[answered, thank you] Writing tasks ...with pictures

[iacob_irina]

So far I skipped taking on jobs that required me to use pictures. Mostly because of the copyright issues. I also don't really have an idea of how to make use of Photoshop or other photo editing software. 

Clearly i don't want my lack of a skill to affect my reputation as a writer [if i can even say that].

What do you guys do when the job requires use of photos as well? Do you ask the client to provide them? do you have an account on some photo stock site? what about the copyright of the picture?

EDIT: several replies had good enough solutions, thank you all for your time. 🙂

[reinierb]

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@Irina I wrote:

So far I skipped taking on jobs that required me to use pictures. Mostly because of the copyright issues. I also don't really have an idea of how to make use of Photoshop or other photo editing software. 

Clearly i don't want my lack of a skill to affect my reputation as a writer [if i can even say that].

What do you guys do when the job requires use of photos as well? Do you ask the client to provide them? do you have an account on some photo stock site? what about the copyright of the picture?

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 There are two things you can do-

Ask the client to provide the pictures, or ask the client to sign up for an account on a photo stock site, and to let you have the login details so you can select the best picture(s) for the task at hand yourself. 

However, if the client provides the pictures, make sure that the client owns the relevant rights to the picture- or better still, all the rights to the picture.    

[iacob_irina]

Thank you for your input.

That's also what I thought I should do, should I ever consider applying for those jobs.

Along with asking for more money.

[prestonhunter]

re: "What do you guys do when the job requires use of photos as well?"

By definition, a writing job does not entail the use of pictures.

If you are being asked to use pictures, you are being asked to do more than write.

[iacob_irina]

Thank you for your reply.

That's also what I think, though looking back at my original post, it doesn't seem like I said it quite like this.  😛 

I just saw in another thread some other freelancer mentioning they do provide or edit pictures if the task requires it. I didn't want to derail that thread so I made a new to see what other freelancers think. 

[petra_r]

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@Preston H wrote:

re: "What do you guys do when the job requires use of photos as well?"

By definition, a writing job does not entail the use of pictures.

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 Wrong.

Many jobs that fall under the Writing Category "entail the use of pictures."

[prestonhunter]

That is true, there are jobs like that in the Writing category. But I was not talking about the category.

Many jobs involve using more than one skill or performing more than one type of task, including many jobs in the writing category.

A food blogger may well write about food and prepare food and photograph the food. But that doesn't mean that cooking and photography are writing.

A writer being asked to select pictures is being asked to do something more than write. Which is fine. Of course that would need to be part of a job description. Not every writer would want to do that.

[iacob_irina]

I beg to differ with you on this one, Petra. 

I'm a writer, not a photgrapher, not an illustrator, nor photo editor, or even website creator. Why should I provide pictures for the text? All I'm good at is writing. 

You are correct saying that many clients also want the writers to provide pictures - everyone can go see the requirements. However the job of a writer is to write. 

I also agree there are people with more than 1 creative talent - can write, paint, draw, compose music... but not everyone is like that.

Like I said, I avoid the jobs requesting more than me writing [and doing the research need to complete the task]. But I still want to know how others approach this situation.

[prestonhunter]

One great tip was to ask the project owner or assigning editor to provide the pictures.

One simple strategy that I don't think has been mentioned yet in this thread is to use resources which provide photos and images that are free to use, royalty-free and/or free of copyright considerations. Such as these:

https://pixabay.com/

https://www.maxpixel.net/

https://transferimage.com/

But selecting these photos and including them in a writing piece certainly involves additional skills and is obviously not something every writer wants to do.

[kfarnell]

> What do you guys do when the job requires use of photos as well? 

It depends why and what sort of photos are involved. I've written a few how-to ebooks and for those I took my own photos. Nothing complicated was involved, just simple shots of each stage of a process. It wouldn't have been possible to buy/download appropriate images.

I've also used copyright free images and have recommended suitable photos from stock sites - it's best to get the client to buy them rather than get into a licensing mess.

But I can use Photoshop and similar - if you plan to work with images, it's essential to at least get to grips with the basics so you can do simple things like crop images.

[petra_r]

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@Irina I wrote:

I beg to differ with you on this one, Petra.

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 What do you differ with? That there are jobs in the writing category which may involve additional skills such as involving photos?

There ARE such jobs, or else you'd not have to avoid them. 😉

Being able to offer "added value" means being able to ask for more money, or winning jobs you might otherwise not have been able to get as it gives you a competitive advantage over others who decide they want to "just" (don't shoot me 😉 ) concentrate on their main core skill.

Either is fine.

Personally I love photography, design, and creative software. Being willing to "add" my other skills has served me well, not just in terms of won jobs, but also in terms of free software clients have given me (when they have company licences for "stuff" they want me to use) I've also been paid to learn to use those (Being able to use stuff like Illustrator and Publisher and so on is pretty cool and all adds competitive advantage.)

If a client wants "added extra" I just charge accordingly and if it's something I haven't got they need to supply it.

It's a win-win as far as I am concerned, but each to their own 🙂

[reinierb]

In some cases, pictures are a requirement. For instance, when I describe issues with automatic transmissions, I have to use diagrams of the hydraulic and/or electronic control circuits as visual aids to make both the cause and the solution of the problem clear. There is simply no way to convey that sort of information with words alone, no matter how gifted you are as a writer.

I can list many other examples, but the point is that in some cases, sourcing, editing and inserting pictures/diagrams/schematics into a text does not amount to extra work; doing this is an integral part of the job for which the client  pays an appropriate price.    

[iacob_irina]

Oh! I forgot that indeed there are certain types of writings that do require pictures, such as your example with the automatic transmissions. 

I still need some sort of skills to illustrate the problem somehow - to either have access to the machinery using the technology so i can take pictures, or be skilled enough to draw by hand. 

Preston, if you see this, thank you for your suggestions as well 🙂 

Kim, if you see this: awesome tip "to take my own photos." Thank you!

[e_luneborg]

I don't like dealing with photos in my writing, but when I'm uploading my articles directly to a clients website I do anyway. The thing is that you should talk to your client about what kind of photos they want. I only use pictures from Pixabay (or some other free website), and if the client isn't fine with that they will have to find their own pictures. I do charge extra for adding pictures, but I don't like it, so I don't want to spend a lot of time on it. 

No one has ever asked me to edit pictures or anything like that, and that isn't something you can just assume that a writer will know how to do. The only thing I know about photoshop is that there is a thing called photoshop. 

[iacob_irina]

AHA!

Thanks for clarifying that! From your initial post, I understood that as a writer im supposed to also know how to do other stuff as well, such as manipulating images. Clearly it would be a bonus for a win/win situation. 

[petra_r]

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@Irina I wrote:

AHA!

Thanks for clarifying that! From your initial post, I understood that as a writer im supposed to also know how to do other stuff as well, such as manipulating images.

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 No, absolutely not  what I meant 🙂

I was reacting to Preston's statement that "by definition" writers don't do such a thing and that "a writing job does not entail the use of pictures."

"By definition" writers decide for themselves if they want to accept contracts that incorporate other stuff or not.

My father was a journalist, he travelled all over the world for the newspaper and did his own photography much of the time.

I guess someone will now suggest that journalists are not writers?

[iacob_irina]

Journalists are supposed to be writers, indeed. At least some of them. 😄 And some of them do take their own photos or videos too, depending where their articles appear, or on which media. but now we start navigating a bit far I think.

I guess that at the end of the day, if a person is not comfortable doing something, they should just not do it, or learn how to do it. If there isn't something in particular preventing them from learning, that is. 😉 

I can't mark any reply as "solution" for several of them offered equally good enough solutions to my question. 😄

[petra_r]

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@Irina I wrote:

I guess that at the end of the day, if a person is not comfortable doing something, they should just not do it, or learn how to do it. If there isn't something in particular preventing them from learning, that is. 😉 my question. 😄

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 Exactly 🙂

That's the sheer beauty of freelancing. We get to decide how we want to play it.

You want to let your words and only your words tell the story? GREAT

Someone else wants to blend words and pictures and digital "stuff" combine to create something? Also GREAT!

[phillipsworks]

You can also read the 'fair use of content' terms and conditions. Is the article you are writing for educational and non-profit purposes? Then you are good to go getting photos that allows fair use. So, it depends on what you are writing about. And to be a good writer is not all about writing texts, it also involves explaining those texts with images. How many blog posts have you seen without images? So, I think you need to be able to source images if asked to. However, you can charge extra for that, or log more time if it is an hourly contract.

[iacob_irina]

Oh don't get me wrong, I am not working on any such project. I do run a blog of my own, and most of the pics are my own too. If I use other people's pics, I credit them as best as I can. Even when using my own pictures, I'm not 100% sure they're ok - logos might be in them and those have their own copyrights and so on. [i could blur the logos, brand names, and other stuff and ruin the picture in the process? I have no idea.] 

However, I'm not comfortable using pictures that aren't mine for the articles I write for others. This is why I started this topic to see how others deal with the situation. While I may credit the pictures in my blog, I have no idea what my client does on their site [or wherever they want the piece to appear].

I don't want to land in hot waters because of another person, you know? 😉

In any case, I appreciate you taking the time to reply to my question and giving me a good piece of advice, so thank you.