08 Sep, 2010 | Posted by: psnotes




For our recent 2010 Survey of Photobuyers, Mikael Karlsson of PSI asked photobuyers this question.

How many of the photographers you work with routinely do not have a website?

Answer Percentage
None, they all have websites _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _8.47%
Less than 10% do not have a site _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 28.81%
10 to 25% _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 16.95%
25 to 50% _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 8.47%
50 to 70% _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 3.39%
70 to 90% _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1.69%
90% + of the photographers
I work with don't have a site _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _1.69%

Mike's Comment:
If you don't have a website the time has come to get one. If for nothing else, having a website will allow photobuyers that have never heard of you to easily find you. Provided your website is set up with keywords and can be found through Google, Yahoo, Ask, Bing and other popular search engines.


Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 25 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and a regular contributor to a wide variety of U.S. publications. Reach him at mike[at]photosource[dot]com.

Want to get a copy of the Photobuyer Survey? Go to www.photosource.com/shop

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01 Sep, 2010 | Posted by: psnotes



For our recent 2010 Survey of Photobuyers, Mikael Karlsson of PSI asked photobuyers this question.

What is your pet peeve on photographer websites? Pick one only but feel free to add your own comments as well.

Answer Percentage
Music 4.26%
Hard-to-find-contact information 19.15%
No functioning search capability on the site 25.53%
Site difficult to navigate 14.89%
Site has too much irrelevant information. Example:
Page after page about why the photographer prefers
this brand over that brand, personal information about
religious or political views, etc. 9%
Too few photographs 0.00%
Too many photographs 0.00%
Very heavy graphics, flash, etc making site slow to load 8.51%
Ads – Third Party – on the site 2.13%
No answer 10.64%



Mike's Comment:
No other question in this survey furnished as many comments as this one. Most comments were of the kind that more than one thing on this list rank on top of photobuyers' pet peeves on photographer's web sites. Most common was no contact information and no search function. These days there is a lot of photo gallery software available that will allow you to add a great search function to your photo galleries. Many of these are free. Look at JAlbum and Coppermine as two great examples. If you use these and like them I urge you to donate to the makers of the software.
The vast majority of those that wanted to pick more than one reply wanted to add music to their initial selection. Taste in music is personal. You probably don't like what I like and chances are that I don't like what you like. It is better to avoid music completely even if there is a way to turn it off on your site. Not only is it irritating but also it also often slows the site down significantly.
Needless to say do not under any circumstances use music on your site that you don't have the rights to. Having purchased the CD or the song doesn't count.
Here are some of the more interesting of the huge amount of comments we received from the photobuyers in response to this particular question. Some of the comments have been edited for length and clarity.


Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 25 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and a regular contributor to a wide variety of U.S. publications. Reach him at mike[at]photosource[dot]com.


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25 Aug, 2010 | Posted by: psnotes



For our recent 2010 Survey of Photobuyers, Mikael Karlsson of PSI asked photobuyers this question.

Are you interested in receiving updates by e-mail when photographers you work with add new images to their sites, plan future shoots, etc? Assuming that these updates aren’t abused and that you actually receive them only when the photographer has something of value to say.

Answer Percentage
No way 0.00%
Typically no 15.25%
Maybe, if the photographer is interesting 35.59%
Typically yes 18.64%
Absolutely 1.69%


Mike's Comment:

This goes hand in hand with the question about newsletters above. If you are interesting to the photobuyer chances are they would actually be OK with you sending them an update every now and then about what you have recently added to your collection and what shoots you are heading out on.
Avoid anything personal, anything about your family, anything about your pets, and (obviously) anything about religion or politics.
Keep it very simple and to the point. A good example of an update could be: “I have just finished adding 200 new fresh images of Etruscan Urns (or whatever you specialize in) to my collection and these photos are now available on my website (add link to the photos here). Next month I'll be shooting the excavation of the newly found Viking gravesite of Olaf the Brute in southern Norway. If there are specific images you might be interested in from this exciting site please feel free to let me know.”
Less is often more when it comes to these things. Look at the short snippets from the police blotter in your local newspaper. All the crucial information in as few words as possible.

2010 Photobuyer Survey
Click Here


Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 25 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and a regular contributor to a wide variety of U.S. publications. Reach him at mike[at]photosource[dot]com.


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18 Aug, 2010 | Posted by: psnotes



For our recent 2010 Survey of Photobuyers, Mikael Karlsson of PSI asked photobuyers this question.

"If a photographer, who has the kind of images you routinely need, offers a free monthly e-mail newsletter on their website, will you sign up?"

Answer Percentage
Yes 36.17%
No 38.30%
No answer 25.53%


Mike's Comment:

Is it worth it? Yes it is. There are some big caveats that are very important to keep in mind. When you send out a newsletter you are on some level acting as a publisher. Keeping that in mind, look at the publications you like to read. What is it in these publications that draw your interest? Stories about the writer's latest family vacation or an informative piece on (whatever the subject of the publication is). In writing – especially in the newsletter format – brevity is clarity. Keep articles short and to the point. Never add anything as pointless filler. Constantly keep your readers in front of your eyes when you write. You don't write to entertain yourself, you write for your readers.
It is essential to make it easy for people to get in touch with you and many newsletters make the fatal mistake to not include or prominently display contact information.
Spend time on the design. Keep it simple, easy to navigate and readable. Again, picture your readers in front of you. Use a business-looking format for your newsletter. You might love kittens but the chances are that most of your readers are (hopefully) photobuyers with a professional interest in your photos and not much else. Keep that in mind and for more information on this specific area, check out former Sidebar articles in PhotoStockNOTES.
http://www.photosource.com/shop/index.php?app=ccp0&ns=prodshow&ref=ps2008


Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 25 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and a regular contributor to a wide variety of U.S. publications. Reach him at mike[at]photosource[dot]com.


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11 Aug, 2010 | Posted by: psnotes



For our recent 2010 Survey of Photobuyers, Mikael Karlsson of PSI asked photobuyers this question.

"If you receive an e-mail from a photographer promoting his/her new website, with one or two nice photos in the e-mail itself, how likely are you to visit the site? (Assuming that the photographer offers the type and quality of images you routinely need.)

Answer With Percentage
Very. I’ll likely visit as soon as I can find the time. 32.20%
Likely. I’ll make a note and will likely visit within the
next few days or so. 20.34%
Maybe. I’ll make a note and might visit the site; it might
also slip my mind. 15.25%
Unlikely. Probably not. 3.39%
No. I don’t operate like that. I don’t have time to visit
photographer websites. 9%

Mike's Comment:
While there is a not insignificant number of photobuyers who will not visit your site no matter how good your promotions are, the majority can still be persuaded to. This makes it worth it. Again it is important to remember that the better your promotions are, the better the chance of interested visitors. Ideally you want photobuyers to look forward to your promotions and see them as a reminder to visit your very interesting website.
If your choice is between sending out a mediocre promotion or wait for a while and send out a great one – opt for the great one.


Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 20 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and a regular contributor to a wide variety of U.S. publications. Reach him at mike[at]photosource[dot]com.

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04 Aug, 2010 | Posted by: Alec



For our recent 2010 Survey of Photobuyers, Mikael Karlsson of PSI asked photobuyers this question.

How much time per week do you spend looking through photographer websites?

Answer Percentage
No time at all 6.78%
1 hour or less 35.59%
2 to 5 hours 22.03%
5 hours + 8.47%


Mike's Comment:
Do you remember back in the day when just having a website was going to make us all multimillionaires? Dreams were built and dreams were crushed swiftly in those days. Now people take a more reasoned approach to websites. It is indeed very important to have one, but the chances that it will bring in the big money with little or no effort are – sadly – not very big if they even exist.
The answers from photobuyers to this question confirms what we have known for many years. Photobuyers are as much, if not more, stressed as the rest of us. There's very little, if any, leisure time to browse the World Wide Web for new talent. Photobuyers tells us that they are expected to do more in less time and for less money today compared to a few years back. In that equation of ever shorter deadlines it would be unrealistic to think that as long as your photos are good enough, sooner or later you'd get “discovered” by a photobuyer. It just doesn't work that way.
The replies to this question makes it clear that photobuyers have very little time to browse websites. Even if those websites belong to photographers they have worked with in the past and who's photography they really like. I have talked to many photobuyers lately that all say the same thing, unless they have a want-list and are looking for specific images there's just no time to browse photographer's web sites. For this reason sites without efficient search engines or with an easy way to quickly locate specific images often fall short even when photobuyers are searching for specific images.
Another piece of information we can gather from this is that the more efficient your site is to find and display the photographs a visitor is looking for the better off you are. Let's look at some basic things you can do to make your website all it can be:
1. Understand and implement basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your web site. If you do a search on-line for Search Engine Optimization you will find plenty of information. This is something you can do yourself. Avoid services that charges money as well as link-farms, basically web sites that will exchange a link with you just for the sake of exchanging a link.
2. Update often. People tend to come back to sites that have something new to offer.
3. Make the experience of visiting your site a pleasant one – ask the question from your regular visitors about what they like and dislike on your site. Adjust accordingly.


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27 Jul, 2010 | Posted by: Alec



For our recent 2010 Survey of Photobuyers, Mikael Karlsson of PSI asked photobuyers this question.

If you receive a great electronic promo piece from a photographer, are you likely to forward it on and share it with colleagues in your office/business?

Answer Percentage
Yes 50.85%
No 23.73%
No answer 25.42%

Mike's Comment:
This is an important aspect of marketing and something to keep in mind. If the recipient of one of your promotions like what you have to offer he or she will likely share it with others. Not only does this give your marketing piece much more impact, but it also gets your name out there with a positive note. As in, “...that photographer who just sent us that neat promo piece that NN shared with the rest of us”.
This kind of marketing is something money can't buy. Not only does your message get spread. It gets spread by someone who likely has a lot of goodwill with his or her colleagues. Try it out on yourself. If someone you respect and trust comes to you with an offer from a store, are you more likely to react positively compared to if you see an ad from that store in the paper? The delivery method – in this case the photobuyer you initially sent your promo piece to – can make or break any marketing campaign. If you are fortunate enough to get extra spreading power for your marketing pieces consider yourself lucky because it is likely to make a big difference.
This is also a good challenge to yourself to keep up the good work. See it as a challenge that the next marketing piece you send out should be better than the one sent before. This way your promotional pieces get better and better and you'll reach more and more people. Which in turn will reach more and more people because some of these “new” photobuyers that get to hear about you and your stock photography through their colleague are likely to license images from you spreading your name/credit line even further.
Consider the “spreadability” of your electronic promotional pieces. Small files are better than large one. Uncomplicated image files (such as JPG, TIF etc) are better than animations or huge slide-show files. Avoid anything proprietary like the plague. If a recipient has to install new software simply to view your promotional materials chances are your stuff will never get even looked at. As with all marketing you want to make it easy for your recipient to access and view it. Add ease of sharing your promo pieces with others as well because this is absolutely something you want to encourage.

http://www.photosource.com/shop/index.php?app=ccp0&ns=prodshow&ref=ps2008


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21 Jul, 2010 | Posted by: Alec



For our recent 2010 Survey of Photobuyers, Mikael Karlsson of PSI asked photobuyers this question.

Do you prefer to receive marketing and promo materials electronically or traditionally (through the mail)?

Answer Percentage
Electronically 50.85%
Traditionally 3.39%
Makes no difference 27.12%

Mike's Comment:

This clearly shows that while marketing through e-mail and other electronic submissions is preferred, there is still a place for traditional marketing. In the editorial stock photography trade that translates into postcards and other printed promo pieces.
Personally I have had really good success with postcards over the years.
Especially large postcards. My last postcard marketing campaign I used Overnight Prints and printed cards that are 6” by 11”. The format allows me to stand out from all the regular size postcards the photobuyers receive. The printing quality was great and the price was good indeed. I have used Modern Postcards extensively in the past and can warmly recommend them as well. They too offer great quality at great prices.
For e-mail marketing I recommend Constant Contact. Once you get signed up on their web site you'll be able to design your own great looking emails.
You add your contact list and messages are sent out through their web site. The messages automatically contain opt out links in accordance with
current regulations. You'll also get access to links you can put on your web site that will allow people to sign up for your marketing e-mails, newsletters etc. You'll also be able to keep track of who opened your e-mails, who clicked on links etc. All in all a very nice package deal that will allow you a lot of control over your e-mail marketing quickly and easily.
[ Overnight Prints – http://www.overnightprints.com ]
[ Modern Postcard – http://www.modernpostcard.com ]
[ Constant Contact – http://www.constantcontact.com ]

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23 Jun, 2010 | Posted by: psn



Mike Karlsson asked photobuyers your questions. Here’s what some responded:



Randall Larson is the Editor of 9-1-1 Magazine.

Mike: Many of the photo buyers that participated in the survey mentioned that they dislike working with new photographers (as in new to the trade) because the hassles it potentially brings such as unreliable photo quality, no real idea how important meeting deadlines is, etc. Is this something you have experienced?

Randall: Because 9-1-1 magazine focuses on emergency services and responses in which on-scene imagery may not always be the best quality, we sometimes have to opt for whatever we can get, so I'm used to working with non-professionals (i.e., firefighters who carry a camera in their turnout gear, amateur photogs/firebuffs/ etc). Naturally the preference is for professional quality work. Non-pros inevitably turn in photos that are too low in resolution for magazine publication; I've even had naive PR people turn in Polaroid quality images to accompany a story they have provided for print. I don't mind working with new photographers but I make sure to inform them of our needs and resolution requirements. Web publishing - in terms of "news photos" - can often make do with less than stellar photography, and for a one-of-a-kind emergency in-progress image I will sometimes accept something that I wouldn't touch in a pre-planned shoot.


Model and property releases are a big question for many photographers that are starting out or starting over in stock. Your magazine publishes photos of police in action, accident scenes, emergency responders in action etc. Do you require that photographers obtain releases for photos?

Randall: I generally do not, no, since most of the in-action images are news photos in which model releases are not necessary (at the same time I try to be sensitive to image content and avoid graphic excess [i.e., no dead bodies at accident scenes, no sensitive images of victimized children, etc]), but for specially posed shots (which we use only occasionally) a release is always a good idea. It often depends on the use to which the image is going to be put, but generally for the kind of in-action images I prefer to use, I do not require a release.

If you were to pick one or two categories (or more if you feel like it) of photos that you need for the magazine but you're having a hard time finding,what would those categories be?

I get tons and tons of building on fire images and car crash images.
They're easy to take and there are tons of firebuffs and ambulance-chasing photographers who take them. I'm not knocking it, but I need to be selective and look for something particularly unique in either the image or the
composition of the photo. Since we focus on communications I often will look for a shot about emergency workers at an incident scene communicating, or of an image showing the command post in foreground and the scene in the background, or images of different types of emergency workers interacting (police/EMS, highway patrol/fire command, etc). What I get less of are law
enforcement in action shots (tougher to take since they are harder to find or access crime scenes than fire scenes, which tend to identify themselves via huge columns of smoke). Not all photogs have time to undertake full shift ride alongs [as you do] which is what it takes to get decent police images.

Secondly, due to our communications specialty, are good photos of dispatchers at work in dispatch centers. Again, this takes pre-planning, approval, and willing dispatchers to be photographed (most dispatchers don't like it).

- - - - - - - - - - - - -



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16 Jun, 2010 | Posted by: psn



For our recent 2010 Survey of Photobuyers, Mikael Karlsson of PSI asked photobuyers this question.



Are you open to receiving unsolicited marketing pieces, e-mails, etc. from stock photographers currently unknown to you?

Answer Percentage
Yes 50.85%
No 27.12%
No answer 22.03%


Mike's comment:
This shows that at least 51 percent of the photobuyers that took part in the survey are indeed open to receiving unsolicited marketing materials from photographers they currently don't know. This is really good news. When people are open to being marketed to they most often are actually looking for new products, talent etc. Since over 22 percent of the photobuyers responding didn't pick yes or no, they might also be open to receiving unsolicited marketing pieces.
So if 50 to 70 percent of photobuyers are open to being marketed to, that means that 5 to 7 of every 10 marketing pieces you send out might hit home. That is extremely high and very promising indeed. In direct marketing a response rate of 3 to 5 percent is normally considered good. Anything higher than that is considered great.
Just remember to keep on reading so that you can market yourself and your editorial stock photographs as successfully as possible.
Now does this mean they'll buy your photographs? Maybe. But not all marketing results in sales obviously. You know all those mail-order catalogs you get in the mail? Even though you might not order something right away when the catalog arrives, you'll keep the catalogs you like around so you can order later on right? It's the same with stock photography marketing pieces. The good ones will stick around until the time to order have arrived.



Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 20 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and a regular contributor to a wide variety of U.S. publications. Reach him at mike[at]photosource[dot]com.


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09 Jun, 2010 | Posted by: psn



Mike Karlsson asked photobuyers your questions.
Here’s what some responded:



In your opinion, what are the biggest mistakes new photographers make as far as customer service and how they work with you as a photobuyer/researcher?


“Resistance to letting go of non-watermarked comps and hi res files. Insisting on negotiating a fee before my clients have decided to use the image.”

“Slow in responding. Suspicious of your motives, i.e. think that you are going to use their stuff for no payment.”

“If it becomes an issue of education. I hate wasting my time. I can't squeeze 15 years of my knowledge into a 5-minute explanation. I expect them to trust me.”

“Stop pestering me about irrelevant things. I can't get you a comp copy of the book. I don't know when your check will be mailed.”

“The campaign we work on has very specific criteria. Not following the instructions we provide is a waste of our time and theirs...”

“They refer to the antiquated Pickerell Guide as a reference for rights and fees. Publishers do not expect to get something for nothing for photography usage but the advent of the digital book, in all of its forms, has changed everything.”

“When a specific image is requested, supplying images that are irrelevant.”

“Sending a [promotional] CD – don't!”

“Too much time is spent determining file formats for high res images. Too much time is spent on finding ways for them to electronically deliver the high res images to me.”

“Too much time is spent on negotiating prices and often they have unrealistic expectations regarding market rates – they are quoting rates from some published guidebooks which just don't apply to markets in which I work.”

“A few years back I was more than happy to coach them on delivery formats, methods, and even educate about pricing etc—but my clients have pressured me to now have to work much, much faster and there's no time for coaching anymore. I just can't spend the time teaching these things to new photographers and hope to make a living. Personally I hate that my work has come to this as I prefer a more congenial way of working with folks, helping those who need help (like others helped me when I started out) but it just isn't possible.”

“Reply to me quickly. Not a week or two after I contact you.”

“Adding on fees not discussed upfront”

“Submit way too much. They don't stick to the specific request. They send way too much unsolicited material. They want to be put on a wants mailing before we've even seen or published any of their work. Get real!”

“Not enough editing on submissions”



Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 28 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and writes a how to photograph column for PhotoStockNOTES. Reach to Mikael via email .



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02 Jun, 2010 | Posted by: psn



Mike Karlsson asked photobuyers your questions. Here’s what some responded:


In your opinion, what are the biggest mistakes new photographers make as far as customer service and how they work with you as a photobuyer/researcher?


“Try too hard. I have specific needs, and only purchase photos once a quarter. I don't want them pushing too hard when I'm focused on the other responsibilities of my job.”

“Haggling.”

“Too many new photographers are not good editors of their own work and send images that are not up to the quality we need. And we buyers are very pressed for time. I do not respond to unsolicited promotions unless I see an image we might use. New people in the business sometimes take the no-response as a blanket non-interest. They need to keep sending images unless told not to.”

“They send more than I ask for. Stick to the request. They send “cute” messages and think I have time to be their pen-pal. They assume they can be put on a mailing list before we've ever worked with them.”

Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 28 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and writes a how to photograph column for PhotoStockNOTES. Reach to Mikael via email .


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26 May, 2010 | Posted by: psn



Mike Karlsson asked photobuyers your questions. Here’s what some responded:



What is your pet peeve – or peeves – on stock photographer websites?

“I dislike sites with no functioning search capability. I also hate poorly laid out sites that are difficult to navigate and very difficult to read.”

“First is no functioning search capability. Second is having photos in a Flash or slide-show format, or disabling the Save As function [also known as Right Click – note from Mike], preventing photo buyers from saving low res files for further consideration. Editors and researchers need to review photos from different sources together. Photographers who prevent this are losing sales every day. If they are concerned about their images being misused, then set up a secure site where only those people they approve can enter. Third is just too many graphic elements. Editors and researchers have very little time—just get us to the image database so we can search.”

“Incomplete caption info.”

“I don't like music or other distractions on the site, and I want it to be easy to navigate. But most of all, I want thumbnails of most if not all of their collection, even if I have to register to access them. I want to see the actual images so I can select exactly what I need, not wait for them to guess what I mean and send me their choices.”

“I will not source from vendors who do not have search capabilities on the web...”




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19 May, 2010 | Posted by: psn




Mike Karlsson asked photobuyers your questions.
Here’s what some responded:


What is your pet peeve – or peeves – on stock photographer websites?


“I dislike Flash sites the most. Cute but not functional to our business. Web designers should stop going over-board – function over form!”

“I look for searchability. I hate hi-tech sites, those that load slowly because of all the graphics and gimmicks. Just let me get in, search, save a lightbox (and share it) and get out. Easily located contact info is a must”.

“Fortunately, I don't often encounter music, or that would be #1. On those rare occasions when I visit a photographer's website, I usually want to know if he or she has a particular subject. I like lots of photos, but I want to be able to find them (search) w/o having to ask the photographer for help”

“I dislike long narratives explaining the process behind the image-making and music. Poor contact information, however, is the worst omission.”


(More next week)

Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 28 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and writes a how to photograph column for PhotoStockNOTES. Reach to Mikael via email .


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31 Mar, 2010 | Posted by: psn





The Cost of Doing Business

Numbers really can set you free. Numbers describing your cost of doing
business to be more specific. For many small business owners coming up with the
cost of doing business can seem a daunting task. It really doesn’t have to be. Since you just did your taxes, right?, all the figures and facts you need should be easily
accessible.

Here's how to do it:
Add up all the costs you pay for being in business. You should include everything. We're assuming that the items you use, you use mainly for business, hence we're counting them at 100%. Look back and count everything for 1 year.

A good, basic list of costs to add is: insurance for your Cameras and lenses, health insurance, liability insurance, car insurance car repair, and maintenance (if you use your car For business), office rent, cost for camera equipment repaired or replaced, cost for office machines and computers replaced or repaired, software purchases and upgrades, dues to professional organizations, postage, phone, internet service, website hosting, website upkeep and development, cell phone, social security tax, income tax, retirement savings, and savings to grow your business. Add any other specific costs you have.

Now, add all these costs up. Remember we're looking at the total cost for the entire year. Once added up divide by 12. That's your cost to do business per month. Now take the new number you have and divide that by 22 (average number of work days in a month) and you'll get your cost of doing business per day. Take that figure and divide by 8.

You now have your cost of doing business on a per hour basis. To this number add the hourly salary you want to pay yourself. The resulting number is your total cost of doing business per hour.
In other words, this is how much you need to bring in per hour - on average - to stay in business.

Use this figure as a base for charging for assignments, for figuring out
how much of an investment you're really making when you go out on a week-long
stock photography shoot, and much more. Remember to add a little extra for more
business expansion, more future shoots, and the occasional pay increase for yourself!

Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 28 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and writes a how to photograph column for PhotoStockNOTES. Reach to Mikael via email .


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03 Mar, 2010 | Posted by: psn



As photographers, We always try to get the best possible price for our stock photos

When negotiating with photobuyers you put a lot of time and effort into making sure that the fees you are paid are fair and square.

On the other side of the equation, photobuyers are always trying to get the best price possible from you, meaning that they want you to lower your fees or offer more for the same price. Why shouldn't you expect the same from the people who supply you with the tools and supplies that make your stock photography business run efficiently?



Growing Your Business


Staying in business is to keep growing your business. Just like an annual raise is welcome for any employee you will want to be able to give yourself a raise, at least every now and then. Costs go up and to be able to keep in step, - your revenues need to go up as well.

1. Go Local
One potential stream of revenue often overlooked is that of local newspapers. Sure, they don't pay top dollar but they are - in most cases - quite willing to pay for quality photographs that they have a need for. Talk to the local editor and see if they need assistance covering events, sports, local artists and similar. Chances are they do. Make sure you negotiate with them to give you all rights to all photos so that you can add the photos to your stock photo archive. This can also be a great way to expand your specialties and the topics you cover. The pay isn't great for local newspapers but the access offered often more than makes up for that.

2. Local and State Government
A few years back I spent the better part of a year and a half with a big photography project for our state Department of Corrections. The project was to build an up-to-date media photo library encompassing all state prisons, the training academy, special services and more. Not only did I use this opportunity to add hundreds of images to my stock archive, I was also paid handsomely by the state government to complete this work.
All kinds of government agencies and department need photographs. Be it for marketing, documentary purposes, or simply to use in brochures and on web sites the need is there. Look at the images they're currently using and offer them something better.
More often than not there is some sort of Media Office you can make contact with. Know what you offer and have your arguments ready prior to making contact. You should be able to spell out why they should take you up on your offer quickly and to the point.


3. Volunteer and Network
Ever since I started working as a photographer back in the dawn of time I firmly stated that I'd never photograph weddings, pets or kids. That lasted until last year. A friend at the Sheriff's Office asked me if I could help him out. His oldest daughter was about to be confirmed and the regular photographer couldn't make it to the church on time for the ceremony.

Want to read more?
http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/growing.html



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17 Feb, 2010 | Posted by: psn







Saving Money in Your

Editorial Stock Business


by Mikael Karlsson




One of the most well-known talk radio hosts on financial matters is Dave Ramsey. His mantra is always the same. Don't go into debt. If you can't afford to buy something without going into debt simply don't do it.

While this makes a lot of sense it's not always practical, especially for those of us who are running a business. Keeping up with demands from customers you'll sometimes find that you need to invest in new equipment before you can pay cash. There's also always the risk of technology and equipment simply breaking down and needing immediate replacement.

One way of saving money is not to spend money on taxes that by legal right you’re not required to. Of course, check out this financial strategy with a registered tax advisor who deals with home-office entrepreneurs. You’ll be surprised about some deductions you were missing – and therefore losing money on.

Here are a few tips.

Home Office deductions

Many folks used to be reluctant to take a deduction for having an office in their homes. It was thought that this somehow made the IRS think you were trying to cheat on your taxes. This simply isn't true anymore and the fact is that if you have an office dedicated to your stock photo business use in your home you are likely eligible for significant deductions on your taxes.
Ask your local tax experts for help with the details. The key is to measure your office space in your home and relate that measurement to your total living area. This includes a percent of the cost of upkeep and improvements to your office area as it relates to your normal home expense. If it works out to 1/8 (in measurement) to the size of your home, then the heating/air conditioning expense is reduced by 1/8. So it goes for your new roof. One caveat in this area: If you sell your house, and therefore your business office, these deductions may be retrievable by the IRS, depending on current IRS rulings.

Are you taking all the deductions you can and are allowed by the law? Do you keep records that are viable enough to see you through an audit? There is a huge potential for savings on your yearly tax-bill. Especially if you have invested in computers, cameras/lenses, fax, photocopier, or any other expensive equipment for your business.
I recommend that you check with a local CPA for your taxes. Maybe even have one do your taxes for you. I do, both for my business as well as the personal taxes for my wife, Ruth ,and myself. The cost is roughly $200 per year but the savings making sure I take advantage of the allowable deductions quickly cover and outweigh the cost.
And if your tax advisor is knowledgeable in the area of intellectual properties you might be able save even more since that person will be aware of deductions that a person from, say H&R Block, might not know about.



Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 28 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and writes a how to photograph column for PhotoStockNOTES. Reach to Mikael via email .



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23 Dec, 2009 | Posted by: psn




Are you letting $$$ mysteriously slip away without knowing? Don’t operate your business blind folded. Our newest report by Mikael Karlsson shows you where you are losing out when it comes to cameras, software, office equipment, telephone, taxes and more.




Financial

One of the most well-known talk radio hosts on financial matters is Dave Ramsey. His mantra is always the same. Don't go into debt. If you can't afford to buy something without going into debt simply don't do it.

While this makes a lot of sense it's not always practical, especially for those of us who are running a business. Keeping up with demands from customers you'll sometimes find that you need to invest in new equipment before you can pay cash. There's also always the risk of technology and equipment simply breaking down and needing immediate replacement.

1. Protect Yourself
Insurance for your equipment is a very important part of being, and staying, in business. You shouldn't have too much and you shouldn't have too little. Too much will make you have to pay more than you need to and too little will leave you high and dry if you ever need to make a claim. There are specialized insurance companies, like Hill & Usher, that can offer you a tailor-made solution that will fit your specific needs.
I recommend separate business insurance. Yes, it can be a lot cheaper to get a rider, also known as an Inland Marine policy, on your homeowners or renters insurance. But, understand that if you have a claim, your insurance company might deem you a high-risk and drop your insurance. If they drop you it will be both hard and expensive to get a new company to insure you.

Want to read more?
http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/mysteriously.html


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16 Dec, 2009 | Posted by: psn





"A penny saved is a penny earned" Benjamin Franklin was famous for saying.

Mikael Karlsson is developing a "Savings Guide" for stock photographers. In the coming months, we're going to feature some articles from his bank of saving tips. This week the subject is "Growing Your Business".


Marketing



In times of financial and economical hardship one of the most common mistakes many business-owners make is to severely cut down on marketing. Without marketing you will not reach new customers and clients and sales will stagnate. Reaching new sources of income is crucial to grow any business, no matter how big, or small, the business or the customer base is.
Traditional marketing to reach editorial stock photography buyers consists of:
- postcards of all sizes
- promotional flyers
- and even printed catalogs in full color.
Needless to say both printing and mailing of these cost a lot of money.

A Web Site

If you don't have a web site, consider building one soon. It's a productive marketing tool and a great way to show off your photographs at a very reasonable price. There are free websites available, but these usually carry advertising or attach your free site to their main site as a sub-directory. Avoid these. They send a signal to photobuyers that you are at the entry level with your stock photography.
When starting out, your website doesn’t have to be intricate or large.
It can be simple, as long as it’s functional and updated often. Be sure to include prominent keywords in your source code to attract both search engines and potential clients who are looking for your specialty in stock photography.

I personally have a large web site with over 2,000 photos on-line. The reason is that many of the researchers I work with need to have a large selection of images and an easy way to access photos and forward them on to the authors and editors they work with.
Even though my photo gallery’s elaborate and large, the rest of my site is simple, very fast to load and easy to update. If you want to have a look, you can find my website at www.arrestingimages.com

Keeping up with the marketing and staying on the radar of photobuyers is vital to the survival of your business. Here are some ideas that will aid you in doing just that.

1. Tighten up your marketing list
If you send out 250 oversized postcards and you get 50 returned to you because of a wrong address, a company no longer in business, personnel changes, etc., you're still paying to mail those 20 percent of postcards that never reach their destination. Oversized postcards cost the same as a first-class letter. Currently $0.44 per postcard. 50 times $0.44 is $22. Since the total cost for mailing 250 postcards is $110, $22 is a large chunk to add to your cost.
In just five mailings you would be able to get one extra mailing out there with the postage savings by tightening up and updating your mailing list.

2. Print your postcards professionally
Printing 500 normal size postcards will set you back somewhere around $100 plus shipping and local taxes. If you compare this to printing your own you'll see that you can really save money by having the cards printed by a professional. If you print your own you have to weigh in cost of the card stock, cost of printer ink and wear and tear on your printer.
I outsource batches of 500 to 1,000 postcards three to five times per year. Each batch features a different full-color photo of mine.
Lately I have been experimenting with huge over-sized postcards and for me the adde d costs in printing and postage has been well worth it. There are a number of on-line printing services available and almost all of them offer coupons, rebates, discounts or other incentives. Personally I can recommend Modern Postcard and Vista Print. Both companies have delivered high-quality cards repeatedly to me over the years at a great price.
The only time when it doesn't make sense to print your cards professionally is when you operate with a very short mailing list. If you have fewer than 100 individuals on your mailing list, printing your own cards would make sense. My list is roughly 250 people, so a batch of 500 cards will cover two mailings. I rotate the batches so I don't send the same postcard too often.

3. Start A Blog
Marketing is about being visible. Having a blog that you link to from your website can be a great marketing tool. Promote it to your clients as yet another way for them to keep up with what you're doing; recent additions of photos to your files, upcoming photo-shoots etc.

Blog services such as Blogger, WordPress and others are typically free. Easy to set up and easy to get going. Be sure to post your best entries on your social networking accounts, Twitter, FaceBook, etc.
It takes a little initial effort to get your blog up and running. The trick with blogs is to keep updating and update often. The other trick is to keep it interesting and relevant. Keep to business related posts. Use key words in your posts that the search engines will pick up. This will result in a higher rank in Google and other search engine searches. This will result if free advertising for you.

Take advantage of the ease of adding photos to your posts. Use alt tags with your photos that will serve as keywords for you.
Once you start getting visitors you'll get feedback as to what people are reading. Use the free Google Analytics software to evaluate the productivity of your blog. This will give you insight of what works for your audience.

If you want to post things of a personal nature, please consider getting a separate blog for that. Some folks can find a great balance between personal and business related posts. For me personally, and my day-to-day situation, I can't think of a single thing in my personal life that would even slightly interest the photobuyers I regularly work with.

4. E-mail marketing
A good alternative to mailing postcards is to market through e-mail if your clients and photobuyers are open to it. It’s free. There are a number of services that will assist you in sending professional looking e-mails with opt out options and much more.
Constant Contact is one example and they offer a trial period free of charge so you can try it out and make sure it works for you and the folks you market to before you decide.
You certainly can rely on simply sending e-mails out from your own computer without subscribing to a service like that offered by Constant Contact and similar providers. Keep the e-mails simple and to the point.

Avoid animations at all cost. Use photographs but understand file sizes and how long it takes the recipients to download and open your e-mail messages. Consider sending your emails to photobuyers in both text and HTML format.
Remember to add a link to your blog and web site where visitors can sign up for your e-mail promotions and updates.

5. Spend a day at the library and bookstore
Constantly building and adding to your mailing list is a great way to expand your business. Buying address lists is very expensive and often the targeting leaves much to be desired. The good news is that you can easily build your own mailing list for zero dollars.
Spend a day at your local library and favorite bookstore. Browse books and magazines that cover the topic(s) that you specialize in. Write the titles and any contact information you can find down.

Use your computer to search Google or your favorite Internet search engine to find contact information you couldn't locate previously. If you don't have access to a computer or the Internet, your library is very likely to offer free access.
Search for new contacts and look through previous issues and publications to see what they have used in the past. This will assist you in tailoring your marketing exactly to the type of photographs individual photobuyers have a need for. As with any marketing effort the more you know about your target audience and their needs, the more successful your marketing will be.

6. The Internet
The Internet is another wealth of information about magazines, book publishers, journals, web sites etc. that might be interested in using your photographs. You can use this free service to find out who is looking for you and your photos at this moment. In the search bar of a search engine like Google, type in the words:
Publisher guidelines book magazine _________________ .
Where you see the “blank” above, fill it in with your particular specialty(s) in stock photography. You’ll find on the first two pages (20 entries) of the search, potential markets you never heard of. Some of the entries will lead to other markets that also need your category of stock photos.


Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 28 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and writes a how to photograph column for PhotoStockNOTES. To reach Mikael via email .


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02 Dec, 2009 | Posted by: psn



by Mikael Karlsson

Note: Here's Mike's helpful tips on how you can SAVE ,,,

This week's article is:

Communications and Technology


Here are some ideas for savings that are often overlooked simply because we get stuck in a routine. I'm as guilty of it as everyone else and most of these tips are based on my own personal experience and recent savings.

1. Negotiate your cell-phone plan
How long ago did you sign up for your current cell-phone plan? I had gone one year beyond my contract. Upon contacting my carrier I asked if they had any current incentives for the kind of plan I already had. It turned out that they did and if I was prepared to sign up for a two-year contract I would be able to save $18 per month keeping the same service, minutes and coverage. That is $216 per year.

2. Change your cell-phone plan
When I signed up for my current cell-phone plan I was working a lot for various state agencies and needed instant access to e-mail all day every day. These days I honestly don't need it even though I still like it. But once I looked at the numbers I realized I didn't like it enough to warrant the high fees I was paying. My plan ran roughly $110 per month.
By simply changing plans from a data plan (allowing for e-mails and web access) and switching to a voice plan I saved $55 per month. That's a whopping $660 per year!

3. From land-line to VOIP
Do you use your regular land-line phone for business? Do you end up spending a lot of time on the phone with clients, researchers and editors every month? If so it might make sense to you to switch from a regular phone to a Internet-based phone service. VOIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol, allows you to place calls to any phone anywhere in the world through your computer. I eliminated my business phone line and switched to Skype. For an amount that is much lower than that of my old phone-line I pay the monthly fee and get free calls to anywhere in the US and Canada. I also get free calls to any other Skype subscribers in the world as well as a very low per-minute cost when I need to call clients or family back in Europe. The savings on the plan alone amounts to $19 per month or $228 per year. My cost for calling have dropped by more than double, averaging $40 per month. All in all a grand total savings of slightly more than $700 per year.
Budget for a good headset with a noise-cancelling microphone. I recommend looking for one with a volume control and a mute button built in. VOIP works fine on both PCs and MACs. You don't need the latest and greatest computer. You do need Internet broadband service though.
Note that some VOIP services do not work with 911 Dispatch locator services and if you have an emergency and call 911 they might not be able to find your location automatically. This locator service can be essential for Dispatch and First Responders to be able to find you in a state of emergency. Some VOIP providers offer 911 locator service in some areas. Make sure you check with your provider before signing up if this is an important feature to you. Also ask your local Police Department or Sheriff's Office Dispatch if they have any good, or bad, experiences with calls from VOIP-phones.
Also worth noting is that if your Internet is down or if there's a power outage your Internet based phone service will not work.

4. Re-negotiate your internet plan
As editorial stock photographers we often need to e-mail large digital photos. There's also the need to update web sites, send files by FTP and many other tasks that a fast Internet service makes easier and faster. But, infrastructure for providers is updated and expanded more often these days. This means it gets cheaper and more efficient for your Internet provider to offer high-speed access. Often plans that are only a couple of years old are already outdated as far as the speeds offered and the price paid. Because of this it is worth your while to contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and ask them for current incentives if you're willing to sign a contract with them for a year or two. Compare speed offered with monthly fees. Fees for usage over a certain amount each month is a thing of the past and should be negotiated out of any contracts.

5. Wait with investment.
Yes, having the latest technology gadgets and gizmos is nice and a lot of fun. In reality it makes very little fiscal sense though. I know, I can hear the collective wince of all my fellow gadget-lovers out there. I used to update my technology as often as I could and always wanted to have the latest and the greatest.
While it makes sense to invest in technology that will save you significant time or effort in your daily work it is noteworthy that they keywords here are significant and daily. Technology is like vehicles, simply by purchasing a new car and driving it off the lot the value drops by roughly 20 percent.
To save on technology the magical word is wait. Avoid buying on credit, avoid leasing and simply wait. Yes I would love to exchange my 3-year-old MacBook Pro for a brand new one. In all honesty though would a new one really give me much more that my old one isn't?

The honest answer is no it wouldn't.

Hence the investment isn't really worth it for me and I'll wait. I'll figure out how much I would have spent each month paying off a new laptop and put that in a business savings account instead. That way the money will be there when it really comes time to bite the bullet and make the investment.

Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 26 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and a regular contributor to a wide variety of U.S. publications. Reach him at mike[at]photosource[dot]com.


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25 Nov, 2009 | Posted by: psn




"A penny saved is a penny earned" Benjamin Franklin was famous for saying.

Mikael Karlsson is developing a "Savings Guide" for stock photographers. In the coming months, we're going to feature some articles from his bank of saving tips. This week the subject is "Growing Your Business".
Next: "Savings with Communications and Technology"



Saving Money in Your Editorial Stock Business
by Mikael Karlsson


Growing Your Business


Staying in business is to keep growing your business. Just like an annual raise is welcome for any employee you will want to be able to give yourself a raise, at least every now and then. Costs go up and to be able to keep in step, - your revenues need to go up as well.


1. Go Local
One potential stream of revenue often overlooked is that of local newspapers. Sure, they don't pay top dollar but they are - in most cases - quite willing to pay for quality photographs that they have a need for. Talk to the local editor and see if they need assistance covering events, sports, local artists and similar. Chances are they do. Make sure you negotiate with them to give you all rights to all photos so that you can add the photos to your stock photo archive. This can also be a great way to expand your specialties and the topics you cover. The pay isn't great for local newspapers but the access offered often more than makes up for that.

2. Local and State Government
A few years back I spent the better part of a year and a half with a big photography project for our state Department of Corrections. The project was to build a up-to-date media photo library encompassing all state prisons, the training academy, special services and more. Not only did I use this opportunity to add hundreds of images to my stock archive, I was also paid handsomely by the state government to complete this work.
All kinds of government agencies and department need photographs. Be it for marketing, documentary purposes, or simply to use in brochures and on web sites the need is there. Look at the images they're currently using and offer them something better.
More often than not there is some sort of Media Office you can make contact with. Know what you offer and have your arguments ready prior to making contact. You should be able to spell out why they should take you up on your offer quickly and to the point.


3. Volunteer and Network
Ever since I started working as a photographer back in the dawn of time I firmly stated that I'd never photograph weddings, pets or kids. That lasted until last year. A friend at the Sheriff's Office asked me if I could help him out. His oldest daughter was about to be confirmed and the regular photographer couldn't make it to the church on time for the ceremony.
I ended up spending a few hours that Sunday at the church photographing my friend's daughter and the rest of the 20+ kids that were going through confirmation. I spent another couple of hours to edit the photos and uploaded them over night to a printing service. I charged cost plus 15% for the prints and ended up making roughly $150 total on the prints. I also refused to accept the $100 they offered me for photographing and editing and they ended up donating that to the ministry my wife runs.
There was a real potential for generating revenue in doing this had I wanted to. Hooking up with the on-line printing service that handed all the printing, shipping and charging made this an enjoyable experience that I would actually probably consid er doing again. Just don't tell anyone I said that.

4. Keep your customers coming back for seconds
The trademark of any successful business is loyal customers. In the case of editorial stock photography that means photobuyers at book and magazine publishers. There's no magic answer here really. Think about the businesses that you give your repeat business to. What makes you go back? The prices? The service? The convenience?
Offer a great product at a good price. Top it off with amazing customer service. When you make it easy for photobuyers to work with you, chances are they'll be coming back. Don't pester publishers for copies of books, tearsheets and the like. You want their experience working with you to be as smooth and trouble-free as possible. Promise the moon and deliver even more.
The most important things to think about:
Always deliver on or before deadline
Don't call photobuyers unless they initiate and want you to call
Don't blast photobuyers with constant e-mails
Never ever deliver images that aren't up to par on quality
You can also offer incentives for photobuyers that come back for more business. One way of doing that is to offer some sort of return customer discount.

5. Accept Credit Cards
How flexible are you when it comes to how your customers can pay you? Are you offering any ways aside from by check? If you don't already accept credit cards this is something you should really considering. A couple of the publishers I regularly work with (one of them is a very large contractor for the Federal government) only pay by credit card. If I didn't accept credit cards I would lose the business these publishers send my way. The way I do it is through PayPal. There are no monthly fees and all I have to do is to log in to my PayPal account and e-mail an invoice to the buyer through PayPal. The buyer pays by credit card and the amount is put directly into my PayPal account. Minus a small percentage of the total amount. Every month I withdraw funds from PayPal and they are wired straight into my checking account. This method works really well for business to business sales.
If I would offer any prints at fairs and the like all I would need would be mobile access through my cell phone.
An alternative to accepting cards through PayPal is to talk to your bank about a merchant account. Unless you process a high volume of credit card payments chances are that this way will be more costly compared to PayPal.
If you need to swipe actual cards you might be better off with a Merchant Account though. The equipment to swipe is quite cheap these days and it will boost your sales a lot if you offer prints to the public at fairs, craft shows etc if you can accept credit cards.
Before you settle on any method make sure you check out and compare features and costs. Select the method that makes most sense to your specific needs.


Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 25 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and a regular contributor to a wide variety of U.S. publications. Reach him at mike[at]photosource[dot]com.



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12 Nov, 2008 | Posted by: psn




Attending a Seminar

Are you a stock photographer? You know that you shoot alone, work alone, and there's seldom an office where you can mingle with colleagues and co-workers. Have I just described a lonely vocation?

We all know that interaction with peers and colleagues is important in any profession. So is networking, discussing new ideas, new trends. So, what should a stock photographer do?

A REMEDY

Attending seminars is a excellent way to expand your knowledge of your craft. You also get to meet people interested in the field, veterans, and photographers just starting out.
There are plenty of general photography seminars and workshops available across the country. They are great for general info, inspiration, and mastering basic techniques. When it comes to the specific aspects of stock photography, however, you want to look for seminars targeted to stock marketing and operation.

INSPIRATION & KNOWLEDGE

As stock photographers, we sometimes forget that we are much more than "just" a photographer. We are also owners of a small business, and there is a wide range of information in all sorts of fields that comes in really handy for small business-owners.

To gain this knowledge you can arrange to attend other workshops and seminars aside from photographic ones. For example, workshops on direct mail/marketing, small business accounting, small business taxation and tax planning, and graphic design, are all beneficial for small business-owners.

GENERAL PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPS


Photography workshops come in all flavors and sizes. You have seen them advertised in the photo magazines and newsletters. They range from highly specialized to broad in their coverage. With a little investigating you're bound to find a seminar/workshop that is of interest to you.

Approach a workshop like you would any other business endeavor. Ask for a few references of photographers that have previously taken the workshop. Check the references out, make sure everything computes, and go for it.

There are several workshop companies that have been around for many years and that have a very solid reputation. The SantaFe Workshops, Maine Photographic Workshops, Rocky Mountain School of Photography and Nikonschool, just to name a few.


Note: Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 18 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and a regular contributor to a wide variety of U.S. publications. Reach him at mike[at]photosource[dot]com .


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05 Nov, 2008 | Posted by: psn



The Wifetest


DIGITAL IMAGES AND SOFTWARE
Every piece of software I purchase has to pass the rigorous "wife-test."

The wife-test basically asks two questions. Those questions are:
1. Will this product make me more efficient?
2. Will this product pay for itself in the near future?

If the answer to both questions is "yes," I go ahead and buy. And it has to be a clear yes, no sneaking around with a "probably," or a "yes, maybe..."
I call it the "wife-test" because if I asked my wife, Ruth, for her input about a particular piece of software or anything else I might need for my business; those are the questions she would ask. Not because she thinks I might fritter our money away but because she's a practical and astute person who sees through the ads and marketing hype.

DIGITAL EXTRAS

As we all know, when you go digital there's no end to all the extras you'll need. Like a faster computer, new hard drives, a DVD burner, software that does this, that and the other, a new monitor, various cables, card readers, and boxes after boxes with trinkets and gizmos.
Having the wife-test to lean on has helped me steer clear of quite a bit of hidden money-magnets.
Recently two different pieces of software passed the wife-test with flying colors. These are Capture One DSLR Pro from Phase One, and Spyder Pro from ColorVision.

CAPTURE ONE

The Capture One software is an image editor that handles RAW photos straight from my Canon digital camera. It has a converter that develops the RAW format into TIF with a minimum amount of hassle and a maximum amount of ease and functionality. This feature is light-years better than the conversion software that comes with the camera.
Capture One is intuitive to use and I have found that it has helped me cut 20 percent off the time it used to take me to import digital images into my computer. Mainly it's the RAW developer and the handling of associated data that makes this a very good buy, in my book. I warmly recommend Capture One DSLR Pro to anyone who routinely handles digital images. For those who don't need the full pro version, Capture One has a lighter, cheaper version. To purchase or for more info simply visit Phase One's website at www.phaseone.com

CALIBRATE YOUR MONITOR

Spyder Pro is a color management and calibration tool - something no stock photographer who works with digital images should be without. The software calibrates your monitor so that you can rest assured that what you see is really what you'll get as far as colors go. This is really crucial for anyone selling digital images, because photobuyers will really dislike you if your low res preview has brilliant color and your final high res submission looks nothing like the preview.

There are products that will make your life a lot easier when we're talking digital stock images. There are also products that won't. For me, the 'wife-test' has proven very useful in helping me discern between the two.

Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 18 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and a regular contributor to a wide variety of U.S. publications. Reach him at mike[at]photosource[dot]com.


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29 Oct, 2008 | Posted by: psn



Your

Digital Lightbox


When a photobuyer wants to see a selection of your images, he or she up to this point in time would typically ask for low-resolution previews by email. Now, an alternative to email is quickly gaining ground and becoming more and more popular: namely a Digital Lightbox, sometimes called a viewing platform.

When a photobuyer requests to see a digital lightbox, the photobuyer
wants you to put up a selection of images for viewing on your website. (Compared to a traditional lightbox that you use to view your slides.)

A digital lightbox doesn't have to be fancy or complicated. It
can be something as simple as a separate page on your website that you can direct the photobuyer to. The important thing here is to enable the
photobuyer to view selections of your work side by side.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SHARING

Another crucial detail when it comes to digital lightboxes is to make it easy for the photobuyer to share the lightbox with other decision-makers or clients. It is obviously much easier for a photobuyer to send a single URL to others, compared to e-mailing 20 or more low-res digital photos to one or more individuals.

Most photobuyers will need to share the images with at least one other individual before a final image selection is made. Make it easy for the photobuyer to share your lightbox and you will keep the photobuyer happy.

If you want to limit access to your digital lightbox, you can
absolutely password-protect it on your website, but make sure that you tell the photobuyer that he/she can share the password with anyone they need to haveaccess to the images.

DON'T RUSH

A common mistake among photographers is that lightboxes get taken down (deleted) way too quickly. Allow plenty of time for the photobuyer to view your lightbox and to share it with others. As you know, image selection can take time, especially for book-publishers.

Personally, I give photobuyers at least twice the amount of
time I think it will take them to look at and select from the lightbox.
Then, I email the photobuyer and ask them if they have made a final selection or if they need the lightbox to stay active for a while longer.
My own policy is that I don't delete the lightbox until I know a final selection has indeed been made, and the photobuyer has sent requests for high-res images. This way it is easy for me to bring
the lightbox back to life in case the photobuyer needs to make
any last-minute changes.

HOW-TO

How-to instructions for setting up a digital lightbox are hard to give since the details will vary with the software you use for your site. However, there are a number of details that are important in every case:
One. Make sure your contact info is placed both up front and at the
end of the lightbox.
Two. Keep it as simple as possible. Lightboxes should load very quickly and be as easy as possible to navigate.
Three. Make sure that you mention if you have variations of the images you place on the lightbox for a buyer. State how the photobuyer should contact you and ask for variations.
Four. Keep copyright warnings, watermarks and so on to a bare minimum, if at all. These don't create a trusting welcome to your potential buyer.
Five. Include caption info for all photos.

I have made a sample lightbox on the PhotoSource website as a reference. This lightbox will stay up for a while, and please feel free to visit it and have a look at how simple it can be to make a digital lightbox. The url is http://www.photosource.com/101/samplelightbox.pdf and the various items should be self-explanatory.

Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 26 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States
in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and writes a how to photograph column for PhotoStockNOTES. To reach Mikael --> email --> Mikael via email.


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22 Oct, 2008 | Posted by: psn




Digital Cameras Take the Lead

There’s no doubt – it’s almost all digital these days. Crank up your knowledge about digital cameras and what photobuyers expect in the way of image submissions.
And what's a new digital camera going to cost? It depends on your area of interest: social issues, sports, nature and landscapes.
One advantage to editorial stock photographers is that many of your pictures are going to be used 1/4 page or smaller, which means you could get by with $800+ (6 to 8 Megapixels). Of course if you expect to publish covers, your camera will cost $2500+ (10 and up Megapixels). If you plan to use it for commercial work, then expect to pay $9,000 and more (lenses, back, etc.)
If you can get by with an advanced point and shoot type model (Canon G9 for instance) where you do not have the option of changing lenses, the dent in your checking account will not be as big as if you need a Digital SLR, like the Canon 50D, 5DII, ID III, IDs III, a Fuji S5 Pro, a Nikon D300, or D3, and so on.
It's also in what you shoot. Action, real life as it happens, sports, demand a camera with little shutter lag and flexibility. For studio work, set-ups, portraits, quick responses from your camera aren't as crucial.
As always with equipment purchases, make sure the camera you are interested in fits you, your hands and your way of working. It doesn't matter how many bells and whistles a camera has if you can't easily reach and use the controls. Before making the digital leap, find out what specs your clients demand on digital images.
Keep up with the times by learning what photobuyers expect from you in the way of digital submissions. Check out Rohn Engh’s new ebook: How To Market Your Photos, which goes into submission parameters in depth.



Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 18 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and a regular contributor to a wide variety of U.S. publications. Reach him at mike[at]photosource[dot]com.

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08 Oct, 2008 | Posted by: psn





Let Google Spark

Your Imagination


At the heart of editorial photography is illustration. You illustrate a mood, a place, a city, a flower or whatever it might be, to complement a magazine article, book chapter, brochure, etc. To successfully illustrate, you need to know as much as you can about your subject. As you know, this is a powerful confirmation of the advantages of specializing, and you've no doubt experienced that it's a lifelong process to continually add to your knowledge in your special interest areas.
But sometimes knowing a lot about a topic or area isn't quite enough. Sometimes your imagination, not only your knowledge, can be your most useful tool.
Inspiration From The Web

These days, there is help available to get those creative juices flowing, swiftly and cheaply, and it’s right at your fingertips. Search engines are fast becoming the photographer’s most powerful idea tool.

If you find that you are running low on new creative ideas, browsing the work of others might be just the thing you need. In the past this would require a trip to the library and countless hours flipping through books and magazines.
Not so any more.
These days, all you need to do to browse the work of hundreds, if not thousands, of photographers, is to fire up your computer, get online and let a search engine such as Google work it's magic.

Go to www.google.com and select the “Images Tab”. Then key in whatever special area/topic you photograph. Click “Search” and you'll soon see what I mean. You will encounter a huge number of images from photographers in all corners of the earth.

Find inspiration

“Is this legal?” you ask.

Finding inspiration from the work of others is not illegal or morally wrong. (Unless you downright copy what you see, of course.) To browse the work of other photographers, painters, peers, to find inspiration, is not only perfectly O.K., it's also a great way to get your creativity kicked into high gear.
Study what others have produced. Think about how you would improve their concept or their images. Observe the symbols that were used. Try to understand the concepts that were incorporated in the production of the various images. This whole process can help you come up with new fresh ideas for your own photos.
Just around the corner

While in the past it was common to say that inspiration was lurking just around the corner, these days it might be more fitting to say that inspiration is waiting for you just within your next Web-search.
----
Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 18 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and a regular contributor to a wide variety of U.S. publications. Reach him at mike[at]photosource[dot]com.

- - - - - - - - -

Want To Invite Google to Index Your Web Page?

Popular search engines, such as Google, add and update new sites to their index each time they “crawl” the web. For example, Google invites you to submit your Web page’s URL. They don’t add all submitted URLs to their index, and they cannot make any predictions or guarantees about when your website would be indexed. But it’s worth giving it a try. To add your website to Google: http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl.
Want to add your URL to other search engines for free? Go to: http://www.submitexpress.com/submit.h tml.
Also (for free) submit your site to the Open Directory: http://dmoz.org/add.html.
Note: Here at PhotoSource we have added the PhotoSourceBANK to all of the major search engines. Depending which search engine is your favorite, if you are a PhotoSourceBANK member, type in a keyword or key phrase in the search bar of your favorite search engine, a space, then the word Photosource.

If your page reference does not come up, try another search engine. There are many besides Google: Alta Vista, Ask Jeeves, MSN, Yahoo! etc. RE


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01 Oct, 2008 | Posted by: psn





Submitting to An

On-Line Gallery



If you intend to place images with your favorite on-line gallery, below are some guidelines that are important for stock photographers, to make sure your photos can be accepted and used by buyers.

(Note: These guidelines might appear to be stringent. There's a reason.
When photobuyers direct download a picture from the Internet, they require it to be "camera-ready," that is, no fuss, no bother, ready for publication. They soon cross you off the list if your images aren't in the correct format or don't exhibit the technical quality required.)


Digital Cameras
Pictures produced by point-and-shoot digital cameras are not acceptable.
Cameras need to have a minimum of 6 megapixels. If you are considering a particular camera and want to know if it is acceptable before you buy, you are welcome to contact me, Mike Karlsson, at mike[at]photosource[dot]com. The cameras listed below are acceptable.
Canon
40D
50D
5D Mark I and II
1D Mark II and III,
1Ds Mark I, II and III

Fuji
Fuji Finepix S5 Pro

Hasselblad
Any modern Hasselblad digital camera

Mamiya
Any modern Mamiya digital camera

Nikon
D60
D80
D200
D300
D700
D2X
D3
Digital backs for medium and large format cameras
Generally speaking - any modern fairly recently released – digital back will do very nicely indeed.

Scanners
Flatbed scanners are not acceptable unless you are scanning large negatives/slides. When selecting a film scanner, pick one with at least
2,800 dpi and always scan at the highest available resolution. We currently recommend the following scanners:
Konica Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 II
Nikon Coolscan V ED
Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED
Nikon Super Coolscan 9000 ED
Drum scanners are also acceptable. I strongly recommend that you look for a scanner with ICE or similar dust/scratch removal tools.

Image Editing Software
Adobe Photoshop CS3 and CS4 is king of the image editing software and is norm in the industry. The latest version at this writing, CS4, comes with a powerful RAW converter, all the tools you need to clean dust and dirt from your photos, and much more. It is the most complete of the image editing softwares available.
An alternative to the full Photoshop CS2 is Photoshop Elements. The latest version of Elements at this writing is version 7. Photoshop Elements is a "light" version of the full Photoshop, and the price reflects this.
Photoshop CS4 currently retails for $699.95, while Elements 7 can be found for $74.99.
If you want to keyword and caption your images and send high-resolution files directly to photobuyers, I highly recommend the full Photoshop CS4. If you envision yourself doing only light editing and only rarely will send high res images to photobuyers, you should be fine with Elements 7.
If the only editing of images you are doing is to submit images to
PhotoSourceGROUP, there is a free alternative called GIMP. Find it at
www.gimp.org

Cataloguing Software
Once your collection of digital images grows to over a few hundred, you'll start to appreciate having them all well organized from the beginning. I personally use Adobe Lightroom and Photo Mechanic (from Camerabits), and can recommend that warmly.

This list will be updated continuously. If y ou have a product you would like to recommend for inclusion on this list, please contact Mike Karlsson by email at mike[at]photosource[dot]com

* PhotoSourceGROUP handles all the administration of sales - you pay nothing to display your images and you receive 75% of each sale. Go to http://www.photosourcegroup.com to sign up.



Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 18 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and a regular contributor to a wide variety of U.S. publications. Reach him at mike[at]photosource[dot]com.



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23 Sep, 2008 | Posted by: psn







It’s All In The Cards

Safety In Numbers

With digital cameras, the recording medium is most often a Compact Flash (CF) card. It’s the memory place where all your images are stored. Some cameras allow simultaneous recording on two cards for increased reliability and redundancy, just in case something goes wrong.

CF cards are not as important to the final image as film was/is. Far from it. But, the CF card is a major part of your digital workflow. They are important parts of your professional equipment.

I remember the days when CF cards were very expensive. Small amounts of memory sold for thousands of dollars. These days, prices have come down, and cards are getting bigger and faster and prices are coming down. If you’re just now coming into the digital arena, you’ve entered at a good time.

There are a number of questions I get asked often about CF cards. The most common by far: is there a difference between the bargain basement cards and the more expensive ones? The answer is a resounding yes. Like with anything else, you gits what you pays for. (When buying from a reputable dealer, by the way, the difference in price between name brand and off brand is small enough that it shouldn’t matter.)

My personal favorite is the Hoodman PPO card, The SanDisk line is a close second. (The Hoodman cards are blazing fast in my Canon 5D.) For those of you who want to buy ‘made in America,’ the Hoodman cards have the added bonus of being made in the U.S.

WHAT NOT TO BUY


Avoid buying cheap CF cards at auction sites. More often than not, the cards sold are fakes. See the very useful link at http://martybugs.net/articles/fakesandisk.cgi for more information. I buy my CF cards from B&H Photo Video or directly from the manufacturer. Find Hoodman CF cards at: http://www.hoodmanusa.com/compactflash2.asp

The second most commonly asked question is, should you buy one large card or many smaller ones? I advocate many smaller cards rather than one or two large ones. It comes down to basic risk management. The more individual cards you can spread the risk out on, the smaller the chance that an individual card will go bad at a critical time. I work with a large number of 2 to 4 GB cards.

The third most commonly asked question has to do with transferring the images from the card to the computer. Many digital photographers are frustrated by the slow connection-speeds when they try to download directly from their camera with USB or FireWire. Hint: Spend $25 on a good-quality card reader and you will be amazed at how fast you can download images from your CF cards.

Before you buy a new, fast, CF card, make sure to check with your camera’s manufacturer that the speed and capacity are compatible with your camera.

As always, when you have questions about anything concerning your editorial stock photography business, the PhotoSource Kracker Barrel at http://board.photosource.com/list.php?1 is a great place to ask questions and get information.

Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 20 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and a regular contributor to a wide variety of U.S. publications. Reach him at mike[at]photosource[dot]com, http://www.sellphotos.com





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16 Sep, 2008 | Posted by: psn



Lightroom

Does The Job

by Mikael Karlsson, PSI Technical Editor



For years, Adobe Photoshop was the only choice for professional photographers editing their own digital photos. Not so anymore.

Adobe Lightroom might just become the new standard for digital photographers. I have been using it since the first Beta version. I use Lightroom for developing the RAW files from my camera, light editing for sensor dust, and basic image content editing. Actually, these days I rarely use Photoshop.

I have Lightroom set up so it automatically imports new files every time I plug a CF card into my card reader. A conservative estimate is that I now spend at least 50 % less time developing RAW files and doing initial image editing compared to when I used to use Photoshop and Bridge.

SAFETY MEASURE

Lightroom saves the RAW files into a folder called the Lightroom Library. When working with the files, you work on copies rather than the digital original. This is a great safety measure to keep your digital originals safe. The only drawback is that the library quickly becomes very large. I edit out and delete unneeded RAW files once a week, which helps keep the library folder manageable.

You can download a free demo version of Lightroom from Adobe’s web site (www.adobe.com) to learn if the software is for you.

In the developing mode of Lightroom, there are controls to adjust features such as white balance, exposure, color temperature, and fill light and much more. These options are more than enough for the majority of basic image editing. You’ll also find a tool similar to the Clone Stamp in Photoshop that will allow you to clone out dust spots and other minor flaws. However, for more serious editing of problems that need to be removed or cloned out, Photoshop is still your best bet.

Lightroom is easy to work with and the learning curve is short and fast. If you have even a little bit of experience working with digital files, you’ll be able to start working with Lightroom in minutes after you install the software.

Lightroom is available for both PC and Mac. The price for the full version is only $299. For what you get for your money, in my opinion, it is a steal.


Mike Karlsson is Technical Editor at PhotoSource International. (1 402 821 3098; mike[at]photosource[dot]com)



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10 Sep, 2008 | Posted by: psn



Blogging


By Mikael Karlsson


In these digital days, you know that getting quality visitors to your editorial stock photography website is a challenge. SEO, (Search Engine Optimization) is one way of linking visitors to your site. There are many good books on this topic available from your favorite bookseller.

Links in to your website play a major role in how your site ranks in search engines. In Google, you can find out who links to your site. In the Google search field, type: “links: yoursite.com.” (You put the name of your website where it says “yoursite.”)

The second most important thing for your website ranking, is relevant text that is kept up to date.

One way to add both text and relevance to your website is to add a Blog to your digital arsenal. A Blog is an on-line public journal where you can comment on any topic you wish, post photos and link to other similar blogs.

THE PRICE IS RIGHT


Getting your own blog is both fast and easy. Select one of the free services* and you can’t beat the price. Blogger.com and LiveJournal.com are two of the most popular services offering blogs.
You don’t need to know any html or website design to build a blog. Most blogging services offer a wide variety of templates that are easy to use and personalize.

The most difficult thing about blogging is to limit yourself in what you “blog” about. Remember that your blog might be read by your clients. Don’t blog about anything too personal, avoid politics and religion if you think that your views can adversely affect your relationships with your clients. Limit your blogging to “safe” topics. Avoid coming across as whiny or antagonistic.
It is perfectly OK to blog about your camera equipment. Write about topics that interest you. The more people that read your blog, the more people will link to it. The more valid links you have coming in to your blog, the higher rating you’ll receive from the search engines. And, the higher rating you have, the better chance your blog will come up on the first page of a web search by Google, Yahoo, MSN, or other search engines.

Search the blogging services for topics that interest you, to see samples of what other people are blogging about.

Don’t forget to link to your own website from your blog.
How often you update your blog is entirely up to you, but a minimum of once every few weeks is a good measurement to work by. If a blog is left unattended, it will sink lower in the search engine ratings.

Here’s to your blogging success!


Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 20 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and a regular contributor to a wide variety of U.S. publications. Reach him at mike[at]photosource[dot]com.

*Ed. Note: For information: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog_hosting_service, wordpress.org

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03 Sep, 2008 | Posted by: psn



Backup Safety


In this digital world, secure and high quality back-ups of your digital photos is a must. At the very least you should back up regularly to a second hard-drive so you have two copies of each file. Better is to also back up to a portable hard-drive that you keep off-location, I keep mine in a safety deposit box at my local Bank.

Lately, another option for backups has become a very interesting concept for photographers. Back-ups on-line, on highest quality servers that are monitored, continually backed-up, and secure preventing someone else getting to your files.

PhotoShelter is one company among a few others offering such a service. Their storage solution is called the PhotoShelter Personal Archive system.


I like PhotoShelter Personal Archive for two main reasons:
1. The interface is very user-friendly making it a breeze to use.
2. You can opt for storage alone, or you can add e-commerce to couple it with selling your digital photos on-line through PhotoShelter.

Signing up for the Starter Package is free. It only gives you 50MB of space but this is an excellent way to test it out and see if it seems right for you and your particular workflow.

The pricing for larger collections are affordable. The Basic Package offers 10GB of storage space and will run you $9.99/month.The Pro version offers 100GB of storage space at an affordable $49.99/month. (Find more about pricing of various packages at https://pa.photoshelter.com/signup/signup/subscriber )That’s not a lot of money to be able to sleep soundly at night knowing your digital files are safe and secure regardless of if your office gets flooded and all your computer equipment is toast, there’s a power surge that zaps your equipment, or you get a virus that corrupts your digital files.

On-line storage is all about peace of mind. There are a lot of very experienced pro photographers, both stock shooters and others, that use PhotoShelter. Customer service is among the best I’ve ever seen from any company. Answers to questions are sent promptly and follow up questions are dealt with equally promptly and with great patience from the PhotoShelter customer service staff.

In addition to Personal Archive, PhotoShelter also offers a web portal where you can upload your files and sell them through The PhotoShelter Collection. Launched to buyers in late 2007, this marketplace is still new so it is way to early to say if people are seeing steady sales yet. This Collection is edited and the editors will decide which of the files you upload will be accepted.

Bottom line: Peace of mind with on-line backups of your digital files is no longer cost-prohibitive for individual photographers. For more info see PhotoShelter’s web site at http://www.photoshelter.com -MK




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27 Aug, 2008 | Posted by: psn




A BACKPACK,

NOT A BACKACHE


Every now and then a new product comes along and it is simply amazing that nobody has thought of it before.

Lowepro Primus AW is such a product. With its functionality and its simplicity this is probably as close to being genius as you can come for a camera bag. If you love the carrying comfort of a backpack but sometimes need to access your camera gear fast, you will quickly fall in love with Primus AW.
It features a side access to the main camera compartment. You can open one zipper and have access to your gear in seconds. No need to remove the backpack from your back!

With traditional Lowepro quality in materials, design and workmanship, there isn’t anything not to like about this product. Priced at a very affordable $249.95 and with a portion of that going to the non-profit Polar Bears International—an organization that works to save the Polar Bears—even if you have a camera backpack you already like, the Primus AW should be seriously considered.

I have found that the Primus AW is perfect when I don’t need to carry all my gear and when I might need fast access to my camera. I use a Canon 5D with a grip and a 24-70 2.8L as my main workhorse and this easily fits in the bag. Along with a few more lenses, rain gear, dry socks, CF cards and everything else I constantly carry with me.
With Primus AW, Lowepro has – yet again – hit a homerun so far out of the stadium that the ball might not even have landed yet. –MK




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13 Aug, 2008 | Posted by: psn





Buying Digital

When it comes to buying a digital camera, how do you determine what kind to choose? Ask yourself a simple question: "Why and how will I be using this camera?" If it's for family snapshots, you'll get an easy answer. If it's to supply professional digital images to a buyer, you'll get a different answer.
If your purpose is professional, you need to ask another question. "Will I be using this camera to supply images for commercial use such as for an advertising agency or commercial entity, or will the camera be used to supply quarter-page images for textbook publishers?" Your answer could make the difference between thousands of dollars in purchase price.
How do you find your answers?
Ask.
Find out from the clients on your personal Market List what kind of digital images they utilize (size, format, dpi, and so on). Select a camera that will deliver those needs. By tailoring your digital equipment to your clients' needs, you can assure their continued friendship, cooperation, and interest in your photos (i.e. sales).

SCANNERS BEGONE ?


Many photographers seem to think that once they purchase a professional-grade digital camera, they'll have no use for their scanner for film images.
A survey conducted by Trend Watch Graphic Arts showed a different story. The survey asked the question: "How Has Your Use of Color Scanners Changed as a Result of Owning a Digital Camera?" 54% of the respondents said scanner use stayed the same. 10% increased use, and 35% said they decreased the use of scanners.
More than half of the respondents stated that they're using their scanners at least as much now as before they purchased a digital camera.
What conclusions can be drawn from this? For one, don't put your scanner in storage just yet. As a matter of fact if you don't own a scanner, NOW's the time to start looking for good bargains. A good film scanner will allow you to digitize all your old slides and negs and start marketing those as digital images.
A word of caution. A scanned digital image must be as clean and dust free as a crisp, newly processed strip of film. Specks of dust or a microscopic strand of hair in a scanned image can be enough to have a photobuyer put you on their list - and it's not a good list.
Learning digital - be it scanned images or files from a digital camera - can sure seem like a huge task. There is help to be found though, and plenty of it. < http://board.photosource.com >.

Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 14 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and a regular contributor to a wide variety of U.S. publications. Reach him at mike[at]photosource[dot]com.

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06 Aug, 2008 | Posted by: psn





Getting Access

Do you need permission to photograph in public situations?
For an editorial stock photographer, the answer is yes and no.
No, applies for the majority of circumstances, if your photos are not to be used for advertising or promotion, and will be used for educating, informing or entertaining the public.

However, for most stock photographers, there are occasions when the need to ask someone for permission to photograph arises. I'm talking about situations where you want to photograph the interior of a store, a pharmacist dispensing pills, a shopping mall, kids in a classroom, and so on.

It can be to your benefit to seek permission. As an editorial photographer, you probably specialize. By following the proper channels and working under the guidelines of the property owner, or person in charge of an area, you assure yourself the authorization to return for more photographing of this specialized subject matter at future times.

There will be circumstances, of course, when you’re unable to find or contact the person who would give permission. If you do proceed with your photographing, without the permission, a courtesy file photo or tear sheet sent to the property owner or person in authority later, will often assure an invitation to photograph again.


THE RIGHT WAY

So, when the moment arises and you need to ask someone for permission to photograph, how should you do it?

Stock photographers have two ways to go about obtaining permission to photograph. One way is right and one way is wrong. Citing your First Amendment Rights, you can try to demand permission to photograph. This seldom ends with success, and certainly no cooperation or invitations for return visits.

The other way is to ask nicely. Be polite, explain why you would like to photograph inside the store, school, shopping mall, etc.

Remember that you most likely are talking to someone who is unaware of the field of stock photography. In some cases, they may be wary of you and suspect that you are working for their competition.
In other cases, photographs of their building or enterprise are a profit center for them (such as in their gift shop), and they wouldn't welcome the competition from you. An explanation of how you would be using the photographs is then in order.

Most permission givers will be delighted that you are interested in photographing their property or business operation. They will recognize the public relations benefit of letting you publicize them -- free of charge (and you can help them be aware of this with the right presentation on your part).

A great tool to help you get permission is to show tear sheets or photocopies of your previously published photographs. If you don't have tear sheets yet, you could show them examples of other photographers and explain how you plan to produce similar results.

AN EXAMPLE


Let me give you a real life example. I shoot law enforcement situations (prisons, police, crime, social justice, and similar topics). I once got an urgent request from a book publisher who needed images of parole situations -- a hearing, a parole officer talking to a parolee, and other similar images. The problem was that the publisher needed the images within a week. Now, one week is very little time to try to set up something like this. Luckily, there was a parole hearing scheduled at one of the prisons nearby.

Because I had previously done some shoots inside area prisons through the local Department of Corrections, the administrator knew my name, knew my work, and was willing to cooperate. (I promised him some file copies.) We got through the red tape in less than a day. The shoot got done on schedule, and the photobuyer was grateful for my ability to solve a huge problem for him. Another plus for me: I was able to increase my connections with the chief administrator at the local Department of Corrections.

Asking for permission is something you will have to do sooner or later. I hope these tips will help you prepare for the eventuality.


Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 17 years experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and a regular contributor to a wide variety of American publications. Reach him at mike[at]photosource[dot]com.


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29 Jul, 2008 | Posted by: psn






Hold Back Or Move Forward ?

Times are tough and they have been tough for a while. Many photographers are experiencing a drop in images sales and many publishers of magazines and books are trying to cut corners.
Cutting corners is often a necessary business practice when times are tough financially but the key to doing this right and not hurting your business instead of helping it, is to know what corners to cut and what corners to leave alone.

Generally speaking, you want to avoid cutting anything that generates income for you. This would include things like image production, marketing, trade publications, advertising, etc. The reason for this is that even though times might be tough now, they’ll be even tougher in the future if you’re not ready for when the market has a resurgence. .

As you know by now, getting on the radar screens of photobuyers and staying there is the single most important thing for your stock photobusiness.business. Cutting your advertising, marketing and similar areas is a surefire way of falling off that radar screen. The dip in image usage is only temporary and when things get back to normal, you want to make absolutely certain that you are on the minds of all the photobuyers that are important to you.

Many successful businesses have increased, rather than decreased, marketing during rough times. Good, professional marketing is the key to success for any business but this becomes even more important when times are rough. Why does it become more important?

Well, since there are fewer images being licensed there are fewer opportunities for your work to be selected over the work of a competitor. Even though the number of customers may still be the same, the number of sale-opportunities have shrunk.

So, increasing your share of the photobuying market can only be a plus is always a good thing, even when times are rough. Targeted marketing will bring you customers and once you have the customers contacting you, it’s up to you to move forward and close the sale.

Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 20 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and a regular contributor to a wide variety of U.S. publications. Reach him at mike[at]photosource[dot]com.


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23 Jul, 2008 | Posted by: psn



Digital Reality
There's no doubt that digital technology in the stock photography industry is advancing constantly. But how far has it advanced, where is it going to and when will it get there? Having recently finished a survey of editorial stock photography buyers, I've come closer to understanding where we are when it comes to digital submissions to photobuyers.
Most photobuyers welcome digital previews with open arms. But many are still reluctant to accept digital images for the final submission. Most editorial photobuyers have been disappointed with digital submissions from stock photographers in the past. They say they are not getting the digital quality they want and the way they want it.
With digital images - be they from a digital camera or a scan - the accuracy in how you submit to a photobuyer is crucial. A slide is a slide is a slide, but a digital image can be saved in the wrong format, the wrong size, the wrong resolution and so on. If one this is wrong, that might be enough to make the image unusable for the photobuyer and the photobuyer is forced to select a different picture for publication.
Photobuyers often prefer that you have scans made at a local professional service bureau, or allow the publisher to utilize their own in-house services for the final scanning of the original slide or neg. -MK


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16 Jul, 2008 | Posted by: psn



To Sharpen or

Not To Sharpen


Digital images, especially those from digital cameras, very often need sharpening. How do you determine how much sharpening to do? If you are working on an image that will be published, there's a basic rule: "don't do any sharpening at all."
FINAL USE SIZE

The reason you should do no sharpening of digital images sent off to a photobuyer is that images are best sharpened at the final usage -- size.
Let's say that you have an image that is roughly 3000 by 2000 pixels. If you sharpen the image at this size, and the photobuyer you send it to wants to use the image at a smaller size, the quality of the reduced image will be poorer than if you had not done any sharpening at all!
Photobuyers often ask for "unsweetened" images. This means images that have no sharpening applied and very little other manipulation. Sharpening is the most critical issue, because as illustrated above, an image that is sharpened at the "wrong size" might be unusable to a photobuyer.
The actual size an image is used can vary from what the photobuyer initially asks for. Even if you think you know what size the image will be used, there's no way to know with certainty. Not knowing with certainty is the same as guessing.
OTHER MANIPULATIONS

Features such as using the clone stamp to remove dust-spots and to color-correct, are manipulations that are, more or less, expected of you. But, again, remember that specs vary from photobuyer to photobuyer. There's no universal formula when it comes to digital submission preferences.
Ask the photobuyers you work with for their digital specs. Keep them handy in your files. This way you'll have this "digital-preferences" information at your fingertips whenever you need it, for each of your buyers.
CAUTION: Ask your photobuyers from time to time if their digital specs have changed, and update your file accordingly.

Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 14 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and a regular contributor to a wide variety of U.S. publications. Reach him at mike[at]photosource[dot]com.


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30 Nov, -1 | Posted by: psn





Online theft

of images


Mikael Karlsson


Every now and then I get a question about watermarks, disabling right click, and "keeping your images safe" on-line. These are all legitimate questions but -- and this is important folks -- "theft" of images from a web site is far more rare than most people think. When it happens, because it does happen, it's often quite innocent. All that is usually needed to deal with the problem is a polite request by e-mail. There are more serious cases, though, but they are indeed few and very far between.
I've had images misused (I prefer to use that word rather than "stolen") perhaps a dozen times since my images have been available on-line since 2000. All of these cases have been due to lack of knowledge on the "offenders" part. All were taken care of with no problems at all. In all cases images were used on someone's private website, or very small and very local newsletters. Not one of these were usages I would have managed to sell usage rights for so I didn't miss any sales.

It is rare that a professional photobuyer at a magazine, newspaper, or book publisher, knowingly would misuse an image. It does happen but when it does it's normally dealt with and taken care of swiftly. It is usually due to a mistake on the photobuyer's part. No serious photobuyer would purposely misuse an image. The risks (lawsuit as well as a destroyed reputation in the industry) far outweigh the small financial gain.

WATERMARKS

I always advise against putting huge watermarks in the center of your images, or placing warning signs all over your web site. Pr-people call this "negative purchasing impulses". Too many warnings and threats tend to make people unwilling to buy. Imagine if you would walk into a local store and see warning signs everywhere about shoplifting. And you'd see obvious camera surveillance. Also, you'd see security people walking the aisles to control and supervise... Would you find that shopping-environment inviting?

EDUCATE


Yes, be clear about the fact that your images are copyrighted and that nobody has the right to use them for any purpose without your permission. Write a short note about what copyright is and put that on your site.

But leave it at that. For every method there is to prevent someone from stealing your image from your website, someone will invent another way to get around the hurdle.

As the saying goes, "Build a bigger lock and they'll build a bigger hammer."

If you feel a need to protect your web image, here's what most photographers do.

1.) Keep your images small in size and resolution.
That way they can't be used professionally, even if
downloaded by someone.
2.) Another way is to educate your web site visitors
about copyright. A copyright notice on your site
goes a long way to accomplish that.


Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 14 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and a regular contributor to a wide variety of U.S. publications. Reach him at mike[at]photosource[dot]com.


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