Shandra wrote:
I'd like to do a shoot based on the Pink Floyd Back Catalogue print.

I'd like to use that idea and instead have Radiohead covers.  Can I do this?  Or...do I need to contact all sorts of people affiliated with the band/Stanley Donwood?

As a general rule an idea [or concept] is not copyrightable. You can attempt to replicate the "look" and "feel" of the images though the closer to an actual copy you get the more potential difficulty you invite.

Studio36

Thyronne wrote:
If you're doing it for your portfolio there's no problem, if you're selling it , there may be a problem.  If you're doing it as a tribute, or art, I doubt anyone will come after you.

Actually, if it is only the idea and not a replication, there is never an issue.  You can publish the image and it is fully copyrightable.

I will give you an example.  Lets say you see an incredible picture of a girl on a bicycle riding across a bridge and you think it is inspirational.  It is of course a copyrighted photo.  You think "That is a great idea, I want to shoot a girl on a bicycle on a bridge."

So you find a model, put her on a bicycle, but this time it is a mountain bike.  Rather than crossing a river, she is crossing a ravine between two mouontains.  Rather than waring a sun dress she is topless in hiking shorts.

You clearly copied the idea of the first photo, a girl on a bicycle.  You didn't deliberately and intentionally replicate the elements of the first picture.

In the lingo of the biz, you took the idea but didn't duplicate the expression.  It is the expression that is copyrighted, the idea is not.

One of the underlying purposes of copyrights and patents are to protect the intellectual and creative properties of the owners but to also encourage improvement and innovation.

So pull out your magazines and books and look for inspiratio in the works of others.  Just create something unique from the ideas of others.