Uploading news images
Alamy has three upload paths for news
Alamy recognises that news photographers have different needs from stock photographers, that is why we have different quality control and captioning criteria for news images (see here). To help you get your images to us and up on to our news feed as quickly as possible, we have provided three dedicated news upload paths:
News web upload
The upload tool is almost identical to our regular stock upload tool and enables images to be uploaded speedily to the Alamy news feed.
Contributors who have access to news web upload should read our News Picture Guidelines here before their first file. Then just follow the instructions on the news web upload page here.
Please remember that our uploader groups images around IPTC Headline field. If you are in any doubt about what this means and what we require please read this section of our News Picture Guidelines here.
News FTP upload via desktop client
We give news FTP to dedicated news, sport and entertainment photographers.
You can apply for news FTP upload here. We will ask you to demonstrate that you have taken news, sport or entertainment images in the past and that you intend to become a significant provider of such images in the future.
If you are successful, you will receive a confirmation email with all the details you need for your FTP client.
Note - After you receive the codes it is a good idea to send us a test shot. Please let us know if you do so and we can check all the relevant fields are filled out correctly.
If you are unsure how to FTP images please read the instructions below.
How do I upload my images?
There are three simple stages:
- Download an FTP client for your computer.
- Check that your images meet our criteria for news upload.
- Upload.
Purchase or download a free FTP client
You will need a computer program called an FTP client to send your images to Alamy.
We have tested our system against a number of FTP clients such as Filezilla, FirefTP, WinSCP, Cyberduck and ClassicFTP but it should work with most clients.
Check your images
Before you upload your files please check that your images:
- Are newsworthy. Please check if you are at all unsure.
- Are RGB jpeg files.
- Are greater than 5MB (uncompressed) in size and less than 25MB (compressed).
- Have been taken in the past 48 hours but ideally much, much sooner [in exceptional circumstances, Alamy will waive this condition].
- Have alphanumeric filenames ending in .jpg.
- Have the caption in the correct IPTC Description field (many image editors call this field the "caption field" and this is where you should enter the caption information).
PLEASE NOTE: CAPTIONS MUST BE ADDED TO IMAGES IN YOUR EDITING SOFTWARE BEFORE UPLOAD. - Have captions which conform to Alamy's caption guidelines for style and length. Please check our News Picture Guidelines if you are at all unsure.
- Have headlines in the IPTC headline field which Alamy will use to group images together. Please read this if you are at all unsure.
PLEASE NOTE: HEADLINES MUST BE ADDED TO IMAGES IN YOUR EDITING SOFTWARE BEFORE UPLOAD.
Upload your images
Start your FTP client:
The first thing you will need to do is to open your FTP client by double clicking on the program's icon.
Most FTP clients have a split pane setup looking like the following:
Your computer file system appears in the left hand pane.
Add Alamy’s FTP details to the FTP client’s sites
You need to enter Alamy’s FTP details into your client. In Filezilla, for instance, you do this by opening the file menu and clicking on site manager.Enter the details that Alamy sent to you (host, username, password).
Connect
Connect to Alamy’s FTP server site by clicking “connect” after entering the details. Once connected, your FTP client should look something like this:
Notice: the right hand pane of your client contains three directories: News, Sport and Entertainment. These correspond to the three panels in Alamy´s news feed on our website.
Copy files from your computer to Alamy´s folders
Click through the file tree of your computer in the left hand pane until you find the images you want to copy. Then simply drag the image files from your computer to the appropriate Alamy folder.
Copy as many files over as you like
You should see the progress of your transfer in another window in your client, like this:
The files that you have copied will not stay in Alamy´s news, sport and entertainment folders. They will be removed by our image processing software and uploaded to the feed.
Disconnect
Once you have uploaded your files, disconnect your client. The images will shortly appear in the news feed.
Upload from your smartphone/tablet
News events are difficult to predict. To capture 'the' shot that is happening right now, in front of you, the quickest image capture device you can get your hands on is often the best option.
With this in mind you can upload News shots to the Live News feed using a mobile device.
With a Smart Mobile (IOS/Android etc) you will need to have Apps installed that will enable you to balance the shot (no instagram style filters please!), add IPTC Info & and then upload via FTP.
To begin sending in images please follow these simple steps:
Apply for news FTP
You will need specific passcodes to upload so if you haven't got them, please log in to your account and request them through My Alamy/Apply to join the news FTP route (it's under the Additional revenue opportunities heading). You will receive an email.
I have applied and received my news FTP confirmation email: what do I do now?
If you have been successful in your application you will be provided with your own dedicated login details to access Alamy's FTP server.
The details you will be sent will be the following:
- Hostname: <hostname>
- Username: <username>
- Password: <password>
Please keep these details secure at all times. Once you have these, you are able to upload your images to Alamy's news feed on its website.
Note - After you receive the codes it is a good idea to send us a test shot. Please let us know if you do so and we can check all the relevant fields are filled out correctly.
Also note: We have three separate folders on our FTP, one for News, one for Sport and one for Entertainment – you will need to adjust your FTP folder option to suit.
Download the appropriate app/apps
You will need to be able to add captions and headlines to your images; you may need to balance the image; then you need to be able to FTP the image to us. For this you will need at least one app (which can do all these functions) or two apps – one to add captions and headlines and to balance, and the other to FTP. The screenshots we have used below were taken from the Filterstorm app on the iphone. This app works fine with our system but you must choose the apps which work best with your workflow.
Take a picture
See anything exciting or Newsy (could be a police chase....or a fire....or a fantastic view.....even the Weather!......basically anything you could picture a News company using in a paper/online) - Now Shoot it!
Prepare the image
Prepare the image making sure all correct IPTC fields are filled in as per our News Picture Guidelines. Image may need balance and colour correcting so use appropriate Apps.
Open image and balance using filters
Select IPTC then update headline & caption as per news guidelines:
http://www.alamy.com/contributor/help/news-picture-guidelines.asp
FTP the image
Ensure you have the strongest possible wi-fi or mobile signal. Weak signal can lead to corrupt images and these will not make it onto the feed.
Set up FTP transfer making sure the pass codes supplied by us are an exact match. (If you have already sent in a test the app 'should' save the FTP codes.....good idea to have them with you just in case).
Please be aware – you will need to put your images in the correct folder on our FTP server depending on whether they are News, Sport or Entertainment.
Back to landing page and select export arrow.
Click + then FTP option
Input FTP upload codes per News email - must be exact & correct folder e.g. News, Sport or Entertainment.
Check the images have arrived
The images will arrive with us in minutes & we will let you know if there is anything that needs changing on the captions. If you do not see the images within ten minutes on the news feed (www.alamy.com/news), please email us at news@alamy.com.