Pictures and Bannermakers

It all started on ShowDog.Com when people noticed that they could link to pictures in their kennel slogan. In the beginning only a few people posted that they made banners for other users, but soon several others joined them. The forums were soon flooded with banner requests and offers, so Jeff decided to create a seperate forum for the bannermakers. Some bannermakers created competitions to show off the talented bannermakers' creations.

A lot of the first catteries on ShowCats.Com was started by people that had a kennel on ShowDog.Com, and they also wanted a banner for their cattery.

At first people requested banners that showed off their kennel name in their slogan, but soon a lot of people had several banners for each of their kennels. They also created other pictures to enhance the slogan, like headings and small crests. It was also possible to change the picture on the individual dog or cat, and some users created special pictures for each dog, while others had an unic picture that showed that this dog or cat was bred by them.

The option to change the dog or cat picture from the default as well as having a slogan was a benefit for the paying members of the sites, but some basic accounts liked the idea and requested a changed picture before they bought the dog (or cat).

Unfortunately not every bannermaker understood the copyright laws and Jeff had to protect his sites, so he requested that everybody listed their sources when they posted a banner.

The bannermakers helped each other find copyright free pictures of purebred dogs and cats that they could use for their creations.

Sources

It is very important to understand what copyright is before duplicating someone elses work or using it so create something new.

Royalty Free

Royalty free does not mean copyright free!
It is often used in the meaning that the purchaser kan pay for the image once and then don't have to pay for it again later.

Read the Conditions

It is always a good idea to read the conditions before using pictures from any site, even it claims that the pictures are free and/or copyright free. Some sites limit the use to personal and noncommercial use.
It is a good idea to contact the people that is running the site, if you are unsure about the terms for using the pictures or if you can not find any mentioning of the conditions. Mention where and how you are going to use the pictures and if you will link back to their site.

Private breeders

Pictures are not copyright free just because the photographer is not listed and the copyright symbol is missing. A lot of people that breed pure bred dogs and cats have their own home page on the internet with pictures of their dogs or cats. If you are interested in using their pictures, then you should send them an email and ask.

Software

A lot of people start out creating pictures and banners with software that came with their computer or digital camera. This is often scaled down versions of larger image manipulation tools, because it keeps the cost down for the manufacture. As the creativity and experience grows, it will soon be necessary to find a photo manipulation software with more options.

Photoshop

Photoshop is used by a lot of professional artist, but it is also a very expensive software package. The feature list is long and it is possible to enhance the program with plugins, but first time users can find it a bit overwhelming and difficult to understand.
It's possible to find a lot of photoshop tutorials on the Internet.

Photoshop Elements

Photoshop Elements is a simpler and cheaper version of Photoshop that is easier for a lot of people to understand and use.

Paint Shop Pro

Paint Shop Pro is another photo manipulation software that is widely used among professionals.
It's also possible ti find a lot of Paint Shop Pro tutorials on the Internet.

GIMP

GIMP was originally created for linux as a PhotoShop clone, but is also available on Windows. GIMP is open source, which means that it is free for the normal user.

GIMPshop

GIMPshop was created as an way to make GIMP more userfriendly and take it closer to to Photoshop.

Picture Hosting

Before a banner og personal picture can be used on ShowDog.Com, ShowCats.Com or another site, it has to be hosted on a webserver. Anyone with a website can host their pictures there, but not everyone has access to a webserver. There exists several online hosting services, to help people show off their pictures.

Picasa

. Picasa is a photo organizing program that you can install on your computer. It can do  some basic formating and will not overwrite the original photo.
From the program you can easily upload the pictures to Picasa Web.

Picasa Web

Picasa Web er en online service from Google, where each user gets 250MB to host their pictures.

ShowDog Maillist

The unofficial ShowDog.Com Maillist is often very quite, but is often used when the site is down for whatever reason.

Chat

If you want to chat with other showdoggers, you could visit the Showdog_Sim chat at the Tiki server.