Copying photos from PtoExe

[boxig]

Hi to all,

I'm reading this topic from the beginning and I'm really curious. How can anyone steal your pictures unless you give them to him ? And if you give someone a CD, why not make him sign on a printed thumbnails page ?

This will probably eliminate all his desire to use your pictures without paying. And if he uses them anyway, you can get your full money or even more from the court, and get a free publicity of being someone his work worth to be stolen.

[marian]

Boxig,

Beth started the thread and some of us"jumped in" to help. I'm sure that it has been asked many times on the old forum.

(Any chances of getting those threads back, guys?)

Everyone one of us has different software, different needs for Pic2Exe. I personally (me only) wouldn't give thumbnail images to my client. I like a larger view (i.e. computer screen). Sometimes, a client can't make it back, so the CD is mailed to that person.

As with any photographic work, the issue of copyright, stolen images, always comes up in this day and age of scanning, etc.

There are many photographic boards and the subject comes up all the time. It's interesting to see how FAR the photographer "pushed" the issue and what happened (if any) in court. (Who got awarded what, etc.)

In this thread, we are just "throwing around" ideas/comments on how to "secure" the images (printed, scanned, screen capture, etc)

As in any case, it's an "individual thing, with each one of us.

[nobeefstu]

Amazing how these topics can get flying with all sorts of ideas ... but thats what I like about this forum ! One can certainly learn something new everyday here.

Keep em coming !

[Truelight]

Marian...

Try this experiment and see if your prints don't look EXACTLY the same...

1. Make a PTE show with two slides

- Slide #1 is a photo with the dpi set to 10 dpi (use Photoshop, PSP, Irfanview, or whatever to do this)

- Slide #2 should be the same photo, but with the dpi set to 300 dpi

- be sure both photos are 800x600

2. Run the show and while Slide #1 is up, hit the "Print Screen" key to capture it to the buffer. Then go to your image editing program of choice and paste the captured image into it. Print the image

3. Repeat this process for Slide #2.

4. Write back and tell me if the two prints look any different.

(BTW - We could all make our shows 200x150... That would not only prevent someone from getting a decent screen capture, but also make nice small .exe files -- )

[marian]

Truelight,

I made the test and here's the info.

I started with an existing 300 DPI JPG file which I had on my hard drive. (A picture of my kids, I did last week.)

Using Paint Shop Pro, I took the 300 DPI image and then saved it as a 10 DPI image.

So for the math, for the other forum people, I had 2 identical picture files. To help identify them on the screen, using PSP, I wrote 10 dpi on one and 300 dpi on the other:

10 DPI 176 x 233 inches - 593k size (see the BIG size?)

300 DPI 5.8 x 7.7 inches - 593k size

I then used Pix2Exe and made a slide show and compiled it. I ran it and saw the 2 images come up. They were identified by the 10 and 300 logo, imbedded in the picture.

I open up PSP, set the screen capture and then ran Pix2Exe and captured both images. PSP captured the images at 96 DPI, respectively.

I placed these 2 identical images side by side in Pagemaker and printed them out on my Epson 640 Color Printer. I used Kodak High Gloss Photo Paper and set it to Super Fine PHOTO Resolution Printing.

WITHOUT using a photo loupe (those small glass magnifiers), I could VISUALLY see the difference in the side by side comparison.

Edges on the 10 DPI picture, were "jaggy." The image appeared to be slightly out of focus. The detail was "not there," as far as a "photographic eye" is concerned.

The 300 DPI picture was much clearer, lines were smoother, etc. There was no comparison, in my opinion!

Could a "customer" live with it? Probably! As a photographer, I would NOT give a client a picture like that!

So, a "savvy, cheap person" who wants to "steal" an image, probably could! But it would not be as sharp as a higher res scan. NO!

Again, my comments from earlier. WaterMark it AND low res scan!

You keep the HI RES scan in your computer when the customer orders a picture.

If anyone else wants to make tests, please do. (The idea of a 200x150 sounds good, I'll play around with that!)

Anyone else got more ideas, tests, etc? Let us know

Thanks

[nobeefstu]

Heres some info that may help some of you in your needs (as I have mentioned this simple technique in the old forum board) :

For a simple, fast and easy watermark or logo for your photos without ever having to edit or alter your originals :

-Create a totally separate image of what you want your watermark or logo to look like ( determine your require sizing and dont get too complex or colorful here ... or you will be doing lots of tests )

-Insert this newly created watermarking image as a PICTURE OBJECT on all your SLIDES. Set the image properties to TRANSPARENT. ( Results may not be as desired ...this will depend on the complexity of your watermarking image ( test, test, test)

Benefits:

-No altering of original photo .... time saved

-The new watermark image gets included in PTE only 1 time ( even if its used multiple times) ... space saved.

Beware:

If allowing PRINTING functions thru PTE SHOW :

-Print Screen will capture your photo with the new watermark object layer.

-Print Slide will only capture the Photo ... no watermarking layer is captured.

Final note:

Once Igor implements adjustable transparency for all objects and photos ... you will be able have more creative watermarking and logos.