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RANDOM THOUGHTS 99
March 29, 2005
Adobe Photographers Directory
Creatives Will Be Able To Access Assignment Photographers Within Adobe Software
Adobe Systems Incorporated has announced plans to launch the Adobe Photographers Directory, a listing of professional photographers accessible directly from within Adobe's creative professional products. The Adobe Photographers Directory will be initially available in North America and over time will be extended to include photographers from other markets.
Adobe will be working closely with the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) to populate the new directory. As charter members of the directory, ASMP also launched a Web site today detailing how photographers can sign up to participate at www.asmp.org/adobe. In addition, Adobe will work with the Advertising Photographers of America (APA) and other associations to ensure the Adobe Photographers Directory is a comprehensive professional photography resource.
"Photoshop® and Adobe® Creative Suite have brought the digital image into the heart of creative workflows as our customers deliver compelling content to print media, the Web and emerging mobile platforms," said Bryan Lamkin, senior vice president of Digital Imaging and Digital Video at Adobe. "When creative professionals are searching for that perfect photograph that reflects their vision, they should be able to find it within the tools they rely on most. That's our goal with this directory."
"As the leading association of professional photographers, our mission is to help buyers find photography services and protect and promote the interests of our members," said Susan Carr, president of the ASMP. "Collaborating on this new Photographers Directory with Adobe is a logical initiative for our organization, as it promotes the good work of our photographers and creates another trusted resource for the creative professional."
Supporting the Photography Community
In addition to creating the new directory, Adobe is a lead sponsor of the PLUS Coalition, an organization representing photographers, illustrators, stock photo agencies, advertising agencies, advertisers, graphic design firms, publishers and associated industries. ASMP is also another active participant in PLUS. The mission of the PLUS Coalition is to simplify and facilitate the licensing of rights-managed images. Through the PLUS Coalition, licensors and licensees work cooperatively to develop and implement licensing standards and systems that will bring picture licensing into the 21st century. As a member of the Sustaining Advisory Council, Adobe will regularly contribute to the PLUS Coalition technical working group.
Adobe's involvement in the PLUS Coalition and in the Adobe Photographers Directory complement the technology improvements the company has already been pursuing in support of the photography community, such as continued updates and improvements to Camera Raw workflow and the new, universal .DNG file format for raw images.
Availability
The Adobe Photographers Directory will be searchable by geographic location or by photographic specialty and will include portfolio imagery. For more information about how to be a part of the Adobe Photographers Directory, go to the ASMP Web site at www.asmp.org/adobe
Getty Sues Amana
In February Getty Images sued Amana America (whose parent company is in Japan) for infringing its U.S. Patent No. 6,735,583. The patent is for a computer-based method and system for classifying and locating images. This system uses a structured vocabulary that has a plurality of terms ordered in a tree system in a way that allows users to find the image they want without the search term they use actually being one of the keywords attached to the image.
The description of the patent is available online through the www.uspto.gov web site. The suit brought in the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Washington at Seattle is case number 05-CV-00247-CMP and is also available online. For anyone interested, the filing provides a very detailed description of exactly how Getty's search system works.
It is difficult to summarize how the system works, but if we take the keyword "Washington DC" as an example many of the images returned may not have "Washington DC" among their keywords. Instead they have other related words as keywords such as "Supreme Court" or "White House". The tree system knows that whenever anyone asks for Washington DC they also want to see the Supreme Court, Library of Congress, U.S. Capitol, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, etc.
With this system occasionally there is a problem when the words used in the tree have more than one meaning. For example, the Malaysians have the Sultan Abdul Samad Building in Kuala Lumpur which is their "supreme court" and it comes up as being in Washington DC, not in its actual location half way around the world. Also found with the Washington, DC images is a shot of a group of people on the porch of a small, southern style home that is painted "white". Check it out.
RF Used On Time Cover
Jerry Kennelly, CEO of Stockbyte, reports that in the last 12 months Stockbyte RF images have been used twice on TIME Magazine covers. The latest was an image illustrating pain that was used on the European and Middle East edition of the magazine, but not the U.S. edition. The image was licensed by Getty Images.
Get Rich Quick!
One of my subscribers sent me the following tongue-in-cheek comment about www.istockphoto.com. He said:
"I don't believe your newsletter has spread the good word about www.istockphoto.com. Careful analysis on my part shows that they are selling images at $1, $2 or $3, depending on file size. No those prices are NOT typos. For the cost of a candy bar at an airport newsstand, you, too, can have unlimited use of a photograph taken by a genuine professional photographer.
"Photographers get $.20 on the dollar, so if, for example, you have a modest 500 sales - and, hey, 500 sales should be easy - you will make enough to take two people out to dinner in New York City, or buy a small compact flash card. Fabulous!
"As a service to your readership, you should let the ever-hungry photographers know about this golden opportunity."
Are Quality Standards Dropping At Getty?
Getty Images photographer Chad Ehlers recently expressed the concern of many Getty contract photographers I've talked to, and made the following observation in a letter to Getty.
"I do not usually have time to surf the Getty collections, but did a little tonight. For many years Getty had great pride in presenting the best images in the industry. That policy and pride has been on a steady slide downward, and with the advent of accepting any and all 'rights free' collections you have managed to travel clear into the same waters as an Alamy or any other dumping ground. A few years back we wondered about the quality of the "artistic images" that were once in vogue with Getty, but at least those shots could disguise their many defects behind the facade of 'creativity'."
"Meanwhile, all our travel related images, and most lifestyle, were given a total freeze out for reasons that were almost laughable. Getty was just looking for 'creative' pieces and those with "commercial potential", nothing that had that editorial smell."
"Now, Getty has made a complete 180 degree turn. "We need to get customers to come to our door first, so we need everything that can be called an image, professional or not." How many images could those of us who were frozen out for 7 years have had with Getty now? I have an even 400 today. (I could have had) at least 1500, perhaps 3000 good competitive images, especially compared to what is coming in the Getty door now."
"Hundreds of devoted Getty photographers were pushed into the parking lot until the PC concept came along. I'm wondering about all that past wisdom?"