The November 2007 issue of PDN Magazine (Photo District News) includes several articles on stock photography, one of which is “Hidden Gems,” which highlights several photographers and their one image which outsells all the others within their stock libraries. It’s really quite interesting to see which images are the most popular and have the most appeal to advertising agencies and other photo licensing buyers. More often than not it’s those images which are relatively straightforward and simple in both subject and execution.
Without a doubt my “hidden gem” is image #1H2767 “Dayton Skyline.” I’ve lost count how many times this image has sold, in terms of both fine art prints and stock licensing. I have several other very good Dayton skylines, both day, night, with fireworks, etc., but when someone calls or emails me inquiring about my Dayton skyline photograph, I have yet to guess wrong that he or she is referring to 1H2767. This image was captured using a medium format film camera (Mamiya RZ67II) on color negative film, on one particular Sunday morning in June 2003 when all the right elements just came together.
This image has been published on numerous company and organizational web sites as well as within print advertisements and marketing collateral. A few months back I had the opportunity to sell licensing rights of this image to an ad/creative agency based in Columbus, Ohio. This agency does much of the creative work for local television spots for Time Warner Cable. This past weekend while running on a treadmill and watching a movie on the attached tv monitor, I saw the spot where my Dayton skyline photograph was used as a backdrop for a make believe local news report within a 30-second spot for Time Warner. The image looked just as good on broadcast television as it does on the web and in print.
The reason why both my stock image files - no matter which visual medium is used - and fine art prints consistently look good is because I start with either the original negative or transparency, either 35mm or 6×7, and re-scan on a Nikon Coolscan 8000 for a 1st generation TIFF or JPEG that fits exactly the file size and pixel dimensions requested by the creative agency, or I prepare a custom-sized TIFF or JPEG from an original raw digital capture, coming from top-of-the-line, high performance Canon EOS digital pro bodies that include 10.1-megapixel CMOS sensors. There are also a few pro techniques that I do with the original raw file whereby I am able to bring forth the best possible color and details. I do this by working in both Photoshop and Aperture on a Mac Pro desktop system.
In other words, the local kid with the consumer brand gear and entry-level understanding of megapixels (it’s not the highest number of dots per inch that make the best TIFF’s and JPEG’s) will more than likely deliver image files that might look good as 4″x6″ prints, but when shown on screen in a PowerPoint presentation or placed within a broadcast ad reveal spaces between the pixels that you could drive a semi through, well, you start to realize that indeed with photography you do get what you pay for.
Ask your photographer, or potential photographer, where his or her images have been published and if their work has been accepted by stock agencies, which almost always apply stringent quality control standards. If his or her answer is “well, my high school yearbook” or the local community newspaper, then please, give me a call (432-6711 or 1-877-527-6889) or email.
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