retouching & copyright

[pride&joy]

G'day everybody,

I have 2 questions,

1. it is in breach of copyright to copy another photographers images, but what are the rules for retouching another photographers images? Say you have someone come to you and want to have a photo "fixed up", is it perfectly legal to scan it, work it, print it then resell it?

2. this will be a basic question for most, I want to change the colour of a shirt in an image from orange to black but I am having difficulties where the hair falls over the shirt, how do I change the colour without effecting the hair?

Thanks,

Shaun.

Ps, any aussies going to the photo imaging trade show?

[KenB]

Originally posted by pride&joy
G'day everybody,

I have 2 questions,

1. it is in breach of copyright to copy another photographers images, but what are the rules for retouching another photographers images? Say you have someone come to you and want to have a photo "fixed up", is it perfectly legal to scan it, work it, print it then resell it?

2. this will be a basic question for most, I want to change the colour of a shirt in an image from orange to black but I am having difficulties where the hair falls over the shirt, how do I change the colour without effecting the hair?

Thanks,

Shaun.

Ps, any aussies going to the photo imaging trade show?

In my oppinion, it would not be ok to resell someone else's work at all, without permission.

On your second question, to not affect the hair, you will either have to mask the hair, which is never easy, or color the shirt on a layer that has a layer mask, which would let you "paint" back the hair to its original color. You could try selecting the shirt via the color range method, which would probably work better as long as there's sufficient difference in the color of the hair and the shirt. If you could post the image in question it would be easier to help you out.

Ken

[KevinBE]

Hi Shaun, and welcome to RetouchPro. Your copyright question can be answered as follows. Pictures fall into the same regulations as literature. All photographs are copyrighted to the photographer whether they are signed or not. The process of scanning the picture is a violation of these laws. If the photographer is known, as in a signed picture, you must obtain a copyright release before you can legally copy the photo. If the photographer is not known then every effort must be done to assure that this is so.

Now in the case of a family snapshot you should have no problems copying the picture for the owner of the photo. In the case of professional portraits and published pictures you should be sure that you are not in violation of these laws.

Ken is right about the proceedure for masking out hair. This can be difficult. You can post your question along with a copy of the image in the http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/for...p?s=&forumid=5 forum here.

[winwintoo]

Check out this link for answers about copyright law down under.

I don't know about your laws in Australia, but I do know that there is some important difference between the law in Canada and the US.

There is also a copyright treaty. A search of Google turned up lots of pages about it.

Take care, Margaret

[PhotoAttorney]

In the US, the act of scanning the photograph and/or retouching the photo would be making a copy or a derivative work of the photograph. Either would be a copyright infringement unless the photo has fallen into the public domain (most recently, life plus 70 years of the photographer) or you have permission of the photographer/copyright holder. Not knowing who took the picture is not an excuse except that you may not be liable for willful (vs. innocent) infringement.

Best,
Carolyn