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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
File formats for stock sales
Bradley Wakoff, Photographer
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Fort Collins | CO | USA | Posted: 3:40 PM on 11.23.10 |
->> I'm in the process of organizing my archive with the intent of marketing and licensing the images for editorial and commercial use. This is a new market for me - most of my experience is in daily news, using jpg's almost exclusively. The exact markets for my images are TBD, but will almost certainly not be daily news outlets.
My question for colleagues with experience in these markets: which file format do your clients to prefer - raw, tiff or jpg?
Thanks!
Brad |
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Debra L Rothenberg, Photographer
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New York | NY | USA | Posted: 4:55 PM on 11.23.10 |
->> Brad-each client and agency is different, so it would be best to ask them. While the majority of my images that I license are jpegs, I get requests from some clients for RAW and Tiff.
Debbie |
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Clark Brooks, Photo Editor, Photographer
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Urbana | IL | USA | Posted: 5:23 PM on 11.23.10 |
->> Bradley,
To be clear on what you are asking, are you going to license and deliver the work yourself or do you plan to submit your images to stock agencies to do that? |
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Bradley Wakoff, Photographer
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Fort Collins | CO | USA | Posted: 5:41 PM on 11.23.10 |
| ->> Clark: The question was meant to apply to self-marketed work. (I'm looking at agencies as well but as Debra pointed out, they'll have their own requirements.) |
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Thomas E. Witte, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Cincinnati | OH | USA | Posted: 9:56 PM on 11.23.10 |
->> _They_ could need anything.
_You_ should be prepared for that.
The simplest way to do that is maintain an archive of the highest quality files that take up the least amount of space, ie, RAW. |
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Clark Brooks, Photo Editor, Photographer
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Urbana | IL | USA | Posted: 10:51 PM on 11.23.10 |
| ->> Thanks for clarifying the question. Clients needs will vary depending on the training of the graphic arts or art director. In my own experience, most will high end folks want TIFF files, editorial/newspaper and some book publishers will be happy with jpeg files and occasionally you will likely have request for the camera RAW file. As Thomas suggest, shoot RAW (high quality and takes up far less space than TIFF files) and then create client files as per the buyer's instructions. |
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Harrison Shull, Photographer
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Fayetteville, WV | Asheville, NC | | Posted: 5:58 AM on 11.24.10 |
->> Ditto on Thomas and Clark. But why worry about this now. You have no confirmed use, yet? Why not keep it simple?
1) Keep all your RAW's safely archived and easily accessible
2) Output your stock collection as jpegs at some size for viewing that strikes the balance between less space eaten up yet big enough for the client to review easily. I like 600x400 at 72 dpi with a watermark.
3) Once the client selects a file for print, DO YOUR PAPERWORK!!! (EP is a great resource for these!) and then prep the file(s) as per the client's request and ship the hi-res off.
When I first took a D65 workshop they were advocating that for every file you have, you should keep - the RAW, a tiff, largest jpeg, smaller jpeg, and then any variations (B&W, etc..). At the time they were shooting the 1Ds2 and I could not believe they were eating up so much prep time (spotting, retouching, color correction, etc..) to have so many versions of a single image. Then when you factor in the storage requirements - it was insane! I find it doubly so today with the ridiculously high MP files we produce.
When you really get down to it, a very small fraction of any stock collection actually ever moves. So why not keep it simple? Have an easily accessible RAW for every file. Then have the 400x600 that are viewable online or you can send directly to the client for review. This eats up the least storage and time and over the years will ensure that you "best" frames end up prepped for use.
As an FYI... most stock agencies today want something along the lines of a 12"x18" 300dpi Jpeg(max quality) in AdobeRGB98. Corbis, Getty, Aurora, and a slew of other agencies do just fine providing large jpegs to all manner of clients so that should work well for you too. |
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