Hey, I know that Photo!

So you're browsing through Facebook or online for nail inspiration and you come across a picture that you recognize, and you think to yourself "Hey I know that photo.  It's So and So's work!"  You go back to your favorite techs website, and sure enough the photo was Stolen!  You can't imagine how often this happens in the nail industry, especially on facebook!  So what can you do about it?

CONTACT THE OWNER OF THE PHOTO
They are the  only one that can report the photo as stolen property.  Commenting on the photo will just get you banned and wont necessarily get the person to remove the photo and they will probably just steal someone elses work.

It's all good and great to be inspired by another techs work, but give a little credit where it is due people!  As professionals we work hard at what we do, we invest money into training, and nail art is just that ART. Stealing them is just rude!  You wouldn't put a photo of the Mona Lisa on your page and claim that you are the artist, so why do it with other peoples nails?

I remember when I started doing nails a year ago, I choose design ideas that I wanted to try, styles of nails that I wanted in my portfolio.  I offered a couple of free sets of nails, with the stipulation that I got to choose the design and they got to choose the color.  I gave everyone a questionaire to see what type of nails they wanted and picked models out from there.  I was so overwhelmed by the responses that I got, and took my add down within an hour! I got a ton of images for my portfolio, and some of those sets became regular clients.  Not only that, I got practice, and became a better nail tech from it!   I look back at those photos now, and my work was far from perfect, but it was mine!

Want to check to see if your photo's have been stolen?
Here is a great link to see if your photos have been used by others.  You upload your image and google searches for similar photos.  I found that adding text can help, as you will see from my results below.  http://www.google.ca/insidesearch/features/images/searchbyimage.html

I can tell you it honestly works because I found some of my work on here (see link below) by using the google picture search.  My first search only came up with my own images, but I added the text neon nails, and found this result.
http://nailsimage.net/62086/retro-neon-nails-image/retro-neon-nails-62086/

WATERMARK, WATERMARK, WATERMARK
It won't stop photo theifs, but it helps.  I make my watermarks large and in charge.  It isn't always the prettiest thing to do, but just last night a fellow nail tech found one of her photos on someone elses facebook page where her watermark had been cropped out, and the impostor had watermarked her own name over the nails.  A few months ago a friend and mentor had someone claim they owned her salon, and actually linked their profile to my her facebook page.  She had to contact the theif, who had 3 different stories as to why it was an accident.  My friend then had to remove all of her photo's from facebook, watermark them and then upload them again.  She lost every like and every comment.  It's not only sad, It's just ridiculous!

I use PicMonkey.  It's a free online tool, that allows you to make facebook covers,  pinterest tutorials, watermark your photos and it's a great photo editor!  http://www.picmonkey.com
If you have watermark site that you love, feel free to post it in the comments below.

A WORD OF CAUTION
If your nail tech doesn't have a certification hanging on her wall and wont show you one, walk away.  There are so many DIY'ers out there posing as nail techs, hurting clients and they have no inclination of the sanitation procedures that we professional nail techs take!

If you are browsing someone's faceboook page, and the images are shockingly different, some nails look like they are off a magazine cover... others are lumpy and bumpy... some are on a marble desk other on a black one.... or the photo's look like they have been cropped from computer screen shots.  Is this really someone YOU would trust to work on your nails?  If they are stealing photos and claiming the work is theirs, they are stealing YOUR money.