Tineye etc. and tracking photos

[muppetdave]

Bit of a funny one this. A family member of mine is a bit of a nightmare. He wants to become a professional photographer but there are a number of problems with that - a) he's not all that good, b) his organisational skills are awful, c) his computer skills are terrible, d) he suffers a major lack in social skills, and e) he has no commercial aptitude. Now that in itself is enough for all of you to question the situation. As much as we know it's a car crash waiting to happen, how can you burst someone's bubble?!

Anyway, that issue in my mind is minor. I noticed the other day that he posted a couple of photos on flickr/facebook, that I was immediately certain were not taken by him. He's done this before, and aside from the legal implications, this just thoroughly pisses me off - I'm not that good at photography but I would never dream of trying to pass off someone else's work as my own. The last time it happened I had a go at him, and he seemed to get the message, but old habits die hard it seems. Is it possible to take one of the photos he has 'taken' and work backwards to find the original image that I think he has swiped (assuming it was digital and not scanned from somewhere etc.)?

[Nick Grant]

Yes, you can do an image search in Google.

http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/images...

[K12beano]

Have you tried it yet: http://www.tineye.com/ Seems quite effective at finding stuff to me.

[Simpo Two]

Sounds like he's going to implode anyway - you could sit back and let nature take its course.

[muppetdave]

Hmmmm, couldn't get either to throw anything up, and haven't had any joy previously either.

Simpo - yes he probably will, and as much as we know it will happen, he's a nice guy and we wish there was a nice way to suggest trying something else but he won't listen. Getting to stop him doing crap like this will be one good thing at least!

[crmcatee]

Or point him to this.

How to take down a photographer