News photographer Q & A
- How do I get access to news web upload?
- How do I get access to the FTP upload for news?
- I have been granted access to news FTP upload. What do I do now?
- What kind of images does Alamy want for news?
- What IPTC metadata must you add to your images before upload?
- What do I need to do to my images to make them suitable for Alamy Live News?
- Does Alamy automatically add any metadata to images when they are uploaded?
- What happens to my images once I have uploaded them?
- How long do the images remain in the news feed?
- Do the images appear on the main website while they are in the news feed?
- Is the news feed searchable?
- What happens to my images after they leave the news feed?
- Should I do anything to the images after they have passed out of the news feed to make them more attractive as stock?
- How do I get in contact with the news team?
- Will there be anyone there at weekends and out of hours?
How do I get access to news web upload?
We automatically give news web upload to all Alamy photographers with a good Quality Control (QC) record. If you have recently joined Alamy or have a poor QC rating you are unlikely to have this privilege. If you are a dedicated news photographer, please apply for the news FTP service.
How do I get access to the FTP upload for news?
We give news FTP upload privileges to dedicated news photographers. You can apply for this here.
I have been granted access to news FTP upload. What do I do now?
You need to follow the instructions for news FTP upload – here.
What kind of images does Alamy want for news?
We want any image which a news customer is likely to want to use in their publication or on their site. In general, the images will be of a newsworthy event. But we also want current, standalone, “picture of the day” type images, images of bizarre events etc.
We are also interested in slightly less current images. If you have been on a wildlife expedition, taken some great images of the northern lights, completed your month-long study of the flying patterns of bees – and you have amazing images of this, let us know by emailing us at news@alamy.com.
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What IPTC metadata must you add to your images BEFORE UPLOAD?
IPTC Name Alamy field Description (also know as Caption in some systems) Caption Headline Group headline Date created Date taken NB: Alamy will also extract the keywords from the IPTC keywords field and use these to populate the Alamy comprehensive keywords field.
What do I need to do to my images to make them suitable for Alamy Live News?
You should familiarise yourself with Alamy's news picture guidelines here. But in short, we need you to:
- Write captions for all your images which meet our captioning criteria. See here. THESE NEED TO BE ADDED BEFORE UPLOAD.
- Write a common group headline for all your images. See here. THESE NEED TO BE ADDED BEFORE UPLOAD.
- Make sure that the date created / date taken for your images is correct. See here
- Make sure the images meet our technical criteria. See here
- Be sure that the images were legally taken and would not break any laws were they to be published. See here
Does Alamy automatically add any metadata to images when they are uploaded?
Yes. There are certain Alamy metadata fields which are automatically filled in on upload. So when it comes to dealing with your images in Manage Images you will see that many fields have already been set for you.
The following rules apply:
Metadata which is automatically added during news uploads: Alamy Metadata Automatic setting for news images Model release NO Property releases NO What is this image? A PHOTOGRAPH Image digitally altered NO Licence type RIGHTS MANAGED Keywords entered in the IPTC keywords field of an image will be added to Alamy's comprehensive keywords metadata field.
What happens to my images once I have uploaded them?
The images will appear in the Alamy Live News feed here. Customers can purchase the images directly from here.
Images which have been taken in the last 24 hours will appear at the front of the feed (top left on the screen). Images older than 24 hours will appear further down in the news feed.
A group of images will appear with a group image and a group headline. By default, the group image will be the first image in the group while the group headline will be the text you entered in the IPTC Headline field for all the images.
How long do the images remain in the news feed?
The images will drop out of the news feed 48 hours after they were taken.
Do the images appear on the main website while they are in the news feed?
No. While in the news feed, the images cannot be found in the main database. Our news customers will be expecting news images either to be delivered to them via FTP or to be in the feed.
Is the news feed searchable?
You cannot currently search for images in the news feed. We believe the vast majority of our sales will come from FTPing our images to our customers so this is not crucial at this stage. However, we believe as more images are sent to us, a search tool will become important. We are working on a search solution for Live News .
What happens to my images after they leave the news feed?
After the images leave the news feed they will automatically be transferred to the stock collection at www.alamy.com. Although this process is automatic, we recommend that you edit the image metadata to maximise your photograph's potential as stock (see below). You should also consider whether you need to delete any images at this point.
Removed images
Your images will be removed from the news feed by Alamy staff if they are considered to be non-newsworthy or they are more than 48 hours old. If you have news web upload privileges only, any rejected news images will be transferred to the QC queue. Here they will be subject to the ‘regular’ QC criteria of images in the main collection.
Note: images which are large enough for upload to the news feed, may not be large enough to pass through QC, which requires a minimum file size of 24MB uncompressed.
Complete QC guidelines can be found here.
If you have news ftp privileges, then any rejected news images will be transferred to the stock collection. If we find that this route is being abused, we will withdraw the news ftp privilege.
Should I do anything to the images after they have passed out of the news feed to make them more attractive as stock?
You don't have to do anything. However, you may be sacrificing the opportunity to make the most of your stock collection. For instance, if you do nothing to the images, Alamy's essential keywords field will remain blank, which is a disadvantage in the search results. By carefully choosing your keywords with stock sales in mind, you will maximise your chances of selling.
How do I get in contact with the news team?
You can contact the Alamy News team by emailing us at news@alamy.com. Please use this to tell us about images you are about to file, or events you are thinking about attending. We will not get into conversations about which images we may or may not have sent directly to customers via FTP. Trust us, if your images are great, they will have been sent.
If you have an urgent, Stop the presses! –type query, you can phone us on
+44(0) 1235844690. It will be manned during antisocial hours. Please do not use this for non-urgent issues.Will there be anyone there at weekends and out of hours?
Yes. Alamy Live News will be staffed at the weekends and staff will be on call out of UK office hours to sell your images. Please email us on news@alamy.com. If it is urgent, we can also be contacted on the regular news number: +44(0) 1235844690 – the on call Alamy News member will answer or get back to you.