Is Photographic Imitation Theft or Flattery
The saying goes, “Imitation is the highest form of flattery.” So as a photographer what do you consider to be imitation that’s worthy of the term flattery and when is photographic imitation considered something a bit more?
A friend of mine recently posted an image where he specifically stated that he was attempting to duplicate another photographer’s image. You can see his post at http://knowsphotos.com/site/2010/07/06/seat-by-the-fire-hdr/ and he even has a link to the other photographer’s image which happens to be http://www.stuckincustoms.com/2009/03/19/join-me-by-the-fire/. In this case they are both creative commons images so legally I think there is nothing wrong here. But what if the image you were trying to imitate was copyrighted, is it flattery or theft?
As a photographer I like to “collect” photos to study. If a writer reads to learn how to write better, a photographer has to study the photos of other photographers. I don’t mean casually looking through a portfolio and thinking, “that’s nice, I ought to do something like that.” But really looking at the camera position relative to the subject, what time of day or where are the sources of light. In this case, if I create a similar image in style to another photographer I don’t think anyone would have an issue as long as the subject, background and location is different. But this is duplicating the same image. I don’t know that I would do the exact same image.
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I am a top photographer in the Mocksville, North Carolina Professional Photographers guide on MarketingTool.com.
If I like a photo and the exact subject was available, I would try to duplicate the original to learn how the image was captured. The “original” of the two images you posted has obviously had much post production work done such that the full effect cannot be duplicated in-camera. In that case, I would endeavor to duplicate the post production techniques that delivered the final image as well.
Eric
Understand that I am not advocating ripping off another person’s work or creativity. I am talking about learning how to capture and manipulate an image – any image – because I like the outcome of the combination of techniques.
Eric
I think the project of duplicating a photo is fine. But posting it online or on your website as a sample of your work isn’t right. It’s true there is nothing original under the sun, and I “steal” location ideas and poses from other photographers but I think there has to be a line somewhere.