How do I know if I'm allowed to use a photo on my website?

Keep the answer with the photo. Your library holds a record card for each one: who owns it, whether a credit line has to be shown, what kind of licence it's under, and when that licence runs out. Ask your assistant and it reads the card back to you. Nothing about the photo itself changes without your approval - recording rights is just writing down what you tell it.

I've no idea where half my photos came from. Is that a problem?

It's the normal starting point, and the library says so out loud rather than pretending. Photos brought in from an old site start marked rights unknown. Ask your assistant which ones those are and it'll go through them with you a few at a time, writing down what you tell it - you approve what gets recorded, it doesn't guess.

What happens when a photo's licence runs out?

Record the expiry date on the photo's card and it stops being something you have to remember.

Am I allowed to use this photo?

Most small businesses answer "can we use this photo?" from memory, and memory is where the answer goes to die. The photographer's email was four inboxes ago; the stock licence was bought by someone who has left.

Keep the answer with the photo

Your library gives every photo a record card, and the card travels with it for life: who owns it, whether they must be credited, what the licence allows, and when it expires. Ask your assistant to fill one in - in your own words, as you remember things - and it writes them down.

The photo may already know

You aren't always starting from memory. Many photos carry claims embedded in the file itself: the photographer's name, a copyright line, usage terms, a Content Credentials record of where the image came from, sometimes a marker that it was AI-generated. Ask your assistant to read what a photo says about itself and it reports those claims as evidence for the record card - a strong starting point to confirm, never proof it treats as settled. "This file names Jane Smith as the photographer - shall I record that?" is a much easier question than "who took this?".

It also flags a quiet privacy hazard: whether the file still carries location data from the camera. Photos placed on your pages are stripped of embedded data before serving, so visitors never get your coordinates - but knowing a studio-at-home shot was geotagged is worth having on the card.

"I don't know" is a real answer

Photos adopted from your old site start marked rights unknown, and the library shows you how many there are rather than quietly pretending they're fine. That count is the to-do list. Ask your assistant to walk you through them a few at a time; it records what you say as you go, and the number comes down.

Recording a photo's rights doesn't touch the photo or the page it's on - it's a note on the card, not a website change, so there's nothing to approve or preview. If you'd rather understand the bigger picture of what your assistant can and can't do unattended, see Is it safe to let an AI edit my site?.

The prompt

“Go through my photos and tell me which ones we don't have rights information for - then ask me about them a few at a time.”

Press Copy, then paste it into your AI and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard first - a one-time setup in bernard → your site → Use your own AI.

Questions people ask

How do I know if I'm allowed to use a photo on my website?: Keep the answer with the photo. Your library holds a record card for each one: who owns it, whether a credit line has to be shown, what kind of licence it's under, and when that licence runs out. Ask your assistant and it reads the card back to you. Nothing about the photo itself changes without your approval - recording rights is just writing down what you tell it.
I've no idea where half my photos came from. Is that a problem?: It's the normal starting point, and the library says so out loud rather than pretending. Photos brought in from an old site start marked rights unknown. Ask your assistant which ones those are and it'll go through them with you a few at a time, writing down what you tell it - you approve what gets recorded, it doesn't guess.
What happens when a photo's licence runs out?: Record the expiry date on the photo's card and it stops being something you have to remember.