I'm sure people can suggest the best plan of action.

Having assisted to the hot air balloon night glow in Rome by the Coliseum I have a few photos, some of which I've been asked by fellow balloonists for a copy. Now one of the chaps wants to send on these photos to his "client" as he was effectively advertising for them - after all, it's not every day you can get your balloon lit up by the Coliseum.

I'm fairly sure I have some of the best photos and he's obviously very keen to get them. My concern is that he would then pass them on to the company that asked him to come out and advertise and use my photos in their marketing material or likewise, basically using my photos commercially.

I'm not particularly asking for money (well, some money would be nice and I'm sure considering the cost of the sponsor to get the balloon out to Rome, they're loaded and could give me a fair amount of cash :P), but as all keen photographers, I don't want to get "ripped off", have my photos used for commercial means and not even get the recognition.

So I'm thinking of two possibilities - either email them to him specifically ensuring they are not used commercially and/or insist I get credited for taking them. Or a more direct approach: put a small watermark somewhere, maybe at the bottom, so it's clear I took the photos. If the shots were then cropped and/or had the watermark removed, it's blatently an effort to remove my credit.

Alternatively, I suppose I could ask the guy what his intentions are (via email so I have a trace) and then decide on the best course of action based on his response.

What do you all think? I'm not demanding money, but I'd be seriously peeved if the company ended up making £1000's with the aid of my shots. :confused:

Put a watermark across the main part image so they can't use them without paying you for the original?

Atleast that way they can't just crop it and use it anyway.

You could pass a small low-res copy on to the baloonists, so they can see it, and then if anyone wants to use it for a commercial venture (excluding maybe website stuff where 72dpi might be ok?) they'll need to contact you directly for a print resolution one, at which point you can negotiate any price or crediting?

Personally I'd just add a note in the email/on the disk saying you have copyright and they are not to be used commercially without your permission, you'll know who's given the files away if they are used anywhere without your permission anyway?

as said above....a watermark is the best option...across the main part of the image

Cheers.

In the end, I did a watermark across the photo (discreet embossed style) and emailed the photo to the chap explaining it all.

Will wait and see what reply I get