New Technology
The 2011-12 school year is about to begin. The use of printed books is
declining. Many school systems will expand their use of computer and
iPads this school year. Beginning in kindergarten children will be
taught using digital devices.
In the digital world everyone loves to work for free. Particularly when it is an opportunity to help someone else earn money as a result of their efforts. With that in mind
Magnum Photos is looking for
volunteers to help them tag their online archive. If you’re interested sign up
here.
Shutterstock has introduced a new tool in the Shutterstock Darkroom
section of its site that is designed to help contributors better
understand Keyword Trends. The tool allows them to compare five keywords
at a time in order to determine the relative number of times a
particular keyword is used to request images on Shutterstock.
When you rent a movie for an iPad it expires and disappears 30 days after the date of purchase. Once you start watching the move it will automatically disappear in 24 hours even if I have not watched it to the end. If you want to see it after 24 hours you’ve got to rent it again. This got me thinking. Why can’t we install a “kill date” into the JPEG files we license for use?
Google has released a new function that allows those who use Chrome or Firefox browsers to search the web for use of specific images.
If you go to to
http://images.google.com you will see a little camera icon in the search box. Click on that icon and you get a popup that says “Search by Image.” Either paste an image URL or drag an image onto this search box you will get a view and list of the URL’s where that image can be found.
After the recent CEPIC conference in Istanbul my wife and I joined a
small group touring Turkey. The trip got me thinking about a potential
future markets for still photography. Are you prepared to deal with these markets? Are you willing to sell to these customers?
The New York Times reports today on
Lytro’s new camera that lets you shoot first and change the focus later. If the focus is off slightly, or you want to change it dramatically from foreground to background or anywhere in between you can change it in the computer once you get back home. Check out this new technology
here. Welcome to another reason why there will be little need for professional photographers in the future.
HP and LicenseStream have launched
Snap Stock Images, a service of Snapfish and a new microstock photo licensing service featuring affordable images from photo enthusiasts and professional photographers. Currently, Snapfish has more than 100 million members in 22 countries. Professional image buyers, including small and midsize business owners, graphic designers, advertisers and marketers, will be able to access hundreds of thousands of images that are available on the site at launch. Many of the images were shot by amateurs, but images from Veer and LicenseStream are also available.
Image fingerprinting could be a solution for many of the problems photographers face in trying to protect their images. The technology for providing, in camera, a unique fingerprint of every image a photographer creates is already available. All that has to happen is for the camera manufacturers to build this technology into the next models of their professional equipment.
The IPTC (International Telecommunications Council) is challenging
vendors across the media industry to create the conditions for
interoperability for metadata embedded in media files. Following
a 2006 Metadata Manifesto issued by the Stock Artists Alliance, the
IPTC has created a new updated document the Embedded Metadata Manifesto
to cover all media types, including stills and video. The manifesto
outlines a set of 5 principles.
In an IBISWorld market research report author Toon Van Beeck has identified the
10 Fasted Dying Industries in the United States. While every industry has a lifecycle – growth, maturity and decline – the fastest dying “standouts” include:
Photofinishing, #4 on the list,
Newspaper Publishing ,#7 and
Video Postproduction, #10. IBIS has a database of 700 industries and studied 200 that were in decline to determine which were in the worst shape.
At first glance, PicScout’s new
ImageExchange interface that isolates images that are easily licensable from any Google or Yahoo! search, and displays them in a right-hand panel next to all the returns delivered by these search engines, would seem to be a very helpful tool for professional users looking for images they can license legitimately.
In fact, the returns delivered may be more misleading than useful.
James Murdoch, CEO of News Corp., recently told a media conference in Monaco that tablets will hurt the newspaper business.
Grover Sanschagrin of PhotoShelter has published a very interesting analysis entitled “What Google Trends Says About Wedding & Stock Photography, and Photo Websites,” complete with charts that illustrate the trends.
The December issue of U.S. News and World Report will be the last printed on paper. Beginning in 2011 and marking a three-year transition to a new business model, the publication will go entirely digital, though it still plans to continue printing a series of print products.
PicScout, which says it now commands the world’s largest index of fingerprinted and owner-identified images, released a new user interface for Google and Yahoo! The company is acting on research findings that show 70% of creatives using the two search engines to find images.
“Our contention is that the iPad version of a magazine is part of the
rate base of that magazine,” said Condé Nast vice president of editorial
operations Richard Levine at the recent conference of the Picture
Archive Council of America. “A new strategy for acquiring content is
needed because it will be impossible to anticipate how imagery initially
acquired primarily for print use might be repurposed,” he continued.
This is not unique to Condé Nast issue, but rather a position other
publishers have already taken or will need to take in the near future.