Image rights holders and image users face a daunting challenge when it comes to managing licensed rights. Each year, untold thousands of rights managed, royalty free, and wholly owned images are licensed and used under vastly different terms and conditions, making the management and tracking of rights over time extremely difficult. Yet the use of an image outside of agreed terms can result in copyright infringement and significant legal damages.

There are numerous digital asset management systems on the market designed to capture and administer content and license detail. And many publishers have built enterprise-level systems that combine content, production and financial management modules. Large or small, personal or corporate, all image users face a common challenge  – the time and cost to effectively manage licenses and ensure copyright compliance often exceeds the cost of the license itself, and the failure to do so carries enormous liability.

To address this challenge, publishers, designers, ad agencies, museums, libraries, colleges,  stock agencies, photographers, illustrators, picture researchers, attorneys and image industry  leaders from over 70 countries came together to form the non-profit PLUS Coalition. Known worldwide simply as PLUS, the acronym stands for Picture Licensing Universal System. The single PLUS mission: “To simplify and communicate the communication and management of image rights.”

To accomplish this mission, PLUS first established international standards for communicating image rights. Next came development of the PLUS Registry – a global resource allowing image users to quickly identify rights holders and rights information for any image. Employing a combination of unique identifiers and image recognition, PLUS Registry users will be able to manage image rights within the Registry or from within any application connected to the Registry.

British trade association EPUK recently published an article  about the PLUS initiative, concluding that the PLUS Registry is:

 “…the largest evolutionary step for the imaging industry since the internet arrived…potentially the largest cooperative in history … radical and profound … If PLUS gets its way, it will be career and life changing for imaging professionals.  The result has become a grand design for a sustainable photographic ecology adapted to the internet age, evolved and refined over a decade of bridge-building and dialogue … PLUS is the only attempt and opportunity to systemically reinvent an environment that no longer works for anyone.”

Through PLUS, all communities engaged in creating, distributing, using and preserving images are for the first time working together on a global scale toward a shared goal.  To learn more about PLUS and to see and use the PLUS Registry as it develops, visit www.PLUSregistry.org

Roger Feldman is President of Feldman & Associations Inc., America’s largest independent content research and permissions organization.  A longtime member of the American Society of Picture Professionals, Roger has represented ASPP on the PLUS Board of Directors since 2004 and was elected to serve as Chairman of the PLUS board in 2011.

Join Roger and image recognition/search specialist, Leila Boujnane, founder and CEO of Idée Inc. on Wednesday, February 8, from 1:00 – 2:00 pm ET for License Tracking: Systems & Technologies.  Our panelists will take your questions on how to keep track of licenses and link unattributed images with their copyright owners.  Presented as part of The Future of Art & Commerce, a free webinar series jointly produced by the ASMP and CCC.  Click here to register and submit your questions for our panelists.

We don’t need to rehash how the Getty’s industry consolidation, digital photography and microstock made it virtually impossible to be a full-time stock photographer. It’s easy to point the finger at Getty (and they undoubtedly deserve a few fingers), but digital photography alone would have shifted the pricing dynamics to what they are today. There is simply a glut of imagery, and efficient marketplaces exist for moving these photos.

The marketplace is what it is, and the Occupy iStock movement has yet to emerge.

But two interesting things have emerged in the past 12 months or so. First, photographers have finally seen their royalties drop to a level where volume can’t make up for depressed pricing and subscription bundling. There’s nothing more demoralizing than getting a check for a few bucks when you’ve worked a career to build an image library.

Fortunately, there’s been an intersection of photographer attitude and technology. Photographers now have the ability to use online services (like PhotoShelter and others) to directly license images to their clients. But more importantly, photographers believe they can generate enough of their own marketing through traditional and social media channels and photographer collectives to create material levels of revenue.

This is exciting. Optimism in photography.

I’m not suggesting for a moment that your run-of-the-mill photo is suddenly going to make you rich just because it’s available for online licensing through your website, but photographers who have built niche collections certainly have the ability to create their own online collections at a low cost, while collecting the vast majority of profits.

Combine a few niche collections together, and suddenly you significantly extend your reach. Master a few tenets of social media, and you might even go viral (how does a 37,000% increase in traffic sound to you? Carli Davidson did it).

And while finding that perfect, unique image is the goal for any photo buyer or editor, it’s tough to trump convenience. This is where giving trusted access to your top clients comes in handy. Bay Area sports photographer, Brad Mangin, gives full (audited) high resolution download access to his archive of over 100,000 images to editors at Major League Baseball and Sports Illustrated. If editors are on deadline but Brad is photographing a game, they can pull any image at their leisure.

Licensing via convenience is a brilliant and low effort way to make money.

Building a substantial archive online isn’t an overnight effort. Take advantage of the tools and services that can help you shift your relicensing business in-house, and make 2012 a banner year.

Allen Murabayashi is the CEO and Co-founder of PhotoShelter, the worldwide leader in photography portfolio websites, photo sales, marketing and archiving tools for photographers.  With a background in Engineering and a love of photography, Allen is committed to using technology to simplify client-photographer transactions.  Allen is a graduate of Yale University, and flosses daily.

Allen joins Patrick Donehue on Wednesday, January 25 from 1:00 – 2:00 pm ET to answer your questions on Alternate Approaches to Relicensing/Reusing Existing Visual Content, as part of The Future of Art & Commerce, a 10 webinar series produced by the ASMP and CCC.  Click here to register and submit your questions for our panelists.

If so, the next few years, with regard to image licensing and distribution, will be exciting and even an electrifying ride for you.  It may also be a bit hair raising, but isn’t that part of this addictive game that we all play?

The future of image licensing and distribution will continue to be driven by advances in technologies that will offer new alternatives for image makers, distributors, and image users.   These alternatives will, of course, need to be carefully examined as they are developed, but embracing them as an early adopter could indeed be beneficial, especially for the image maker.

Assessing new licensing models and embracing them, when appropriate, with decisive action, will enable the image maker to stay current and to evolve with emerging conventions that have yet to be fully established.  Being open to such change and having the ability to tolerate risk will indeed be an asset especially during such dynamic changes that are often driven by technological innovation.  Sitting on the sidelines and taking a “wait and see” approach as these innovations emerge could have a devastating impact on one’s business, especially if the these innovations are widely embraced within the global image buying community.

Over the past twenty or so years, many photographers have entered a state of semi-paralysis when confronted with new and untested licensing and distribution models.  Sitting on the sidelines didn’t work then, and it certainly won’t work now. The formula is really pretty simple:  Stay informed. Investigate and evaluate with speed and urgency.  Take appropriate action, and take it quickly.

 Stock industry expert, Patrick Donehue of PatrickDonehue.com, is a photographer, educator and consultant.  He has served as VP of Creative Photography and VP/Chief Photographer of Corbis, and as VP/Director of Photography at Allstock, Stone and Getty Images.  A past-president of the Picture Archive Council of America (PACA), Patrick is a frequent lecturer on the creative and business aspects of stock photography.  

Patrick joins Allen Murabayashi of Photoshelter on Wednesday, January 25 from 1:00 – 2:00 pm ET to answer your questions on Alternate Approaches to Relicensing/Reusing Existing Visual Content, as part of The Future of Art & Commerce, a 10 webinar series produced by the ASMP and CCC.  Click here to register and submit your questions for our panelists.

Examining Compensation Models for Visual Content, the sixth in a series of 10 free webinars jointly produced by the ASMP and the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) brings together three knowledgeable experts to discuss and debate how creators, distributors and users of visual content can work together to build sustainable income streams for all members of the visual communications food chain.

Panelist Joe Wikert, General Manager and Publisher at O’Reilly Media, notes that just as photographers are grappling with new definitions for our medium – do video, timelapse, stop motion and CGI qualify as “photography” or do we need a new word to describe our profession? -  publishers are redefining what constitutes a book or magazine. Experimentation, being open to new ideas and a willingness to take risks have helped O’Reilly Media adapt to these powerful changes.

Michael Bilbrey has over 20 years of experience as an Art Buyer and Producer.  As Photography Production Consultant within Leo Burnett’s Strategic Vendor Management group, he works with producers across all media platforms.  Michael provides refreshing insights into the changes he’s seen in the advertising world and how photographers can add value beyond their images.

ASMP’s Executive Director, Eugene Mopsik, brings decades of experience as an independent photographer and industry advocate.  From collective licensing to pay-per-click and other performance based compensation models, Gene’s determination to explore sustainable compensation models for photographers knows no bounds.

We hope you will join us at 1:00 pm eastern on Wednesday, January 11 for this engaging 90 minute free webinar.  Live attendance is limited but all registrants will receive a free recording following the event.  Click here to register.

While much justifiable criticism has been levied against the evolution of cellphone cameras, there is a tremendous beneficiary… journalism.  We know have a literal global network of camera operators with the ability to capture newsworthy events and transmit usable photos.

Many photographers dismiss this technological shift. After all, how can a point-and-shoot (especially a low quality one at that) take the place of a modern DSLR with a selection of lenses? The answer is easy… speed and mobility.

Let’s accept that a modern smartphone has a camera that is technically capable of producing an image that is usable by most news and editorial outlets. Here’s what smartphones have that most DSLRs do not.  Hopefully camera manufacturers and others can push the evolution forward (and yes, evolution these days happens in the consumer space far quicker and more often than the pro equipment segment).

• Data network. First and foremost is the ability to publish on demand.  First often matters when it comes to news… the ability to shoot and tweet/Facebook/share is the key factor here.  Why are WiFi connections in pro cameras so far between and so “stapled-on?”

• Geotagging. Photos from mobile devices are tagged with essential metadata right in camera.  No need for another adapter plugged into your camera.  GPS data as well as relevant date info is automatically captured. This makes it easier to search and discover new images by those interested in finding them.  Location-based search is already throughly integrated into both the Google and Bing search engines.

• Compelling and optimized software. Nearly every top software company has some amazing offerings in the app space.  Whether it’s Adobe Photoshop Express (or the newer Touch), nik’s Snapseed, or Photogene… full-featured editing apps allow for cropping, adjusting, toning, and repairing of digital photos immediately.

• Location-aware updates. The fact that those in a breaking news situation can actually read updates is critical.  The real-time feedback of services like Twitter help those concerned with documenting events find the story and often interact with others.

• Helper applications. From maps, to sun tables, to weather guides… it’s all there.  How a modern photographer could shoot without a smartphone is a valid question.

So…  will professional digital photography evolve?  Why not allow the tethering of your smart phone to your camera.  Couldn’t Nikon, Canon and others offer intelligent apps that tie your phone to your camera?  Couldn’t journalists and others push to a tablet for basic touchup then publish without having to lug a laptop?

As we move closer and closer to digital only delivery for our news and periodicals… the DSLR may go the way of the designer.  The quick and the agile will evolve and survive while the rest become extinct.

Richard Harrington is the founder of RHED Pixel, a visual communications company in Washington, D.C. You can read Rich’s blog at www.RichardHarringtonBlog.com as well as follow him on Twitter @rhedpixel. If you’d like to check out his books, just swing by his Amazon page.

In an era of  maximum image saturation, where every iPhone is a camera and no aspect of human activity goes undocumented, no matter how mundane, new questions emerge as to the value and utility of photography as a means of understanding human experience.

As someone who began as my career as a newspaper photographer and then worked for a number of years as a photo editor and developer of editorial systems to support photojournalism, I have always held the view that professional photojournalists and documentary photographers are in the business of using visual communication to bear witness and create information that can be used to better the human condition.  Our photography can build bridges of connection, make memories, and create a desire in people to have empathy for those things that are beyond the boundary of their immediate life experience.

Our primary publishing tools for much of my career were in print, controlled by media companies, and subject to the vision of editors and publishers and editorial systems that would define the context in which our images were being presented.  On our best days, we produced work that truly informed and offered the possibility of creating awareness in our audiences that enabled them to act in more self-enlightened ways.  At the same time, other skilled professionals have worked in a different arena, creating forms of photography used to incite consumerism, and build brand awareness as fundamental underpinnings of business activity, economic progress, and entertainment.

Today, our world is moving rapidly from print to a screen-based culture equal in weight and prominence.  The tools of technology have changed both the capacity to document the world and to distribute the fruits of photographic observation, as well as the likelihood that most of life will be recorded in a visual image.  The output of skilled professionals who have spent years mastering tools, and craft practice, sits amidst a tidal wave of amateur imagery propelled by some of the same technology.  Further, technological progress is creating the capacity to let photographers of any stripe to evolve visual language further, by enabling the mixing still photography and video together to further abet story-telling.   That story-telling is now fundamental as means to the end of attracting attention, creating brand awareness and loyalty, inciting various forms of social, political, and cultural activity, and fueling the potential for change in all spheres of human activity.

As this refinement of visual language occurs, I think we have to consider the implications of new tools that will further refine photographic vision.  Clearly, some of these tools will make it more difficult to discern the differences between images intended to portray the realities of human experience playing out before a camera, and those fictional images intended to incite human activity on a different basis.

I see room for both types of imagery to coexist as valuable photography, but I think the challenge will be to communicate the differences to our audience so they will continue to be able to discern fact from fiction in the photography that is shared on screens and in print.  We have the obligation to establish new norms for visual literacy, and to ensure our audiences are in fact literate in our language of the visual image.

Formerly with National Geographic and the Washington Post, Tom Kennedy, http://kennedymedia.net, now serves as the Alexia Chair for Documentary Photography at Syracuse University.  A Keynote Speaker for ASMP’s SB3 conferences, his seminar, Understanding the Changing Media Landscape, is traveling to ASMP chapters around the country.

During the initial release of government documents via Wikileaks I had the pleasure of sitting in on a panel discussion addressing the ramifications of the event. There were the expected comments; one part of the panel celebrated the release stating the government needing to be more transparent and that people deserved to know what was happening. Others on the panel pointed to the danger the release may have created for certain individuals and the need to be able to discuss items of national interest in private.  There were also conversations regarding freedom and the need for honesty, all of which were interesting, but there was one comment that caught my ear that day and stayed with me. A former Ambassador on the panel noted that as opposed to creating greater freedom and transparency the Wikileaks release would result less freedom, greater governmental control and a restricted flow of information over the internet, an effect just the opposite of what was intended.

The Ambassador’s comment has frequently come to mind during discussions regarding the need for an organization to monitor the usage of imagery in publication and across the internet. The trend in this conversation seems to have shifted toward the idea that the creation of a single organization that can monitor the movement of imagery on an international level; one that may also resolve the issues of payment and usage. I am not going to discuss the merits of this proposal here, that is another post entirely, but I would like to ask you to think about this issue from another perspective.

There are generally two proposals that arise during these conversations. The first is to have the copyright office or another governmental agency monitor the use of imagery and to possibly work as a sort of collection agency for usage.  The second is for a corporate entity to oversee and manage this process. For one or the other of these methods to work one entity will need either extraordinary oversight and the ability to reach into all corners of the internet, or there will need to be choke points built into the system through which information would need to flow. The resulting concentration of power over the flow of imagery and information would be extraordinary. The effects of this concentration of power and control are unknown but certainly can be imagined. As image makers we may quite possibly be handing over control of what we create with unintended results.  A look at the changes within the stock industry over its short life might be a good example. This is not to condemn the ideas listed above, they may indeed be the best or only solution to our problem, but to ask you to be aware of what you ask for. Sometimes the results are not what we expect.

Thomas Werner; Educator, Lecturer, Curator. Please see Thomas Werner Projects on Facebook and Thomaswernerprojects.wordpress.com or for more information.

We live in a world where a search for “How to Copyright Photo” brings up 1.1 billion results, “Audio for Video” yields just over a billion and “Marketing Photography” clocks in at a mere 233 million.  No wonder finding great stuff on the internet takes so much time.

Seems I’m not the only one who’s noticed this trend.  “Search Science” is all over the media – Smart Search, Filtered Search, Human Search – the race to index the web has ended.  Providing valuable results is the new frontier.

Enter CameraCake.com.  ASMP’s new resource sharing website where you can find resources on photography, video and multimedia that have been submitted, approved and reviewed by people you trust.

I’ve already discovered all kinds of resources that I never would have found otherwise because I just don’t have to the time to sift through all that chaff, to find those few grains of wheat.  Sharing the burden of identifying good information buys us access to a wealth of knowledge with minimal effort.

Some of my favorite finds so far:

On Marketing:

The Future of Advertising & Marketing posted by Jorge Parra is a 10 minute interview featuring marketing guru Seth Godin who discusses how the internet is revolutionizing media and messaging “If you’re doing average stuff for average people, I can get it cheaper…what you have to do really well now is tell stories.”

The Most Dangerous Threat to Your Online Marketing Efforts posted by Alex Lippisch – a fascinating read on “Digital Sharecropping” and the importance of making sure you put as much effort into the digital marketing vehicles you actually own as the one’s built on other people’s real estate.

On Creativity:

Exclusive Interview of John Jay on Creativity posted by Luke Copping, a beautifully filmed rhapsody from Wieden + Kennedy’s executive creative director.  “Sometimes in our industry we get silo’d to death…our job is to never let anyone define who we are by their terms.”  Great advice for all photographers today.

On Inspiration

Key Words: Photographers on Photography posted by William Sawalich offers inspiring, beautiful and insightful quotes by photographers about business, creativity, process, in short, everything it takes to produce great work.

I hope the next trend I see is more photographers sharing, liking/disliking and reviewing resources  on CameraCake.com – together, we can build the best resource of all.

Judy Herrmann loves helping people grow businesses through evocative imagery, dynamic seminars, one-on-one consultations, her blog, 2goodthings.com and by posting her favorite resources on CameraCake.com.

I spend part of my career speaking at industry conferences. This gives me an opportunity to see who’s exhibiting, as well as talk to vendors and photographers to see what’s on their minds. I wanted to quickly share five things that I’ve noticed popping up more and more. Consider adding these areas to your service offerings to expand business opportunity:

3D Photography
Right now, this is actually starting as a consumer trend. We’re seeing cameras like the Sony Bloggie 3D as well as some mobile phones starting to pick things up. But 3D is on the rise and I expect things like iPad, phone, and computer displays to not be far behind. If you’re into product or location photography, give it some serious thought.

• Here’s an example of web usage that’s pretty cool from Vision3 Imaging

• You should also check out lenticular printing such as Snapily.com

Video
I know for some this is old news… but interest continues to skyrocket. My dSLR classes at Photoshop World sold out in record time. I was amazed at how many people in the photography world are interested in video and have clients willing to pay.

• Want a jump on understanding video and DSLR – check out From Still to Motion

• Canon has big news coming too with new gear being announced in Hollywood on November 3

Time-lapse Photography
A close cousin to video is the art of time-lapse photography. In this case the photographer shoots several stills sequentially using a timer or intervalometer. An exposure can be taken as often as every second, but often longer intervals are used to show the passing of time. There is high demand for time-lapse photography within the stock community and it’s a heck of a lot of fun.

• Want to be inspired, visit timescapes.org

• Want to learn about time-lapse? Visit Triple Exposure

Metal Printing
One of the most popular output options these days is metal printing. Whether it’s large sizes for walls to smaller panels for installations, you’ll find that many vendors are now offering this service. Two things to think of – first shop around… because this is a new service… prices are vary wildly. Second, most printers tell me to reduce the contrast and saturation a bit as the metal will intensify both.

Your Turn
Spot any trends we’ve missed? Help us all out by sharing below.

Richard Harrington is the founder of RHED Pixel, a visual communications company in Washington, D.C. You can read Rich’s blog at www.RichardHarringtonBlog.com as well as follow him on Twitter @rhedpixel. If you’d like to check out his books, just swing by his Amazon page.

I’m constantly on the lookout for emerging trends I feel will significantly impact photography, video and visual marketing, computational photography and 3D projection mapping (a.k.a. spacial augmented reality). Here are some trends I see going places.

Computational Photography
Distilled to its essence, computational photography aims at adding intelligence to the process of taking a picture or capturing video. It helps to think of it this way. Our cameras today are “dumb” devices. They record the light reaching the sensor without any understanding of the content being recorded or the spacial relationships between objects in the scene.

By comparison, computational photography is a “smarter” process. By capturing multiple images and making comparisons between the contents of those images, your camera is better able to infer depth and spacial relationships between objects in the scene, extend the dynamic range of the capture, or allow for sophisticated post-processing like noise reduction, adjusting focus or depth of field on your computer instead of in the camera.

Paired with a smartphone-like Internet connection, possibilities are magnified to integrate location, position and image recognition to your photography.

Right now, much of this research is being conducted in the labs of universities and manufacturing facilities (e.g. Stanford, MIT Media Lab, Adobe, NVIDIA, etc.). We’ll most likely begin seeing the results of this testing in smartphones phones first, then dSLRs. I eagerly await the results.

Computational Photography: Resources and samples

•  Camera 2.0, the FCam from Stanford: http://graphics.stanford.edu/projects/camera-2.0/

• - American Scientist magazine: http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/computational-photography/1

• - FxGuide Podcast: Adobe CS 5.5 & Tool Tech (Technology Behind After Effects Warp Stabilize Feature): http://www.fxguide.com/fxguidetv/fxguidetv-108-adobe-cs5-5-image-tech/

• - Computational Photography on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_photography

3D Projection Mapping
3D Projection mapping, more accurately called spacial augmented reality, projects images onto the physical environment. What makes 3D projection mapping different than, say, projecting an image onto a screen, is that the three-dimensional geometry of the surface receiving the projection (e.g. a building or studio set) is used to pre-distort the projected image. This means the image takes on the shape and physical characteristics of the surface upon which it is projected.

It’s much easier to show you projection mapping than describe it, so here are three examples of 3D projection mapping in action. Right now, there are a handful of companies producing high-end projection mapping events for large companies, and a number of video DJ’s who pair geometric designs, bold patterns and brash colors to music, but there aren’t many uses in-between. My hunch is this middle ground is an area ripe for exploration by intrepid photographers.

From an artistic perspective, the concept of being able to create environments from digital photos, videos and graphics is quite tantalizing.

3d Projection Mapping Samples

• - Music Band, Animated: http://createdigitalmotion.com/2011/09/band-of-instruments-animated-wondrous-projection-mapping/

• - Adidas France Event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp2Z_RBcLPs

• - Architectural Projection Mapping: The Future of Motion Graphics? http://www.fuelyourcreativity.com/architectural-projection-mapping-the-future-of-motion-graphics/

• - Living Room by Mr. Beam: http://vimeo.com/18460233

Jay Kinghorn will be presenting The Agile Photographer in a city near you. Check out the seminar schedule for dates and locations.