Milky Way Photo Theft

The Jackson Lake original on the left and the "Lake Titicaca" impostor on the right ~ © James Neeley 2010

When does Wyoming become Peru, or how does Jackson Lake become Lake Titicaca? James Neeley isn't sure, but "I hope some poor soul doesn't travel to Lake Titicaca and expect to see that view!" This was his recent comment after discovering the Internet theft and transformation of one of his Milky Way landscape photos. (The photo on the right is incorrectly labeled as "Milky Way over Lake Titicaca, Peru"—as are hundreds of other versions similar to it.)

The "original" original

James had originally taken this photo on July 16, 2010 at Jackson Lake, in Grand Teton National Park with his Nikon D3S and a 14mm lens. It's original title on his Flickr photostream was, "Onward and Upward". A few days later, he decided to go "... for an 'off world' look by orienting the image with the plane of the magnificent Milky Way galaxy rather than our humble planet..." He flipped the image on it's side and curved the horizon with the warp tool in Photoshop. He posted this new version on his Flickr photostream as "Children of the Stars".

Mr. Neeley figures someone must have swiped his image, rotated it, and retouched out the watermark. What was the purpose of the theft? James doesn't know, but the oldest version that your editor can find has a post date of January 17, 2012. If one does a Google search on the exact title of this page, "Milky Way over Lake Titicaca Peru", there are over 132,000 web pages with this phrase—and a random spot check shows that virtually all of them carry a version of James' stolen image! (A reverse Google Images search of the stolen image shows over 240 versions on the web.)

Why do they do it? Why do people post images on social media sites such as Pinterest, Google+, and Facebock that are not theirs? With many it seems to be a game to see who can get the most views, comments, and unearned accolades—even though this is a form of theft by deception.

What can be done? Although one can use copyright law to sue for damages, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to shut down the offending websites, this can be an arduous task, much like trying to find and recapture a bag of windblown feathers. In this case, the stolen versions are thousands of times more popular on the Internet than the original, and virtually all of them without credit or links to the real author. Even when source links are occasionally given, they usually lead to a another theft or more miss-information. All of this clutters the search engines and makes it harder for the original photographer and his photograph to be found. (In fact, if you do a reverse search now, using James' most original image, only the theft versions appear in all but last pages of the search results!)

Beating them to the punch: One of the sites on the Internet most responsible for the sharing and proliferation of images is Reddit. Many people find their images first on Reddit that they share on the social media sites. A stolen version of James' image was recently shared in the 'pics' section of Reddit and received over 2400 positive votes and over 360 comments.

An image exhibiting this kind of popularity might easily receive over 50,000 views and hundreds of re-shares. Internet-savvy photographers have learned to be the first to share their watermarked images on Reddit, linked to their own websites (i.e. their Flickr photostream), and flood the Internet with good links before the thieves do it with stolen versions that have dead-end links! (Other popular sections on Reddit for sharing night photography images are the SpacePorn and the ExposurePorn pages.)

Example: This Reddit post by your editor was responsible for many of the 40,000+ views and dozens of re-shares (with proper links) of this John Moulton Homestead photo.

More of James Neeley's photography can be found at his website, with additional links to his blogs, workshops, and Flickr photostream. (A review of James' night photography can also be found on this blog.)

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James Neeley: Capturing a Glimpse of the Divine

"Starry Night" near Arco, Idaho ~ © James Neeley

James Neeley likes all types of night photography including cityscapes, light painting, fireworks, and stars; however, high ISO Milky Way photography is foremost on his list. "I love the natural world. Add to that the fact that there are 100 billion stars in our galaxy and 100 billion galaxies out there, photographing just a small part of this amazing universe we live in gives me a glimpse of the divine."

"San Francisco Nights" ~ © James Neeley

 James is a serious-amateur photographer who lives in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and supports his family as a physician. He is best known to many for his HDR landscape photography and his Mountain High Workshops.

"Light Show" - Light painting Delicate Arch during the "Blue Hour" ~ © James Neeley

Neeley enjoys light painting some of his night landscapes. In the above photo, he found it a real balancing act between the ambient light which was decreasing rapidly and the artificial light he and the members of his photo group brought. Fortunately, one of the participants brought a powerful light which became affectionately known as "Big Bertha" and had enough output to light the arch against the twilight sky. (Note: this exact product seem to no longer be available, however a similar 18 million candle power, rechargable halogen spotlight is made by Cyclops.)

High ISO Milky Way Photography is a passion for James. "I [had] done some long exposure astrophotography with a dedicated, cooled CCD camera through a telescope. When the Nikon D3/D700 came out with the ability to shoot fairly low noise pictures at 6400 ISO, I jumped at the chance to try capturing the Milky Way."

However, the latest and the greatest isn't always the best for this style of night work. Neeley still prefers the Nikon D3s camera. "In my opinion this camera has the best high ISO performance, even just edging out the [new] D4."

"Going Deep" - Arches National Park ~ © James Neely

 One of the biggest challenges he faces is ambient light or light pollution. "When you shoot at ISO 6400, f2.8, for 30 sec. even the darkest sites show some ambient light. Only the true 'dark sites' have the quality of sky to not show much extraneous light."

Unprocessed version of "Going Deep" (compare with above image) ~ © James Neeley

Image Enhancing: James doesn't do anything special except Photoshop CS6 for processing. The above photo is an unprocessed image. Processing consisted only of increasing the contrast of the sky (which also darkens the sky and intensifies the color) and increasing the brightness of the foreground just a bit.

Noise Reduction: Here's some advice from James: "A low noise full frame sensor is important. The critical camera setting is to turn on long exposure noise reduction. The camera will then take a dark frame following the exposure for the same time as the exposure itself and then subtract the images to greatly reduce the noise and hot pixels.

Remember, I'm not only shooting a long exposure but high ISO (6400 or 12800). If you want a real shock turn off long exposure noise reduction and shoot a 30 sec. exposure at ISO 6400 in a dark room at a blank wall. Your camera, or any camera for that matter will show multiple hot pixels. For this type of photography you must use long exposure noise reduction or take a dark frame and do the subtraction later on in post."

For additional post-production noise reduction, James likes Neat Image.

More of James Neeley's photography is available at his blog and his Flickr photostream.