20 September 2013

Sheila Smart Photography: My new book - Streets of Sydney, light and dark

Sheila Smart Photography: My new book - Streets of Sydney, light and dark: Below is a preview of my new book (available also as an ebook). It contains 146 pages of candid street photography in monochrome with a &qu...

My new book - Streets of Sydney, light and dark

Below is a preview of my new book (available also as an ebook). It contains 146 pages of candid street photography in monochrome with a "film" effect. Remember film? Click on Full screen (bottom right icon) for best effect.

09 September 2013

Massive infringement of copyright of photographers' work

I belong to a Copyright Infringement Group of photographers and painters on Facebook.  One of our members alerted us to a massive infringement of copyright of a "painter" on Fine Art America, RedBubble and Imagekind.  This person who calls himself a "painter" had lifted at least 275 photographs he found on Google, placed a couple of Photoshop filters on them and passed them off as his work as "oil on canvas" or "acrylic on canvas" but the "original" was not available for sale.  The original, of course, was not "available" because it only existed on his hard drive. His "bio" was a joy to read - all BS of course but he has been exhibited in museums in Oklahoma, etc and has sold his "work" worldwide.  His pieces were derivatives of photographers' images where he has not sought permission to use their work and none was aware that their images were being used for commercial gain.  So we started to track down the legitimate source of his "paintings".  This was made more difficult due to the fact that few, if any, of the images we found were watermarked in any way.  (Please photographers, WATERMARK your work!).  I tracked at least a dozen photographers (many were in Flickr) and advised them of this copyright infringement and passing off.  All were appalled that their work was being used as a derivative and they started to contact him directly and demand removal of their infringed work.  As many of the photographers were impossible to track to legitimate source, I tried another tack with FAA and RedBubble.  I advised them that this "painter" was contravening their terms of use in that they were not "paintings", not "oil of canvas" or "acrylic on canvas" but simply they were photographs he had found on Google and he had Photoshopped and was passing them off as "paintings".  I also stressed to both FAA and RedBubble that they were risking their safe harbour protection if they did not address this issue.   None of the photographers I contacted had embedded a watermark in their work.  This "painter" even took a couple of Getty photographers' work and I emailed my Getty contact (when I was a Getty contributor) and advised her of this infringement.  No response there which is hardly surprising!  Ten days went by and today, I went to the FAA site and did a search of "artists" and lo and behold, his account had been removed.  Unfortunately, his "work" is still appearing on RedBubble but as RB don't give a toss about copyright infringements, I don't expect too much response from them.  They kept advising me to contact all the photographers and suggest that they send DMCAs to RB.  This was impossible as most of the time, I could not find the legitimate source of the image (lack of watermarking yet again!) so I tried the same tack I did with FAA in that the "painter" had contravened RB terms and that they were risking their safe harbour protection.  I won't hold my breath waiting for RedBubble to actually do anything in relation to this.

Update: I also wrote to the Print on demand site,  Imagekind and they have also removed his galleries.  Still waiting for RedBubble to actually do something.
Update: RedBubble has also removed his "work".

After Topaz

Using Topaz Spicify, the image has been enhanced in both colour and "pop". This may be a tad OTT but when printed out, it looks rather good (even if I say so myself!!).

Elderly gents

Image enhancing filters

I have recently been experimenting with different filters for post processing images. Topaz has been one of them. Using the adjust filter, one can change rather dramatically an image which may (or may not) need enhancing. Purists argue that one should not enhance or change an image but in this era, we are bombarded with enhanced movies so it seems a natural progression to enhance still images. The pic directly above is the original image (shot RAW and converted using Adobe Camera RAW).

Rather boring shot of Sydney Harbour

I am going to show how a somewhat boring shot of Sydney Harbour (if there ever could be one!) can be turned into something a little more spectacular. Below is the original shot (shot in RAW format with my Canon 5D) and taken off the back of the Manly ferry.

Sydney Harbour

Sydney Harbour
Rather boring shot of Sydney Harbour

Conversion

Using Adobe Camera Raw ("ACR"), I converted the raw image with parameters: Blacks 7, brightness +31, Contrast +61, Clarity +77, Vibrance +7, Saturation 72 and a bit of Curves which brought me to the below image.

Harbour

Harbour

Flood filter conversion

I then produced a "reflection" using Flaming Pear flood filter. For those unfamiliar with this filter, it gives the image a perception of a reflection (poetical!) and I see it often in publications and I find myself examining ALL images with reflections to see if the photographer had used this very handy filter. I have details of the conversion if anyone is interested but to post it would be a tad boring. Flaming pair flood filters can be found here

Reflection

Reflection
Sydney Harbour reflection using flood filter

Sea of Hats

I was on my lunch hour when I was strolling around The Rocks area of Sydney when I saw a group of private schoolgirls on an excursion. As soon as I saw their hats, I knew that there was a good opportunity to get a good snap. As luck would have it, they started to cross the street to where I was standing. I knew in my head the image I was looking for and I had to be above them. With an enormous amount of good fortune, a ramp up to a shop in this old area of Sydney was a few metres away. I raced up the ramp and shot this image. It was taken with my Canon 70-200 f/4L at f/5.6 which gave me a shallow depth of field leaving the centre hat in sharp focus and the rest of the hats out of focus. I submitted this image in late 2005 to the Black and White Spider Awards and it won Outstanding Achievement - People and also won me the Photographer of the Year 2005 - amateur. It really is nice to get recognition of one's work and even though I am now a professional, it still gives me a warm feeling when I look at my certificate!

Sulphur crested cockatoo in flight

This is an image on which I have added a "flood" filter. It is quite effective and quite a nice shot in any event. Flood filters can be found here and they are worth every cent. There is always a debate regarding "Photoshopping" images but as long as one is honest about the origin and digital changes to the image, I think its legimate. The original image, taken in our garden, of the cockatoo actually landing on the lawn, had a piece of its left hand side wing missing so I "replaced" it in Photoshop CS4. Cockatoos actually dislike water and when they start attacking the timber balustrades on our verandah, all I have to do is get out the spray bottle and walk towards them. They are endearing creatures, very intelligent but are enormously destructive. They are very long lived (up to 80 years) so don't even think of buying one unless you plan to outlive it and put up with the high decibels of squawking! I really hate seeing them in cages and they must long to be free when they see a large flock passing by.

Surfing the storm

Late one afternoon, I was snapping at Avalon Beach, Sydney, when a storm approached. This did not stop a late surfer. This image is available as a print via my RedBubble site. Click on image which will take you to the print site.

Sydney Opera House abstract

An abstract look at the famous icon. It is very difficult to take any pics of the Opera House as everyone and their brother has done it before. For this particular image, I used Optikvervlabs filter.

Leopard seal

I took this shot of a leopard seal exhaling bubbles at Taronga Zoo in Sydney. This is, apparently, one of the few leopard seals in captivity. Apparently it was found injured awhile back and is happy in its huge enclosure at the Zoo along with its mate. Through a stock library, this image is to appear as a full page in a textbook.



Alice

Alice
A portrait of an elderly lady
This is one of my favourite images of Alice, an elderly aboriginal lady who sadly is now deceased. I would occasionally see her at Circular Quay in Sydney and she would often smile at me. I used a Dragan filter to bring out more texture to the image. I am often asked if I have ever been challenged when photographing candid subjects. Only on one occasion, I was asked not to take a photograph of a female street performer which was odd as that is where they often make their money. So, of course, I acceded to her wishes. Many buskers or street performers expect payment for taking their photograph and its something I always do as its their living, as taking photographs is mine. One of my most popular galleries on my website is one of Sydney Aborigines and I have many kind comments on my work. I did have one person, a Sydney academic, who actually called me a thief as she was under the erroneous impression that I was selling images of these colourful folk without payment which in fact is not true. I have model releases from many and I have made subsequent payments to them.




The smoker

The smoker
An elderly man puffs on a cigarette

Mudda Mudda

Mudda Mudda
My favourite subject
Mudda Mudda (aka Cedric) is an aboriginal busker who is often found at Circular Quay, in Sydney, accompanying other aboriginal buskers. He has such a great face and this image won me a UK award last year for traditional portraiture here