I am freelance copywriter and I’m facing similar situations like 1ce a month…

Well done
.

ya it’s a tough call, you want to show a bigger res file so people can see all the great details, but then you’re just offering something useful to those looking to steal it. i think if the image is strong enough it’ll still look good and people will still think it’s a fantastic photo. i’ve faved a ton of images on flickr that i can only see at 500px. whatever i like about that shot, composition, lighting, colours, pose, concept…i KNOW it’s still a good image regardless if i can actually make out the lightsource in the model’s eyes or not. maybe it’s so small that i can’t even tell their eye colour, but overall it’s not gonna stop me from thinking it’s a great shot. the images you’ve posted on your blog are perfect in size. big enough to see some subtleties in the shot, but not quite big enough for a useful print of any kind.

good luck regardless. it’ll be interesting to see how it unfolds.

Roger, I hear ‘ya on all counts. I don’t recall how they stole the image, but it’s easy to “print screen” and delicately crop or clone out the logo. I never post anything on flickr larger than 700 px, and that’s only after arguing with Jon about that. He insists the bigger the image, the better. I agree with him, visually. But that only makes it easier for the shady bunch to steal pictures.

I’m still waiting on payment. Until then, I’m going to press on with my most irritating front. I might just go to Croatia this summer and meet them face-to-face.

as a fellow flickr user, and being fully aware from many sources about photo theft from ANY online source (if they want it they’ll take it from your blog, your website, your photo library…if it’s online, it’s “fair game” to the unscrupulous), i have always tried to put a small watermark on my images as well, but have the same dilemna as you…i want to protect my image, but also don’t want to distract or cover over the image itself. i’ve even had someone comment saying he like an image but thought the watermark was a shame as it destroyed the image for him. i’ve flip flopped back and forth from an non-intrusive name on the corner which is easily croppable, to my name running right across the image at a very light transparency which is still easily cloneable. in the end, i’ve resorted to uploading a maximun 600pixel long edge image and have ‘download OFF’ on my settings just in case. that way people only have access to an image that won’t yield any decent size print. your ‘view other sizes’ is off on flickr now but just out of curiosity was it on before? and were you uploading full res images before? i’m just curious what size image they got, and how they got it off flickr, to be magazine print quality?

well glad it worked out in the end. slightly humorous though that out of any photog to have something stolen, you’re probably the one they shouldn’t mess with the most!

cheers