Caution: LONG Post Ahead… I took a baking class once. It was “How to Make your own Puff Pastry.” Puff pastry is kind of hard; it’s like the Voldemort of the pastry world-that which should only be purchased and never attempted in one’s own kitchen. I couldn’t have pulled it out without the instructor over my shoulder guiding me. I brought home my puff pastry and it was pretty glorious. The family “ooh’d” and “ahh’d” and I let them. My kids kept asking, “YOU made this?” And I said yes. After all, I reasoned, I did put it in the oven, kind of like frozen pizza. I basked in the adoration, knowing full well I didn’t make this on my own. And then I felt bad for accepting praise for something I really didn’t do. I had just committed Pastry Plagiarism. It wasn’t too bad, considering it was just my family and I ‘fessed up later that had the instructor not been there to guide my every step, I couldn’t have done it. But..what if I had used that Puff Pastry to book a catering job? And what’s worse, what if the Pastry Chef had encouraged it as perk of signing up for his class? Ethical? Honest? Heck, no. But somehow, that same scenario is a-okay in the world of photography, except instead of puff pastry, we’re using workshop images. We are at a weird and wacky time in the industry where workshop and conference givers actually encourage attendees to pass off work created in these conferences as their own. Now, I’m not talking about a stylized session you create yourself. If you have an idea and want to stretch your creativity with a designed shoot, then more power to you. YOU thought it up; YOU executed it; YOU can take full credit. And more importantly, YOU can replicate it. But images from a workshop where the glamorous models are all handpicked (no muffin tops or Missy hips there, I can guaran-darn-tee you) hair and make up is done, wardrobe is over the top stylish; locations are elaborate and already set up by the instructor (or more likely, a designer) attendees are guided as to the best camera settings and angles, lighting is decided for you...you have but to push a button. Come on, folks. These are not YOUR images. Does it mean you shouldn’t take them? Of course not. A scenario like this is basically a classroom and a great learning opportunity, especially if you don’t get a lot of time behind a camera. But you don’t do anyone any favors if you come home and use those in your portfolio. Why? Because a prospective client won’t know that these were from a workshop or a conference. They will look at the workshop images on your website and think it was all YOU. And expect THEIR images to look the same. And, since this is new to you, there’s a good chance what you deliver won’t look at all like what they saw in your portfolio (you know, cause youve got to practice what youve learned first so you can do it on your own) which is why you do yourself and your client a great disservice when you try to pass of workshop images as your own. And on the flop side, (yes, I meant to write flip-side. The flop was a happy accident and works quite well here, so I left it in) workshop givers do the industry and the folks trying to learn a great disservice when they tell you to use these images in your portfolio. Its a cool selling point, and it might help put butts in seats and sell tickets, but it doesn’t do anything to better the industry. It does, however, produce hundreds of portfolios with the exact same images in them. xoxo (This concludes my very long post. Thank you for reading it.)
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 20:53:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015