Get your images seen

If you're like most photographers, when it comes to uploading new images to Trigger you don't want to spend hours slaving over IPTC file data. It's the boring stuff that can add days to your file preparation before you get to uploading your high res files to us but unfortunately this dull wordy stuff is vital!! Having a good description and the right keywords with your images is very important if you're in this seriously and you want your images to stand any chance of being seen. Clients use these words to search and find your images so you need to try and put yourself in their position, what words would they use? It's not easy and it's virtually impossible to cover all possibilities and of course you are competing with all the other photographers using the same keywords. If you're not using software to help you select your keywords the next best thing is an online Thesaurus. It will open your mind to word associations you just had not considered but remember one thing, be accurate. The worst thing you can do is add keywords that are not relevant, this will send your valuable potential clients scurrying away frustrated as they see how unprofessional and unreliable your keywording is. So what else can help? Well, being a photographer in a small agency like Trigger rather than a giant like Getty has it's advantages. You simply have a better chance of being seen in a gallery of 10,000 images rather than 20,000,000.

Keywords are only part of the story of course, once the client finds your image you then have to have inspiring shots, with good lighting and great models with content that fits the client brief exactly and a suitable fee to fit the client budget!

Many photographers trying to sell their imagery for the first time as stock think it is a simple process of getting images with an agency and then they will sell themselves. At Trigger we edit hard to present the best images to our clients so they don't have to search through thousands of average images they can find elsewhere, but we live in an age flooded with digital photography where the number of images available far outstrips the demand. The general consensus is that most sales are made from only 10% of images held in a gallery. So, you need to produce imagery that is in the top 10%. That's the hard bit.

By regularly updating your images at Trigger your images go to the top of our 'Just Arrived' gallery and these get seen by designers on a daily basis, we also promote new images via social networking. So you can use this gallery to enhance the publicity of your images before keywords are even used by our clients.

There is keyword software to help in the time consuming process, but we can't recommend any particular supplier: http://www.imagekeyworder.com/ you can download this and try it free for 30 days.

just arrived - Images by Trigger Image

Trigger 2010

With snow outside we've had a cold start to 2010 after a year of downbeat economic news but I'm sending the warmest of wishes to you all in the knowledge that the worst is behind us and one day soon the sun is actually going to start shining. There's no denying 2009 was a difficult period for most businesses and stock generally took a downturn in sales over previous years. As a new business in a niche market we're under pressure from all the competition including the big boys of Getty, Corbis, Alamy and Microstock. Every image request we get also goes out to these mega image libraries and so we really need to have great images to get picked for the job. Having ridden the economic storm we're now in a good position to take advantage of a growing optimism where the small specialist boutique stock library is showing it can compete against the bland mega agencies on quality, creativity and personal service.
So what have we been doing? Over the past few months we've been making our galleries more efficient so they work harder for you. This has meant extensive reworking of the site which has included a subtle revision of the overall appearance and a simplifying of our gallery structure so that art buyers find it easier to locate the images they want.

NEW GALLERIES

The first obvious change is you now go straight to the new 'galleries' page with the

search bar. Slide shows look impressive on the home page but busy art buyers who may be visiting dozens of libraries don't want to spend their time sitting through them. So we've ditched the glitz and replaced it with more functionality, art buyers are visiting Trigger to find specific images and so we're now offering the most direct route for them.

SLIDESHOWS

For those of you who want slideshows to promote your work, we'll be making these available in the near future, so watch this space. You'll then be able to take advantage of marketing your licensed work virally. Any interested clients will be able click on your slideshow images and be taken directly to your sales page on Trigger. We still provide all the sales and personal customer service as usual and make your payments to you via Paypal as normal. All you will need to do is get your slideshow out there by linking it to your website, blogs, facebook, twitter pages etc. Also let your online friends, colleagues, workmates, designer, art director contacts etc know that your images are available to license and purchase as prints.

KEYWORDING

Now we have fewer galleries, visitors will be using the search bar more for specific searches this means 'keywording' is now even more important. This also means before you upload new images you really need to be thorough in applying your 'keywords' to the file IPTC data. This is how clients find your work and so it's no good spending hours creating a great image if no one can find it. We all know keywording isn't fun but if you want to maximise your chances of making sales you need to have a professional approach to your file preparation.

UPLOADING

Once you've put all the hard work in preparing your high res files you need to upload them to us as jpg files. As part of our update the upload process is now slightly different. You can now only upload your files using the standard File Transfer Protocol (FTP). You will need an FTP client software for this such as Transmit or Fetch. You can use any FTP program to upload images to Trigger.

FTP client software:

Mac Transmit

Mac Fetch

Mac : PC : Linux FileZilla

PC Smartftp

PC Cuteftp

Linux Kasablanca

Linux Ftpcube

Opening your selected program the left window is your computer, the right window is our server. Select those files you want to transfer in the left window and drag and drop into the right window, or use the 'return' key on your keyboard. The process is similar to the Photoshelter Uploader that some of you have been using but just requires the input of the details below. As always it's important your files names start with your initials eg 'tim kahane' tkah00001, tkah00002 etc.

The configuration details you need to enter are:

'Server' or 'Host' should be ftp.photoshelter.com

'Username' should be 'your_name' (eg. tim_kahane)

'Password' is '*****'

'Protocol' should be 'FTP'

'Port' should be '21'

Click 'Connect

We realise this new upload process may cause a few problems to start so if you have any questions we'll do our best to help you.

As our select band of photographers we need you to supply us with great images in 2010 to inspire our clients. Nothing more, nothing less. This means submitting new sample imagery (low res jpgs by email) as often as you can to keep your licensing folio of work fresh and interesting. If clients are seeing the same images time and again they will go to the next image or worse, the next agency!

Make sure your images are working for you in 2010 by getting them into our galleries and infront of our design and advertising clients.

Best

Tim

The New File Spec

We're upping our file spec. This will ensure your imagery is more commercially available and of a higher value to clients. File enlarging is called interpolation and can be tried in Photoshop or Genuine Fractals. Increasing the size of an image can reduce image quality so always start with a high quality raw or tif image and save the enlarged image as a jpg at maximum quality before uploading to Trigger.

File Spec:

Colour: Adobe RGB or sRGB

Dpi: 300

File Size: Only upload JPG files. When these are uncompressed as TIF files they should be 48MB or higher.

Interpolation: If you are having to increase the size of your original files this should only be done using high quality original images to avoid any loss in quality.

Pixel size: 16MP (5000 x 3200) Minimum

IPTC Description: Enter a full and detailed description of the photograph

IPTC Keywords: Enter words separated by commas, that describe the image, its contents and the emotion conveyed.

Model Releases: If you include adults you should obtain signed release forms from them. If you include children you should get a signed release forms from their parent or guardian.

Property Releases: If you include private property, ie cars, boats, planes, buildings etc you should get a signed release from the owner to use the image commercially.

You should keep the signed release forms safely. If our client request to see a release form we will ask you to email a copy to us.

File names: Four letters followed by five numbers. For example if your name is John Smith take the first letter of your first name 'j' followed by the first three letters 'smi' of your second name, jsmi00001, jsmi00002, jsmi00003, etc.

If you have any questions just drop me a line.