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!

I'm not quite sure what caught our eye with this photo. Before we even thought of Shoot! The Day as an event, we had been talking about this photo. It almost looks like the girl is walking on the moon or some other exotic locale. The silhouette of the camera, the strange bokeh, the hint of green tone in the dress....it all comes together fabulously.


Photo by Sean Marc Lee / #PSC000118425

I decided to ask the photographer, Sean Marc Lee, out in Los Angeles about the photo (Can't let Rachel "The Glove" Hulin have all the fun in her blog).

Where did you take it?
This was taken in Malibu right off the Pacific Coast Highway at one of the really small coastal reserve beaches (can't remember the name). I believe it was during golden hour a little before sunset. January sunsets tend not to be so warm in tone. I remember that day because it's the exact day the Malibu fires started and I managed to take a picture of the smoke from a distance and had submitted to CNN as a reader submitted "breaking news" picture.

[ed note: ooh! The old CNN rights grab! They got lucky this time!]

Who is the subject? 
The subject is my girlfriend Yumi, who seems to appear a lot in my photos for some reason...  :) 

What were the circumstances for the photo?
We like to do a lot of exploration and try to find interesting places you wouldn't expect to find in Los Angeles. She recently received a Nikon D70 at the time and wanted to try it out. She's very curious by nature so we kind of just wander around places on our own but together. I believe it was low tide at the time, so we walked out where that pool of water is. As she was
walking out I just liked the way she was carrying her camera and by instinct crouched down and took the picture.

Oh, and if I know we're going out to explore or something where potential photos can happen, we go through her wardrobe to find something photogenic.

There's a weird bokeh, were you using a doubler? Or is something else
causing that effect?
I like using really shallow depths of field. On the 5D, I usually kept it wide open at f1.4 at all times with the center focus point selected. It's similar to using old cameras, focus in the middle and reframe instead of letting the camera decide what point to focus on. As far as technical specs, it was shot at f1.4, 1/1000 at ISO 100 with exposure compensation set to -2/3 on Aperture Priority. As the subject is backlit, I believe it's causing some weird effect with where the light is meeting the horizon!

And are some other photos from the day...


Photo by Sean Lee


Photo by Sean Lee

Totally awesome. Sean Shoots! The Day every day.

Everyone loves acronyms
Acronyms sure are handy.

PSC = The PhotoShelter Collection
PA = Personal Archive
RRS = Research Request System

When we started planning our newest announcements, a few more acronyms were born:

SOS = School of Stock -- our cool new resource on stock photography from the mouth's of buyers

However, "Shoot! The Day" provided some challenges for obvious reasons. Had we planned the event 30 years ago, it wouldn't be a problem because back then STD didn't have any strange connotations that I'm aware of (we called them VDs back in the day), ah, but here we are in the 21st century.

I was pleased to find that the Strobist solved the problem for us by referring to the event as S!TD. Now, that's a creative solution. When I saw his post this morning, i shouted, "SEXUALLY, transmitted disease" and heard a few tentative giggles around me. But in fact, it stands for "SHOOT! The Day."

Ok, go take some pictures.

There is a pretty simple formula for selling anything: Give the buyers what they want.

It seems pretty obvious, but knowing what buyers want requires actually talking to buyers. Knowing isn't built on assumption or anecdote.

Selling stock imagery is no different, and it should come as no surprise that most stock sales are lost because the buyer simply can't find the image they are looking for. Selling stock photography is speculative in nature, yet seasoned stock shooters approach the market with certain trends and topics in mind to optimize their chance of success.

We've had the privilege of speaking with thousands of photographers and buyers to learn what's on their mind. We think there's a major disconnect between these groups, and we're resolved to close this loop so that photographers make more sales and buyers get what they want.

A few weeks ago, we launched the first phase of our efforts by creating our Research Request System (RRS). Our photo research team received several hundred research requests per month from top advertising agencies, publications and graphic design firms, and we publish them to you. We figured that photographers have a lot more images in their archive, which they might not have considered as stock. The RRS allows photographers to use the Personal Archive to submit images into the PhotoShelter Collection, and the best part is that it's all free.

To gain more intelligence, we conducted a survey amongst photo buyers of all different types about a month ago. We asked them a slew of questions, and tabulated the data for you. The good news is there is a huge opportunity to create a whole new generation of stock photos. Here's an exerpt:

"We asked our buyers how they felt about the following statement: "When it comes to the images I search for most often, I think I've seen all of the content available within the major stock houses."

Three-quarters of the buying population (399 of 536 people) agreed with this statement."

Armed with all of this information, we decided that we were going to push education even harder than we have in the past. But rather than try to teach people about photography in general, we thought we focus specifically on stock photography. And rather than compile information about how a few photographers shoot stock, we decided to talk to the people that do the buying to understand where the opportunities lie. The result, our newly launched School of Stock.



The School of Stock is an ever-growing repository of information, quotes, tear sheets, and visual examples designed to help photographers create better stock and increase their sales. We threw together a pretty kick-ass group of experts, and we're really excited to see how it will grow.

But the Research Request System and the School of Stock weren't enough. Reading stuff on a web page is cool and all, but photography happens offline. And for pros and amateurs alike, photography can be an intensely social endeavor. We all seek to get feedback from others about our photography. We enjoy the camraderie of like-minded artists. So we made a few phone calls some friends like Nikon, Adorama, Shoot Digital Studios, and this cool computer company whose name is a fruit, and they all got really excited.

The result? On July 20th, thousands of photographers around the world are going to change the stock photo industry for good. And not only can you create imagery that could sell, but you could also win a cool prize for doing so. We're calling it "Shoot! The Day"

In the next few weeks, we're going to be posting a lot more information on this very cool event. A bunch of really awesome photographers, like David Hobby from Strobist, have consented to lead groups on that day. Get the word out, but more importantly, sign up and take some great photos.

Photo by Stefan Postles

Rachel "The Glove" Hulin posted about the photo fracas at Union Station, so I figured we could coordinate our outfits today.

So here's a post from The Guardian that Jim Colburn posted on Sportsshooter entitled "Are Photographers Really a Threat?"

"Since 9/11, there has been an increasing war on photography. Photographers have been harrassed, questioned, detained, arrested or worse, and declared to be unwelcome. We've been repeatedly told to watch out for photographers, especially suspicious ones. Clearly any terrorist is going to first photograph his target, so vigilance is required.

"Except that it's nonsense. The 9/11 terrorists didn't photograph anything. Nor did the London transport bombers, the Madrid subway bombers, or the liquid bombers arrested in 2006. Timothy McVeigh didn't photograph the Oklahoma City Federal Building. The Unabomber didn't photograph anything; neither did shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Photographs aren't being found amongst the papers of Palestinian suicide bombers. The IRA wasn't known for its photography. Even those manufactured terrorist plots that the US government likes to talk about -- the Ft. Dix terrorists, the JFK airport bombers, the Miami 7, the Lackawanna 6 -- no photography."

The NBA's wildly popular "There Can Be Only One" campaign has entered a new phase by encouraging fans to pair up their own faces with those of the NBA superstars. You can actually download split images from the NBA site, composite your own photo, and upload the images for other fans to see. There's no prize for doing so, just the glory in being humiliated online for having the gall to compare yourself to a highly trained, professional athlete. (But really, I think it's all in good fun as that's the point of being a fanatic).

Of course, like most sites that allow photos to be uploaded (e.g. Facebook), you essentially grant a huge swath of rights to the NBA to use in perpetutity. So we won't be doing that today. Instead, you can enjoy Grover in all his glory because there can be only one.

Are you voting Barack Obama for President of the United States?



Or are you voting for John McCain?

Are you voting John McCain for President of the United States?




or are you voting for Barack Obama?

You might know Darrell Young as one of our PhotoShelter forum moderators, and you might also know him from his moderation of the Nikonian forums as well. But you might not know that he's also an author, and I'm pleased to announce the pre-order of his new book called "Mastering the Nikon D300" which is available on Amazon. This title is the inaugural publication of the Nikonians Press imprint, and will be available for shipping on July 15th.

Darrell was off on a secret mission a few months ago, and he told me his was going to put the D300 through the paces. Little did I know that he was writing a book!

I've been a Nikon digital guy since my first D1x in 2001, and the D300 has been getting nothing but fantastic reviews. Let's all support Darrell!

The PhotoShelter Research Request System (RRS) has been live for over a week, and we thought it might be helpful to give you feedback as to the types of images we're seeing and how we think they stack up against the actual requests. The images used in the examples are representative of all the images we received for a given request.

In general, we encourage you to pay more attention to the request details as some of you submitted images that had us scratching our heads given that they didn't match any of the criteria. Also, we can't emphasize "production value" enough. Exposure and composition go without saying, but things like making sure that hair and make-up look good (where appropriate) are essential for producing commercial level stock. We are providing both excellent and poor examples to help hone your eye for successful stock photography.

Beautiful landscapes of Mexico and surf towns
Grade: B+

We received a large number of images, and many of them were quite good. We did receive a number of generic sunsets and would encourage you to incorporate foreground elements that give the viewer even a little context of the location. Most of the images were well-composed and properly exposed. The locations were portrayed in a way that made them desirable to visit, which is arguably the most important aspect of travel photography. In addition, photographers sent us a wide range of images that covered various viewpoints from panoramic to detailed.


 

• Horizon and pool edge create a nice vanishing point
• Color and exposure are fantastic

 

• Great composition. Really gives a sense of the area.
• A shame that the diver is blurred. Use a faster shutter speed to stop the motion.

 

• Captures the local flavor effectively
• Good "straight on" shot, but not spectacular compositionally
  
• But there's No Caption! Always include captions in your meta data on your submitted travel images so the buyer can know what they're looking at

 

• Nice sunset, but fails as a Travel image because it doesn't give any context of location. This could literally be anywhere.

(No, the title isn't a typo, it's wit!)

It may surprise you to know that a large portion of our staff studied photography in college. And even those who didn't  seem to be pretty passionate about the craft.

I put out an open call to the staff the other week to send me a few pics, so I could show you that 1) we're photographers just like you, and 2) there is a tremendous diversity of style and vision within our own staff. So a little sampling of the shots we've made away from PhotoShelter.

Jason is a co-founder, and he's previously shot for Sports Illustrated, SLAM, a thousand other magazines.

Here's the hip hop group Dead Prez (Yes, shot on film):

We have recently announced a policy change that disallows our photographer contributors from cross listing an image on PhotoShelter and another site where the retail price of the image is less than $50 (which translates to microstock sites). As expected, reaction to the decision was varied and vocal.

But rather than get into the emotional responses, let's talk about the observations that led to our decision.

First, we are not in denial about microstock. Microstock is here to stay just like royalty-free licensing. We think that microstock fulfills a niche for people that 1) want low cost licensing, and 2) do not care about exclusivity. iStockPhoto's projected revenues for 2008 make it clear that microstock is one of the few growing areas of image licensing, irrespective of our opinions of how it is affecting the industry.

When we started PhotoShelter, our goal was to create a product that enabled and empowered the individual photographer. The creation of the PhotoShelter Collection last fall was no different. We wanted to give photographers a better deal, and allow virtually anyone to participate. But helping photographers wasn't the key business driver. Rather, it was to address the buyer sentiment that there isn't enough diversity in the marketplace, and that the stock photo collections had stagnated.

We want to give photographers the control to pick and choose their outlets, but not so surprisingly, we began to see situations where an image was about to be sold for several hundred dollars through the PhotoShelter Collection, and then the deal was scuttled because the client found the same image on a microstock site for $1.