An Image Outside any Stock site

Do you have a link?

Not exactly that, but I've seen illustrations I liked and contacted the artist. In a couple of cases I ended up buying the original artwork.

dianeP said:

Was it complicated... like from a legal standpoint?

Gale... what do you mean... a link to the image? I just did a quick search, but only found it on someone's blog. It's a photo someone sent me in 2008, and when I go on the site of the organization who put it out, I can't find it.

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It sounds like you have an interesting scavenger hunt ahead of you.

Just a suggestion you could use a "reverse image search" to help you track it down. I know tineye.com is one of them. You can either upload the image or post the URL and it will give you a list of prominent sites that the image or very very similar images have been posted on. Perhaps that will lead you to its origins.

Glad I saw this before I made a thread since I came across this issue today. I used the tineye.com but it couldn't find it.

Does that mean it might not be a copyrighted image? I really think what I have is perfect for my cover and would like to use it.

Jazen said:

Glad I saw this before I made a thread since I came across this issue today. I used the tineye.com but it couldn't find it.

Does that mean it might not be a copyrighted image? I really think what I have is perfect for my cover and would like to use it.

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No, that's not what that means. You have to assume someone took the pic, made the art, whatever, and owns the rights.

Ok so I guess would have to reach out to the blog where I found it to see if they can point me towards the owner. When I use the reverse image search, that blog is the only thing that comes up but it doesn't look like original artwork so I guess they got it from somewhere.

This is the link to where I found the image http://fellowshiproom.org/2011/04/17/the-face-of-evil/

I'm looking for something close to this one so I can go through proper channels, but so far no luck.

Jazen said:

Ok so I guess would have to reach out to the blog where I found it to see if they can point me towards the owner. When I use the reverse image search, that blog is the only thing that comes up but it doesn't look like original artwork so I guess they got it from somewhere.

This is the link to where I found the image http://fellowshiproom.org/2011/04/17/the-face-of-evil/

I'm looking for something close to this one so I can go through proper channels, but so far no luck.

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Making something similar for your cover would not be challenging with stock. Not only would you end up not having to worry about the rights, but you'd be able to use the correct resolution for your image.

Gale Haut said:

Making something similar for your cover would not be challenging with stock. Not only would you end up not having to worry about the rights, but you'd be able to use the correct resolution for your image.

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Yeah I've been on that site today, made it through page 40 of a 1054 but didn't really find one that had half the face shadowed the same way. Lots of eye close ups but the darkness on the one side is important for my character. I have a while since I'm no where near finished with my book yet so the search does continue.

Honestly, seems like it'd be fairly easy to recreate that yourself with a friend, a camera and a couple of hours. I suspect the person with the blog may have taken the pic themselves, given the look of it.

Jazen said:

Yeah I've been on that site today, made it through page 40 of a 1054 but didn't really find one that had half the face shadowed the same way. Lots of eye close ups but the darkness on the one side is important for my character. I have a while since I'm no where near finished with my book yet so the search does continue.

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Darkening one side of the face and adjusting the colors and shading levels are easy-peasy with some good photo editing software. You just need a quality photo of someone's eye to start out with.

Gale Haut said:

Darkening one side of the face and adjusting the colors and shading levels are easy-peasy with some good photo editing software. You just need a quality photo of someone's eye to start out with.

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haha for someone other than me probably. I am really REALLY limited on skills such as that.

My search does continue, but I had to take a break. It started to get a little freaky looking at so many face and eye close up shots.

Question on the resolution thing you mentioned earlier, does that factor in for ebook as well or just if I'm taking it to print?

Alessandra Kelley said:

Generally ebooks only need a 72 dpi resolution ("dots per inch," referring to the average computer monitor resolution), so the image doesn't need to be as large.

Print books need a minimum of 300 dpi, so they must be a lot larger or risk getting blurry and pixelated.

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Thanks

Ebooks definitely need a good enough resolution. The cover size is normally in the ballpark of 600 by 800 pixels give or take. You should always design somewhat larger than what you need. You don't lose resolution when you resample to a lower resolution. You will lose resolution when you resample to a larger resolution. This holds true when resizing elements within the design.

ah ok got it. I thank you for your responses I have no clue what the resolution is on the image I liked earlier, but I doubt it meets specs. Hopefully I'll find something I like to fit my needs. Otherwise it's back to the drawing board on what I want my cover to be.

Personally, I try to work with as big an image as I can, even for ebooks. Then reduce it down to 72dpi and the right scale later. I do the text after it's resized, as that'd need to be redone on a differently scaled version anyway.

Even if you don't think you'll be doing a print book, you don't know for sure. You also don't know when ebook sizes will change. The recommended sizes for ebook covers has gone up. Kindle wants 1563x2500 pixels, with a minimum allowed of 625x1000. Smashwords wants a minimum width of 1400. Which would be a problem for someone who only had a 600x800 cover.

all the talk of pixel size and dpi is a bit over my head. At this point I am really leaning towards paying someone to handle the cover aspect for me.

Since I'm a stay at home mom, my husband would like me to keep the cost down to a minimum.