DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
ON THE INTERNET
Aaron Regal
- April 2012 – Publishing on the World Wide Web
Digital
photos have flooded the Internet in an inconceivable volume over the past
decade, due largely to the popularity of image sharing websites such as
Facebook, Flickr, and Instagram. Recent availability of high quality cameras on
mobile devices and wireless networks enabling instant uploading have also
dramatically increased the quantity of images pouring into the web daily. In
fact, it has been statistically calculated that the Apple I Phone 4 is the most
used camera on Flickr. Digital photography is everywhere, from profiles to
blogs, forums and news sites; it is difficult to find a web page today in which
digital photography does not play a crucial role in content communication. Lets
start with some numbers for reference:
100,000,000,000
Number of photos estimated to be on
Facebook by mid 2011
14,000,000
Instagram accounts have been
created during 2011
150,000,000
Images posted by users on Instagram
60
Average number of photographs
uploaded to Instagram per second
51,000,000
Registered users on Flickr
4,500,000
Number of photographs uploaded to
Flickr daily
6,000,000,000
Photographs hosted on Flickr as of
August 2011
- Statistics taken from www.Pingdom.com
INSTAGRAM
ACQUIRED BY FACEBOOK FOR
1
BILLION DOLLARS
Facebook recently purchased Instagram, a free
software created during 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in San
Francisco, California for a whopping $1,000,000,000 paid in a combination of
cash and stock option. With a little math, one can determine this means
Facebook paid about $30 for each of roughly 30,000,000 current Instagram users.
This program enables online photo sharing on multiple mobile platforms such as
I Phones and androids. Some of the highlights of this application that attracts
so many users is the ability to apply trendy photo filters to images captured,
as well as shoot in a square format similar to the appearance of a Hasselblad
Rolleiflex image or a Polaroid. Anyone with access to a basic version of
Photoshop and poor taste can accomplish the same final product; yet the
aesthetic has grown massively popular, this application has become a critical
component to the seasoned hipster’s arsenal.
On Wall Street, many were stunned to hear about Facebook’s
recent acquisition for such a massive sum of money, far surpassing any previous
buyout. Prior to this transaction, Facebook has exclusively focused on much
smaller company acquirement, all worth less than a total of $100,000,000.
Facebook is no stranger to destroying emerging competition, and regularly buys
out smaller companies to discourage startups from growing larger. Many
speculate that this purchase was an entirely defensive acquisition, and rumor
is that is was in an attempt to keep it out of the hands of networking rival,
Twitter, which has a much higher mobile presence currently. Many predict that
other companies of similar popularity such as Pinterest, Tumblr, and DropBox
may see ten figure offers within the next year.
Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chief executive of
Facebook, has made public claims that he is committed to building and growing
Instagram independently. He recently posted on his page, “We believe these are different experiences that complement each other.
But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building
on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate
everything into Facebook.” Clearly, this acquisition is a serious
undertaking with the potential to create complications; Facebook has never
absorbed a company with as many users as Instagram. Never the less, it is one
less competitor on Facebook’s radar, and the social networking giant continues
to grow.
GOOGLE SEARCH BY IMAGE
During the summer of 2011, Google announced a new
search engine development enabling users to use an image as a starting point
for an Internet search opposed to a traditional text query. Google explains
that the resulting images and pages will be relevant. While browsing the
internet on the Chrome or Firefox internet applications, when visiting
images.google.com a small blue camera icon will now appear on the far right
side of the search bar. To access this ability, you simply drag and drop and
image into the search bar, upload an image from your hard drive, or paste the
URL of a photograph already on the web. Google claims this is particularly
useful for the purpose of identifying artworks, landmarks, and animals.
This ability is new to the computer world,
however a previous mobile application known as Google goggles for the Android
has implemented the same technology since 2009. Google explains on their
blogging site:
“Search by Image starts with the computer vision technology underlying Google
Goggles, and adds new techniques and functionality that optimize the
experience for desktop. The technology behind Search by Image analyzes your
image to find its most distinctive points, lines and textures and creates a
mathematical model. We match that model against billions of images in our
index, and page analysis helps us derive a best guess text description of your
image. “
How
well does this work? In some cases, very well, however in others it is seriously
lacking in recognition ability. As they advertise, the technology has proven
particularly well when dealing with photos of animals, established artworks,
and architectural exteriors. However, it has no facial recognition capability,
therefore apart from celebrities with large numbers of similar photographs of
them on the Internet, it is difficult to identify individuals, and it often
struggles with identifying plants as well. In conclusion, it is an interesting
take on search engine technology, and is particularly helpful for internet
image gathering, however, chances are if you are looking to identify something
that is not obvious you will have a hard time doing so with Google search by
image.
SELLING DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS
ONLINE
For those of you that have invested in a high
caliber camera and opted to not take crummy photographs on instagram, there is
hope. Due to the overwhelming market for advertising design content, a huge
market for stock photography is available for you to capitalize on.
Corporations of today prefer to license imagery from stock photography
companies instead of hiring more expensive professional photographers. Sites
like Shutterstock.com make earning a little extra money easy for the freelance
photographer of today, offering between 30-40% income on downloads, or about 25
cents per download.
However, having good photographs for download is
critical to making a substantial income. Stock photography must be of
marketable content as well as technically proficient. It is possible to make a
good living off of selling stock photography online, some top users with
portfolios on multiple stock websites have been known to make upwards of
$10,000/m.
There are a number of basic rules that are good
to follow if you intend on selling your photography to stock websites.
- First, digital noise will make a photograph
unsellable. Stock photographs should be crisp, well exposed, well lit, and
compositionally considerate.
- Secondly, snapshot photography will not sell,
it is critical to provide photographs that are in high market demand. To get a
sense of what types of images sell well, browsing the top download section of
these websites is a good place to start. Typically, photographs of people and
landscapes sell particularly well.
- Third, you cannot include a watermark or
register a copyright to your imagery if you plan to submit a photograph to said
agency. Also, avoid including third party advertisements within the imagery for
the same reason.
- Lastly, when shooting images of people, it is a
good idea to insist on your models signing a model release form to avoid any
problems with agencies.
This is by no means a get rich quick scheme,
however it can be highly profitable if approached appropriately. It is a safe
assumption to suppose this market will continue to grow in the years to come.
Suggestions from http://www.dphotojournal.com/sell-photos-online/
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