go to  easyFotostock

Submitting your images

Digital images

From digital cameras

There are inherent advantages to working with digital cameras. The most significant is that although the investment of buying a professional digital camera is quite high, once the camera is in your hands, film and processing expenses are considerably reduced or, in some cases, done away with altogether. It is also true that photographers who use digital cameras feel the freedom to experiment and they produce a lot more images than most photographers who shoot on film.

To be fair, though, we should point out that digital camera technology is constantly developing. Anyone who invests in a digital camera and all the accessories should bear in mind that better models than the ones available today will soon be on the market, with higher resolution, better color reproduction, and more refined technical features. Keeping the equipment up-to-date is a requisite for a modern photographer.

Therefore, keep the following in mind:

  • We want images taken with professional cameras that use a CCD (or CMOS) of at least 8 mega pixels or more. The greater the number of mega pixels your camera CCD (or CMOS) has, the more megabytes of information you will obtain. With more information, your photos will have more opportunities, both for the present and the future. A professional 35-mm digital camera creates files that range between approximately 24 and 50 MB. We can interpolate these to between 26 and 100 MB, although we have interpolated digital images with limits up to 1.2 GB with commercially acceptable results. But, don't worry, we won’t ask you to interpolate your images to these sizes because they are exceptional cases that we deal with every now and then under very special circumstances. In fact, we don’t want you to interpolate your images at all.
  • Make frequent visits to the website of your camera's manufacturer to check for updates in your equipment's firmware (manufacturer's software that controls the camera's functionality). Keep your digital camera updated with the latest version of the firmware.
  • Make sure your vertical images appear vertical so we do not have to return them to you without editing them.
  • Always sharpen your images in the camera before sharpening them in PhotoShop. Images always look better if you sharpen them with hardware (in the camera) rather than software (in PhotoShop).
  • Although algorithms to eliminate electronic noise in the digital image (graininess in your final results) have greatly improved recently, make sure you do not use high sensitivities (ISO) in a digital camera unless there is a good reason. In other words, use sensitivities as low as possible (from 100 to 400). Use high sensitivities only in special circumstances. High sensitivities produce the noise (electronic graininess) that we previously mentioned. Sometimes they cause banding and thin black raster lines on the shadows. Of course, nothing prevents us from using a good image even if it is electronically grainy, but we want to avoid receiving problematic images just because the photographer found it easier to shoot at 1600 ISO than to get out the tripod. Keep in mind that each manufacturer has a different method for dealing with noise, so by experimenting with your camera you can discover its noise limits.
  • Make sure your digital images are exposed correctly and that your camera is perfectly calibrated in terms of contrast, saturation, tone, and focus. Today's professional cameras permit extremely precise calibrations that allow you to emulate the colors obtained with legendary high-contrast Fuji or Kodak films. And when you shoot a picture, remember that a slightly overexposed digital photo will turn out better than a greatly underexposed one. It is easier to restore the original values in overexposed images than underexposed ones, even for PhotoShop experts.
  • Don’t forget that we want the photos be in the Adobe RGB 1998 colorspace because it is ideal for photos that will be transformed to CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black), the colorspace used in the graphic arts industry. We will apply the appropriate color profile for viewing photos in Internet, the sRGB IEC61966-2.1, as it reflects the normal characteristics of a PC monitor. Therefore, we need your photos with High Resolution and in a colorspace such as Adobe RBG 1998 and we will take care of making them look great on Internet.
  • If you work with Apple Macintosh, remember that Mac computers have a monitor gamma of 1.8. If the photos you send us are prepared for this gamma, they will appear hopelessly dark to us, since we work with PCs that use the standard gamma for the Internet, 2.2. We recommend that you adjust the gamma of your screen to the Internet gamma, whether you use a Mac or a PC.
top

Number of images

An initial selection of about 100 (or more) photos will help us to assess the kind of photographs you produce. The photos should be representative of your work. Remember that in order to develop a substantial amount of business, a regular supply of pictures is a must. Stock photography is only for patient people since distribution in the global market is slow and months can go by before the first sale is made. If in the meantime the supply of pictures has stopped, a fall in sales will result later on. This situation is not economically viable for either the photographer or the agency. Remember that we are working for you, not the opposite. age fotostock believes in the importance of regular and increased supply for continuous, increasing sales. If you are not prepared to fulfil this continuity, we might not be the right agency for you.

top

Model releases and other authorizations

Privacy and publicity laws in many countries expressly prohibit the use of images for trade, advertising or similar purposes without the prior authorization of any identifiable persons who appear in them. A lack of authorization in these cases can give rise to civil damage claims by the persons who appear in the images. To avoid this type of conflict, we require that all photographers provide the necessary authorizations of any identifiable persons appearing in their images.

According to intellectual and industrial property legislation current in many countries, written authorization is also required for the commercial use of graphic material where corporate entity markers appear (brand names, logo, products, etc.), or in which existing visual or plastic artwork or architecture has been reproduced. Copies of these authorizations must be sent when the images have been selected (if you need more information on this subject, send an email to eva@agefotostock.com.) All releases must be clearly labelled with the code of the corresponding photograph or with a description that allows us to match the release with the relevant images.

top

Similars and exclusivity

We require worldwide exclusive rights for the exploitation of all selected images. This means that the photographer may not send the same image or any similar ones to another stock agency, or sell it directly or indirectly to third persons without the written authorization of age fotostock. While we are flexible with promotional exhibitions and understand the photographer’s need to promote his or her work, we certainly don’t appreciate a photographer selling a selected photo cheaply to a mutual client.

top

Submitting digital photos

¿Are you ready to send us your images?

There are various ways to send us digital images.

(a) to send photos for our initial selection of commercial validity, follow these instructions:

  • Nowadays it is rare to meet a photographer who does not have an Internet connection. Sending photos to our server using file transfer protocol (FTP) is the simplest, most efficient, and fastest way, which is why most photographers prefer it. Contact us and we will provide a manual on how to send us your photos using FTP.
  • You should send your images for selection as low-resolution files, we repeat at low resolution. They should be 1024 x 768 pixels at 72 ppi, compressed with quality set to 8 in PhotoShop.
  • Make sure that these photos, even at low resolutions, are ready to be seen, with a good contrast and bright colors. It’s essential that they look good. Age Fotostock is not a website for photographers to download photos indiscriminately, counting on all of them being accepted. We don’t function like that. We will professionally edit your photos and at times, if necessary, explain why certain (or many) of your photos were either accepted or rejected.
  • Despite all of the digital technology available, there are still some people who don’t use the FTP to send their photos and need to send them via CD, DVD, or Hard Drive. There are some special situations which require this like a very high number of High Resolution files to send or a poor internet bandwidth or just because the world is formed of all kinds of people, some even still buy film…
  • If you create your CDs/DVDs/Hard Drive with Apple Macintosh, make sure the CDs are in the international standard format for CDs: ISO 9660 because we work with PCs.
  • Do not put the images on your CD/DVD/Hard Drive in folders or subdirectories. All your images should be in one directory or folder. If you need to separate your images in different folders or directories, make sure that each group contains at least 100 images and use different CDs or DVDs to separate the different groups. Each CD or DVD must have only one directory with at least 100 images.
  • Do not send us a small amount of photos every day. Accumulate all the photos and send them all together on a weekly or monthly basis.
  • If you want your photos to be selected for both Pixtal Royalty Free and Rights Managed, clearly indicate this when you send the photos. This way both possibilities of granting copyrights for your photographs can be edited at the same time, saving time and administrative errors.
  • Do not send images in collections that require special viewing software.
  • We don’t edit/select images placed as a collection in your own website or any other of your agents. Also, we won’t review images sent by e-mail or review albums in photo-sharing sites like flicker.com or others.
  • You do not need to include prints of the photographs on the CD or DVD. However if you add text files (*.txt) with information on the images, include a note with the CD or DVD listing the contents: only photos, or photos and text files.
  • Identify your image files with a numeric code or short name. Do not send us images with very long file names.
  • Once the low-resolution photos are selected, we will ask you to send us the high-resolution files as soon as possible. These hi-res files should meet the technical specifications detailed below.

(b) to send the high resolution images that we have chosen, follow these instructions:

(b.1) images taken with a digital camera

  • The high resolution photographs should be images in RAW or TIFF (please avoid using the JPEG format when shooting in digital). If you are a photographer who enjoys giving a personal touch to the image after it´s been taken, please save your RAW files as 8 bit TIFFs when your creation is finished.
  • Don’t forget to clean up any marks left by dust in the CCD sensor. We will return your photo if this hasn’t been done.
  • You should send the images in one of the following ways:
    1. In RAW as they were produced
    2. In TIFF at 8 bits, uncompressed or compressed with LZV
    3. In JPEG compressed to maximum quality (12) in PhotoShop
  • Never interpolate your digital camera files. If it should be necessary, we will do it.

(b.2) if you still love film…

If you still love film and can´t resist scanning your photos, do you really know what you’re getting into? Most of the scanners on the market are relatively slow and give rather poor results compared to the professional drum scanners. However, if you want to use your valuable time scanning old pictures rather than shooting new ones, follow these instructions.

  • You can send us low-resolution images of files you have scanned to a bigger size (between 35 and 50 MB). If your scanner doesn’t produce a minimum size of 50MB, don’t interpolate the images, as it is easy to discover this and cancel the lot.
  • Remember that your images should be scanned to an image size of close to or greater than 50MB.
  • Our preferred color space for scanned images is RGB, specifically Adobe RGB 1998.
  • Do not sharpen your images excessively to make them look better on your screen. If you need to, use the PhotoShop Unsharp Mask filter. For best results do not exceed the following parameters: Amount: 75; Radius: 2; Threshold: 1. Keep in mind that the end client often sharpens the image as well, so applying a subtle Unsharp Mask is the rule of thumb for offering the best images on the market.
  • Our preferred file format for saving scanned images is, for the time being, the uncompressed TIFF format or if necessary, compressed LZV
  • Finally, we repeat again that your time is better spent (and you will have more fun) reshooting the photos you have on film, rather than scanning them.
top

When will the photos appear on the web?

As quickly or as slowly as you decide, keeping in mind some inevitable timeframes. Keep reading:

  • We will take a maximum of 30 days to review your low resolution material, although we make every effort to use less time than that. There are times where the avalanche of photos to be reviewed necessitates a few extra days, but we promise that they will be very few.
  • Once we have reviewed your low resolution material the ball is in your court since you have to send the High Resolution files together with model releases or other releases needed for the images.
  • If we don’t receive your High Resolution files within 30 days your selection will be automatically eliminated from the system and you will have to start all over. If you believe that for some reason you will delay more than 30 days, you should inform Eva Cascales (eva@agefotostock.com) or your photos will disappear.
  • Your files will be carefully reviewed and if they meet the technical parameters required; free of dust or other marks, proper color parameters, and free of PhotoShop disasters, they will have keywords added and translated into 7 languages, and will then be placed on the web.
  • You can speed up to a certain degree the time in which we complete this process if you add keywords and descriptions to the photos using the "File Info" in PhotoShop. Of course, keywords should go in the "Keyword" category and the image description under "Description." Of course, PhotoShop is neither the only nor necessarily the best program for adding this information to your photos.
  • If you’ve made it to here, remember that your photos will not appear on the web if we don’t have your signed contract.
top

The return of submitted materials

CDs/DVDs./Hard drives should be sent to

  • age fotostock
  • Buenaventura Muñoz 16
  • 08018 Barcelona
  • España

For those of you located closer to our U.S. office in NY, you can ship your images to:

  • age fotostock america inc.
  • 594 Broadway, Suite 707
  • New York, NY 10012-3257
  • You do not need to send the package to a specific person. All packages containing images are automatically sent to the editing department. Barcelona is the administrative, creative, and technical center of age fotostock and age fotostock america Inc.
  • CDs/DVDs./Hard drives can be mailed. If mailed, they should be sent as certified mail. CDs/DVDs should be sent in protective covers to avoid scratches on the surfaces where the electronic information is read. Hard drives sent in the mail should also be well protected.
  • Apart from the FTP, message service is the best way to send images. We recommend that you use an Express messenger service. While it is more expensive, it is the surest way to get your images to us quickly and safely. Most messenger services allow online tracking while will allow you to keep track of your materials until they arrive to Barcelona (or New York). If you use this kind of service and live outside of Spain, be sure to declare the package’s value as less than $50 to avoid paying any kind of duties or suffering delays in a Customs Office.
  • ALWAYS send the photographs with all delivery charges prepaid. We will return any package with delivery charges or any other charges to be paid collect.
  • Please note! CDs or DVDs with digital file submissions will not be returned. Hard drives will be returned at the cost of the photographer.
top

Technique alone does not make great photographers

  • Don’t forget, sending your photos is just one part of the process needed to offer your photos to the world.
  • To be a great technician is not to be a great photographer, in fact, usually technicians aren’t good photographers.
  • Having great photographic equipment doesn’t make one a great photographer. Many wonderful photos were made with very limited means.
  • Standout photographs come from good ideas and clear photographic style, not from a mere copy of what we have in front of us. What sets you apart as a photographer is your interpretation of a reality that is the same for all of us. That is the true meaning of “photography.” We are looking for those kinds of photographers. Is that you? Prove it!
top