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iStock Articles: The Buyers Guide To Camera Bags

scoop — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 00:33:46 +0000

Bags, bags, everywhere. And I don’t mean grocery store bags, department store bags or diaper bags. I mean camera bags. There are tons of them on the market. Backpacks, messenger bags, hip packs, sling carriers, duffel bags, large packs, small packs. My brain is spinning.

http://istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=352

iStock Article: Shooting Kids

scoop — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:50:13 +0000

Articles - Shooting Kids | iStockphoto.com

Shooting kids can take a lot of time and energy. Unless you know the beast you are dealing with, they can overtake you and render you frustrated and sour. As the veteran of many photosessions with children, and have developed plenty of ideas to help you get the most from your shoot.

LightStock Bulk Uploader w/ Lightroom Export Action

scoop — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 19:54:55 +0000

Forums - Tools and Applications - Official Release - LightStock Bulk Uploader w/ Lightroom Export Action | iStockphoto.com

I’ve been told it’s revolutionary, sure to change the world, and it’s finally available for public consumption! I’ve been working long and hard (that’s what she said) the past few weeks to add some needed fixes and features. I have used it to upload literally tens of photos. Most importantly it is the first tool in the history of the universe to offer keyword disambiguation before you upload an image. That means no more manual disambiguation through the IS web interface! Think of the time that can be saved. Make sure you are prepared for the June 4th best-match algorithm changes, you can’t afford not to use LightStock. Speaking of affordability, it is available for only 3 easy payments of $0.00, absolutely free, no money down, no contracts to sign. Of course if you find it useful, kicking me down some beer money is always appreciated.

iStock Article: Basic Training: Composition 101: Part 1

scoop — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 12:14:21 +0000

Basic Training: Composition 101: Part 1

What makes great art great? Composition. In this first of two parts, we’ll reveal some of the secret tricks of composition that the Masters use.

While written with videographers in mind there’s good advice for any photographer too.

iStock Article: Color My World

scoop — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 18:15:10 +0000

Color My World

Welcome to Part 2 of our focus on printing. As we discussed in Part 1, time is money and do-overs are a drag. This time around, weâ€™ll get into more detailed terminology and methodology for getting your files to look their best in print.
First, the most basic thing to understand is the difference between RGB (Red, Green Blue) and CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black). I know, â€œDuh,â€ but a lack of understanding of these two color spaces can seriously impair your printed result. Very simply put, RGB = light, and CMYK = ink. When youâ€™re working with your camera and your computer, youâ€™re working with light. When youâ€™re getting something printed, youâ€™re dealing with ink. As you might imagine, the number of colors that can be reproduced with ink is a lot fewer than what can be produced by light.

iStock Article: Fit To Print

scoop — Sun, 20 May 2007 22:26:54 +0000

Fit To Print

Someday, your work is going to end up in print. If you don’t know a platemaker from a boilermaker, we’re here to help.

iStock Article - Be Prepared | iStockphoto.com

scoop — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 15:24:33 +0000

Articles - Be Prepared | iStockphoto.com

Too many times, the circumstances for a once in a lifetime image are exactly that. We don’t need to tell you about how much can go wrong. Every photographer has too many bad memories of missed opportunities and botched images which come down to one regretful quote â€” I just wasn’t prepared.

On one hand, you’ll never make the same mistake twice, but why wait around to make them in the first place, when you can sit back and hear it all from someone who’s seen it all? We asked our friend Myron Unrau (that’s canadian to his mother) to reminisce on his days as a photojournalist for us, picking out the highlights of all those ‘almost’ moments, to help you free your inner boy-scout and always be prepared.

Auto Disambiguation, New Uploads, and Best Match: Stay Tuned for June | iStockphoto.com

scoop — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 09:34:01 +0000

Mark your calendars, folks. Exactly six weeks from now, on June 4, 2007, there will be some very real consequences for not disambiguating your new uploads. When we rolled out the Controlled Vocabulary seven months ago, a lot of contributors with large portfolios were working hard to make progress disambiguating their old files, but the process was time-consuming. However, every day brought new uploads that weren’t being disambiguated, either because the contributor was using bulk programs, incompatible with the Controlled Vocabulary, or because they simply chose not to do the work.
Beginning Monday, June 4, files uploaded after September 18, 2006 (i.e. the date we introduced the Controlled Vocabulary) whose disambiguation status is set to “Auto” will be shipped right to the back of the search results using the Best Match algorithm.

WHAT THIS IS:
These measures are being taken to help stem the tide of spammy searches that keep finding their way onto our site. Some bad results are due to out-and-out keyword spamming, and the rest are due to incorrect choices the auto disambiguation made during uploads. The auto disambiguation does the best job it’s able to, but it will never be a substitute for a pair of actual human eyes on the file.
This search push will help us (that being the contributors amongst yourselves who have been disambiguating your portfolios and keeping on top of new uploads, and, of course, iStockphoto itself) in a few different ways. The most important of these is that it will produce immediate results to help clean up the searches, particularly the ones that were made a disaster by auto disambiguation (”child,” for instance).
Even before the CV introduction, one of the most common complaints we heard from buyers was that the images were great, but the searches were frustrating to use due to the irrelevant results they always seemed to bring. The Controlled Vocabulary takes huge strides to keep results more accurate than they could be under any other system, by allowing the searcher to differentiate between different meanings of the same word and by allowing contributors to tag in the language they’re most comfortable with. However, the CV search can only be accurate if the images it’s searching for are tagged accurately; like any other engine, what comes out can only be as good as what goes in.
The other way the push aids us is by helping us to identify and deal with the spammers on the site. With the poorly auto-disambiguated files now at the back of the Best Match, the people whose new files have been manually disambiguated and are still inaccurate (spammers, in a nutshell) are right in front of us for us to deal with.

WHAT THIS ISN’T:
This isn’t a punishment for contributors with big portfolios who haven’t disambiguated their legacy uploads. As noted above, all uploads from before Sept. 18, 2006, will retain their Best Match status regardless of disambiguation status. All contributors who have been disambiguating their new uploads as they come have nothing to worry about. Disambiguating and monitoring your keywords is just as much a part of uploading as getting the image on to our site.
This isn’t a total solution. We’ll still be using the Bulk Tools to get the intentional spam and bad disambiguation out of searches. We’ll still be dealing with spammers. We’ll still be working to further refine and translate the Controlled Vocabulary. Business as usual will continue in addition to this new measure being implemented.Â