I have been asked a few times by painters and illustrators if they could use my work as inspiration for some of their work. Today a photographer contacted me and asked me this question:
“I have re-processed one of your images, I would like to publish to share with you, for your comments and feedback. Can I have your permission to share one image ? – I will pass you my edited version – for you to add to your profile, if you want. Thanks and you have a Great Portfolio… 🙂“
My reply to “Can I re-edit and post photos of yours”
Hi! Actually I do mind. As soon as I saw this background I wanted to shoot the model (Lin Mars) in front of it. I have given permission to a few painters and illustrators over the years to make their versions of my photographs, but I’m not OK with photographers doing that.
If I or you see a photo or a painting by someone else and we bring parts of that into the work we do our selves that is perfectly fine and natural, but I’m not ok with anyone doing anything with my photos and then publish it.
Hope you don’t feel I’m difficult, but we all have our own quirks 🙂
Please don’t get me wrong, I don’t have any bad feelings about the the person that asked me this. Fair question, asked very politely and a lot of people are fine with this, but I’m not.
Later on he he responded by asking if he could e-mail his version. I didn’t think what he did to the image had any benefits and I really don’t care too much about exercises like this. I do know that quite a few do like this way to improve ones skill and to get a different opinion. What I feel I can get a lot of information is when I work alongside another photographer and then have a look at what a slight, or large, different point-of-view or angle does to the image. Those crucial decisions in the field or in a studio have given me quite a few eye openers.
Do your own editing, but with what program?
I strongly recommend that people edit their photos. I use Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom for my editing, but there are alternatives.
Some of those you can find a good description of here: https://digitalsoftwareproducts.com/is-there-a-strong-photo-editor-program-alternative-to-photoshop/
