[Lunatique]

I recently shot a photo-session of a girl(For those of you who's seen the latest, it's the Wong-Yuee session), and as a gesture of kindness, I burned a CD for her of the session.

Later, her boyfriend phoned me up, asking me for the super-hi-res versions of the session. I asked him what is it for, he said he wants to print them out and hang them up on the wall. It didn't sound right, so I prompted further, and he told me that he knows how to use Photoshop, and he wants to take my photography of her and manipulate them in PS and make some stuff with them and then print them out.

I told him I don't like the idea, since my photography is my ARTWORK, and it's already been through the digital darkroom by the photographer--ME, and they are finished pieces of my work, therefore, I don't want anyone mucking with them. He sounded very unhappy.

Tina tells me that this guy is supposed to be kind of creative and does designs, and he's trying to impress his GF(Wong-Yuee)by adding photoshop effects to my images and present them to her--or something along those lines.

Now, Was I being too uptight, or would you let some other "creative" dude take your work and muck with it and then present it as something he had contributed/done? Keep in mind, this is some dude in China, and believe me, these guys might know photoshop, but they usually are far from being talented or have any taste. All the photoshop work I've seen here in China are extremely amateurish and substandard compared to the quality people like us are used to. Just the idea of letting one of these hacks fuck with my work gives me the chills and burning anger at the same time. I mean, we, at sijun overpaint and do stuff with each other's work all the time, and no one minds because we have similar ideals, but man, these guys in China are just....pathetic. (No flames please. I AM Chinese, so this is not racially biased.)

[xXxPZxXx]

As soon as you said that he says "he knows how to use photoshop" my heart sank. If only I had a buck everytime I heard that one.

Considering you planned out the lighting, the scene, well everything to get the picture the way YOU wanted it I think he should be able to respect that. At the same time though if he actually did have some good artistic sense and could perhaps make something that would improve upon, or make for a nice gift to his gf that would be nice too.

The more I think about it the more I think that there isn't anything you could really do to your photos to make them any better. I mean what would he do? Put her in a different setting? Perhaps manipulate it with textures? (which I have always thought that your pics would be good for actually due to the strong light sources) put a big ol lense flare on her forehead? Or perhaps the first thing I remember doing on a paint program... Give my friend devil horns, black eyes, and boogers.

Signs point to no...

-PZ-

[christian cox]

Yeah, I've heard lots of people talk about how they know how to use Photoshop - and clearly, they don't at all. If I was a photographer I certainly wouldn't want people manipulating my images without my permission.

Now I have had people manipulate my graphic designs, however they were done with my permission and by those who had a grasp on Photoshop (I designed a CD cover, and the guitarist of the band manipulated the image to create the inside layouts, and did a great job with it)... however, I'm very protective of my work.

Honestly, I think what this guy did was quite insulting. I've seen your photography and they are very well done. I don't see a reason why anyone would need or want to edit or enhance them. Oh well, life is full of those kind of people

[Novacaptain]

I think you're entiteled to not allowing your photographies to be tampered with I won't say that you're right or wrong in taking the decision not to permit it, it's up to you entirely.

I must say that I find your generalization of the chinese dudes that know photoshop rather nasty.

quote

Quote:

this is some dude in China, and believe me, these guys might know photoshop, but they usually are far from being talented or have any taste.

How good or bad this guy is can't really be decided from what you've seen other people do. Among the numerous artists' websites availiable online only a few make it to my "favourites". The point is that there are those few that i think are worth revisiting over and over. My conclusion is that there probably are some really good artists that can produce high-quality work in china too.

[[Shizo]]

Be nice, send him a picture or two. And nobody gets hurt.

[edit :1 minute later:]
Actually if i was that girl and had that boyfriend present me a bunch of printouts of MYSELF... hmm. I would feel weird having these pics of myself hanging of the wall. The whole thing is weird, dont send him anything. Better sign up his phone number to Tele Tubbies weekly special offer or someshin.

[ December 27, 2001: Message edited by: [Shizo] ]

[Queezy]

I could understand how you would not be too hot about the boyfriend's offer, but in this case I would have given him the photos. It's not like he's going to send them to a national publication, and it more so sounds like a small private usage issue. Let him have his "I can bevel out a border in PS6.0" fun.

[Ahcri]

I have friends like that, here is my suggestion on how to deal with them: First, show the girl a tasteful way to mofify a photograph in Photoshop, send the same picture to her boyfriend, and watch him embarrass himself. This way, you can see if this guy actually knows Photoshop or not.
As far as I can see, the last thing China needs desperately is good art or design, maybe in a few years everything would be better.

[Jin]

The issue is not whether or not this person knows Photoshop, is an artist or designer, is talented, or has good taste.

The issue is that the photos belong to their creator as does any piece of art.. of any kind.

No one, not even a friend, has the right to use them without permission from the creator of that photo, digital art, art of any kind, including writing, not even to distribute them (give them to someone via any means of transfer) or publish them anywhere.. let alone alter them and turn them into another piece of "art".

In the U.S., and I don't know about other countries, we have copyright law and the artist can register his/her art so that if it becomes necessary to pursue copyright infringment in court, they stand a chance of winning.

At the very least, our art should be marked with a copyright notice, i.e. � 2001, Jinny Brown or something similar.

I'd suggest that you not give this person anything unless you really want to and also that you let him know (if this applies where you live) that the photos are copyright protected.

Next time be more careful about giving anyone a CD full of your work because once they have the files, as you know now, those files can be given to someone else and anything can happen to them, including that person either making some adjustments and claiming them as his/her own... or even selling them.

This is a continuing problem for artists and the mentality that says "If it's there, I can take it." is hurting a lot of people.. and not only us little guys and gals.. it hurts software companies, musicians.. anyone who's trying to earn a living by their work.

Learn about protecting yourself and help educate others about respecting copyrights.. please!

There are some links that might be helpful and interesting on Jeremy Sutton's site at:
http://www.portrayals.com/resources.html

Scroll down to "Legal & Professional Advice" to find the links... then take a look at the rest of the site. He does some neat things, even if it's not your chosen style.

Happy New Year, everyone!

[Lunatique]

Hey, thanks for sharing your opinions. I've decided to not give him the hi-res versions.

1)I don't know him, and I've never even met him, so there is no friendship between us.

2)It IS my work. If I wouldn't let someone do that to my paintings, why would it be any different with my photography? I mean, if I did a portrait of Wong-Yuee with oil paint, and her BF asked if he could do a repaint on top of it and present it to her as a gift?? Hell no!

As far as my general comments about dudes in China, I stand by it. I think all of the talented Chinese artists you guys have been exposed to are all from OTHER places in the world(Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia..etc) or are traditional artists. If any of you DO know some great DIGITAL artists from China, post some examples and I'll believe you. I've been traveling around here for months from city to city. These guys don't know squat. There's a branch of Ubi soft in Shanghai that's got an inhouse dev house that worked on some Chinese martial arts RPG, that's about it.

[comdiablo]

Well if the pictures are good shots and in high-res, then let him pay what such stuff costs...
IMHO creative people are too generous all the time...
Just make him pay..
5 pictures �200 !
If he don't want to pay, for good quality stuff, then he is not enough interested....
Anyways - it's your pictures - you decide!