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Hello lovely helpful people who always seem to help me when I am stuck!!
So in a nutshell...
When I do a shoot afterwards I generally create a PDF file (using Bridge CS5 output and with a watermark 'over' each image) with all of the clients images on them. I Dropbox this to them to make a selection of the final photo's that I then edit and return high res.... bla de blaaa.
I found a while back that a client had already got a photo up onto her Facebook profile before sending her selection back to me and me sending her the final version.
I asked her how she did that and she said she just got some software to extract the images as JPEGs (original format) albeit in poor quality, but also unwatermarked.
Not cool in my eyes!
My question is... can this be prevented with Un extractable PDF files or other ways of offering client previewing capabilities. I know there are online client galleries but although I haven't tried them I am not much of a fan.. plus don't like paying for stuff when you don't have too so a bit of a tight ass (when PDF usually works fine).
I hope I have explained this scenario with enough detail. Any questions please ask away!
Many thanks in advance and hope to hear from some one soon.
Best,
kyle
Quote: plus don't like paying for stuff when you don't have too so a bit of a tight ass
Sorry Kyle, but isn't that the issue?
There will always be people who can find a way around it (eg. "Print screen"). Doesn't mean you shouldn't try protecting your work, but but some people will always be happy to settle for low quality if they can save a buck or two.
Had the same thing the other week, shot a school prom, images up on website all watermarked, no sales but lots of ripped off shots on facebook.
The organiser was a friend & has been told and is asking people to take them down.
Speaking to a friends daughter this morning, she said that she'd never buy a shot just nick them off the site! Nice, I'm going to get her Dad to give her a days work and then say "I'm not paying you I'm just nicking your work".
PDF is nowhere near as secure as people like to think it is. I fear the only answer is to put a really pronounced watermark through a relatively low res picture - then add it to the PDF
My boss once told me that he 'always sent his lecture notes out as a secure PDF so that they wouldn't be copied'. I sent a reply back to him within 5 minutes of him emailing me the file and asked him if "Andrew was the name of his son?"
Thanks everyone.
Valid points there.
I mean I am not trying to be a tight ass... if a service is secure and un-nickable I will happily pay for it but they are clearly not (screen grab etc).
I think i will have to simply go through the tiresome process of watermarking up to 1500 photo's each time, then reduce the resolution, then put in a bloody PDF... then send to the bloody client! What a pain in the ass!! for ten different people at a time... urrghh!!
If only i could some how make a huge JPEG file with all low res images (and numbers) and send that then they could only screen grab it at crappy small quality.
hmmmm...
ooohhh.. had a thought.
How about making a PDF full screen then screen grabbing it into JPEG (before the clients buggers do). Then they can only zoom in on the jpeg to the small image of themselves. It does make it hard when they want to see details though... facial expressions etc.
Back to the drawing board!
What do you think?
Have you got photoshop? If so, look into "zoomify", and see if your web hosting site will allow you post a couple of the flash elements. That may help you
1 way of skinning the cat:
Make a brush that 'brushes' a watermark.
Record an action as you brush the watermark onto a jpeg
Run the action as a batch on all the jpegs
People don't care about watermarks and the like for FB pics. They are sometimes happy to post the pic, watermark and all!
Screen grabs will overcome any security you care to name. Many years ago someone on here tried to do something clever using flash, so that the image was only visible for a short period; he was very proud of it. But I still managed to to do a screen grab and I posted the pic on here just to make a point. He was not pleased. 
at the end of the day, if you can see an image, then you can copy it.... throw all the security you like at me.... at the end of the day, if i can see it on my screen, then i can get my camera and take a picture of the screen..... NO security, will stop people nicking images if they want them.
it will be a long term problem when posting images on line. If you put a big enough watermark over the image to make it so no one wants to copy it, then you are also putting one big enough over it so no one will want to buy it either.
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