I don't know about those kids who have only recently entered a photo program (read: all digital), but if you've taken a photo class in the past 30 years, you've probably run into Henry Horenstein's bible of black and white photography.

Matthew Porter #PSC000762558


Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of those buzzwords flying around the Internet that describes a general approach towards increasing your visibility to search engines. The goal of SEO for a photographer is to come up on the first page of a search engine when a buyer performs a search. For example, if a buyer is searching for "Grand Canyon Stock Photos" and your page came up first, then the search engine acts as an effective marketing funnel for garnering new clients. And the more eyeballs that see your work, the higher likelihood that you will make a sale.

Although there are different techniques for improving SEO, the single most important factor (for most mainstream search engines) in determining a page's ranking is the number of in-bound links pointing to that page. For example, a lot of people have set up various pages that link to "photoshelter.com" therefore when a user searches for "photoshelter" in Google, our website comes up first. If GE had a product called "photoshelter" and more people linked to it, then their site would come up ahead of ours.

Although PhotoShelter employs a number of SEO techniques, the single most important factor in gaining visibility is the number of pages referencing given content. For this reason, relying on PhotoShelter alone to improve your search engine visibility is a poor strategy.

One very interesting way to increase your visibility is through the creation of a blog. Although we often think of blogs as destinations of readable content, many people use blogs to simply create pages to point to other content.

Jim Hunter created his blog in Feburary 2005 using Blogger to display his food images. He structures the entries in such a way that an image appears in close proximity to a description of the image, and each image has a link back to a page on PhotoShelter where it can be licensed.  He uses the same technique on his regular website.

No matter how far we move into the digital age, there's still nothing like having a nice print. You can stick it in your wallet or hang it on your wall, and it doesn't require a battery or a USB cable to view.

The PhotoShelter Personal Archive has the ability to sell prints and other products either through a completely automated fulfillment mechanism with our partner, EZPrints, or through self-fulfillment if you want to control everything from soup to nuts.

After you've uploaded images, you can create a pricing profile -- basically, a way to designate a price for each print size that you want to offer to your buying audience. EZPrints offers everything from wallet-sized prints all the way up to monster 30"x40" prints. In addition, they also offer products like keychains and mugs that you can imprint your photos onto.

Alternately, you can set up your own custom prints or products, and set shipping prices to them. Want to sell a custom 20x30 print on watercolor paper in a limited edition, signed by you? No problem. We have all types of photographers selling images from youth sports to high end art prints from people like Vincent Laforet.

One of the cool features we introduced recently was the ability to also allow the customer to optionally specify a crop. This is useful because a standard digital camera has a sensor with a height:width ratio of 4:3. But a 4x6 print has a ratio of 3:2, so inevitably, something has to get cut out. Before we released this feature, a buyer might order a picture of a football player with his outstretched arms, only to receive a print where the ball was cropped out of the image. That's no longer a problem.

When the buyer clicks the "Add to Cart" button, they will see the following:

We are fortunate to have a centrally located office in New York City, so we have a fairly steady influx of photographers that pop in to say hello, and we thought it would be cool start showing pictures of you!

Model releases aren't just for professional models! Any person appearing in your stock photos is considered a model, and to maximize the profit potential of an image, you should obtain a model release, which gives you consent to license the image for commercial purposes.



What is the point of a model release?
Model releases are required primarily to protect two of the subject's rights: the right to publicity and the right to privacy. The right to publicity ensures that everyone has the right to control how and when their likeness is used. When a model signs a release they are allowing the photographer to profit from the sale of their likeness.

The right to privacy gives everyone the right to live a private life. Although a person in a public venue is fair game to photograph, people can reasonably expect not to be photographed in private areas against their will. Similarly, a model release therefore asserts that the photographer had permission to take a particular picture, and that the subject has consented to their likeness being sold as stock. In addition, models can request that the picture not be used in certain contexts (such as to promote cigarettes or prescription drugs) through the model release.

Model releases can make or break a sale
There have been a number of legal cases where models have successfully sued buyers and photographers over images taken or sold without their permission.
 
One such case is the story of the Simon family. A posed portrait of the family intended only as a private keepsake ended up on a Royalty Free stock photography CD-Rom published by PhotoDisc, Inc. It was then purchased an unknown number of times, and used in widespread ad campaigns by companies and organizations such as Rogaine, Macy's, and the Christian Coalition.
 
The Simons sued in part because they had not consented to the sale of their likenesses as stock, and were personally offended by some of the causes the portrait had been used to support. More than a dozen buyers of the image were named in the lawsuit. In November 1998, PhotoDisc awarded the Simon family a $1.5 million settlement.  

Buyers naturally don't want to open themselves up to this risk, and most are very careful to use only model-released images for advertising or other commercial usages.    

I asked Bethany Rouslin, a senior photo editor at Time Inc. Content Solutions, if she searches specifically for photos that have a model release. "Always," she said. "Here at Time Inc. Content Solutions, we produce promotional collateral including magazines, magalogs and websites for single clients. Due to the advertorial nature of most of our publications, we only look for model and property released images with very few exceptions." 

Although great images can often stand on their own, a caption can provide context and background information that greatly enhances a picture. In the realm of stock photography, a caption can often make the difference between selecting a photo or not because publishers often rely on the written word as a way to verify what is depicted in the image.

Travel imagery is a popular content submission area for PhotoShelter, and is also an area where the strength of a caption can make the difference between acceptance and rejection. Here's some guidance.

Captioning Style
Captions are required for all News+ images, and are very important for travel imagery.  Although captions help our photo editors identify the subject of photos, their intended audience is the photo buyer. As such, it's important to maintain uniformity and professionalism in the creation of the caption.

Captions (AP Style preferred) should answer the who, what, when, where and why of the subject depicted in the photograph. Captions should be written in English in the present tense and include a date.

Typically, captions are written in two parts. The first sentence describes the subject/action depicted in the image, while the subsequent sentences give context to the image.

First Sentence:
Los Angeles, CA, Jun XX, 2006- Virginia Nguyen is crowned Miss Vietnam USA 2006.

This first sentence effectively conveys who is depicted, but a picture of a girl in a gown and crown doesn't provide the viewer with much context. Is this a small event? A world-renown event? Is it historically significant?

Two Sentences:
Los Angeles, CA, Jun XX, 2006-Virginia Nguyen is crowned Miss Vietnam USA 2006. The pageant is in its fifth year and celebrates the accomplishments of Vietnamese-Americans.

Sentence or Phrase?
Travel captions don't necessarily have to be a full sentence, but it should at the very least be a descriptive phrase.

Bad (soft reject):
Cave in Petra

Better:
Cave entrance near the Siq in Petra, Jordan

Verb Tense
Captions should be written in the simple present active form.



Best:
Paul Haas conducts the SymphoNYC orchestra at the premier of "Traces" in New York, NY.

Avoid the present progressive (gerund)
Bad:
Paul Haas is conducting the SymphoNYC orchestra at the premier of "Traces" in New York, NY.

Avoid past tense construction (particularly in the first sentence)
Bad:
Paul Haas conducted the SymphoNYC orchestra at the premier of "Traces" in New York, NY.

The second or subsequent sentences can contain past tenses.
Paul Haas conducts the SymphoNYC orchestra at the premier of "Traces" in New York, NY. Haas founded SymphoNYC as a new way to present classical music in the 21st century.

One of the cool features we released a few weeks ago with the Personal Archive is the ability to sell an image as an electronic personal use license via digital download. Why is this so cool?

From a technical standpoint it's not. The mechanism allows you to sell (i.e. license) a digital download of an image whereby the pricing is based on the size of the download. Sounds a bit like Royalty-Free right?

That's where the similarity ends.

Royalty-Free is designed as a commercial license, so the buyer can basically do whatever they want with the image. Clearly, most of us don't want that happening.  If you shoot a wedding, and then offer the image under a royalty-free license, an unscrupulous buyer could appropriate the image for commercial purposes. Imagine the bride on a subway sign for a divorce lawyer. That wouldn't do wonders for your wedding business.

On the other hand, if you're only offering it up for personal use, the image is protected by the legal license that you offer to the buyer. And if an infringement occurs, you have a basis for suing. It also means you have a way to sell downloads at a different price point than the typical royalty-free image.

Here's an example of the purchasing screen from Jason Kindig's PA homepage.



Everyone talks about the death of print, and while we're not about to concede that prints are dead, we definitely see an uptick in the use of digital imagery for personal purposes like on Facebook, desktop wallpapers, etc. The Electronic Personal Use license is a perfect way to offer a downloadable file to your clients through our simple-to-use cart interface.

So whether you shoot weddings, headshots, sports, etc, there's probably a good reason to consider adding the personal use license to your arsenal of products.  

Kenji Nagai of APF tries to take photographs as he lies injured after police and military officials fired upon and then charged at protesters in Yangon's city centre September 27, 2007. Nagai, 50, a Japanese video journalist, was shot by soldiers as they fired to disperse the crowd. Nagai later died. REUTERS/Adrees Latif (MYANMAR)

Rachel blogged about all the 2008 Pulitzer Prize winning photographers yesterday.

Then over at SportsShooter, Palm Beach-based photographer Tom Ervin created a thread entitled Is Latif image worthy of the Pulitzer Prize? stating:

"I don't think Latif's image should of won the Prize. I thought it lacked emotion, importance, lacked impact, (couldn't tell what was happening in the [sic] piic) graphic composition, and it just didn't have that gut wrenching feeling a person would have when viewing a Pulitzer as compared to say Moore's image."

A few camps emerged from the melee:

- Those who thought Ervin was an idiot
- Those who thought he was entitled to his opinion
- Those who reiterated the subjectiveness of contests in general.

I wrote:
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUUQi1ooEAs

"I don't think you can argue a position without considering the context of the image. For example, take Arko Datta's World Press Photo:

http://tinyurl.com/54t66e

"It's a tremendous photo compositionally. The woman in anguish, and arm moving into the frame. But it's significant because it represents 300,000 stories that were affected in a single event.

"Similarly, with Latif's image, consider that the Burmese government was cracking down like crazy by first killing buddhist monks in a society that revered the monks, then by cracking down on their citizens and the press.

"In the picture, I see a horde of people running from the police. That's marginally interesting. But I also see a soldier hovering over a photographer that is struggling to shoot a photo. We know because of the video and the witnesses that the soldier just shot Nagai in the back at point blank range. And we also know from the video that Nagai's first instinct after he was shot, was to lift his camera, literally with his last ounce of energy. The solider looked at him to make sure he was down for maybe one second. And after Nagai tries once to lift his camera, his is unable to muster the strength to lift it again.

"Latif captured an incredible moment because it illustrates: 1) the brazenness of the military, 2) is illustrative of the huge number of people that were affected, and 3) shows a member of the press corp literally dying as he tries to capture the news because he believed that showing what was going on in burma was the most important thing to do that day.

"Best composed? No. But lacking emotion or importance? I strongly disagree. When a government suppresses its people through corporeal harm and kills members of the media to prevent the story from getting out, it's important."

The Pulitzer organization doesn't have a strict set of criteria for selection of the image:
There are no set criteria for the judging of the Prizes. The definitions of each category (see Entry Forms or History page) are the only guidelines. It is left up to the Nominating Juries and The Pulitzer Prize Board to determine exactly what makes a work "distinguished."

Here's the runner-up image by AFP photographer Mahmud Hams showing a missile about to strike the Nusseirat refugee camp in Gaza. Is the composition any better than Latif's image? Is it successful because it's the decisive moment? Isn't the killing of a photographer a pretty decisive moment?

Due to overwhelming response from the photographic community to our calls for content, we are issuing this urgent call for specific areas where our collection is deficient. This request is based on our extensive research conducted in March 2008 with advertising agencies, publications, graphic designers, magicians and Canadians.

1. Chuck Mangione
There's been a surprising uptick in the demand for Chuck Mangione photos -- particularly action photos where his face is obscured by the bell of his flugelhorn, and where he playing a Rhodes electronic piano (Mk II circa 1979). There is a high probability of receiving an Editor's Choice designation if Mr. Mangione is playing "Feels so Good" in the photo. Please classify these in the News+ Chuck Mangione subcategory.

2. Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan wearing panties
Any shots where their panties are clearly visible, instead of the run-of-the-mill no panties shots, are in constant demand by entertainment outlets.

3. Ugly people doing unattractive things (lifestyle)
We have reached saturation with traditional lifestyle imagery. Buyers have told us that at least 50% of the population is ugly, and therefore in keeing with our "real people doing real things" mantra, we are now seeking ugly people doing unattractive things including:

- Trimming nose hair
- Pulling giblets out of chickens
- Plungers, plungers, plungers!

4. Leaning Tower of Pisa images with a tilted horizon
We are specifically looking for images where the horizon is tiled -3.97 degrees.

5. Polaroids
With the recent announcement that polaroid will no longer make instant film, we are anticipating a need for vintage polaroids that you might have taken of your wife or husband in the pre-digital era.

6. Images of Danny Devito exercising

7. Emperor's Club clients #1 - 8, and #10

8. Sunsets, Flowers, and Pictures of Feet (aka "contemporary")

Thanks!

PS. please check out our new nanostock marketplace, where all the pictures are taken with very small cameras and sold for pennies!