Please Tell Me About Photos...

Ketch,
I went on eBay and purchased magazines for my book. It was expensive because my subject (it's a biography) appeared in automotive magazines from 1965-1970. Then I scanned them at extremely high rez.
The magazines I obtained were mostly defunct, however I traced their ownership and found they were all owned by PRIMEDIA. I called PRIMEDIA and obtained permission to use them.
(Note: Car and Driver magazine was a true joy to deal with. Hot Rod was very tough.)

I also put the word out on automotive bulletin boards and classic car groups and many people sent me photos to scan and return. I was able to use those with only a letter of permission and guarantee of one use only.

Then I contacted General Motors for archives. If you are writing about a subject or person that has/had anything to do with a company or industry, you may have photos available. In my case I received never-seen-before photos of John Z. DeLorean!
GM gave me these to use -- for free.

I assume you can use any photo you shot yourself, however my publisher required that I seek permission for people who appeared in the shots we used. But buildings, animals or landscapes are free to use.Your camera had better shoot at least 250-300DPI.

That's all I can tell you from my own experience in 2005.

One final warning:
Don't let photos slip from your radar. I made that mistake and ended-up running in circles for 2 months past the final submission of my MS!
My publisher shelved the entire project until I was able to get all permissions in place. So all my work to make deadline was for naught.
Get the photos done as you go!

First off, many publishers will prefer to use their own photographers, depending on subject.

There are many photolibraries on the net, try www.istockphoto.com (reasonably priced) and http://www.sxc.hu/ (free, but check individual photos for rights).

Can you take them yourself? Aside from para 1, depends how good you are. 6 megapixels will give sufficient quality for most purposes.

Taking pictures of people, houses etc is not clear-cut. You'd want more expert advice than you'll probably get in here. Wherever possible, get permission.

Always get permission from the owners and ask how the pics should be attributed. Even though I had written permission for the photos I provided, my publisher still insisted that I get their own release forms signed by the photographers involved.

ketch said:

Would I have to purchase them from photographers?

Can I take some myself?

If I take photos with my 6.1 megapixal digital camera, are those printable/acceptable?

Is there somewhere I'd be able to find photos I can use for free? Are there standard rules about this?

If I took a picture of a house, dog, person, etc., do I have to get the subject's permission to use the picture, or is it MY picture?

Click to expand...

Hi Ketch,

You may have to purchase photos from the photographer, it depends on the photographer. Chances are, you will simply have to credit the photo to him with a copyright.

If the publisher doesn't mind your taking a picture yourself, and you can produce a good looking photograph, then you should be able to with your 6.1 megapixel digital camera. I had to take two photos myself using a similar camera for my new book and they reproduced just fine.

As the other posters said, the online photo sites are good, but they could get costly. Also, if the photos are public domain, they could already be in a number of other publications, making your book not as unique. Try contacting local or national clubs or organizations associated with your subject. Hopefully you will meet one person with photos who will then introduce you to other members who have even more photos. People who have private collections are often glad to share them with someone for use in a book. Other times, though, they can be quite stingy. All this requires a lot of legwork and many phone calls and emails.

If you photograph a person or someone's house, you should have the person sign a standard release form. Photographers normally carry these with them. If you photograph a building or some other public edifice, you won't need permission to use it in a publication.

Good luck. I've done this three times myself.

allen