Google+ and Copyright Information for Photographers

Google+ medium-sized photo created during upload

I’m finally using Google+ after being granted registration during one of the brief opening opportunities.

After completing my profile I created a test Photo Album with four photos. The uploading process was ordinary. It opens a drag and drop box with an option to open a dialogue box. The upload is fairly quick, perhaps a little slower than the Facebook upload but not significantly so.

After the upload is completed it’s possible to edit the original caption and perform minor photo editing, add, edit and delete comments, and add name tags on people in the photo in a popup lightbox editing and viewing screen.

A Histogram and basic camera information shows in the Photo Details option.

Not all this information is available in your public photo albums. They only see the caption and photo details and do not have the capability to add comments. Only people in your Circles can add a comment.

photo Google+ and Copyright Information for Photographers

Google+ 150x150 pixel thumbnail

Google creates several copies of your uploaded photos.

First is a 150×150-pixel thumbnail for display on your About page.

Google+ and Copyright Information for Photographers

Google+ 169x169 pixel Scrapbook photo

A second square thumbnail at 169×169 pixels is built for display on the album cover.

Next is a medium-sized image displayed in the photo album group page. This size varies depending upon the size of the original. My original photo at 960×638 pixels was reduced to 800×532 pixels.

Smaller photos are reduced to smaller sizes proportional to the original size. I have not uploaded a larger image but would think the reduction would be proportionally larger.

Google also stores the original, or a complete copy, for full-sized viewing in the lightbox popup.

There are several differences, other than the sizes, for this new photo collection.

None of the smaller photos created by Google contain the original EXIF or IPTC information. It is stripped out and discarded during the small image creation. The largest image, which I believe to be the original upload, does contain original EXIF/IPTC information.

What this means for photographers is simple.

Make sure you watermark photos before uploading. A visual watermark not only does the obvious, it adds a layer of legal consequences for an infringer. Removing copyright details indicates an intention to violate copyright law. Intent may carry a heavier penalty for the infringer. (I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advise.)

Make sure your photos have accurate and up-to-date IPTC information. Google can’t preserve what it doesn’t have. My original caption, added during the ingest operation, is a brief copyright statement.

“Photo Copyright Gary Gardiner. Not be used without written permission detailing exact usage. Photos from Gary Gardiner, may not be redistributed, resold, or displayed by any publication or person without written permission. Photo is copyright Gary Gardiner who owns all usage rights to the image.“

It is far from a complete notice but does define in simple terms that I own the photo and may limit its use. The statement remains in the caption field for any photos I upload from my computer. There needs to be a simple way to add a watermark and IPTC info for Social Media uploads from my iPhone.

App Developers! Build me an app that precedes photo uploads to selected sites by adding a watermark and copyright information in the IPTC space.

Google now does a better job of retaining original metadata than Flickr and Facebook. Still, the smaller photos which are more likely to be used on blogs and posts do not have IPTC info included.

Meanwhile, watermark your photos and include copyright information in the IPTC metadata.