10. In most cases, a registered copyright will last your life plus 70 years. There are however exceptions to the rule. Cornell has a great resource page showing the common and special situations.

9. If you’ve asked for a copyright, you don’t need to renew it, as long as the work was created after January 1, 1978. Before this date renewal is optional but advised after 28 years.

8. Fair Use is a term commonly used when people use works in different ways. The Copyright office has created a doctrine of “fair use” by developing a substantial number of court decisions on the topic, using it to set precedence in current and future cases. The distinction between fair use and infringement is unclear and not easily defined. The most important thing to keep in mind is that most disagreements when it comes to fair use are settled in a court of law on a case by case basis.

7. If you file a copyright and it is rejected, you can appeal the decision. When material is rejected, the Copyright office must notify the applicant in writing the reason for the rejection. Applicants may then use a two stage process to pursue the copyright. The first appeal is made to the Examining Division, and if they uphold the refusal, a second appeal may be made to the Copyright Office Board of Appeals.

6. If you sell a print of an image, it doesn’t mean you sell the copyrights with it. Unless you agree to it, the copyright remains with you, the photographer. The Copyright Office states “mere ownership does not give the possessor the copyright. The law provides that transfer of ownership of any material object that embodies a protected work does not of itself convey any right in the copyright.”

5. Titles associated with your images are not a part of the copyright. So if you sell your images to galleries with a certain title, finding a similar image with the same name later on is not grounds for copyright infringement.

4. Public buildings built before December 1, 1990 did not have copyright protection. After that time period, there may be issues. In most cases, as long as a building is in a public space, visible and photographable, there is no infringement of the building’s copyright owners rights. This rule includes private as well as public. When art is involved in the photography of a building, however, there could be problems. If you are including the work of art in your photography, you may need permission from the copyright owner. You can check with PACA for a list of some of the protected buildings.

3. As soon as your image becomes fixed in a tangible medium, it was automatically protected by copyright. Whether its published or not, you still retain the copyright rights.  You can use the common copyright symbol “©” followed by the date, to show the world your image is copyrighted – but it’s not necessary to receive the same protection.

2. If you decide to register your work with the Copyright office, you do not have to wait until you receive your certificate of registration to publish your work. It has automatic protection as soon as you release it in a tangible medium. The certificate merely gives you more protection.

1. If you first use your images on your website as your form of tangible medium, that may constitute “publication” in the eyes of the Copyright office. While it is a difficult question, the register of copyrights has publicly stated on multiple occasions that the position of the Copyright Office is images uploaded onto a website in an area that is available to the public for access, constitutes publication of the work. As long as your site is visible to everyone – not password protected – its probably safe to assume your photographs have been published.

While I’m not a lawyer and by no means a copyright expert, these are general guidelines you can find by doing a little research online through various organizations, including the Copyright Office website. When in doubt, talk with a lawyer about any specific concerns you have.

“Why would I want to use Twitter? Who cares what people are having for lunch?”

Since Twitters inception, that’s been the general consensus among business owners. And as it turns out, there may be some truth to the “Twitter – its what’s for lunch” concept.

People aren’t just talking about what they had for lunch; they’re photographing it too.

According to 360i, by the end of 2010, more than 80 billion photographs were uploaded across a variety of social picture platforms. And at least once a month, 52 percent of mobile users take photos with their phones, and 19 percent upload their photos to the web.

And what is even more fascinating is that people are almost never in these photographs – only 10 percent of the photographs 360i analyzed had people in them.

So what are people taking photos of? In many cases, its food. Check out this infographic 360i did for Mashable.

With that many people taking photos of food, is there a future in food photography?

Even though were weathering a tough economy, we may be forgoing vacations, and passing on pricey cars, there is one thing we’re not willing to part with – cookbooks. While the book industry as a whole is falling, and booksellers are filing for bankruptcy, cookbook sales are up 9 percent last year, according to Nielsen statistics. And with cookbooks come photography, blogs, and a whole new reason to start photographing what you eat.

And while most people think of professional chefs and bakers when they think cookbooks, some of the highest growth in cookbooks aren’t’ coming from professionals, they are coming from bloggers.

Mom blogger The Pioneer Woman started out years ago describing her life on the ranch with her cowboy husband and four children. Now she has multiple books, including a cookbook, and is about to head into a whole new venture with her cooking show on the Food Network.

And if you’re a fan of Tim Ferriss from the 4 Hour Work Week, he’s just announced his new venture – The 4 Hour Chef.

So I guess the only question now is “how can you turn your love of food and photography into a business?”

We’re huge Costco fans. We head over every weekend to do our weekly shopping, and buy most of our grocery items there any more. Plus we can buy the occasional television, computer, appliance, and even holiday gift there. We’ve never found anything of poor quality, and really can’t imagine not heading to Costco anymore.

So when I get my monthly The Costco Connection, the magazine put out by Costco, I love flipping through it and reading the articles. Costco caters to small businesses, and they always have a variety of articles based around this concept.

So I read with interest this month about their newest offering – Art and Image Gallery.

Simply head over to the Art and Image Gallery, and browse through over 20,000 digital images of fine art, photography and illustrations that can be chosen and used to create a photo through their 1 hour photo lab.

Costco has teamed with Corbis Images to provide this unique function, and to allow the general consumer the chance to make any type of artwork for their walls for the low price of the cost of the print at Costco. You can produce anywhere from a standard photo 8×10, to a poster print up to a 20×30, to a high quality giclee canvas print up to a 16×48. Prices are at the low price of $1.49 for the 8×10, to the high side of $99.99 for the giclee print.

Within the 20,000 images, you’ll find:

• fine art artists ranging from Monet, van Gogh, Rembrandt and da Vinci;

• nature, travel, animals, sports, flowers, black and white photography from some of the worlds leading photographers;

• decorative illustrations, abstract images, floral, anime, urban art and vintage designs from the worlds top artists, designers and illustrators.

As a restaurant owner, for example, you know longer have to hire a photographer to create images for you. You can visit the Art and Image Gallery, choose artwork, and print it up. Perfect for anyone on a budget wanting to add sophistication to their small business, yet not wanting to spend a lot on artwork.

Yet for the photographer, is it a great deal? Now people don’t even have to pay the microstock price for a royalty free image. They simply hit print and pay the price of the paper its printed on.

What’s your take on this new move? How do you think this will impact photographers in the future?

What does our world revolve around? Food of course. We eat all the time. And while sometimes it may have to be through the drive-through, sometimes we have fun with it.

Like having a group of friends over for a gourmet meal, complete with wines from around the world.

In any case, food ends up being a natural subject matter in a variety of photographs. Foodie blogs are booming at the moment. Cooking magazines are everywhere. And have you ever seen those glorious food photos on the walls at your favorite quick casual restaurant? They make you hungry while waiting in line.

Want to start your own foodie blog, or sell your recipes and photographs to a cooking magazine? Or maybe work with companies to produce great food images for their products and advertising? Start out with better food photographs.

1. Think presentation, not eating

What do you want the final photograph to look like? Do you want a table scene blurred in the background? How about place settings? Are you focusing on the texture of the foods? Play around with the look of the final image, not the way it will taste when you finally eat it. You might have to stack things to get a better view, or combine items to make it more appealing.

2. Know your purpose

Are you showing how to make a recipe? Or what you are having for dinner at a favorite restaurant? Take photos to enhance what your ultimate purpose is. One of my favorite indulgence sites is The Pioneer Woman – she takes you along the journey of putting a recipe together, and you’re starving by the time you are finished with one of her posts. [Fair warning, you WILL have to try these when you see the photos of the process!]

3.Think color

No matter what your theme is – reds, greens, or yellows – accent that color throughout the photograph. Use  similar colors or hues in the tablecloth, dishes, bowls, glassware and surrounding decorations.

4. Lighting, lighting, lighting

On camera flash directed at your subject simply won’t cut it here. If you can use soft, natural window lighting, go for it. That’s always been our preferred method whenever possible. But if you’re in the middle of a dark restaurant, you may need a little light. Think angles. Use a soft light source at a 90 degree angle to your food. Use a diffuser if you are using a flash, or even a simple piece of wax paper in front of a desk or table lamp will soften the light.

5. Use a shallow depth of field

This puts the focus right where you want it to be, and gives the food and ethereal look to it. The wide aperture will also let in more light, especially good if you are working with natural light anyway.

6. Dig in to the food

What makes food great? We eat it of course. Rather than focus solely on the finished product, serve it up and make it ready to eat. Serve up a bowl or plate of food. Use forks and spoons to make it ready to eat. Pull a piece of pizza out of the pie – if you haven’t watched this video on a commercial shoot for Dominos Pizza, this will give you some great ideas.

Ready to jump into the commercial photography business? While a simple commercial or ad can make things appear to be simple, it may take hours or even days of preparation to get exactly what you want on film.

What does it take to photograph a Domino’s Pizza… lots of time, effort and prepping. This video shows you just how difficult it can be getting the perfect shot to market the product.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=stzmHm6eF-0

In the world of the Internet with microstock websites selling millions of photos every day, is there still a need for a commercial photographer to take high quality product images?

Now more than ever.

If a company has a product, especially a product with a lot of detail, in order to showcase it online, you need high quality photographs.

• Determine the best way to display your products within the photographs. How will your clients be attracted to it? Consider lifestyle, use of mannequin versus model, backgrounds and layouts, etc.
• Concentrate on the details. The more details a product has, the more images and the more close-ups you should have. Don’t let your customer imagine the possibilities – show them.
• Ensure the product images accurately depict the product. Surprises upon getting the product doesn’t make happy customers; avoid surprises by showcasing as much as you can.

If you’ve ever looked through microstock sites, you know most images are general in nature. Their great for accenting blog posts, creating simple, generic brochures, and building online web tools. But to showcase details for specific products and placements, its time to turn to the professionals. Companies know this, and aren’t afraid to pay for a quality photographer that can capture exactly what they are looking for, and help them be more professional in their appearance.

Let’s look at a couple of examples from well-known sites that use product photography well.

QVC is one of the best at selling. If you get your product on QVC, there’s an underlying assumption as to how many you’ll sell, how many need to be available, and the quality of the product.

The focus is on the item itself. They have views from the front and back. They showcase it along measurements so you know exactly how large the piece of jewelry is. They show the workmanship of the clasp. The key is to let the customer see every aspect of the product before they buy.

Amazon is another great website to look at product photography. Check out the Kindle, the hottest product Amazon is selling this holiday season. Enter the sales page for the Kindle, and you can rotate through 16 different images of the Kindle. Scroll down over the page and you’ll find a dozen more showing the Kindle at use, and in multiple situations.

The goal is to let you see the product from every angle, put yourself into the same situations, and understand how the product works before you ever enter your credit card information. The happier you are with the product, the greater chance you’ll have of keeping it.

Will people pay money for the right product photographer? You bet. It could mean the difference between a five figure and a six figure income. (And maybe even a seven figure income, depending on the product.)