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We take a look at the ways to help you avoid online image theft

Protect your images from theft online

The internet is a great platform for showing off images, and it gives access to a massive audience of like-minded photographers and potential clients. The options for websites and portfolios are constantly growing, which gives more opportunities to spread the word about images, areas of expertise and style.

However, alongside this exposure is the continual threat of copyright infringement and image theft. While many instances are the result of innocent under-appreciation of the serious nature of intellectual property theft – children downloading photos from Google, for example – it’s important to protect your assets.

There are multiple solutions to prevent the theft of images placed online, although no single one may effectively cover all situations and platforms in isolation. Here, we look at some of the most popular options among professional photographers and analyse their benefits and disadvantages.

RIGHT-CLICK PROTECTION

One of the most common strategies for preventing image theft is to add right-click protection apps to your website. This will usually consist of a system that displays a copyright message to users who attempt to copy images using the right-click functionality. While some websitebuilders charge for this, other sites, such as Wix, offer free protection features. Dedicated protection packages such as SmartFrame

(SMARTFRAME.IO) have enhanced functions for securely embedding photographs on your website.

LOGO OVERLAYS

Similar to text watermarks, these logos interrupt image details and limit possible reproduction usage. The main advantage of the choice of a graphic rather than text is that the image can be identified as your property, yet the icon itself is less visually intrusive. You can also deicde to place the mark in the same area each time, making the mark an expected feature of shots.

TRACE YOUR IMAGES

If you need to upload higher-quality files or prefer not to apply watermarks, consider tracking stolen copies rather than attempting to prevent the theft process. A simple Google Image search can find where individual files have been placed online (upload an image on the Google homepage) or you can use an online digital ‘barcoding’ service such as Digimarc (DIGIMARC.COM).

Instead of reducing resolution, consider applying higher compression to your images

REDUCE RESOLUTION

Probably the most common solution is to use software to create a low-resolution copy of the images you plan to upload to your website. While this does not aim to prevent theft, it does serve to deter people from copying your work or at worst limits the use of them. The main disadvantage is that very-low-res files may not allow fullscreen previews, degrading the viewer’s engagement.

PHOTO COMPRESSION

Instead of reducing resolution, consider applying higher compression to your images. Setting a quality rating of seven or eight in Photoshop (Medium/High) will produce usable web quality with minimal artefacts, yet will allow higher resolutions for display in a large gallery. The greater compression will make creating large prints from stolen files challenging.

APPLY WATERMARKS

Another commonly adopted solution is to add watermarks to your image before uploading it anywhere. This usually consists of adding your web address, your name or the name of your business on top of the image, so that it overlaps with key areas of the shot. This essentially prevents editorial or advertising usage without significant image retouching, but the downside is the greatly distracting nature of the watermark itself.