2.1 INTRODUCTION
In Section 2 we will learn basic concepts of image editing for the web, including ethical use of images; using image editors like Photoshop and Gimp; and optimizing, formatting and uploading images. Then we will go through 10 exercises to help you learn image editing basics.
First, here are a few important general points:
- Public domain: We will be using images that are in the public domain or under creative commons licensing. We will not use images under copyright.
- Public domain is anything older than 95 years, anything produced by or for the US government, or some items whose copyright was never secured.
- Creative commons licenses are generally used to allow non-profit educational use of images with photo credits. Wikipedia images are usually CC.
- Searching for images, use “Tools” in Google to isolate CC images.
- Accessibility: Working with W3C accessibility guidelines
- Simply put, it’s not hard to write something into the “alt” tags that describe your photo, and its very useful for anyone with vision problems.
- Ethics: The media can be powerful and with power comes responsibility. If you have questions about ethical issues, refer to our pages on images and ethics. The basic principles of image ethics include accurate attribution, truthfulness in editing, minimizing harm, and ensuring full and accurate context in captions, cutlines and credit lines.
- Free Press: Images taken in an open public setting can be made public for news, commentary, and other public interest purposes.
- Privacy: Commercial use of a person’s image is called misappropriation and can result in civil lawsuits. So you can’t just use someone’s name, image or likeness (NIL) for advertising without securing a model release. Also, photos taken in areas where privacy can reasonably be expected should not be made public.
- Responsibility: You are in effect a publisher of your web pages, so you are responsible for the content. Libel, privacy and copyright are potential issues, but with a little foresight, you can avoid problems. The law strongly protects responsible free expression.
- Obscene images: Obscene images can harm people and are not permitted on web sites for this class. Obscenity is no longer prosecuted under most state laws, but it is not protected under the First Amendment.
The rest of this section:
2.3 File formats
2.4 Image editors
2.5 Uploading images to a web site