Using AI to remove school photo watermarks

It's never ok to steal from others just because you think they're too expensive.
If you think the work's good enough to steal and use that way, PAY them otherwise take your own photos.

I’m saying that your child will know that you haven’t bought the photo.

Your child will know that you have the photo.

I'm so sorry that my examples have confused you further still.

"I walk into matalan, I love matalan, they put a scarf round my neck and say hey you've tried it, go pay now, you need it, - no thanks, my friend makes scarfs and the quality is much better and can provide a better scarf but thanks for the inspo."

That would be fine if you left the scarf and your friend made you a new one. But, here, your friend isn't taking a new photo are they? They're removing the watermarks from one which the photographer took. Just like ripping the tags and security label off a scarf you were never obliged to buy, and shoving it in your bag.

If you actually don't think it's stealing, experiment for you. Email the photographer and say "Hi, just wanted to say, cute picture you took of little NewName jr! I got a friend to remove the watermarks from the sample you sent and it looks great in the lounge."

Along with misuse, (and derailing the thread a little) there's the obvious point that children aren't consenting to their life being constantly and publicly broadcast. We've just started to see the effect of this now some high profile children of 2000s celebs are reaching adulthood, but there's still a generation about to get there whose parents put so many personal, emotional, medical details about them on line before they could even speak. Ugh.

Anyway this thread was an eye opener. Not least because I had no idea that people didn't believe digital media was a real "thing" you could steal! Presume they'd think that someone taking £50 out of their online bank rather than their handbag was still theft, though.

I can imagine that eventually school photos may become a thing of the past; they could set up their own school backdrop and parents/kids do their own?
Here in Canada one reason for school photos is for RCMP use in case of emergency. So not sure they would be totally done away with.

Okay and that's fair, but my kids know I'll get the photo from my friend, they know the value of money. They have no reason to think ''mum stole that photo'' because I didn't.

It's not theft to be given something and improve it.

And it absolutely doesn't make my kids 'scummy'

Yeah they are removing the watermarks and giving me a better picture for 1/3rd of the price, I'm not fighting you on that.

It doesn't make me a thief or my kids tainted for the fact that I can get better, and cheaper, and going down that route.

I have so many photos of my kids in uniform it's half their life really isn't it? But the idea is that 'oooh its school photos tomorrow' 'make sure your kids come in full uniform' 'mum i want my hair like this' 'ok show us your best smile'

For the photos to come out quite, meh.

I'm not gonna say it's wrong to save a ton of money on someone whos already been paid to come in and take the photos

You know if you go to a theme park and they say hey £30 for the terrible photo I took of you in the moment, but someone behind you is snapping a photo of the photo of them on the back screen?

Is that theft too?

I didn’t call you or your child scummy and I resent the implication that I did.

What you describe is theft. Would these same mums take a few items from a shop if they thought they could get away with it?

I normally don't buy as the results are worse than I could do for myself. But, new school, new photographer this time. I was pleasantly surprised that they bothered to tidy the kids and the result was noticeably professional too.

Was a digital copy worth £18? Yes. That's excellent value for a professional sitting.

Honestly, I apologize, I'm getting a rough time here but somebody did, my mistake that it was not you, I did not mean to make it a personal attack - Sorry

Removing watermarks is a form of theft under the copyright laws.

The photographer probably doesn’t get much if any upfront fee and relies on purchases.

I actually can't believe you think that taking a photographers work without paying them for it isn't theft. And that you think paying someone else to do something with the photo cancels out the theft from the photographer because you've paid someone for it . There's some serious serious lack of understanding of basic ownership there.

To carry on the scarf analogy which you seem to think explains your principles perfectly, if you steal some wool, then pay your friend to knit a scarf with it, you are still a thief even though you paid for the scarf because you stole the wool to make it with. You stole from the shop and paying money to someone else doesn't cancel that out. The raw image you paid your friend to Photoshop isn't a free resource. You stole it from the photographer and paying the photo shopping friend doesn't cancel that initial theft out. You are taking someones work without paying it.

Just out of interest, would you do the same with wedding photos?
When one of my dds was married they put disposable cameras on each table with a note encouraging people on the table to photograph each other and leave the camera for the hosts to print. It was well before good quality cameras in phones and guests took informal shots of the bridal oarty on their own cameras as well.

Well that’s completely contrary to my direct, current experience. One, at most two children in class and group photos with their face obscured. Overwhelmingly most parent friends continue to post their children online,
and most do so with full public permissions. Grandparents reposting pics of their GCs…

All the ones I've seen (which to be fair isn't many, they just randomly popped up on my FB feed a while back - God knows what I'd clicked on!) looked well dodgy and the kid ended up with wonky eyes or a massive forehead.

Maybe it was a cautionary tale?

We did that (20+ years ago). There was one camera we didn't get back but my favourite picture of our wedding, one that really summed up the mood, came from a disposable.

I liked it so much I even did an oil painting of it. It certainly wasn't posed, it was of DH and me crossing the road outside the register office with other guests behind and a random woman with a shopping bag in the foreground, which might sound really rubbish but the composition, everyone's movement and the mood that was caught was amazing.

Who do you think your kids model their behaviour after? Let's be honest, if you are happy ripping school photos off, you are probably teaching them another 100 shitty behaviours to really turn them into fine upstanding adults.

😂😂you are mental

can't believe i'm raising criminals because i pay someone else for their school photos, honestly, bet they end up in jail and everything. No saving some people eh

Let's just pin a hope that they pay for their carrier bags at least

Your experience is completely contrary to my direct, current experience too. There is a definite downturn in parents at my school who are willing for their children’s photos to be shared.

I can't believe you pay someone else for the photo instead of the photographer! It's mad that you're still paying just the wrong person!

Also my thoughts. £23 for a single 6" by 4", not in a frame or anything. Not a viable model when we can all take better photos on our phones nowadays.

Both of the examples you give - asking your friend to fix the watermarked photograph and taking a photograph of the ride photo - are breach of copyright. At the scale you're talking about, it's a civil offense so if the photographer found out (which I admit is unlikely) you could be sued for damages. Whether or not you think it's "wrong" (I happen to disagree), you're breaking the law.

The photographer owns the image. They circulate it to you for the purposes of you deciding whether to buy a copy. Even if you did buy a copy, at no point, do you actually own the rights to the image itself; you can't sell it to a company that wants to use it to advertise a product, for example.

I don't see why you don't just get your friend to take a photo of the kids in uniform if you really want a cheaper alternative.