Do you know that when an artist puts their name on their creation, it is about ownership, not about conceit? It took becoming a full time professional and relying on a sustaining income for Jean Johnson to understand that photo credits are all important for maintaining a healthy portrait and photography business. You might say, “It doesn’t seem like a big deal” or “I got so excited about posting and sharing my images that I forgot!” “Facebook is so confusing. I don’t know how!” Trust us, we get it! Remembering to photo credit your photographer can seem like overkill and is an easy step to forget. We wanted to share what that extra step actually does for our business and WHY it’s so important to not miss this. All good portrait artists rely heavily on referrals and every photo credit is a digital referral. So, let’s dig deeper into why we should credit our photographers.

LIVELIHOOD. Referrals are essential to the livelihood of every professional photographer because everyone likes to hire someone their friends know and trust. Referrals can happen in sharing conversation with others and they can often happen through photo credits in social media. When someone shares their newest favorite portrait, there is always high emotion and excitement. Friends and family will always want to know who the portrait artist was that created it. Photography credits provide the necessary recognition for a photographer to find future business and opportunity for business growth. Like everyone, professional photographers must be able to support themselves and maintain their business to continue to serve the community they are working in.

HISTORY. Photographs record history. Documentation of history is very important. It is important to know who made the image, where it was created, when it was created, why it was created and maybe even how it was created. Photographs made for future generations to find are "time capsule" material. Future generations will want to know the details. Photography credits provide historic information.

HEART. Professional photography as an art is a labor of love. Professional portrait artists put their heart and soul, blood, sweat and tears into their work. The hours that go into preparing, shooting, culling/sorting, editing, and finishing just one image are well beyond usual recognition. Ask a portrait artist how much time they spent on a portrait and you will likely be surprised! Photo credits are not only deserved but they say "Thank you".

COPYRIGHT. Copyrights are property rights. When you commission a professional photographer to create portraits of you, your children, your family, or even your dog, you pay a lot of money. You might think that you have purchased full ownership of the images that are created, whether they are large fine art pieces for the walls of your home or they are digital copies of images for social media and websites, but the property rights belong to the artist indefinitely, unless they sell those rights. Whenever a photograph, an art piece, a literary piece, original music, a play, a video, etc. is shared or displayed in public, it must be accompanied by credit to the creator or creators, by federal law. Permission must be obtained by the creator to copy, edit or publicly display a photograph. Infringements, copying photos without permission, can result in civil and criminal penalties. Even small levels of copyright infringement can have a devastating impact on an artist’s ability to make a living.

IT IS EASY. If you love the portraits your professional photographer has created for you and you loved your experience, you will want everyone to know who made them! You’ll want your portrait artist to be successful so that in a few years when you need to have portraits made again, they have a healthy strong business that can serve you. Your photographer wants you to share and it is easy! Remember to not crop out the watermark. Tag your photographer's business page. Always share your photographer's website.