For a recent post on Brand New I needed an image of a famous graphic designer that would also happen to have an excellent moustache. Going through Google Images I found what I was looking for: Matteo Bologna. I grabbed the image and used it, without really thinking about it much. After posting, the photographer of that image e-mailed me asking to either give credit or take it down. She was upset. With good reason. I had grabbed her work, modified it, and posted it without attribution. In general, I am good about this kind of thing, giving credit when images come from Flickr or Behance and are easily attributable but since this image appeared on a random blog out of a Google Image search line-up I didn’t bother to keep digging.

I fixed my mistake and then had a nice conversation with Catalina Kulczar — the photographer of Matteo during the 2011 Type Directors Club judging — about how convenient it is for bloggers to just “grab” stuff off the internet with the assumption that everything that’s out there is for us to gather, AS LONG as credit is given. But what to do when it’s not evident who the creator is, especially when sites like Flickr, Behance, and Tumblr rename files with random character strings? Which brings us to what this post is about. Catalina has put together a nice list of what to do if you are a photographer — or, really, any kind of creative putting work out there hoping to get some attention — and you want your work to be properly credited.

So here are six points offered by Catalina:

1) A photo, regardless of whose it is, deserves to be credited. Period. Someone put hours, time, talent, gear, people, experience into creating the image. That deserves - at the very least - a mention (photo credit, preferably hyperlinked to the photographer’s page). When designers put their work out there, they’ve also put time, gear, talent, experience, sweat into what they do and they want to be credited too, right?

2) A blogger, regardless of who it is, should make the effort to find out who created the photo. Period.

3) If the photographer’s info is not immediately accessible, it takes less than 30 seconds to bring the image into Photoshop, go to File - Image Info and, if the photographer did his metadata tagging correctly, her/his name should appear in the Copyright slot.

4) File nomenclature. Add your name to the image file name.
This may lead to a longer file name but I can export the files as TDC12001_PHOTO1_byCATALINAKULCZAR.
That way, if the blogger doesn’t bother going into Photoshop (see above) to find the image creator’s info, there is NO question, whatsoever, on who created that image.

5) Contacting the image creator. I think it’s a simple courtesy and nice to be told that “hey, we’d love to use your photo + credit you for this next blog post we’re doing”
A) It’s ethical
B) it’s flattering and exposure for the photographer
C) publicity for the photographer — who doesn’t love that?
It also avoids emails from friends who tell you “hey, your image is uncredited on such and such blog” — which is what lead to this blog post in the first place.

6) PAY the user for the image use. What a concept!
By simply “taking” images from the creator, the creator isn’t exactly paying rent. The correct, ethical way of using images, really, is coming up with some kind of licensing deal for the use of an image. If we can help elevate once again the standards of image usage, licensing and this entire process, the photography industry would be better off. For more on number 6, I highly recommend visiting Pattie McNab