Advice and tips

Help with that nasty keywording - Keedup promotion for Alamy contributors

Alan Capel - Head of Content — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:43:00 GMT

Please see below for an exciting message from Keedup, please note that Alamy do not benefit financially from this deal

Alamy 501 Deal – Available Till The End of March

Pay US$500 and get 501 images keyworded with full separation to the Alamy standard by Keedup’s team of keyworders in New Zealand.

You don’t have to send all the images at once, small batches are welcome. We will deduct them from the overall total until you’ve used up your credit.

Contact Suzie Espie for more details.

Also, keep tabs on all things Keywording at Keywording Central

Keywording ages and ethnicity

Alan Capel - Head of Content — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:14:00 GMT

We have listed some recommended terms that we suggest you consider using when keywording age and ethnicity on Alamy. These terms are also the terms that we use for some of our search filters. By including those that are relevant in your keywording you will be maximising the sales potential of your images.

Remember that the Alamy system does not automatically add plural versions of your keywords so you need to add both the singular and plural of a term if it's relevant.

Happy keywording.

Soft or Lacking Definition

QC team — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:11:00 GMT

When Quality Control (QC) applies failure reasons to images we try to be as specific as possible, giving reasons as to why a particular image has failed QC. Sometimes images fail for a combination of reasons, or quite simply the image looks unacceptably soft but there are no obvious indications as to why this is. On the occasions where it isn’t possible to pinpoint a definitive reason(s) for softness we will still use the failure reason ‘soft or lacking definition’.

We understand that contributors who failed QC for this reason may require more clarification so we have updated our explanation for ‘soft or lacking definition’, which can also be read below:

Soft or lacking definition rejection explanation

The image may appear soft and/or lacking definition for one or more of the following reasons:

The image has been interpolated beyond its limitations or an unsuitable camera has been used.
The image is slightly out of focus/a long exposure and lens with image stabilisation has been used while the camera is mounted to a tripod.
The image has been over-manipulated (such as overuse of noise reduction) causing degradation in image quality.
There is slight camera shake/shake that was not evident before the image was upsized.
A lens with poor optics has been used resulting in loss of fine detail.
A dedicated film scanner hasn’t been used/poor quality film scanned/image scanned poorly.

When is an Illustration not an Illustration?

Alan Capel - Head of Content — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:37:00 GMT

© Alamy (click to see larger version)We have been looking at the search results returned for a number of new proposed filters we'd like to make available to our customers. One such filter that customers have asked us for is the ability to look at just illustrations or just photographs. Unfortunately, upon checking the quality of the results we've been very disappointed with between 5 and 10% of results being inaccurate.

For a reminder of what we consider to be an illustration please see our help.

Also remember that within Manage Images v2.2 you now have many more tools to double check the quality of you data.

For example, with Illustrations, why not take a few minutes to double check the results, once in Manage Images v2.2 simply select - 'Type - Illustrations' from the filter list (see image above).

I'm sure you'd all like to just concentrate on the images themselves, but sadly the metadata is just as important these days and inaccurate data can lead to lost sales opportunities.

Unsuitable camera list

QC Team — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:27:00 GMT

© Gari Wyn WilliamsThe Quality Control (QC) team see images from a vast range of digital cameras. In our recent Alamy Recommended Digital Camera List blog we listed our recommended cameras. We have now compiled a list of cameras which will never produce images of the required standard to pass QC.

Images from compact cameras, bridge cameras and DSLR's under 6 megapixels will show considerable deterioration when upsized to 48mb. This is due to their lower pixel count, poor optics, smaller sensor size and outdated processing.

Contributors who try to submit images from these cameras will fail QC. This will be for reasons such as interpolation artefacts, soft and lacking definition, noise etc.

Alamy Unsuitable Camera List

If your camera does not feature on this list please do not assume that it will be up to Alamy's QC standard. Please see our Alamy Recommended Digital Camera List and remember cameras need to be used at their optimum settings and the images carefully processed using professional image software.

Please also note that Alamy does not accept any images from mobile phone cameras.

Image use and typical lead times

James Allsworth — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:11:00 GMT

© david sanger photographyWe often tend to get emails and calls from contributors worried because they have seen an image being used without it yet showing up on their sales summary. In order to help alleviate those worries we'd like to inform you of the typical lead times associated with certain types of publications.

So what is a lead time? Well a lead time is a period time between usage and billing of that usage. Billing is often left until an image has gone to print as that way, the client can be 100% sure that the image has been used and not swapped with another at the last minute.

Although it's normal for each publication to be slightly different, here is an overview of some typical lead times:

Newspapers - newspapers can take up to 3 months after the issue date to confirm usage. This allows time for remittance/self-bill confirmation to arrive. The time can vary depending on how up to date the billing department is at the newspaper but the time should never exceed 3 months.
Magazines (print and online) - most magazine clients confirm at month-end or quarter end, so it's normal to expect at least one month for usage confirmation. There is usually a 4-6 week turn around period between going to print and usage confirmation being received. If the usage has gone beyond one month and the sale has still not appeared in your summary, then please let us know. It may well be that the magazine has an agreed deal with us to report on a quarterly basis - we will let you know if this is the case. With bi-monthly and quarterly magazines, 6-10 weeks between going to print and usage confirmation being received is the norm.
Book publishers - we usually receive usage confirmation within a month of publication, often before.
Advertising/promotional - rights should always be cleared before any promotional or advertising use.

If you see any of your images being used that have not yet appeared in your sales summary please try to bear the above in mind. If you have spotted a usage that has gone beyond the typical lead time outlined above that has not yet appeared in your summary please let us know and we will follow it up accordingly.

DACS: Help with claiming for payback 2009

James Allsworth — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:32:00 GMT

© UpperCut Images It's that time of year again where you can apply for royalties from the Design and Artists Copyright Society's (DACS) Payback scheme and after speaking to DACS themselves, we have advice for you on how to make a claim from your Alamy sales.

For a bit of background, and to quote DACS themselves, "if you are an artist or visual creator you could be eligible for a share of over £3 million of Payback royalties if your work has featured in a UK book or magazine or been broadcast on certain UK television channels.

Payback royalties come from revenue generated through collective licensing schemes. Collective licensing is used in situations where it would be difficult or near impossible for you to licence your rights on an individual basis, for example, when an individual wishes to photocopy a page of a book which features your work. You can claim for the use of your artistic works in books, magazines or journals published in the UK in any year up to and including the year 2008. Count all your works and the publications they have appeared in for all the years up to 31 Dec 2008."

In order to make a claim, you need to fill in a claim form with details of publications that have been published in the UK and have contained any of your copyrighted works, in this case, your images. We are still not in a position to give you exact publication details of where we have sold you images to, but DACS have told us a copy of your sales report information should be enough to make a successful claim. You just need to make sure your images have been published in the UK. To do this, you can look through a combination of your "summary of images sold" and "net revenue" pages via My Alamy.

Firstly via your summary of images sold, identify those images that have a distribution territory of either World English Language, UK or Worldwide. You will not be able to see this information for Royalty Free. Secondly, go to your net revenue page, set the date from as far back as when you began at Alamy to the 31st of December 2008 and retrieve the results for "Date Cleared". If you then click download and open the data in Excel, you can see the region value. If the region is UK and the usage from summary of images sold includes one of the previously mentioned territories, you should be able to submit this for DACS payback. This proved sufficient in the past.

For the specifics into how DACS works, or questions on making a claim, you should contact DACS themselves by contact the Payback team on 020 7553 9062 or emailing them directly. Alamy cannot claim DACS payback royalties on your behalf.

Visit the DACS website.

Useful PDF downloads:

Excessive similars

Ben Gray — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:11:00 GMT

We’d just like to take this opportunity to remind you all of the importance of editing your images prior to uploading to Alamy.

Firstly, there is the aesthetics of a customer being displayed pages of images with little or no difference between them. We try to ensure customers are given accurate results to searches but also a diversity of imagery. A varied array of content is one of the reasons clients use Alamy to source images.

Secondly, there is the affect on your Alamy Rank. Images returned in searches, viewed and then ignored will suffer a decrease in Alamy Rank over time. If a customer is displayed pages of similar or identical images they are likely to ignore many (if not all) trying to find one that stands out from the rest. A decrease in Alamy Rank will mean images being returned further and further down the search results and therefore having less visibility to customers.

When selecting images from a single shoot, try to edit down your submission and only include the best of the bunch. You can send up to five similar frames although it’s recommended to send in one or two at the most. Quality Control will only accept a series of images if they have very different angles, framing or model’s expressions, etc. However, if you upload similar images on separate occasions there is no way for QC to spot the problem.

We will periodically be checking the website and advising contributors to remove similar or identical images for the benefit of customers and also to protect your Alamy Rank.

You can assist us by identifying any similar images in your online collection and marking some for deletion. Using your new Manage Images tool you will be able to display multiple images enabling you to spot any similars and edit down using the batch delete option.

Description field no longer searchable

Alan Capel - Head of Content — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:57:00 GMT

As previously announced we can confirm that the description field is no longer searchable. This is the case both through the customer search interface and through 'Manage Images'. The description field should contain any relevant background information which you feel a customer may be interested in.

Alamy Recommended Digital Camera List

QC Team — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:55:00 GMT

© José Manuel Gelpi DíazThe Quality Control (QC) Team come across a huge variety of digital cameras used by contributors who submit to Alamy. This varies from compact cameras through DSLRs to medium format digital backs.

In our submission guidelines we state that contributors should use a DSLR camera with a resolution of at least 6 mega pixels. Images from 6MP DSLR cameras can be acceptable to Alamy but will require careful upsizing and processing to produce an image that will pass QC.

Compact cameras require a higher pixel count (compared to that of DSLRs) to pass QC. This is due to their smaller sensor size and generally poorer quality optics. Unless processed very carefully they can show digital noise, interpolation artifacts and chromatic aberration (coloured fringing). Realistically, only high-end digital compacts have a better than average chance of passing QC.

In order to help you we’ve compiled a list of cameras that we have found to produce images of an acceptable quality when used in varied conditions. Please note that any cameras included in this list need to be used at their optimum settings and the images carefully processed using a professional image software package such as Adobe Photoshop.

This list will give you an idea of whether the camera that you are using is capable of producing the results required (when used correctly) to pass QC. Of course, even the best cameras on the market will only produce technically acceptable images in the hands of a knowledgeable operator.

At present we recommend the following cameras for submissions to Alamy:

Canon

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II
Canon EOS 5D
Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Canon EOS-1D Mark II
Canon EOS-1Ds
Canon EOS 50D
Canon EOS 40D
Canon EOS 450D / Digital Rebel Xsi / EOS KISS X2
Canon EOS 30D
Canon EOS 1000D / Digital Rebel XS
Canon EOS 400D / Digital Rebel XTi
Canon EOS 20D
Canon EOS 350D / Digital Rebel XT

Contax

Contax N Digital

Epson

Epson R-D1

Fuji

Fuji S5 Pro

Leica

M8.2
M8

Nikon

Nikon D3X
Nikon D3
Nikon D700
Nikon D300
Nikon D2X/s
Nikon D90
Nikon D200
Nikon D60
Nikon D80
Nikon D40X

Olympus

Olympus E620
Olympus E-30
Olympus E-520
Olympus E-450
Olympus E-410
Olympus E-420
Olympus E-3
Olympus E-510
Olympus E-410
Olympus E-400

Panasonic

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1
Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1
Panasonic Lumix DMC-L10

Pentax

Pentax K20D
Pentax K200D
Pentax K10D / Grand Prix

Samsung

Samsung GX-20
Samsung GX-10
Samsung GX-1s

Sony

Sony DSLR A900
Sony DSLR-A700
Sony DSLR-A350
Sony DSLR-A300
Sony DSLR-A200
Sony DSLR-A100

Please note there may be other digital cameras that can produce files which would also be acceptable to Alamy.

Alamy QC Team