Copyright

[Bats21]

How do you copyright pictures you take?

[kenw]

techincally, they are copyrighted when you take them.

however, since this question is generally aske referring to adding the copyright symbol (which, again isn't technically required, but usually recommmended), I'll chase that rabbit.

The symbol, your name and the date is the required format. Use your editor to add text, and for the symbol ©, press the "ALT" key and type 0169. © will appeear as if by magic....You many need to turn on the NumLock 1st. Then your name and the date (just the year is sufficient). Size it and place it to suit your tastes.

[Duffy Pratt]

Your pictures are automatically copyrighted.

You can register your copyright with the government by following the steps listed here:

http://www.copyright.gov/register/visual.html

Registration gives you a few benefits that you don't have from an unregistered copyright, most notably, with a registered copyright you will be entitled to attorney fees if you successfully sue someone.

There are several cheap ways to provide additional evidence of your copyright, if you want. Back when I was writing screenplays, the cheap way to give tangible evidence of the copyright was to mail the screenplay to myself in a sealed envelope. The postmark then established the date of creation.

What you should do with photographs would depend, I think, on how you took the pictures, how long you want the evidence to last, and who you think the potential infringers are.

Duffy

[Bartman01]

Three approaches to take here:

1) As mentioned, ALL photos are copyrighted automatically. Technically you don't need to do anyting to obtain a basic copyright.
2) For IMPORTANT photos that you expect to be part of your main revenue generation from sales to the public at large, register it with the copyright office.
3) For trivial photos that you want to be able to share, but still retain commercial rights to consider using a Creative Commons license and rights assignment.

Make sure that what ever rights you decide to retain/transfer that you include this info in the file's EXIF data along with your contact info (PS 'Save for Web' strips this out). While this info can be removed, it requires a deliberate act to do so.

[Steelsun]

BTW: You can residter your copyrights with the copyright office above by sending a whole CD full of images in and paying only one low fee ($45 I think).
They are looking into expanding this to DVD submission also.