as someone who uses old photographs to produce paintings can someone tell me if i can use photographs from shipyrds that are no longer in business. also can someone tell me if I can us eany of Frank and sons photographs. for instance when was copyright on these still in force

Hi Terry,
I’m certainly no expert on copyright law, but if you are simply using a photograph as inspiration for a painting I can not see a problem – the image you produce is your work and your copyright. If you were reproducing the photograph (not your painting) in a book, or posting it on a website such as this, while the photograph was still within the copyright period, then there might be a problem.
There is some useful guidance at https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... e-internet
Regards,
Dennis