The growth of blogging, self-publishing, and content-marketing means that more people than ever before are involved in producing online articles, e-books, webinar presentations, and publications. Many of these new content publishers haven’t been schooled in journalism, graphic design, or photography and aren’t aware of copyright laws that protect images on the Internet. Even if they are aware of copyright laws, some people believe that the Internet is public domain and that all images can be used for free.
A new website called StockPhotoSecrets.com intends to clear up some of this confusion, while teaching both new and seasoned buyers about their options for buying stock photography. StockPhotoSecrets.com is designed to be an international, comprehensive guide that connects new users, industry professionals, and stock photography agencies.
“Stock photography and the buying stock photos has been complex for years, and it is our goal to make it user-friendly for all stock photo purchasers,” says StockPhotoSecrets founder Amos Struck. He is also the founder and editor of Stock Photo Press, a publishing company that operates several German and international magazines that teach people how to buy and sell stock photos.
Some of the articles on StockPhotoSecrets.com explain:
how to pick the right photo for your blog or website
when you can use editorial image licenses
how to purchase photos from Flickr
how to order the right size for printing posters
Other features on the site include reviews of various stock-photo agencies, special offers, and video tutorials on working with stock photos.
As more people learn about the benefits of buying stock photography, the market will grow and photographers will have to worry less about having their copyrighted images used without their permission.
Eleven professional photography associations have launched a worldwide campaign to help promote the intellectual property rights of creative people in all disciplines—photography, video, film, fine arts, music, writing, design, etc.
The campaign centers around an Artist’s Bill of Rights that outlines a set of ethical principles that enable individuals to control how their creative works are used. It updates a document that the international Pro-Imaging Organization initiated in 2008 to protect the rights of individuals who enter photography competitions.
The Bill of Rights is helping to raise awareness of the practice of “rights-grabbing” in which some competitions harvest unlimited usage rights, or even the copyright, of the works submitted by contest entrants.
According to campaign manager Gordon C. Harrison, “The worst type of rights grabbing is where the terms and conditions for a contest require the entrant to assign the entire copyright and other rights for any works submitted to the competition, and to waive their moral rights. These practices are not uncommon. We have documented 35 cases of copyright grabbing, 26 cases where moral rights have to be waived, and 7 cases where both occurred.”
If the practice of rights-grabbing continues to spread, it will devalue photography, art, music, and creativity as a whole by reducing the need for organizations to commission or purchase creative works.
A key aim of the Artist’s Bill of Rights campaign is to educate the public about the importance and potential value of their intellectual property rights. The campaign can also help educate contest organizers who might unknowingly be asking for more usage rights than they actually needed to conduct and promote the contest.
The Artist’s Bill of Rights campaign is presented through a website that is now available in over 40 languages.
Campaign Aims
The campaign has the following aims:
To provide a means whereby all artists’ associations can unite around a common set of standards for preservation of their rights.
To promote the Bill of Rights’ standards for the preservation of artists’ rights in competitions and appeals seeking creative works.
To promote organisations who support the Artists’ Bill of Rights and to promote their competitions and appeals.
To educate the public about the purpose and value of their intellectual property rights and to enable them to recognise when they are being exploited.
To publish reports about the extent of rights grabbing and to analyse and quantify the rights grabbed by the private, public, charitable, and non-profit sectors.
To press for legislative changes that would protect the public from unfair and unethical terms and conditions that seek to exploit their intellectual property rights.
Campaign Supporters
The eleven associations currently supporting the campaign include:
Advertising & Illustrative Photographers Association (New Zealand)
Association of Professional Photographers (Iceland)
Association of Photographers (United Kingdom)
Australian Commercial & Media Photographers
Australian Institute of Professional Photography
British Institute of Professional Photography (United Kingdom)
British Photographic Council (United Kingdom)
DJ:Fotograferne, photographers within the Union of Journalists (Denmark)
Editorial Photographers of United Kingdom and Ireland
Pro-Imaging Organisation (United Kingdom)
The National Press Photographers Association (US)
In addition to these associations, many private and public sector organizations have proclaimed their support for the principles, including the Society of Authors. All of the supporters are listed on the campaign website. All artists organizations are invited to participate, and contact the campaign organizers through the website.
The website also lists photography competitions that comply with the principles in The Artist’s Bill of Rights and those that don’t.
If you or your studio or organization want to show support for the principles in the Artist’s Bill of Rights, you can grab the appropriate logo below, and link it to: http://artists-bill-of-rights.org
LINKS
Website: Artist’s Bill of Rights
Resources on the Artist’s Bill of Rights Website
Guide to Rights & Licensing
An overview of copyright, types of licenses, moral rights, and the consequences of rights grabbing. As the authors of the website point out: “Rights grabbing devalues creativity by acquiring creativity for nothing.” Rights grabbing can also damage your reputation if your work is used to promote products, services, or campaigns of which you don’t approve.
Organiser’s Guide to The Artist’s Bill of Rights
This section of The Artist’s Bill of Right website explains how contest organizers can write competition terms and conditions that will give them the rights they need for their own publicity and promotion requirements while respecting the rights of the entrants.
Rights-Grabbing Statistics
Spreadsheets on this page attempt to calculate the extent of the problem and pinpoint the sectors in which rights-grabbing occurs most frequently. An analysis of current statistics estimates that more than 6,000 images are being grabbed each day.
broaden your funding sources through grants, awards, artist residencies, fiscal agents, and individual contributors.
explore exhibition, commission, and sales opportunities beyond commercial galleries.
Reflecting how many artists think, the guide covers many of the day-to-day issues of running any self-directed business such as planning, budgeting, managing finances, marketing, and pricing your work. For example, Battenfield advises against setting prices under pressure. As she puts it, “The worst time to figure out a price is when you are taken by a surprise offer to buy a piece.” She suggests making a complete inventory of all your works with prices attached to each piece.
In the guide, she explains in great detail how to write an artist’s statement, document work samples, and build relationships with the individuals and organizations that can further your career.
In the beginning of your art career, you will probably need a part-time or full-time “day job” to earn money for your studio work. Battenfield suggests looking for low-stress jobs that won’t drain you of the creative energy you need for your art.
How Planning Can Help
Throughout the book, Battenfield emphasizes the value of planning. She points out that if you don’t set short- and long-term goals, you won’t be able to create, evaluate, and pursue the opportunities that can help make your dreams become reality. Here are a few tips:
Survey the current art landscape. Instead of imagining an amorphous group of collectors, artists, or the general public, reflect on who would be most interested in the content of your work. What spaces feel like a natural fit? Although the art world is no longer held captive by a few dealers, critics, curators, or patrons, not all new venues and opportunities will be suited to your work or long-term professional goals.
Develop a work structure, business systems, and support networks that allow you maintain a healthy attitude, stay engaged, and search for new solutions. While the art world continues to shift in unexpected ways, you will need to continue to believe in yourself, ask questions, and get feedback and help as often as you need it.
Write your own obituary. How do you want to be remembered? What will you have accomplished? What will family members, friends, and colleagues say about you? This exercise can help ensure that you aren’t pursuing goals contrary to your core values and beliefs.
Promoting Yourself
What makes The Artist’s Guide so appealing is Battenfield’s empathy with artists who feel uncomfortable promoting themselves. She acknowledges her own shyness and writes that “Promoting yourself requires coming face to face with your own self-esteem and issues of entitlement. It can quickly stir up feelings of inadequacy about your work and yourself as an artist.”
She says there are ways to promote your work that will allow you to maintain your personal integrity and enable your own networking style to emerge. “Promoting yourself doesn’t mean that you are impolite, disrespectful of others, or inappropriately aggressive,” writes Battenfield. “It can be as simple as saying a few words about the show to a curator at an opening, then following up with card inviting the curator to one of your own shows.” Here are a few other tips from The Artist’s Guide:
Be yourself. People appreciate honesty and sincerity. Phoniness is easy to detect.
Turn your shyness into an asset. Be an attentive listener and ask questions.
Take a few actions every day to cultivate relationships with people you can help promote your work. Taking purposeful action can help you maintain the healthy attitude you will need to manage some of the issues that arise every day.
You can’t predict when the art community will turn their attention to you, Battenfield points out, “Art history is full of artists whose work was ignored and then embraced at different stages of their lives.” The strength to persevere can be developed by actively pursuing your goals and maintaining an resilient attitude.
The advice in The Artist’s Guide rings true, because Battenfield admits she made nearly every mistake discussed in the book: “I had fuzzy work samples and incoherent artist statements that still make me flush beet-red when I see them. I’ve bungled relationships and pulled them back together by the skin of my teeth.” She suggests using The Artist’s Guide as a template for creating a process that works for you.
Although a lot of the book focuses on different types of art organizations and funding sources, Battenfield’s day-to-day business advice is relevant to photographers and other freelance professionals who would like to have less stress in their lives and more time to focus on their craft.
Words of Wisdom
“It’s tough to be an artist in our culture,” writes Battenfield. While funds and opportunities are limited, your desires are limitless. Pushing yourself to the limits of your technical abilities can be challenging enough. Adding business responsibilities can feel overwhelming.
Making time to replenish your well of creativity is essential, she says. Constantly pushing yourself too hard won’t allow you to do your best work. Battenfield writes that “Any systems you can build to protect that fragile connection to your creativity is paramount to sustaining your artistic life.” In describing her approach to writing the guide, she explains “Every chapter in the book is about nurturing and protecting your creative energies so can make the best art possible.”
Jackie Battenfield has supported herself from art sales for over twenty years. She teaches career development programs for visual artists at the Creative Capital Foundation, and Columbia University. She also speaks at art workshops and events nationwide. Visit her website: www.artistcareerguide.com to see if she will be speaking at event in your area. You can preview and purchase the 378-page softcover book on Amazon.com or the Barnes
& Noble website.
DESIGNERS. PHOTOGRAPHERS. If the generic look and feel of many photo books have kept you from seriously considering producing a brand book, client presentation, or personal portfolio, check out the new ProLine of books from Blurb.com. The line was specifically created for creative professionals who to distinguish themselves not only through the content of their books, but also in their choice of materials.
With ProLine, you can customize your book with heavier, better-quality papers, more distinctive covers, and a choice of end sheets.
Fine Book Papers and End Sheets
The first two ProLine papers (Pearl Photo and Uncoated) are produced by Mohawk Fine Papers, Inc.
Blurb’s Pearl Photo paper is a rebranded version of Mohawk proPhoto paper. The 140 lb (190 gsm) semigloss paper is slightly heavier and glossier than the Premium Lustre paper used in other Blurb photo books. The Pearl Photo paper emulates the traditional photographic papers, enabling your books to resemble collections of custom photographic prints.
Blurb’s Uncoated paper is the popular Mohawk Superfine Ultrawhite in Eggshell finish. Blurb CEO Eileen Gittins noted that “Mohawk’s rich, heavy uncoated paper with its organic texture is hot in the design community right now.”
Blurb ProLine books can be created with Mohawk Superfine and proPhoto papers.
The ProLine end sheets are 80 lb. (115 gsm) papers that are currently available in five colors: charcoal grey, dove grey, warm grey, black, and white.
According to the Blurb, the two new ProLine papers from Mohawk are just the beginning. They plan to expand the creative range with additional professional-grade papers, more end-paper choices, and the ability to design books with more than 160 pages.
Linen Covers
The first new ProLine covers are linen hardcovers. You can choose from two colors: Oatmeal or Charcoal. Both are uncoated, giving them more of a natural feel. You can also choose to have your book produced with the Standard Black Linen cover.
ARTISTS. Zatista.com is an online seller of original art. The art lovers who founded the site believe a growing number of people would prefer to own something unique, rather than a reproduction. Recently, they introduced a service through which buyers can submit commission requests to artists whose works they admire on the Zatista site.
Once the request is submitted, Zatista works with the buyer and artist to ensure that the quoting and payment processes go smoothly. For example, they help the buyer create a well-formed request with all the relevant details, and craft a commission agreement that both the buyer and artist can accept. Buyers aren’t charged for submitting commission requests. Nor are they obligated to accept the quote or follow through with the project.
Artists who are particularly interested in commissions should let the Zatista staff know, because they occassionally receive requests from buyers who does not have a particular artist in mind.
Another service Zatista.com provides is a complimentary art concierge service to help buyers select the right piece of art for their home or office.
How to Sell Your Art
Zatista currently sells original oil paintings, acrylic paintings, charcoal drawings, and mixed media works. They will also sell photographs and prints of digitally created art, as long as each print is hand-signed and numbered in an edition of 100 or less. They don’t sell sculpture, jewelry, furniture, weavings, and other categories of art.
To ensure that the site offers a robust, well-rounded selection of quality art in a variety of mediums, all artists and galleries who want to sell works on the site must be approved by Zatista’s Art Review Board. When you apply, you will be asked to complete a profile and list a minimum of 3 works and a maximum of 5 works.
In addition to evaluating your art, the Art Review Board will take into account how professionally you present it. For example, photographs of your works should be clear, without extraneous objects or lighting glare. Your profile should be well-written, clear, and informative, and your store banner and message should be nicely created. The review process typically takes 3 to 5 days. It’s up to you to set the price for your work.
If your art is accepted for sale on the site, there are no membership or listing fees. Instead, you will be charged a commission when your art is sold. To make original art more affordable to more people, the online sales commission is substantially lower than commissions typically charged by brick-and-mortar galleries. For more information about the artist approval process, visit the FAQ section of the Zatista.com website.
Once your application has been approved, you are encouraged to display additional works and spread that word about Zatista to your Facebook fans and Twitter followers. You can also add a “Buy on Zatista” button to your blog, so visitors to your site know they can easily purchase your work any time day or night.
About Zatista
Zatista was founded by entrepreneurial Internet industry veterans. Their goal is to make the art-buying experience less intimidating and more enjoyable. They also want to make more originals easily accessible to aspiring collectors all over the world who might not be able to explore multiple galleries in big cities to find the art they like.
The Zatista website includes a glossary or art terms, and other information designed to educate and encourage a new generation of collectors.
The Automotive Broadcasting Network (ABN), which provides digital signage in the waiting rooms of car-dealership service areas, showcased Exceptional 3D displays at a recent exposition for car dealers.
Movie theaters, TVs, and iPads won’t be the only screens displaying more 3D imagery in the near future. Thanks to technology that allows 3D images to be viewed on-screen without special eyewear, expect to see more 3D images on the digital signage used in out-of-home advertising.
For example, a press release for Exceptional 3D notes that the company that produces auto-stereoscopic 3D visual displays. “Auto-stereoscopic” means the displays can show high-definition 3D content that is visible without glasses. Until more 3D content is developed, the devices can also playback traditional 2D content for digital signage.
Currently, Exceptional 3D is focusing on producing 3D signage and displays for vertical markets such as automotive, casino gaming, retail, cinemas, and hospitality.
The firm has an in-house design team that helps clients convert conventional 2D signage content into 3D content and devise creative new ways to incorporate 3D images into new signage content.
If you’ve never given much thought to why we’re seeing more digital signage these days, check out the “Solutions” tab on Exceptional 3D website. Here, they list how and why 3D digital signage might be useful in airports, amusement parks, car dealerships, corporate communications, entertainment, educational institutions, financial-services institutions, healthcare facilities, hotels, casinos, resorts, cruise ships, movie theatres, fast-foot restaurants, retail shops, sports stadiums, and transit hubs.
For example, the site points out that digital signage can provide an uplift in sales while enhancing the user’s experience. Not all of the content on the signage must be sales-related. Digital signage could also be used to entertain and educate people in a doctor’s waiting room.
The fledging iPhoneography movement is a perfect example of what can happen when technology developers make it easy for artists and other creative pros to experiment with new hardware and software.
Imaging-industry analysts have long believed that smartphones would someday replace point-and-shoot cameras as the primary tool for taking snapshots. But these analysts probably never imagined just how wildly enthusiastic photographers of all skill levels have become about the artistic potential of the Apple iPhone camera and its ever-growing ecosystem of apps.
Some iPhoneography evangelists are long-time photography pros who have extensive experience with darkroom processing and fine-art photo printing.
The Advantage of iPhoneography
Photographers coined the term “iPhoneography” to describe the art of capturing and creatively processing images with the inexpensive apps available for the camera built into Apple iPhones
Professional iPhoneographer and teacher Teri Lou Dantzler still uses her DSLR camera to shoot portraits for clients. But carrying an all-in-one camera, darkroom, and social-communication device in her pocket has opened her eyes to limitless possibilities for creative expression and fun.
“Since I always have my iPhone with me, I have captured images that I would have passed by before,” says Teri Lou. “I have processed images while waiting for appointments, while snuggled into a chair at the coffee café, on top of a 10,000-ft. peak, and at bedtime.” She publishes her work on photo blogs and for the Facebook iPhoneography group she started last fall.
Another benefit of iPhoneography is the simplicity of converting a basic camera and processor into a device that can shoot HDR or panoramic images or mimic the look of vintage cameras. Anyone can produce Photoshop-like effects without enduring a painful learning curve or continuously investing in new gadgets or full-featured editing software. For less than $5, you can buy a new app that performs only the tasks you need to create the type of art you envision.
Where to Start?
Because so many iPhoneography apps exist, it can be hard for novices to know where to start. And in fact, many apps do similar things, some better than others.
To help guide and inspire novices, there has been an explosion of iPhoneography books, courses, and tutorials. To decide which resource is right for you, check out the instructor’s background, images, blogs, and the content of the course or book. Here’s just a sampling of what’s available.
Online Courses
Teri Lou Dantzler offers four-week online courses, supplemented by one-on-one critiques over the phone. When you register, she asks what type of imagery you would like to produce, then modifies the course accordingly. Her iPhone-Ography 101 course helps beginners focus on learning those apps best suited for their artistic goals. Her iCreativity course covers a variety of blending, brushing, and masking techniques.
For more information about all of her upcoming courses and workshops, visit Terri Lou’s blog: http://iphoneographywithterilou.blogspot.com/
Chances are your local photography-learning center will be offering iPhoneography courses sometime this year. But if you want to learn how to convert your iPhone images into gallery-worthy art prints, check out the workshops offered by Harry Sandler and Dan Burkholder.
Harry Sandler is a former music-industry tour manager and rock-concert photographer whose images have appeared in Rolling Stone and Circus magazines. He has been taking iPhone pictures of his travels for over two years. Some 17 x 22-inch prints of his iPhone images have been displayed at the Renaissance Fine Art and Design Gallery in Carmel, Indiana and he has another gallery exhibit scheduled this fall.
Sandler will lead an iPhone-Ography Workshop May 14 and 15 at the Peters Valley Craft Center in Layton, New Jersey and a day-long iPhonography class June 4 at Foto-Care in New York. From November 4-7, he will team up with Teri Lou Dantzler to teach an iPhoneography workshop at the Pacific Northwest Art School on Whidbey Island near Seattle
During his May workshop, Sandler will explain how to: capture an image with the proper resolution, work the various apps, figure out a personal workflow, create panoramas right in the phone, and process and print your iPhone images with good color, resolution, depth, and texture.
Sandler regards the iPhone as an extremely versatile tool in his artistic arsenal, offering a marriage of painting and photography. Initially, the iPhone camera reminded him of the Polaroid camera his father gave him as a child. Now he uses the iPhone in a variety of ways, including as a viewfinder for his 60 MP digital camera. Sandler is currently experimenting with compositing iPhone imagery and may try painting some of his iPhone photo prints.
Dan Burkholder was one of the first photographic artists to embrace digital technology in the early 1990s. He will be presenting iPhone Artistry workshops at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops (April 29-May 1 and October 12-15), Freestyle Photographic Supplies in Los Angeles (May 14), the Connecticut Media/Photo Workshops (June 25-26), the Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY (Aug. 13-14), Maine Media Workshops (August 21-27), and in his own studios in Palenville, NY (Sept. 3-4 and Oct. 8-10).
During his workshops, he will teach camera capture techniques that are exclusive to iPhoneography and provide advice on which apps are best for contrast, color, and sharpening. He will demonstrate how certain apps can be combined to transform your images into fine art. Dan will also explain how to make stunning prints of iPhone images on art paper or canvas and show how the iPhone and iPad can work together to form a photographic dynamic duo.
Dan is widely known for both his vision as his artist and his mastery of the wet and digital darkrooms. His platinum prints are included in many museum and private collections. Dan’s groundbreaking book “Making Digital Negatives for Contact Printing” helped black-and-white photographers take advantage of emerging electronic technologies. His forthcoming book on “iPhone Artistry” is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.com.
To sample the type of advice Dan has to offer, download one of Dan Burkholder’s Tiny Tutorials to your iPhone. The tutorials explain how to organize your apps, streamline your image adjustment workflow, stitch and retouch iPhone images, and use basic masking and curves in Filterstorm.
Interactive Book with iPad Companion Edition
“iPhone Obsessed: Photo Editing Experiments with Apps” was written by photographer/designer Dan Marcolina. Dan’s design firms are at the forefront of integrating design for print, video, and interactive media and designing publications and catalogs for touch-enabled tablets.
In his interactive print book, Dan shows how different iPhone camera apps can be combined to create artistic effects such as blurs and vignettes, high-dynamic range, and black-and-white imagery. After you download the free Microsoft Tag Reader onto your iPhone, you can scan one of the 75 tags printed throughout the book to watch Dan present pop-up video tutorials.
Dan was one of the first to use Adobe’s new Digital Publishing Suite to create an iPad Companion edition of his book.
Print and E-Books
The book “Create Great iPhone Photos: Apps, Tips, Tricks, and Effects” was written by Allan Hoffman, who has spent 15 years as the technology columnist for New Jersey’s largest daily newspaper. He explains how to produce stunning panoramas, vintage-style photobooth strips, and super-saturated Polaroid® photos with a hip, 1970s look. The book also explains how to unlock the power of your iPhone’s camera with burst mode, high dynamic range (HDR) effects, exposure and focus controls, and more.
In “The Art of iPhoneography: A Guide to Mobile Creativity,” award-winning documentary photographer Stephanie C. Roberts urges you to use your iPhone to loosen up your traditional approach to photography and become more spontaneous in shooting how you feel.
She emphasizes that, “photography is less about the camera, and more about the vision of the person behind the lens.” While the book explains how use various apps to stretch your creative boundaries and make art with your iPhone camera, many of the techniques in the book could be applied to shooting with any other type of camera. Stephanie will be presenting one-day Art of iPhoneography workshops at the Showcase School of Photography in Atlanta in May and June.
Once the request is submitted, Zatista works with the buyer and artist to ensure that the quoting and payment processes go smoothly. For example, they help the buyer create a well-formed request with all the relevant details, and craft a commission agreement that both the buyer and artist can accept. Buyers aren’t charged for submitting commission requests. Nor are they obligated to accept the quote or follow through with the project.
