In the early days of digital cameras, I used to recommend to people who were interested in licensing their images to purchase a Digital SLR (DSLR) with six or more
megapixels. These days I also recommend that they first look at sensor size. This is because now there are cameras on the market that are technically DSLRs, but don’t have a sensor size that is required to produce professional results.
What is the sensor in your camera, and why is size important?
As you know, a sensor is a device, such as a photoelectric cell, that receives and responds to an energy signal or stimulus, such as motion, heat, light (in the case of digital cameras, basically color and light). The sensor then produces another type of signal, usually electrical. These signals are converted (usually indirectly through an analog to digital converter, e.g. a computer and a display) so that the value sensed is translated for human understanding.
In digital cameras the sensor can be small (economical), mid-size (expensive), and large (very expensive). The capacity of your camera’s sensor will indicate its ability to capture more information, and therefore higher resolution for your images.
A small sensor, like those in point-and-shoot digital cameras, doesn’t give professional results no matter the number of megapixels. The sensor in cameras such as the
Canon 20D and the Nikon D70 are roughly the size of an APS-C negative, or 23.7mm by 15.7mm. A 35mm film frame is 36mm by 24mm. A camera like the Nikon Coolpix 8800 has 8 megapixels but a sensor size of only 8.8mm by 6.6mm, clearly much smaller
than the sensor in the 20D and the D70 and a lot smaller than full frame.
It gets really technical, and to make it easier for myself I look at it as if the
sensor size were my negative. All of a sudden it becomes obvious that the larger the “negative”, the better technical quality of the image. Just like comparing medium format slides to 35mm slides.
So why does sensor size matter?
Well, just like with a film negative, the larger the negative, or in this
case, sensor size, the more options you’ll have for cropping, resizing etc. Also, the larger the sensor, the higher the technical quality of the picture. This makes for a big difference in many procedures, such as enlarging, enhancing and other manipulations.
I always recommend that the minimum sensor size that an editorial stock photographer should purchase is the one roughly equivalent to the APS-C negative (23.7mm by 15.7mm).
If you are purchasing a digital camera, yes, ask about megapixels, but your first question should be about sensor size.
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@photosource.com.
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Should you…
Let Your Customers Pay By Credit Card?
Advance Notes: Have you come to the point in your career that you are exploring whether to allow your customers to pay by credit card? The decision to go the credit card route can mean an increase in business revenue. It can also mean headaches, customer confusion, and unwanted bookwork. But if you do your homework you can smooth the bumps, and benefit.
To accept credit card payments you need to set up a "Merchant Account." This is a credit card processing account that you establish, that makes it possible for you (your business) to accept all major credit cards for payment. This account is not the same as your checking account or savings account, but it allows you to accept credit card payments from your customers, and for the money to get deposited into your existing bank account.
TWO TYPES
There are two types of accounts a merchant can use. Unless you have a brick-and-mortar studio or place of business, you probably won't be interested in the first type, which is the over-the-counter type of account, where the credit card is physically swiped through a machine at the time of purchase.
The account that likely would fit you best is the Mail-Order/Telephone Order merchant account. Your client or customer enters their credit card information onto a form on a website, or by email, or by phone. You then process the merchant account transaction, which goes to a verification provider. Once the card is verified and approved (done electronically), your client's payment is deposited into your bank account.
Can you afford to accept credit card payments? Some banks may charge you an annual fee in addition to a 'per transaction fee' -- but there are many other providers that charge only a small percentage of the sale amount at each transaction, when you process a credit card (you pay an average of 2-3% per transaction to such a merchant account provider). These merchant account providers are ideal for small business owners and online businesses that may need to process only a handful of sales each week.
There are several credit card processing providers to choose from, each offering different features and fees. Figuring which one of these would work best for you, to process your customer's credit card payments, can be a daunting task.
A local bank, if they are not familiar with your photo researching business, may deny your business application for a merchant account because they don't want to take the risk. Most small businesses end up going through third party providers who are willing to take the risk, and actually get the merchant account on your behalf; then apply their own rate structure to your transactions.
To move ahead with your merchant account, you'll need a shopping cart program of some kind, which must work with the system you use to process credit cards online. Unfortunately, if you go with a third party shopping cart rather than a custom written one, it may not work with all credit card processing gateways. Be sure that whatever shopping cart program you use on your website, works with the merchant account you ultimately end up using to process customer payments.
What's the charge to get involved? You pay fees to the third party merchant account provider (or the bank if you are able to secure your own account directly with a bank that provides it) in exchange for the ability to accept credit card payments. The fees and rates you pay will vary depending on many factors, including how long you've been in business, the type of business you operate, your credit score, how much of your sales are processed by phone versus online, and the amount of credit card sales you process each month.
As mentioned, some providers charge an annual fee in addition to a fee per transaction, while other providers charge only a percentage of each transaction processed. Typical rates for small businesses accepting phone and mail order payments are $0.10 to $0.30 per transaction, plus 2 to 3% of the transaction amount. If the merchant account provider you are considering wants to charge more than this percentage, be sure to check out a few others to see if you can get a lower rate. Sometimes, your credit rating will result in your having to pay higher fees -- but it's worth shopping around a little to see if you can get a lower percentage rate per transaction.
When you're shopping companies, looking for the best merchant account provider, make sure to compare all of the fees to see how much you're going to end up spending per each sale. You should also take into consideration what the application fee is (if any), how much you pay annually, how much you must spend on equipment needed to set up your account (in case you need a swiping machine), and whether or not you must maintain a monthly minimum of sales volume.
YOUR LOCAL BANK
If you sign up for a merchant account with your local bank, you'll be able to make direct deposits into your business account at the bank. If you outsource, study the terms for cancellation and under what conditions the provider can cancel your account, as well. Compare how each merchant account provider allows you to withdraw your money -- can you do it whenever you want or do you have to do it at specific times of the month or year? How long will it take to receive your funds once you've requested a withdrawal or transfer of the money? How does the provider handle charge-backs? Read all of the forms and contracts associated with the merchant account before you sign anything.
The process for applying for a merchant account varies depending on the company. For example, some providers ask you to provide a photo of your driver's license, and even of your home office or studio to verify you are in the location you say that you are. Some companies will want to send a representative to photograph your place of business. Occasionally, you'll be asked to provide a DBA ("Doing Business As") or business license, your tax returns, and profit and loss statements.
In our own case, here at PhotoSource International, about five years ago we did our homework and contacted a half a dozen providers. We determined that Total Merchant Services would be best for us. They have been consistent and quick, and I can highly recommend them. If you're interested in checking them out:
http://www.photosourceprocessing.com/
Rohn Engh veteran stock photographer and publisher of "PhotoRESEARCHER Newsletter" has provided on-line information to photobuyers, photo researchers and photo editors for two dedades. Fior info: http://www.photosource.com/photobuyer/.
Business
Notepad
MOVIN’ ALONG
Orphan Works: Some important Q&A’s.
http://photobusinessforum.blogspot.com/
2008/07/orphan-works-faqs.html
YES I CAN! Amateur and professional photographers in the UK are facing an up-hill struggle when trying to take photographs in public places, after misinformation has been taken as fact. As part of its campaign for photographers' rights, every UK photographer member is being issued with the BFP "Blue Card". This card asserts to people the photographers' rights to take pictures in public places.
http://www.huliq.com/64310/bfp-campaign
-photographers ... Full
Story
Photoshop
Working with Photoshop will actually make you a better photographer, since by separating out and manipulating brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, curves, levels, et al, you'll become more aware of all the components of a scene and how to capture the best possible image in your camera. And while Photoshop can do a lot to rescue a sub-optimal image, the better the image you put into your computer, the better the image you'll be able to provide your clients. -DA
Advance Notes: The fears of the late 1990's that independent stock photographers were going to be immobilized by the giant stock agencies have turned out to be unfounded.
CONVENIENCE SHOPPING
Retailers know that consumers usually choose price, brand, and quality when it comes to shopping. The Internet has shown that another factor is important to customers: convenience. If regional and specialized stock agencies survive, it means that you, as a freelance stock photographer, will have four ways to market your photos: 1.) you'll send your commercially-oriented generic stock off to an automated, digitized giant (Getty, Corbis, Alamy, Jupiter, etc.) ; 2.) send your targeted stock to specialized agencies; 3.) place your pictures with a Royalty-Free service such as istock; and 4.) market your highly specific editorial stock photos yourself, to special-interest buyers whose needs match your personal coverage areas.
FOUR-TIER MARKETING
Here's the advantage of this four-tier selling strategy. Number 1 and Number 4 will pay the bills. The photos for Number 1 will go stale after five or six years, but you'll continue to keep on top of the fads and pump photos out that will fit Number 1 needs. Number 2 will enable you to anchor yourself to something other than an email address. You'll give personalized service and receive first-name attention from the specialized agencies. Number 3 and Number 4 will allow you to photograph in the areas of editorial stock closest to your heart (environment issues, developments in education, Native American issues, the homeless, rodeos, gardening, and so on). These latter photos will eventually become of historical significance and you can pass them on to your heirs.
The Digital Age, with its electronic communications and marketing tools, now allows you more flexibility and freedom in marketing your stock imagery, than ever before.
Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of PhotoStockNotes. Pine Lake Farm, 1910 35th Road, Osceola, WI 54020 USA. Telephone: 1 800 624 0266 Fax: 1 715 248 7394. Web site: www.photosource.com/products
Of
Interest
copyright
On a commercial assignment? Can you sell the “extras”? Yes, the Copyright Law says that unless you’ve signed a “Work-for-Hire” agreement, YOU own the pictures. You can sell whatever and whenever. ... Full
Story
COST OF TRAVEL OVERSEAS is always prohibitive for the stock photographer
just starting out. One way to skirt around this problem is to become a
Travel Agent.
LET THEM FIND YOU. SEO and Stock Photography Research - More and more, prospective clients are searching for imagery on the Internet, and, more specifically, Google
Images. Yes, the other search engines have image search, but for today, we'll limit this discussion and comparison of capabilities to Google's systems.
TAKEAWAY: Library Science is not the sexiest endeavor but more and more you’re going to have to learn the ongoing tricks of SEO if you want to be found on the Internet.
http://photobusinessforum.blogspot.com/2008/07/seo-and-stock-photography-research.html
NEED TO FIX THEM? -- Can a Little Maintenance Increase your Microstock Earnings? - If you've assumed you can just upload and forget your microstock photos, you may be
missing out on the opportunity to increase the earnings from your existing
portfolio.
:
TAKEAWAY: If you are shooting for the editorial market you may want to consider not changing a thing. However for the microstock audience, yes, bring ‘em up to date.
http://www.microstockdiaries.com/can-a-little-maintenance-increase-your-microstock-earnings.html
PACA, the Picture Archive Council of America. PACA has implemented a lowtech solution to assist buyers in finding the creator of an image that does not contain the copyright holder’s name.
Contact PACA, the Picture Archive Council of America. PACA has implemented a lowtech solution to assist buyers in finding the creator of an image that does not contain author attribution. When a buyer has an image without copyright information, they simply email a copy of the Orphan Work to orphansearch@pacaoffice.org. The email
is validated by the moderator (a PACA staff member) and automatically sent out to
all PACA members and affiliated associations.
orphansearch@pacaoffice.org.
http://www.pacaoffice.org
DIGITS VS PAPER. -- Flat World Knowledge, a publisher of free and open college textbooks, today announced it will soon begin the nation's larges t in-classroom test of open college textbooks. Flat World Knowledge's free and open textbooks will replace traditional textbooks in a single class or class section at each participating institution. The crisis of high textbook prices was the subject of a 2007 report from the Student Public Interest Research Groups. TAKEAWAY: College textbooks, which routinely run students over $900 per year, could make higher education unaffordable for many students.
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/web_tech/flat_world_knowledge_challenges_textbook_industry_89187.asp
CAN’T FIND IT ? – Don’t know who owns that image? The American Society of Picture Professionals (ASPP) has produced guidelines on finding the owner of the copyright of a photographic or visual work. In light of the Orphan Works pending legislation, these guidelines could serve as a model for making a "diligent search" for a copyright holder. Check out "ASPP's Best Practices to Locating Copyright Owners of Photographic and Visual Art".
http://www.aspp.com/users/ASPPSite4390/ASPP_Best_Practises_v2_7-8-08.pdf
AOL DROPS PICTURES. -- AOL will put out to pasture AOL Pictures, their photo sharing and management site. AOL Pictures, its original photo upload and management service, couldn't compete against more technically advanced competitors like Flickr, which was founded in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo the following year.
http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_852573C4006938800025749100505BC4.html?ref=technology
