Business Card Question. Please Help

[SGPhoto]

Hello all,
I am in the process of building a new business card and wanted to know something that I am not sure has been discussed here or not.

1. I took the following photos and I would like to know whether or not I can use these on my business card.

Attachment 78842

Attachment 78843

Attachment 78844

And if I can not would there be specific reasons why?

Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Stephen Gibson

[kenw]

probably not. even tho you took the photo (and they are great ones at that!), the fine print on the back of the ticket for each of those events PROBABLY had some sort of restrictions/license requirements for commercial use of photos taken at the event. Advertising (ie, business cards) is considered a commercial use. Using them in your portfolio however usually isn't considered a commercial use, iirc.

[SGPhoto]

Ken,
Since these were "Public Events" why would I not be able to use them? The reason I ask this is, anyone could have taken the same photos at these venues and I do not see anything on my ticket from the Travis Tritt concert nor the ticket I had from the AAC that states anything of that nature, I do not have the ticket from the Byron Nelson any longer so I could not tell you what that says.

I thought commercial use meant trying to sell the image, where in this case I would not be selling the image, only showing samples of my work.

Thanks again for taking the time to look and comment as I want to be 100% sure of what I can and can not do in building the new business card.

Stephen Gibson

[toverman]

I wouldn't rely on answers here, simply because it does matter if you can use them. I recommend checking into the restrictions further and being totally certain.

Who are you planning to market to, or hand out your business cards to? That would be a practical consideration for using or not using the images. Are you hoping to land celebrity clients, or focus on sports photography? If not, you might choose other images to represent your talents.

While they are excellent photos when viewed at this size, at business card size, they may not be the "quick read" such a small image needs to provide. The golf ball is likely to get lost among the flying sand, for example. Not everyone likes Travis Tritt's music or knows who he is. The basketball shot may translate well into a smaller form, but the same goes for what people know about Dirk and it may limit how would-be clients perceive your interests and abilities (and you're in Virginia now ... where's that state's basketball team? ). Just some thoughts.

[kenw]

You might try the Mavericks front office for starters, they will give you the contact you need and a real answer.

But as Todd said, as far as using them a samples of your work (portfolio), a business card won't give a fair representation of the quality these pics. Shrinking Dirk to a 1.5" square won't do your photo justice.

I see a lot of wedding photographers using a 2x6 size (a 4x6 photo cut in half) with pictures of the bride on them as cards of sorts ("See Susie's pics online at xxxxx.com, code 1234556"). Photo quality on photo paper large enough to do justice to the image. And it serves as a bookmark too.