With only 31 entries to win 4 prizes, this was probably the easiest contest in the world to win! We would have preferred having more choice, but that's ok, we're happy to give away prizes to the community for participating!

"Most salable" is an elusive concept, so we picked the winners by consulting with our sales team. Part of the decision is being able to conceptualize how an image could be used commercially, and some of the essays were interesting because many people have very literal or stereotypical conceptions of their images. Scenics were often described as "calm" or "peaceful," and yet our sales people were hard pressed to think of how such an image would be pitched to a client.

Some images had obvious problems with production values -- Blurry, poor contrast, unnatural color cast, objects coming out of people's heads (i.e. not paying attention to your backgrounds). Remember that you need to look objectively look at the elements that make up the photo while divorcing yourself from the emotions that you feel looking at the photo. Training yourself to have a critical eye is one of the most important attributes you can have as a visual artist.

Some people believed that having something "quirky" equated with most salable. Although it's common to see quirky images on a greeting card some times, quirky images are usually more associated with a "feature" image in a newspaper -- i.e. an image that isn't about news, pe se, but rather something that's visually interesting. On slow news days, photographers often are tasked with finding a "feature" image to run on page 1. But enough chatter...

The Winners

Michelle Lane
JPG Magazine Subscription

We held a little Summer cocktail party the other week to get a bunch of our buyers together and have a drink. And to up the ante, we raffled off some images from the PhotoShelter Collection that were generously printed for us by the good folks over at AdoramaPix. Big thanks to the photographers that helped us make this event a success: Thomas Boyd, Gus Butera, Jason Florio, Kevin German, Julie Kuceris, Vincent Laforet, Nicholas Lorden, Matt Nighswander, Stacey Pittman, Matthew Porter, Gus Powell, Robert Whitman.

Production value continues to be the main problem with the images that we're seeing for the Research Request System. Before we get into the specifics, we encourage you to read our School of Stock article on production values, and then pay increasingly more attention to the way that images are used in the publications you read. Developing a critical eye to discern the differences between pro-quality images and amateur images is crucial.

The grades provided are for all the images we saw, not for the images that we're using as examples.


Doctor in an office setting
Grade: C-

With HIPPA laws and the problems of general accessibility to a doctor's office, the challenges of shooting medically-related imagery start before you even pick up the camera. Once you gain access, make the most of it by planning your shoot and ensuring that the production value of the images is high in every frame. This means paying attention to lighting, composition, styling, and casting (where applicable).

The word "salable" always looks funny to me, but I looked it up in the dictionary, and indeed, it is an adjective that describes that which someone can sell.

Which brings us to our next S!TD community prize. In case you missed it, you can get up to speed here and here. This week, we want you to:

• Create your Shoot! The Day community account (if you haven't already done so)
• Go to my profile page
• Leave me a comment with:
• In 200 words or less, tell us about the image that you consider your most salable and why (grammar and spelling are always a consideration!). If you've already licensed the image, let us know!
  
• Leave a link to the photo (obviously, it'd be great if it's already in the PhotoShelter Collection)

Prizes!
Next Thursday, we'll announce the winners generously donated by some of our partners! This week's prizes include:

• Apple Aperture 2.1
• Nikon Capture NX 2.0
• Lowepro Flipside 300
• An annual subscription to JPG Magazine
  

Apple Aperture is a fantastic image processing and asset management system, and version 2.1 has a ton of speed enhancements that make it feel like a totally different program.

I processed the photo below with Capture NX. It makes my Nikon RAWs look like a million bucks.

I'm a Lowepro camera bag user myself, and as I get older (and my back has gotten gimpier), I've moved to using backpacks. Sure they don't look as cool as slingbag, but sometimes you gotta go with the ergonomics. The Flipside is a cool little backpack that holds a ton of stuff.

And our lead Media Sponsor, JPG Magazine, is a very cool photo rag built solely from user generated content. It's the type of thing that could only exist in the 21st century with the rise of inexpensive digital cameras, the Internet and the resurgence of photography.

My Sloppy Example:
Here's a little example, but don't feel compelled to follow my format. I'm sure we have some closet authors out there. Show us what you've got!

In case you missed it, we set up a community site for Shoot! The Day and decided to have a little pre-shoot day contest. So we asked a few of our cool friends (Nikon, Lowepro and Apple) to pony up a few prizes, and just like that, we had ourselves a contest.

But why make it so competitive? Why not have a little fun and make it creative? Avatars have become iconic (literally) of the hours we spend online, so we figured that "best avatar" was as good a competition as any.

The fun thing about having a totally silly contest is that you don't need strict rules and you don't need Price Waterhouse audting your selection. Instead it's just me with no pants on IMing a few other PhotoShelter peeps about what we like. But before we announce the winners, let's talk about some trends that we saw.

You holding a camera
I don't want to be a debbie downer, but in the annals of photography creativity, this particular trend ranks near the ground. And the ground is down low. Now, now. That doesn't mean the photos are bad, I'm just saying...sometimes you have to step it up a creative notch. Here's a little pupu platter.


Laura

Photography, like any industry, is filled with those who talk and those who do. There are those who talk about the decline of the industry and point the fingers at others, and then you have guys like Cradoc Bagshaw, who for years has been an advocate of the photographer and sought ways to educate and empower them.

It's no secret that I'm a fan of the creator of fotoQuote, the industry standard for pricing rights-managed imagery. And many of our 33,000 photographers know that fotoQuote is the engine that powers rights-managed licensing in the PhotoShelter Personal Archive and the PhotoShelter Collection. So I'm happy to announce that Cradoc has developed yet another tool that should be considered by photographers -- particularly those selling stock.

Even though photography is a visual medium, the only widespread and reliable method of finding images is through keyword searching. And yet keywording images is really difficult. I'm pretty good at getting the first 5 keywords, but after that it's like pulling teeth.

Cradoc also makes a very good point: "Keywording is a language which is defined by people looking for images, not the people supplying them." So you have to think the way buyers do.

The Keyword Harvester is a stand-alone software program that Cradoc developed to make the process of keywording easier. No, it's doesn't keyword for you. But it groups keywords logically, provides an easy method to build concepts, provides similar terms and synonyms, and allows for keyword template creation. (Disclosure: Kate, our linguist, was a beta tester for the program). You can use it as a part of your image preparation workflow with nearly any other software because it uses standard IPTC meta data.

You can try the Keyword Harvester with a 30-day money back guarantee, and he's got an introductory discount of $50 until July 14, 2008. But don't listen to me. Listen to Cradoc and watch him demonstrate the Keyword Harvester on his demo video.

The interest in Shoot! The Day -- our killer day to replenish stock photography -- is growing daily, so instead of just waiting until July 20 to start having some fun, we approached some of our friends and partners and came up with a little weekly contest idea.

So on Thursday June 26, we're going to pick three people in the Shoot! The Day Community Site who have the best avatar as judged by us! That's right, all you have to do is create your community site account and upload a square photo that represents you. Next week Thursday we'll pick the ones that tickle our fancy the most.


THE PRIZES
Nikon Capture NX 2.0
Nikon's just released RAW processing and workflow tool. I don't think you can even buy it yet (although there is a free trial download here). I use Capture NX to process all my NEF files from my D3.  So does Darrell Young and Ed Rooney.

Apple Aperture 2.1
Grover loves this software. Vincent Laforet loves this software. And version 2.1 is seriously awesome -- much faster than its predecessor, and still with all the great image processsing and batch processing capability that defined this category of software.

Lowepro
I've been using Lowepro bags for years starting with their Reporter bag, then a Stealth Reporter, then a big Photo Trekker backpack, and currently I use a Computrekker because it's better for my back and holds a laptop. The stuff works, it's durable, and we're psyched that they joined us as a sponsor for this prize. This week, they're giving out the just announced Lowepro Nova 190 AW (that's "all weather" to you).


Could it be any easier to win a cool prize? Big ups to our friends at Nikon, Apple and Lowepro for helping us support the community!