copies it appears in), duration (ie the length of time you intend to use it) and start date.
Lightbox
A digital page where you store your favourite digital images without having to search the archive again to find them. Originally a lightbox was a box with lights inside it for more easily viewing transparencies placed over it.
Megabyte
Megabytes relates to the size (ie space used) of a photo stored on your computer hard drive. Can be confused with megapixel.
Megapixel
Digital images are sometimes measured in megapixels (see Pixel), the width x height of an image in pixels divided by one million pixels. For example, an image 2,000 pixels wide by 3,000 pixels high (ie 6,000,000 pixels) divided by 1,000,000 pixels is a six megapixel image. Can be confused with megabyte.
Megapixel cameras
Cameras with more megapixels shoot more detailed and sharper photos from which larger prints can be made. A three to five megapixel camera will make reasonable 20 x 25 cm (8 x 10 inch) prints, but a ten megapixel camera is preferable for larger prints. Images with few pixels can be enlarged but the resulting quality will suffer.Model release
A model release is a form you may want signed by each person recognisable in a photo (which applies even to you, your family and friends) if the photo is to be used. By signing they give their consent for the photo's use as described on the form (eg to be reproduced for commercial or other purposes). You do not need a model release if no one in the photo is recognisable, eg they are too distant or obscured in some way. As the photographer, getting a proper model release and the relevant signatures is your responsibility because if the photo is used without it someone recognisable in the photo could sue you. Keep the signed model release safely to hand should you need it. You can freely obtain model releases forms on the Web. Someone using the photo without a model release might employ it editorially (eg illustrating features or news) but not for purposes like advertising. Always seek professional legal advice.
Pixel
Digital images are composed of pixels, small squares that store information about colour. Each pixel displays a single colour and images with more pixels are sharper, finer and more detailed allowing bigger prints to be made from them (eg for books or posters). However, more pixels also means a larger computer file size and memory use. You can see the pixels of an image on your computer screen by zooming in to make them appear larger. Pixel is short for picture element. See Megapixel.
Pixels per inch
The number of pixels per inch counted horizontally on a digital image. Digital images of 150 to 300 ppi can make good prints (as low as 100 ppi might not make too bad a print, but 240 to 300 is ideal). Can be confused with dots per inch.
PPI
See Pixels per inch.
Printing Pixels
What digital images make good prints? Digital images of high resolution (eg 2400 x 1600 pixels or about 4 megapixels) can make good prints for most commercial purposes (eg for illustrating books or calendars). A general rule is that digital images should be 150 to 300 pixels per inch horizontally. Over 300 pixels per inch and a point is reached when more pixels do not make the printed picture sharper. Images with few pixels (eg 400 pixels wide x 250 pixels high) may not be successfully enlarged for printing but look good on web pages. (Do not confuse the digital term "pixels per inch" with the printing term "dots per inch".)
Property release
A property release is a form you may want signed by the owner of a property if the property is legally protected by copyright and appears in your photo. Examples of protected properties are certain buildings (like the Empire State Building and Sidney Opera House), works of art (like the Mona Lisa), some stuffed animals (like Mickey Mouse), some cars (like Rolls Royce and London black cabs), company names, trademarks and logos (like the Olympic circles and Coca-Cola). If your photo is used commercially or publicly without an authentic property release, the owner of the property could sue you for using their property without permission. You the photographer are responsible for obtaining an appropriate and signed property release and keeping it safe to produce if necessary. If you are a user of the photo, get the property release from the photographer. There might be some leeway in that if the appearance of a copyrighted object in the photo is incidental (ie a small part of the photo, not the main subject), you might not need a property release. But better be safe than sorry. However, always seek professional legal advice. You can download property releases free from the Web.
Public Domain
Public domain broadly means material that no one owns or controls and anyone can use for any purpose, private or commercial.
Raster image
An image displayed by a series of lines or dots (not by pixels).
Resolution
The number of pixels that make up a digital image. Resolution is measured by pixels per inch (eg 300 ppi) or centimetre, or by width and height (eg 1200 x 1600 pixels), or by the total number of megapixels (eg 1200 x 1600 / 1,000,000 pixels is 1.9 megapixels). Resolution is also an expression of the clarity or sharpness of detail of a digital image (as in "low resolution" or "high resolution" photos). A photo one-inch square with 300 pixels per inch (ppi) contains 90,000 pixels (ie 300 x 300 pixels). The same size photo with 1000 pixels per inch contains a million pixels (1000 x 1000 pixels) and has a higher resolution (ie finer colour and detail).
Resolution & Cameras
Resolution is a standard for digital cameras. A five-megapixel camera will make reasonably good looking large prints, say 28 x 36 cm (11 x 14 inch). But a 10-plus megapixel camera is best for making large prints. What size of print might someone want to make from your digital photos? You cannot know, of course. But you would do best to create images with as many pixels that you can. A good solution is to work with a 10-plus megapixel camera. Useful to note that, although you can crop a large digital image intended for printing without loss of quality, using a software program to add pixels to a small digital image will tend to make it look poor for printing.
RGB & CMYK
RGB & CMYK are different methods for displaying colours. Computer monitors and TV screens display colours by combining RGB (red, green, blue) electronically to create myriad hues. CMYK (blue or cyan, red or magenta, yellow and black) is a process colour printers use to reproduce images in ink for print. A printer may not be able to reproduce some of the colours displayed by a monitor. Therefore, some colours may not turn out as you expect when you move images from screen to paper. If this is important for you, get advice from a printing company. To interconvert RGB and CMYK you can use image editing software, like PhotoShop.
Retouching
Altering the details, such as shadows, highlights or blemishes, of an otherwise completed image.
Royalty-free
See Licence.
Rights-managed
See Licence.
Saturation
The intensity or substantiality of a colour in an image.
Stock Photos
Stock photos are photos displayed by a stock photo agent for prospective buyers to view and buy. Instead of people having to hire photographers especially to go out and shoot the photos they need (to illustrate newspapers, books, etc), they check stock photo agencies for what they need, thus saving themselves time and money. Some photographers specialise in producing photos to sell to stock photo agents.
Thumbnail
A small, low-resolution image. Thumbnails are often displayed several to a page for quick viewing of archive material.
TIFF
A file format that stores digital images entire, without removing redundant data and thereby not losing image quality, as happens when JPG or GIF are used. TIFF is therefore said to be "non-lossy". TIFF is commonly used in stock photography because it give the highest quality of image - but at the cost of a large file size (unlike JPG and GIF). TIFF stands for Tagged Image File Format. The title of an image stored as a TIFF is suffixed with ".TIFF".
Watermark
A mark on an image branding it as someone's property. Some watermarks are visible and others are not. Images displayed on the web for sale (preview images) may be watermarked but their large original versions are not watermarked.
Appendix: Creative Commons Licences
When creators create work, such as photos, illustrations or books, they (usually) automatically own the copyright of their work and can sell their work or give it away free. Creative Commons licences fill a gap between the two extremes of selling and giving away work.
Creative Commons is a Massachusetts non-profit company that develops licences authorising anyone to copy, change, distribute or sell a creator's work, to the advantage of the work's creator and the work's users. Licences were launched in 2001 and are free for everyone. As a creator of a work (photo, painting, book, etc) you just select the licence you want from the licence page at the Creative Commons web site and follow the instructions. See the licence page at Creative Commons.
Types of Licence
You can apply these Creative Commons licences to your photos and illustrations:
You allow anyone to copy, distribute or display your work and any work they derive from your work. (A derived work is one that is changed in any way from the original.) However, they must give you the credit (eg stating your name or web site link with every showing of the work).
You allow anyone to distribute or display your work and any work they derive from it but only for non-commercial purposes.
You allow anyone to copy, distribute or display your work but not anything they might derive from it.
You allow anyone to distribute work derived from your work, even for commercial purposes, but only under the licences (above) that apply to it.
Should you CC or not CC?
As a photo-user, should you use a photo with a Creative Commons licence attached to it? It is usually no big problem to use such a photo, but may depend on how you intend to use it. So if you think the licence could create a problem for you it may be sensible to look for another photo.
As a creator of works (eg photos) should you attach Creative Commons licences to your works? Some useful points to consider are:
For details about Creative Commons licences see Creative Commons.
Photo creator or photo user, Grrafix cannot give you legal advice about Creative Commons licences. Consult a lawyer who specialises in copyright law if you need solid legal advice.