Pictures

Tips to take, edit and share pictures

Objective → Understand briefly what the law says about sharing publicly images. Not only pictures taken by others (copyright), but pictures taken from others (image rights).

Content

  • Copyright → It is a protection that gives every author the exclusive right to use or reproduce their work. Every image obtains its copyright upon creation. Only images that grant a free license, such as creative commons, or offer them in the public domain, can be freely used.

  • Image Rights People that are in a photo don't have any rights to it in terms of photo publication and use. However, images of people (smalls groups and individuals) are likely to constitute personal data and you will need to establish a legal basis for processing personal data.

Recommendations → Use only:

  • Original visual resources created within your organisation and/or project team.

  • CC-licensed materials by following the license conditions and attributing sources (image title, image author and image license code).

  • Free stock photos from, for example:

  • Photos taken within an event context in which you have provided the participants with privacy information, making sure that they are aware that their image would be taken and the context in which their image would subsequently be used by signing a consent. See consent agreement template to share with your event participants.

Image sizes For social media image sizes see here. A general rule when dealing with image sizes:

Print Hi-res images are at least 300 pixels per inch (ppi). This resolution makes for good print quality, and is pretty much a requirement for anything that you want hard copies of, especially to represent your brand or other important printed materials.

Online The standard resolution for web images is 72 ppi (often called “screen resolution”). Images that are between 1500 and 2500 pixels wide are recommended for use online. Images smaller than 1500 pixels may appear blurry or pixelated when they stretch to fill larger online surfaces, such as banners. You do not need 300 ppi images online - these will be heavy and may take a while to load. 72 ppi is best.

Check the size of your image file:

Open the image in Windows Explorer to check dimensions and file size.

  1. Open Windows Explorer.

  2. Find the image you want to check.

  3. Select your image. The dimensions and file size appear at the bottom of the window.

Open the image in Mac Finder to check dimensions and file size:

  1. Click Finder on your Dock.

  2. Find the image you want to check.

  3. Control+click (ctrl+click) your image. A menu appears.

  4. Click Get Info. A window appears.

  5. Expand the General: section to see your image's file size.

  6. Expand the More Info: section to see your image's dimensions.

See image file formats and their differences here.

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