Whenever a post owes something to somebody else’s work — a photograph, a recipe, a statistic, a collaborator’s skill — saying so is a matter of courtesy and of practicality. It is also easy to do badly.
What to credit
- Photographs and artwork: the person who made them.
- Ideas and quotations: the person who said or wrote them.
- Data: where the figure comes from, and when.
- People who worked with you: the photographer, the designer, the model, the venue.
Where to put it
- In the caption, and in the first few lines when it is a collaboration, not buried among the hashtags.
- On the image itself where the network lets you tag people. Tag them on the picture and not only in the text.
- As a link to the original when you are sharing something rather than using it.
How to do it well
- 1Use the name the person uses themselves.
- 2Say what they did: “photograph by…”, not just a tag.
- 3Check that the tag goes to the right account.
- 4Tell them you have posted it, with a link.
Credit is not permission
Naming the author does not give you the right to use their work. If it is not yours and not clearly free to use, ask first. Our article on reposting other people’s photographs explains how.
When someone asks to be credited, or not
Add a missing credit straight away and thank them. If someone asks you to remove a credit, or the post, do it promptly.
Before posting, ask: who made the things in this post, and does the post say so?