January 25, 2012 by pmelcher.

Just like the music industry, with which it shares many similarities, the photo licensing world is ripe to be iTuned.

The industry landscape is dispersed and confused. None of the photo licensing companies know what to do. From the Getty images to the small mom and pops that have been around for 5,000 years ( it seems) , everyone is playing the wait and see game. Some try various solutions in the hopes it will lead to a new golden age but none innovate.

Furthermore, even with the Getty/ Corbis consolidations, it is still a very disparate world with deep resentments and personal conflicts. From one company to the other, there is suspicion, continuous poaching, and overall despise.

• Illegal copying is rampant. Copyright images are being stolen at a rate never experienced before. As much as 85% of images used on the internet are done so without permission. While bigger companies have seen this as an opportunity for new revenue by throwing crowds of lawyers on the issue, most are just bleeding files like the worst days of Napster. It is not going away. Even as the marketplace gets more educated, there is little or no incentives, or risks, not to continue. While some technology have tried to alleviate the issue, it is getting worse, not better.

• People are lazy. They like simple because it is easy, not because it is simple. They want to be able to find images quickly and use them immediately. While Royalty Free and more recently microstock have greatly facilitated the image purchasing process, their content is too generic to satisfy the increasing demanding need for personalization.

• RM is too complicated. And obsolete. With its complicated rules, it is a deterrent. For users to find the price of an image based on at least 6 different variables ( territory, circulation, placement, length, language and type of publication) is a nightmarish headache. Furthermore, it doesn’t make sense to an uneducated market. It makes those who can afford more, pay more. For the same image, a successful publication will pay more than the poor, just because they have been successful in bringing in traffic. Not specially fair. Furthermore, a fee based on final usage doesn’t make sense: It is a bit as if at the check out of a supermarket, they would ask you what you plan to do with those raw potatoes before charging you accordingly. Finally, It is also out of tune with the current market conditions that demand the possibility of using the same image for the same purpose on different support.

• Exclusivity is dead. Well, almost. Withe the huge amount of images available, the risk of using the same image as your competitor is nullified. Still, if absolute exclusivity is a requirement, assignment photography is now cheap enough, especially with all the unemployed photographers on the market. Furthermore, unless if you are a huge brand, in which case you will not use stock photography, having the same exact image does not seem to matter much.

• The market is expending. While some companies have done a great job at controlling the traditional sales channel, they cannot control the incessant increase of new customers, especially online. New blogs, brands, businesses appear everyday with photography needs and with no idea where to purchase images.

• Trained Photo editors are disappearing. While purchasing photography was the responsibility of a few very well educated professionals, it is no longer the case. As the old timers are being laid off, they are being replaced by younger, uneducated people who purchase images among many other duties. They don’t know, nor do they care and are asked to purchase based on price.

• Photography is begging to be free. Just like news on the internet is begging to be free. Taking photograph has become such an easy process that no one believes they should pay to use one. With billions of easily available images online, it has all the aspect of an endless commodity. Barriers between professionals and amateurs have been blown away and even high end commercial sites like CNN.com are more and more relying on free crowd sourced images. If CNN doesn’t pay for images, why should anyone else ?

In other words, professionally licensed photography is breaking from all direction. A bit like the music industry was before a tech company ( Apple) took over the distribution.

Since photography and the internet is a marriage made in heaven, there no shortage of very smart, tech savvy entrepreneur ready to spend the funds of a smart VC . The challenge ?

Replace the antiquated, print based licensing model by an effective, flexible process. A platform a la iTune.

Not that replicating iTune for photography would work. Countless of RF or Microstock aggregators have come and gone leaving no trace of success behind them.

The iTune for photography will come from somewhere else, from a tech company that will approach the photo licensing industry from a consumer end. Not from what licensors want but from what consumers need. They will make it simple, easy and cost effective to purchase images and use them, wether it comes from Getty Images or your cousin Fred. The solution, using technology wisely, will be so obvious that it will sweep the photo industry of it’s already febrile grounds and make impossible to live outside of it.

Posted in license, Search, Cnn, technology, commercial stock, web 2.0, finance, getty, Royalty free, corbis, news, editorial, Microstock | Print | No Comments »

December 14, 2011 by pmelcher.

Our ability to achieve greatness is impeded by our  addiction to getting to fast results and instant gratification. We are a civilization focused on the ends rather than the means, resulting in a complete absence of ethics. While the Greeks , Romans and Egyptians have left quasi immortal legacy, our civilization will leave a huge trail of mostly consumed objects.
We do  not want to seduce, we want to have sex. We do not want to cook, we want to eat.
We do not see value in perfecting a task, especially if it slows down our reach to the final product. We actually seek out anything that will shorten our access to the desired goal.  We actually spend more time and energy trying finding those short cuts than perfecting our own means. Instagram, for example, is photography Photoshopped bundle, skipping the hours we would have to spend on learning and executing.
We mass produce and purchased prepackaged work, or processes,  so we can get faster and easier to the end.
This obsession to only focus on the ends also brings forth a dependency to renewal, instant renewal. Because we so quickly achieve our goals, we also more quickly go to what’s next. What is the next end that we can meet. And because we have no interrest in process, we look and seek those ends that are the most easily met.
Even if one tries to perfect process, he would soon be met with corner cutters that would transform ( destroy ?) His work by finding and executing a shorter path.
Part of it could be because we are obsessed with money, the best tool to get to ends fast, and have been taught that time is money, and until achieved, perfection is a waste of time. While we admire and venerate perfection, we out no value into it search. Because it is not considered valuable, the path to perfection is considered wasteful. Antique civilizations, for example, put a high value in apprenticeship, where one could learn to master the processes leading to perfection. Those lasted years, if not decades, but guaranteed a level of unparalleled transhipment. The type that build the giant cathedrals of Europe or the Stradivarius.  Those apprenticeship were all about mastering the process as to achieve perfection in the end result.
We seem to confuse and mix perfect process and time wasting. That somehow, working on perfecting on how we get to an achievement is just time wasted. We forget that the better the process, the better the result.
Yet we seem to get greater pleasure from process. A well cooked meal taste so much better than done with mastery, sex is so much better after a perfectly executed courtship. We pay fortunes for objects and services that are made by masters of their skills, be it a Ferrari or dinner cooked by a chef. We know that those did not come to fruition by a snap of fingers but rather through hours and hours of repeating the same task over and over until it was perfect. The task, not the result.
We learn from traditional Japanese philosophy that seeking excellence is all about breaking it down to a succession of small prefect individual tasks, or steps, which, added, lead to the result. We don’t even have to worry about the result if every little steps to get there is perfect. It might take time, it might seem useless, it will bring some frustration and dissatisfaction but it will bring a strong work ethic. It will teach you how you want things done and how you want them to be. It will bring forth the pride in your work and a constant search for excellence. After that, you will never work for free.

Posted in celebrity, commercial stock, Good Enough, license, multimedia, finance, photoshop, newspaper, editorial | Print | No Comments »

December 7, 2011 by pmelcher.

Finally a smart exact match image finder with accurate results. Current image match operators use a lazy approach to find similar images. They scan the images and look for exact replica patterns in other images, regardless of content. The result is that they sometimes , or very often, get fooled by exact patterns that have nothing to do with the original image . Sometimes we are left to wonder.
This project from Carnegie Mellon University  uses a more human approach. It first compares the image with a pool of images that have nothing to do with the original. The reason ? To find out what is different thus notable. It then takes that information and proceeds with the match search. So, not only it searches for exact patterns, it also keeps on track by making sure that the notable element(s) of the image are included, discarding others.
The result is a much more efficient result, matching more precisely what a human would be looking for.
See video here:

The issue with image search on the internet is, however, not solved. With millions of images being uploaded everyday, with billions of websites changing their content daily, it is currently impossible to index and search all images. Sites like Tineye, although claiming 2 billion images indexed is still only indexing a nugget of the image universe. Not even  mighty Google can keep up.
Thus, this technology is certainly a step in the right direction and could work wonders in a closed image database but it still will not find all the images out there.

Posted in technology, commercial stock, idee, Search, google, editorial | Print | No Comments »

November 1, 2011 by pmelcher.

Tired of hearing how photojournalism is dead ? Tired of going to photo festival where everyone whines and dines ? Not sure if crowdfunding is for you ? well, a new photography festival has been created for you.

Brainchild of ex director of photography for Paris Match, Didier Rapaud, the Festival of Saint Brieuc ( that’s in Brittany, France) is offering the first photo festival where any worldwide photographer can submit their project and receive substantial funding. You have until November 21 to submit your project ( there are no set topics) and the winners will be announced on December 2011. Next year, on October 2012 , the works of the winners will be shown to the public in various locations around the region.

Besides being a breeze of fresh air in the dusty photo festival , this festival also brings originality as it brings funding from local companies. For the first time, photo journalists are introduced to companies that are interested in funding original work. In a time of global recession,when magazines worldwide are cutting back on their assignments, it is surprising, and very much welcomed, to see private companies willing and eager to support the work of photographers.

So, without any further delay, head on to their site here and submit your project. You might just get that $25,000 you needed.

Photoreporter, Festival of photojournalism in Baie Saint-Brieuc

Posted in magazine, photojournalism, finance, editorial, news | Print | No Comments »

October 25, 2011 by pmelcher.

Picture yourself, if you will, at a baseball game ( or soccer, or basketball). Imagine that each player, from each team has a HD video camera following his every move throughout the entire game. A few seconds after the game is finished, 5 of the best frames from all the video feeds are send to to publications worldwide.

Just like that.

How is this possible you say ? It is not. At least not yet. But it is coming soon.

Researcher at the University of Washington are currently working on what could be called “machine based photo editing”

Using videos of people speaking at a camera, they can teach a computer to extract the best frames that would make perfect portraits.

How do they do it ? Simple. They first use real people to select the best faces in a feed. They then teach the computer the elements that make a good portrait, like a visible smile, an expression, open eyes, etc and that’s it. They compare the machine edit with the real people edit and see if they have a perfect match. when they do, they know that they no longer need humans.

This wouldn’t have to be limited to sports photography. The same could be done for movie premieres, press conferences, political rallies and so on. In the amateur field, this would be perfect to cover parties, weddings or any family/friends events. Imagine, you are filming and you camera could automatically pick the best images and post them to Facebook.

Harder would be coverages of wars or any brutally unexpected events.

The push for machine based editing is already happening. Microstock companies, for example, would be delighted to get rid of the thousands of free lance photo editors that comb through their millions of submissions and give it to a 24/7/365 machine that would never ask for a raise.

Most photo agencies would certainly also be  delighted. Since the advent of digital and with the continuous drop in prices of cards, they have seen the volume of images submitted to them increase dramatically. Being able to instruct a computer on how to pick the best frames would cut costs dramatically.

The possibility of quickly and reliably edit from a video feed will soon open up the doors to impeccable photo coverage without the need of ever using a photographer. When ? in the next 5 year. And you thought that declining space rate prices was a challenge.

Posted in technology, commercial stock, celebrity, wire service, editorial, Microstock | Print | No Comments »

October 21, 2011 by pmelcher.

Drop everything you are doing, you are taking a spaceship. Not the kind that goes up for a few minutes and brings you back down. No, you are talking the Major Tom kind, destination Mars.
You have not much time to pack and the agency, in its infinite kindness, let’s you take one photograph. Only one. Choose carefully because it could be the only one you stare at for a very long time. You might even need it to explain earth to some wandering martian.
Think you know which one to take ? OK. Now look at what 100 photographers from around the world ( mostly photojournalists) have chosen.

The result is quite telling. A majority seem to take family pictures, like a trucker going on the road. Otherwise pick from their own portfolio, probably satisfied with their own work, and finally the last group will take classics, Eugene  Smith being the top pick.
O ya, there are two that picked an image of the earth. A souvenir !
What is interesting here is how the mind works. Choices here are mostly emotional, thus the family pictures. Emotional too is the choice of their seemingly favorite pictures taken from their own work. Probably because it brings them back to a place and time of reassurance. But others have chosen highly disturbing images ( mummified faces kissing). Will they really want to stare at it for 100 years of solitude ?

Posted in magazine, Social Media, web 2.0, photojournalism, slideshow, editorial | Print | No Comments »

October 5, 2011 by pmelcher.

Goksin was a tall man. In a country where most men are small (you have Napoleon and two world wars to thank for that), he was even taller, towering easily in the  crowded office of the company he build and named after himself.
But Goksin was tall for other reasons. He was always above anyone else when it had to do with news photography. He was always looking further and higher than anyone else. He was a giant.
The ancient Greeks believed that sometimes the Gods would come down to earth and take human form to play tricks on us. If the Greeks had a God of photography, he would have certainly resemble Goksin, and acted like him. He had an uncanny ability to outwit, outsmart and outperform anyone in his field always delivering the “plaque” to the amazement to everyone. He knew photojournalism better than anyone and knew the impact of photography better than any editor in chief.
Like the Greek gods, he had an acute sense of humor as well as deep warm love for his fellow human. His generosity knew no boundaries. But more so than anything, no one could escape his charm.
In a few seconds of meeting him, you would fall into his inescapable charm and forever remain at his service, which you did with immense pleasure. It is hard to beleive that he ever heard the word “no”.
He was an unbelievable worker to the point that most of us thought he would die behind his desk. He had a foresight like no one else and believed in you more than you ever could.
There is hardly no one in the photo world today that he hasn’t touch and inspired and we are all his forever in debt children.
To say he will be missed is obviously an understatement but he has left so much to so many people in this business that it is hard to say he is gone. He continues to live in agency owners who thrive to replicate his style, he lives in the inside voice of thousands of photographers around the world who keep on hearing ” a little more” every time they are on a shoot. He lives in photo department everywhere when editors look for that images that will end up as a double page spread and sell more copies.
The passion for photography that Goskin had was unlimited and we are forever in debt to him. He was that shoulder we all stand on.  We will have to learn how to live like orphans because today we lost all lost a father.

Posted in SIPA, newspaper, magazine, photojournalism, finance, france, editorial, news | Print | No Comments »

September 25, 2011 by pmelcher.

The real story behind the evolution of photography is its pauperization.

In its early days, photography was for the wealthy and educated. The equipment needed was expensive and the skills involved needed formal education. Furthermore, the financial risks involved in being a photographer - variable income- meant you had to have some other resources.

Even if they weren’t rich themselves, they were rich kids. And for a long time, it remained unchanged. Until rather recently when colliding advancement in technology - all pretty much unrelated to photography- open the door to lesser financially fortunate people from around the world.

- The internet, at first, made all the connections possible. It took a while to grow, mostly due to the cost of computers and connections but now, almost anywhere in the world, it’s dirt cheap.

- The dropping cost of memory, making it much cheaper to shoot digital then film.

- The cheap accessibility to market. What photo sharing companies like Flickr did, unintentionally, is connect buyers with new sellers.

-The incredibly low learning curve. No need to know anything about photography to be able to take amazing images these days: Instagram will do it for you.

Finally, automated translation has practically eliminated language barriers all over the world.

The result ? First in developed countries and then very quickly in less developed countries, more and more individuals took to their cameras as a new or additional source of income. Most pushed by a desperate need to generate income rather than an urge to express any artistic impulse. Because of their already low level of income, any revenue is good revenue. Clearly visible in microstock ( the extreme majority of participants are from emerging countries with low per capita) it is now spreading to non commercial stock areas of photography like news. They will happily accept any payment regardless if it is a fair price or not. Some publishers and photo agencies have realized the saving potential and have blissfully tap into this cheaper market.

Obviously, photographers living in developed countries, like the Western Hemisphere, have to face much high cost of living and cannot compete. Thus, they have to retreat in areas not available to rest of the world. For example, a US sport photographer can still command higher fees since his coverage cannot be done from another country. However, he is slowly being pressured downward by his local peers who have been pushed out of their market by cheaper competition.

The barriers of entry have fallen at such level that almost anyone can now pretend to be a photographer. With rising unemployment worldwide, more are stepping in the hope to generate some income, pushing aside established professional. Since in a depressed economy like ours the key differentiator is money, it’s the cheapest that wins the day.

In order for the situation to change, a few things would need to happen. First, obviously, the worldwide economy has to pick up, eliminating those who are necessity photographers by integrating them into other full time jobs. A more advanced type of photography should emerge, necessitating advanced skills to perform. Finally, a disassociation of the means of communication, wether technological or cultural. None seem likely to happen soon.

Posted in license, web 2.0, technology, commercial stock, Good Enough, Social Media, prosumer, flickr, news, Royalty free, editorial, transaction, photojournalism, finance, Microstock | Print | No Comments »

September 20, 2011 by pmelcher.

Just imagine, if you will, that publishers would get paid to use your images. Just imagine that publishers would actually generate a profit directly from your photographs. All that and you would also make more revenue at the same time . Don’t you think you would be the most popular photographer/ photo agency ?

Well, as of today, it is possible. Stipple has just launched Marketplace, an online tool that facilitate discovery of tagged images. Here is how it works : Publishers connect to the Stipple Image cloud by installing a little javascript code. They can then log in Stipple Marketplace and find images that contain embedded paid tags. Once published and thanks to viewers’ engagement, these images  start paying a revenue share to both image owners and publishers. It’s that simple.

For publishers, it is a godsend: What used to be a cost center can now become, for the first time ever,  a profit center. For image owners, it is a brand new revenue source. And for both, it does not require any additional work; Stipple handles all the back work. Finally, for both of them, it is free to join and participate.

But you do not have to believe a word I say. Instead you can read all about it in the Washington Post .

Posted in technology, Pacific coast news, Social Media, magazine, celebrity, finance, web 2.0, license, editorial | Print | No Comments »

September 12, 2011 by pmelcher.

Taking a cue from the succesful microstock model here is where photojournalism is heading.  It is happening under our eyes, right now and in four steps.

The decline of traditional photojournalism.
Nothing really new here. Rising cost of living (travel, lodging, food) has made it almost impossible for current print and web publishers to send top talents on stories anymore. The profit margins are not there anymore. Although there is a bucket full of very talented photojournalist available, there is just no funds to make them do what they do best. Furthermore, with the deaths of traditional photo agencies who used to pay for half of the costs, there is just not enough financial support to keep it going. It’s not photojournalism that is dying, it’s the funding that is going dry.  Furthermore, photo editors that championed the great stories have long gone, either retired or pushed out due to corporate restructuring or cost saving measures.

The rise in volume of the me-too photojournalism.

Here again, nothing we haven’t heard or seen before. Automated cameras that can nail an image in the even poorest conditions has helped introduced a new wave of photographers that can, and will snap at anything and everything and force distribute it via every channel possible. Force distribute because we really do not want to see it but thanks to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and other social media, we get to see them anyway. The poor state of our economy has not help, obviously, making this forced free lance job even more appealing to many. It also has become easier to get published, at least once, giving everyone the false impression that this is easy. Anybody can become a photojournalist these days : you just need to be where the media attention is focused upon.

The death of the photo agency.
Photo agencies used to be the gateway to the media. With trained professionals, they filtered out the bad from the good and edited the work of the talented to make it even more compelling. They would also seek out news stories and send the best photographers to cover them, not only creating the news, but partly covering  for the costs. It was a gamble, where talented journalists would scout newspapers worlwide for that snippet of information that could be turned into the major news of the week thanks to the talent of a brilliant photographer. Those editors are gone now. Gambling on stories is just not an acceptable business model in our corporate world. Photo agencies are not agencies anymore, they are image distributors.

Speed vs quality.
Thanks to digital, the key decision element for an image to be published is how fast they get to a desktop. Thus a bad photographer can very well become successful if he is the fastest.  More and more, this is what we, viewers, are being served with : the first images rather than the best. Thus the key to becoming a published photojournalist is where you are and not who you are.

Where does it lead us to:

Where everyone can be a shooter, with no money to be spend on travel, no editors acting as gatekeepers and speed as the key factor, the decision us easy;

Forget the photo agency as an agent of talented photojournalists. The key now is to have a lot of contributors worldwide and hope that one will be at the right place at the right time. With photographers everywhere chances you will get the right image at the right time will increase, like buying a lot of lottery tickets.
In the film age, the cost of film, processing, shipment was too prohibitive. Now, you can receive and store million of images for a buck or two.
This well know photo agency recently proudly claimed representing 40 photographers in Gaza only. For a territory 140 square mile ( 360 Km2), that is one photographer per 3.5 square mile.

Thus, taking a queue from the microstock model, photojournalism is now switching to the volume based model. While profitable for a photo agency, it is devastating for photojournalism and photographers themselves.

Posted in technology, magazine, Tweet, Social Media, Corpocrates, Good Enough, newspaper, TIME, editorial, getty, transaction, finance, photojournalism, wire service, Microstock | Print | No Comments »