Many of our photo scanning clients are professionals, but many more would like to turn their hobby into a paying interest. "How can I sell my photos?" is now one of our most frequently asked questions.
It is not easy, the main problem is getting your images in front of people who might be prepared to pay for image rights. Here in the UK it's tough, established image libraries are picky about accepting new photographers, and are very demanding in terms of image quality. Unless you have a massively important or unique collection of images it's likely that setting up your own website will be doomed to failure, you'll never get back the cost of setting up the site and publicising it effectively.
So, check out this potential solution - Flickr.
Yes, that's right. One of the biggest amateur photo sharing websites has a link with Getty Images. This means you can flag your images as being available for sale, buyers are then able to access your images and who knows, you might make some money.
Looking at the site today I was impressed with the help and guidance available on the site, so if you're looking to dip a toe in the waters of paying snapping, check out Flickr.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Photo Scanning - Crossing the Borders
Some years ago I was asked by Kodak if there were any enhancements I could suggest for their photo scanning software. One of my suggestions was to find a way to automatically remove the white borders that appear on many prints. Sharp intake of breath on the other end of the line, I guess there's hard maths behind that. Anyway, that feature has yet to appear.
When we scan slides we typically crop inside the frame, so the client sees a "borderless" image, same with negative scanning. the only exception is with professional photographers who typically don't trust us to get the crop right so want every last bit of data.
Recently we've added a slideshow building facility and I'm pleased to say it's being well received. We off three options and ask clients to express their preference. Each slideshow has it's attractions but none is outrageous so I expected preferences to fall pretty evenly across each style. Much to my surprise one is an out front leader, and guess what? It automatically adds a white border to all the images in the slideshow.
When we scan slides we typically crop inside the frame, so the client sees a "borderless" image, same with negative scanning. the only exception is with professional photographers who typically don't trust us to get the crop right so want every last bit of data.
Recently we've added a slideshow building facility and I'm pleased to say it's being well received. We off three options and ask clients to express their preference. Each slideshow has it's attractions but none is outrageous so I expected preferences to fall pretty evenly across each style. Much to my surprise one is an out front leader, and guess what? It automatically adds a white border to all the images in the slideshow.
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