I was at a fair with my family this summer and saw this great business opportunity. The lady takes old barn boards glues photographs to them and covers the photos in plexiglass. The photos are her own personal pictures but when she lays them out they spell words. Normally the spell a person's name.

I was thinking about that one day when I was out taking pictures. If I expanded on her idea, instead of putting individual pictures on barn board, I was going to morph them together into one large image in Photoshop and have a panaramic image printed from my PS creation. Still however using photographs of objects shaped like letters to spell words. The end result would not be mounted on barn board, but rather framed and possibly matted as well.

If I did the same concept but not exactly the way she did it, would it still be ethically wrong?

Originally Posted by fredjclaus I was at a fair with my family this summer and saw this great business opportunity. The lady takes old barn boards glues photographs to them and covers the photos in plexiglass. The photos are her own personal pictures but when she lays them out they spell words. Normally the spell a person's name. I was thinking about that one day when I was out taking pictures. If I expanded on her idea, instead of putting individual pictures on barn board, I was going to morph them together into one large image in Photoshop and have a panaramic image printed from my PS creation. Still however using photographs of objects shaped like letters to spell words. The end result would not be mounted on barn board, but rather framed and possibly matted as well. If I did the same concept but not exactly the way she did it, would it still be ethically wrong?

I don't think so. You're using a basic idea but creating a totally different product. It speaks volumes, however, that you are concerned about the ethical issues! Many wouldn't be.

Originally Posted by fredjclaus If I did the same concept but not exactly the way she did it, would it still be ethically wrong?

Not at all! Sounds like a cool project- go ahead and hope it turns out well!!

There is a neat store in my town that sells individual pictures that look like different letters, and then they mount them for you. It's an idea I think alot of people are doing. Go for it

Thanks everyone. I do try to be ethical when I can. I would hate for someone to steel my intilectual property so I wouldn't want to do that to someone else either.

Thanks for the information. I think I'm going to go for it.

I've seen this done before- taking photos of objects that look like letters. I think you can safely use the idea.

Caroline

The Rad font http://store4.adobe.com/cfusion/stor...e=RADQ10005000 might give you some ideas.

If you poke around in the various font foundaries you'll see quite a few what are called decorative fonts that contort things into letters. Whatever you come up with won't be tramping on anyone's toes, you'll just be adding to the mix.

Originally Posted by fredjclaus I was at a fair with my family this summer and saw this great business opportunity. The lady takes old barn boards glues photographs to them and covers the photos in plexiglass. The photos are her own personal pictures but when she lays them out they spell words. Normally the spell a person's name. I was thinking about that one day when I was out taking pictures. If I expanded on her idea, instead of putting individual pictures on barn board, I was going to morph them together into one large image in Photoshop and have a panaramic image printed from my PS creation. Still however using photographs of objects shaped like letters to spell words. The end result would not be mounted on barn board, but rather framed and possibly matted as well. If I did the same concept but not exactly the way she did it, would it still be ethically wrong?

I seen something like this in Knoxville TN a couple of years ago. There was 9 framed pictures in a row, one for each letter of knoxville,. Ive been meaning to do this with my town name, but been having a problem thinking of things that would work for each letter. :) Its a cool idea.