Copyright
Every photo has a Copyright attached whether it was taken by a professional or a complete novice. Copyright is owned by the person who took the photo and permission should always be sought before using someone else's photo for whatever purpose, the exception is if you are using photos from royalty free websites (find some examples at the bottom of this page) These websites encourage photographers to upload their photos royalty free (no charge) so that you can download and use them for any purpose, private use not commercial.
Copyright can be quite subjective in some instances, for example, a photographer takes a photo of you/your child/your dog whilst you are out, without asking permission, they then offer prints of this photo for sale on their website, would you really be happy with this? It is the same for an Artist - downloading a photo off the Internet, creating a piece of Art with it and then making money from that piece of Art without asking permission, can get you into trouble. Unless you are downloading photos from a website where you have been given permission to use the photo for whatever reason, always contact the photographer first if you are able - the photographer may be more than happy to allow you to use their image for free and make money from your Art too, however it may be safer to get this in writing so there are no issues in the future. Most Professional photographers provide high quality images because they tend to have experience, expensive gear and a lot of patience. These people are the ones who can spend hours waiting for that one perfect shot, have spent thousands on their photography equipment and working trips to far flung places, for someone to simply take one of their photographs and use it to make money is extremely unfair and highly likely to find themselves in trouble, in some cases even being sued by the photographer.
Copyright can be quite subjective in some instances, for example, a photographer takes a photo of you/your child/your dog whilst you are out, without asking permission, they then offer prints of this photo for sale on their website, would you really be happy with this? It is the same for an Artist - downloading a photo off the Internet, creating a piece of Art with it and then making money from that piece of Art without asking permission, can get you into trouble. Unless you are downloading photos from a website where you have been given permission to use the photo for whatever reason, always contact the photographer first if you are able - the photographer may be more than happy to allow you to use their image for free and make money from your Art too, however it may be safer to get this in writing so there are no issues in the future. Most Professional photographers provide high quality images because they tend to have experience, expensive gear and a lot of patience. These people are the ones who can spend hours waiting for that one perfect shot, have spent thousands on their photography equipment and working trips to far flung places, for someone to simply take one of their photographs and use it to make money is extremely unfair and highly likely to find themselves in trouble, in some cases even being sued by the photographer.
As an example I saw a stunning photograph in a Birdwatch magazine many years ago, it was the perfect composition and I knew it would make a beautiful painting and so I went online to search for the Photographer's website, which I found and contacted them direct asking if they would allow me to use their image to create a painting. Being a professional photographer, a member of staff got back to me with a price list stating that simply to paint the photo would cost around £75.00 for the image, there would then be extra charges if I wished to sell that piece of Art or to make prints and sell them which would work on a percentage of the sales made. If you are an Artist that can command high prices for your work, paying such prices to a Photographer for the use of an image that very few Artists will have painted in the past or the future may be well worth the money and I know many Artists are happy to do that but the moral of the story is that it is important to know where your reference image has come from before beginning your piece of Art and that it is safe to use and you have Copyright all covered.
Do's & Dont's
