Finding Your Images “Out There”

A lot of stock photo contributors are interested in finding their work “out there” being used.  For quite a while now, it’s been easy to use a website called TinEye to try and find a certain image being used on the internet.  In fact, back a while, I wrote about how buyers could use TinEye to brainstorm in their work process.  TinEye is kind of like a google search, but for images.  Well, yesterday, Google revealed their new product which is actually a Google search, but for images.  And it’s easy to use (and addicting).

iStockphoto Contributor Royalty Targets Announced

Last Friday at end of day, iStockphoto released the redeemed credit target numbers that contributors must surpass in 2011 to achieve a certain royalty percentage level for 2012.    After widespread reports of declining download numbers across the site, contributors were surprised to see the levels at the original numbers posted for last year, 2010.  Those numbers were modified at the end of 2010 to lower target levels.

More Greasemonkey Fun

The other day I blogged about a few fun Greasemonkey scripts I had written to be used on the iStockphoto web site.  Mostly for contributor use.  Today, I’ve got another script to share to help you figure out sales results in lightboxes.

Basically, it gives you a button to run a script that will show you per image download and royalty totals for any lightbox search result page, as well as final numbers at the top.

More details, and ensuing discussion – click here.

 

 

iStockphoto Greasemonkey Scripts

If you use Firefox (and some other browsers as well, I believe), you can download an add-on called “Greasemonkey“.  This add on allows you to use Javascript scripting  (of your own or others’ creation) on any web page to do … well, mostly anything.  For example, you could use it to access the DOM (document object model) of the page you are viewing, and move a piece of interface somewhere else on the page.  I could go to the Google homepage, and write a script that removed the big Google logo image, if that bothered me, and then, every time I visit the page, the script would run and remove it.  Things like that.  For users of the iStockphoto website, I’ve got a couple of scripts I wrote that may interest you.

Changes to iStockphoto Royalties

Well, I’m sure by now that you heard about or read the bomb dropped at iStockphoto yesterday that no one (well, most people) had any idea was coming.  If not, read the first post in the link there, and let’s first take a look at how this will affect buyers.

Submitting Old Photos to iStockPhoto

One of the queries that comes up very often on the iStockphoto forums goes something like this:

My (grandfather/uncle/cousin/great-aunt/camera-wearing cat) died and I inherited a box full of photos from the (20s/40s/60s/future).  Can I scan them and upload them on iStockphoto?

There are two issues that arise in this situation.  That of copyright ownership and that of subject (model) permissions.  Keep in mind I am talking about “commercial usage” here, not editorial, and that is the kind of licensing iStockphoto deals in.  Also, I refer to US law below, and my interpretation of things.

iStock Photo Resize Script

Today, let’s talk about using Photoshop’s imageResize function and a custom script, to help you get the most out of iStockphoto.  Let’s cover some of the iStockphoto upload basics before we get to the resize script.

Good Timing

Sometime, when creating content and putting it up for sale, you just get lucky when it comes to timing. 

Top 5 iStockphoto Articles

Along the path to where it is today, iStockphoto found, that by educating buyers and contributors on topics related to design and photography, they could increase both the quality of the content offered, and the knowledge of the buyers to use and appreciate said content.  There are a lot of good articles in their database, but here are a couple of my favorites.

1. Tips on Lighting And Isolated Shots – One of the classic articles, oft pointed to in the forums when discussing how to do the infamous “isolated on white” shot.  Good for designers because it gives a basic overview on what “white” means to a camera
2. Know Your Type – A good primer on typography, written by an outside company.  Good illustrative graphics accompany the text.
3. A Very Important Message For Everyone at iStockphoto – Founder Bruce Livingstone announces the sale of iStockphoto to Getty Images.
4. “K” is for Tags? – Buyers often run into roadblocks when searching the image database.  This article explains how the controlled vocabulary system works.
5. I Resolve to be More Resolute – Answers the hows and whys of dpi.  Why pixel resolution is what really matters on the front end and the final use is what you make from that.  A definite “must read” for newbie buyers.
6. Evolving Intellectual Property Standards at iStockphoto, pt. 2 – This series addressed concerns of what content is safe to portray in commercial royalty free imagery for sale.  This article was heavily read because it addressed some popular topics – NASA imagery, autos and especially the use of model releases.
7. Any of the “Points and Paths” articles about vector creation.  I’m just a beginner when it comes to illustrations, and these how-to’s can benefit everyone, from creators to integrators.  Like “RGB CMYK Q&A“, “Layout, Cutout, Knockout” and “Develop a Personal Palette“.  Even if you don’t use the software, it’s neat to see how the magic is done.
8. Top 5 License Faux Pas – This article echos a lot of what I’ve written in my blog about safe and correct ways for the buyer to use their licensed files, but it’s nice to get it straight from the officials.

Ok, that was 8.  Not 5.  But a catchy title does not an exact list make… There’s a lot more in the article morgue, so page back and check them out.  Some from a few years back are timeless, and some are tired, but there’s probably a little something about everything you didn’t know in there.

Get iStockphoto Keywords Tool

Last week, a buyer posted on the iStockphoto forums about the trouble he was having easily getting a list of keywords for an iStock download.

How could I easily get (copy through clipboard) keywords for bought images?

When I go to image detail, there is for example “Vector, Men, Child, Little Girls, Family, Illustration and Painting, Human Hand, Love, Human Hair, Blue, Red …more”, so I cannot copy all keywords easily. When I click “more”, the table with keywords is much more unfriendly for getting keywords.

I need these keywords for cataloguing my images.

So, apparently, this buyer downloads an image, and wants a keyword list to insert into the image in some form so that he can search his hard drive later for that image.  Makes sense.  However, with a recent re-design of the image details page, the keyword list comes up in a fairly uncopyable format.  You first need to pop up the keyword layer by hitting “more” and then if you try and copy and paste that list, it will be full of white space and have to be edited.

I had some spare time this week, so I scripted a little tool on my iStockTool page to return a list of keywords when given a list of iStock image numbers.  For example, entering 10855173 here: http://digitalplanetdesign.com/index.php?page=istocktools gives you this back:

Description: Royalty Free Stock Photo, Over the Shoulder Christmas Smile, copyright Sean Locke, iStockphoto LP
Keywords: Adults Only, Young Adult, Only Women, female1, Female, Women, Adult, People, Long Hair, Beauty, Beautiful, 20s, 30s, Caucasian, Studio Shot, Holiday, Cheerful, Smiling, Happiness, Red, Red Background, Defocused, Selective Focus, Focus On Foreground, Head And Shoulders, Hope, Dress, Copy Space, Shiny, One Woman Only, Toothy Smile, Christmas, Christmas Lights, Palm, Hands Cupped, Human Hand, Holding, Waist Up, Portrait, Looking Down, Christmas Present, Gift, Wrapped, Horizontal, Looking Over Shoulder, Rear View, stock images, royalty free images, stock photography, stock photos, inexpensive, istockphoto

It’s basically a php grab of the meta data in the html page, but could be very useful in a situation like this.  Note, that this list of meta data is the disambiguated keyword list.  ie., I had entered “blur” as a keyword, but this list includes the official controlled vocabulary keyword “defocused”.

Also note, if you have “Grease Monkey” for Firefox installed, user theasis offered this up:

you could install this script: http://www.theasis.co.uk/iStock/show_keywords.user.js

Hope you find this useful.  Have a good week!