Today it was necessary to remove an image posted on the forums which the copyright owner objected to. I'll admit now that I didn't notice the watermark on the image otherwise it would not have been posted, however the issue goes more to whether or not permission has been granted for such images to be posted and this is why the said image has been taken down, even if only temporarily.

Before any content can be posted here (or anywhere, really) the person supplying it must have the permission of the owner of the material. If you created the material and send it in for publication then you are granting the necessary permission. However, if the material being submitted was created by someone else or extracted from a source created by others, then their written permission must be sought before submitting it here.

Simply e-mail the 'owner' and state that you have something you'd like published here and state the purpose of it being published here. Chances are, there will be no problem with it and they will give the go-ahead. But without their permission, publication is not possible here.

At random, and depending on the nature of the material, I reserve the right to ask the person posting the material in question to provide evidence that permission to publish has been granted and this would usually mean supplying a copy of the e-mail from the 'owner'.

It is probably time to revisit the touchy subject of quality of photos too.

Some years ago, around 70% of photos that were submitted to the forums were of such a poor standard that I started refusing to have them on the site. This policy and a lot of repeated nagging forced an improvement to this and today, it is seldom seen that substandard images get submitted, however recently it has happened about three or four times.

Photos that are blurry, dark, overexposed, etc are of no use to those who have been charged with answering important questions on the various topics that get discussed here. If we cannot clearly see the photos, there is no chance of answering questions with any degree of accuracy.

Photos must be as sharp as possible, the correct brightness and contrast and clearly display the subject of the discussion. Basic advice for taking photos of radios, chassis, components, etc include:-

1. Take the photos in a brightly-lit area.
2. Unless you are an experienced amateur or professional photographer, set your camera to auto exposure and let the tool do the work for you.
3. Do not position the camera too close to the subject or the auto-focus will not work.
4. Use a high resolution. Photos that are at least 1200px wide are probably the best minimum setting.
5. If the camera will not auto-focus, move the camera further away and use zoom to make the subject the correct size.

Regardless of what mobile phone manufacturers say, mobile phone cameras are not the best cameras and do not contain some of the necessary features for taking the types of photos required for illustrating questions put in a discussion forum. Those whose only option is their mobile phone, you must pay double the heed to the five steps above, particularly step 1. Cameras take much longer to process darker images and because of this, under exposure and blurry images are always the most common issues. If you have a stand-alone camera, use it.

In support of the comments:

The Tripod, or a solid mount, is not dead. Whilst camera's like my Nikon have anti shake, the slower the speed & proximity to subject, the more likely that any motion will ruin the photo;

Flash guns close up & near shiny surfaces are a menace. Diffusers help: Tissue paper is a diffuser;

Some electronic cameras have a setting for situations like close up through to landscapes;

Stepping / setting back a bit & zooming where possible can help. Crop later & even the simple Windows "Paint" can do that;

"Depth of field" / Sharpness in depth /Sharpness in Motion: Probably the least understood things in photography. The general rule is that the higher the speed: the greater the sharpness in motion an the lesser the sharpness in depth. The higher the aperture number (f stop) the slower will be the shutter speed, to get the same light volume. But as the shutter is a focusing device, the greater will be the depth in field. Its all one big compromise.

There used to be on many lenses, a grid that indicated the depth in field at all focus points either side of the focus point.

Auto focus can be your enemy: What is needed in many cases, is to set to manual focus, then focus (radio pan) on a component that is roughly centered between the pan floor and the highest object. The find the "f" stop that will cause all items to be in focus.

Some cameras have a diopter in the "focus eye" to correct vision (to a point) Auto focus then focus the diopter.