Pixamba Media Management Service helps users to index, store, search, tag, retrieve and back up their images, whether purchased from photo stock agencies or edited in-house. The service also enables users to manage micro stock photography in multiple drafts and file versions.

Pixamba Media Management Service provides real-time visibility of each individual stock image, including when and how it was used and the up-to-date status of respective legal rights for further use. This allows users to ensure that set policy-based usage permissions and content security rules are adhered to.

Easy to use with an entry price point of $4.99 per account for 3GB space, Pixamba’s service provides a unique combination of features for microstock users:

• Centralized digital media storage and management accessible from anywhere
• Advanced fast search functionality
• Integrated search in customer’s archive and in multiple stock agencies
• Automated ‘Buy & Stock’ feature and original metadata retention
• Advanced version control
• Automated indexing
• Media-rights tracking for maximum ROI
• User friendly and intuitive interaction
• Fast image uploads and media indexingv * SaaS delivery requiring no initial investment and low pay-as-you-go storage costs
• Accepts virtually any digital asset, most images formats supported
• Media cataloguing by folders, light boxes, companies and categories

Available as a software as a service solution based on an advanced cloud computing infrastructure, Pixamba Media Management requires no complex installation and ensures that image libraries are easily acces­sible to multiple users.

David Mail, CEO and founder of Pixamba said: “With the exponential growth in the global microstock market, there has been a dramatic increase in microstock-based creative files. We believe that we are the first to market to provide a digital asset management system that puts the stock photography consumers in full control of their archives of licensed images”.

The new service is aimed at purchasers of digital stock photography including web designers, graphic designers, creative and advertising agencies and media, marketing and academic users.

Pricing information:

All plans include full functionality and 30-day free trial.

• Basic: $4.99/m – 3GB
• Plus: $11.99/m – 10GB – limited time sign up offer: 20% off – $9.99/m
• Premium: $24.99/m – 30GB
• Max: $49.99/m – 80 GB, Unlimited with flat $0.49/GB over 80GB

Pixamba also offers a free plan limited to 100MB storage.

© 2010, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

PhotoBiz customers can bring absolutely any external website link, video, blog, contact form, social network, slideshow, Facebook, Twitter, Chat or Studio Management system or anything else imaginable which is published online, into their “Smart Light Box” which appears directly on top of their website. This feature is available under ANY menu item with PhotoBiz Flash and/or HTML website templates. The power of this tool is the ability to keep website visitors on your site as long as possible, and so they can easily navigate all your content, chat, message, Blog, Network, all about you . There are virtually unlimited options available with the new PhotoBiz “Smart Light Box”.

The “Smart Light Box” is a customizable feature. There is an opaque faded background that goes over the website. Couple that with a very sleek border that surrounds the embedded content, giving all content an elegant frame. All of the colors that can be seen on this embedded page are completely customizable with our PhotoBiz enhanced color picker.

A roll-over caption feature is enabled on each embedded content page so that the PhotoBiz customer can give a little bit more information to their viewers. Colors and fonts choices come in abundance.
The customers are given complete control over the size of this “Smart Light Box”. By simply inserting the size they would like their work to appear in, the “Smart Light Box” will automatically be centered over their website. Since viewers will all have different monitor sizes, our “Smart Light Box” will adjust to any monitor size and maintain the light box as centered. The customer can choose to control background music from their website, without interfering with the Light Box content.

As a PhotoBiz customer; there are no upgrade fees or hassles to add this feature. PhotoBiz is the only website template company that is truly cloud computing, this feature is already enabled in our web based drag and drop control panel and ready to use.

For more information about PhotoBiz.com, or to get started using the new “Smart Light Box”, visit us at PhotoBiz.com.

© 2010, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

Nashua, NH (PRWEB) January 12, 2010 — iSyndica, an online management and distribution service for microstock portfolios, today announced its sponsorship of Rames Dames, a four-woman French rowing team competing in the Atlantic 2009. Organized by Woodvale Challenge, the bi-annual race consists of 31 international teams attempting to cross the Atlantic ocean. Team members Catherine Remy, Laurence De Rancourt, Laurence Grand-Clement, and Quitterie Marque embarked on their journey on January 4, 2010 from La Gomera (Canary Islands), in an autonomous rowing boat and through the use of iSyndica, they will be able to share frequent updates to friends and followers tracking their progress.

We view iSyndica as an ideal platform for easily uploading, managing and distributing our photos and videos during this project,” said Quitterie Marque, member of the Rames Dames rowing team. “Our support team consists of people in various cities in Europe and Asia, and we plan to communicate through various media, like Facebook, Picasa, and our website. iSyndica gives us a single interface and a single-step process to distribute to all of these platforms. This will save us a lot of time and ensure that we have up-to-date information available. We can’t imagine a better digital media partner.”

iSyndica’s platform allows users to upload, manage, distribute and check statistics on their photos, videos and illustrations – all from a single location. The simple, wide-sweeping model became a perfect choice for the Rames Dames team members, who face an extremely difficult mental and physical challenge and were in need of a central location for their content. Using iSyndica, they will be able to instantly share photos and videos on Facebook, Picasa and Twitter, no matter where they are in their journey.

To follow Rames Dames’ latest updates, please visit www.4women4444km.com. To learn more about the iSyndica platform, please visit www.isyndica.com.

© 2010, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

Swiss Picture Bank was designed with the advanced photographer in mind. The service provides features that make it easy to organize, print and share photos, all while keeping them safe, secure and private for 99 years — guaranteed. Photos uploaded to Swiss Picture Bank are stored in a secure, quadruple-redundant data archive where they can be accessed online at any time and downloaded in full resolution at will. Swiss Picture Bank now offers improved features, including a redesigned interface, sharing capabilities, and a desktop uploader application.

Current functionalities of Swiss Picture Bank include:

“We listened to the wants and needs of our current customers, and a lot of that feedback has found its way into the revamped Swiss Picture Bank,” said Mike Bevans, Co-Founder of Swiss Data Group. “Combined with our archival-quality technology and the only guarantee in the industry, the application’s improved features and functionalities make Swiss Picture Bank the most secure place for photographers to store and share their work.”

For more information on Swiss Picture Bank, visit http://www.swisspicturebank.com.

© 2009, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

New York (Vocus/PRWEB ) December 8, 2009 — Swiss Data Group today announced the launch of SnapHaven, an online photo storage site that guarantees the safety and security of members’ precious memories for life.

SnapHaven makes Swiss Data Group’s robust quadruple-redundant archive available to the everyday snapshot photographer. Users can import photos quickly through the SnapHaven Easy Photo Uploader desktop application, access them online at any time, and easily share them with family and friends. For new members, the first 100 photos uploaded to SnapHaven are free.

SnapHaven features:

“Photos are the most important data we own. With SnapHaven, we aimed to create a secure storage solution for the everyday photographer,” said Mike Bevans, Co-Founder and Chief Evangelist of Swiss Data Group. “The application’s easy to use interface and sharing tools make it the best option for people who want to keep their memories safe for a lifetime.”

For more information on SnapHaven, visit http://www.snaphaven.com.

© 2009, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

Offered as an affordable pay-per-capacity model, LTU engine/ON demand requires little upfront financial investment, no additional hardware and as a hosted service there are no recurring maintenance or upgrade fees.

“Having been in this industry for 10 years now, it is extremely rewarding to see that organizations of all sizes and across a variety of industries are realizing the tremendous value of image recognition technologies,” said Alexandre Winter, CEO and co-founder of LTU technologies. “LTU engine/ON demand does not require resources to deploy and maintain internally. This new platform will enable developers of mobile applications, websites, online communities and other consumer applications to easily and affordably integrate our technologies, making image recognition a standard feature,” added Winter.

LTU engine/ON demand is extremely flexible and integrates seamlessly with most software and hardware systems. The platform features cutting-edge image matching and similarity search performed at exceptional speed and accuracy levels. Images can be matched regardless of cropping, sizing, rotations, perspective, compilations and image quality, proven especially powerful for tracking image usage and integration with mobile applications.

In conjunction with the release of LTU engine/ON demand, LTU technologies is also launching the LTU developer network – a program that provides developers free access to its platform API for integration into new or existing solutions and applications. Developers can join the program at http://www.ltutech.com/en/ltu-developer-network.

© 2009, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

The newest release of Digimarc for Images uses an innovative embedding technology to ensure the digital watermark placed into the image is imperceptible to the human eye, while detected and read by software, such as Adobe® Photoshop®, and a range of available readers. Technology enhancements also ensure a highly durable watermark that persists with the image as it is manipulated, transformed or converted from one file format to another, as well as copied, encrypted or decrypted, cropped, resized and more.

“Maintaining a truly imperceptible watermark in a digital image, while ensuring it is strong enough to survive more aggressive manipulations, was a challenge in earlier versions,” stated Kevin Shields, senior product manager for Digimarc. “This new version delivers the robustness enhancements our customers have been asking for without sacrificing the quality of the viewing experience.”

“Corbis has been a Digimarc customer for over 10 years and the ability to use Digimarc digital watermarking to identify the unauthorized use of a Corbis collection image is a cornerstone of our compliance efforts,” said Claire Keeley, Corporate Attorney. “It helps us determine where and how images are being used unlawfully.”

To support businesses and organizations with large volumes of images Digimarc offers several embedding solutions, such as a batch embedder for easily watermarking all images in a single folder, as well as a scripted embedder or software development kit to customize the solution to meet specific workflow requirements.

Digimarc for Images is currently being used by enterprises such as Airbus, Sony, Sprint, Time-Life, Microsoft, and others who rely on the solution to reliably communicate ownership information and usage rights to anyone who attempts to use the image online.

For a brief video demonstration of the new technology enhancements,

visit: www.digimarc.com/chroma.

© 2009, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

NASHUA, N.H., Nov. 2 /PRNewswire/ — iSyndica’s latest update gives stock photographers the ability to distribute their images with custom watermarks to popular social media sites such as Facebook and Flickr. The custom watermarks can be applied to portfolios automatically, saving users hours of processing and uploading duplicate images for public use. The service also lets photographers resize their images to guarantee that the images they publicly share can’t be reused for unauthorized commercial purposes.

The 2009 PDN Photo Plus Expo highlighted the growing interest among photographers in social media, with two panels addressing Twitter and social media. However many expressed concerns as to where and how to start. iSyndica helps answer that question by connecting users’ existing portfolio to the most popular services on the internet. Engaging in social media activity can now start with the click of a button, sending images with signature watermarks to Twitter or Picasa. iSyndica also supports videos with YouTube and blip.tv among other sites.

“iSyndica’s been a real time saver for me. I use it to submit my portfolio to nine (stock photography) agencies,” says user Jane Goodrich. “With just another click, it’s on Facebook and Flickr. I just love it. The addition of a custom watermark will really add the layer of personalization I had been waiting for.”

For more details on iSyndica, visit http://www.isyndica.com/

© 2009, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

SILICON VALLEY, California, October 13/PRNewswire/ — PicScout, the market leader in worldwide image services and enabler of client image monetization activities, today announced an invitation-only beta test of its newest Image IRC(TM) enabled product, ImageExchange(TM). Creative and corporate communication professionals, designers, and those who actively buy images are encouraged to register for one of the invitation openings to be part of the landmark industry image monetization event. Participants will be equipped with a Firefox add-on to expand their creative options, improve their productivity and select images that can be legally licensed, all while connecting with the stock agencies they already have relationships with as they can now access information about images online, see image rights, and transact in real time.

Selected beta participants will be the first to see millions of images and their licensors online, whether encountering images in determined searches at sites like Google Images, or happening upon the right image while stumbling or surfing the internet. Marked with the international information symbol – an encircled “i” – images are recognizable and available to the beta user to point to an image to obtain more information, view the available rights, and make a connection to the licensor/agency to transact in real-time. Selection will be considered on the basis of several factors, including global geographic diversity, professional experience, and primary area of business focus. All may register now: http://imagex.picscout.com/

The select group will have the power to view and easily license images as no one has before – with image information and one-click connection to the agency or license rights holders, and the ability to transact in real time. Those selected also will play a critical role in shaping the new image marketplace by contributing their experiences and feedback for refinement of the ImageExchange add-on, making it the ultimate creativity and efficiency tool for legitimate image acquisition, whether used as an essential designer’s expression tool, a corporate communication professional’s sourcing tool, or by any image user.

“As the owner of a large design firm, I adhere scrupulously to copyright and trademark laws. There’s just too much at risk. I have to protect my business and my clients’ businesses.” said Nancy Duarte, CEO and Principal, Duarte Design, http://www.duarte.com. “Ownership and copyright information of online images has been difficult. It’s often impossible to determine ownership and then properly license. Designers are reluctant to use web images in their work because of ownership ambiguity. The PicScout Image IRC flips the model for designers, by providing rights information on web-images instantly. The ImageExchange add-on conveniently helps my designers find images, identify ownership and image rights, and even connect to the appropriate image-owner to obtain use rights.”

Interested designers and image buyers can register to be considered for the ImageExchange beta at http://imagex.picscout.com/. Open registration begins today, October 13, 2009.

In a separate announcement made today – October 13, PicScout Image IRC(TM) and ImageExchange(TM) Gain Industry-wide Support to Credit Images and Connect Owners and Users for Digital Rights ( http://www.picscout.com/news-and-events/industry-wide-support.html) – PicScout revealed the first wave of industry support with tens of millions of images available for selected ImageExchange beta users to access for information, licensing rights, and real-time connection for transaction.

© 2009, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

SILICON VALLEY, California, October 13/PRNewswire/ — PicScout, the market leader in worldwide image services and enabler of client image monetization activities, today announces worldwide support from North America, Asia, and Europe for the company’s newly launched enabling services platform and suite of products to credit images and facilitate real-time transactions between buyers and sellers of images. The first group of agencies representing many thousands of photographers from around the world, leading trade organizations, and digital image rights groups acclaim and support PicScout Image IRC(TM) and ImageExchange(TM) in a show of solidarity to assure that every image gets its credit.

“PACA applauds the efforts of our PACA corporate sponsor, PicScout, to provide a technical solution that connects images to the licensor,” said Cathy Aron, Executive Director, PACA. “PACA supports technological developments that help prevent unauthorized uses and developments that provide users a way to easily find the owner/licensor.”

“The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) applauds the efforts of PicScout in the creation of Image IRC, which facilitates the connection between rights holders and image consumers in the digital marketplace,” said Eugene Mopsik, Executive Director, American Society of Media Photographers. “Image IRC makes it easy to directly license Google images by providing essential image information and connection. Initial participation looks great. We look forward to additional growth and will be offering this service to our members for their consideration.”

“The initiative that PicScout has taken to track online, license, and protect the ownership of the imagery of professional photographers worldwide is not only outstanding, it is crucial in our rapidly evolving online marketplace for imagery,” said Shannon Fagan, President, Stock Artists Alliance.

At the time of announcement, PicScout has added many global agencies and platforms, along with their proprietary images to the Image IRC as clients. The roster includes leading global agencies and all types of license platforms–rights managed, royalty free, microstock, and UGC Creative Commons. Leading companies in the industry under contract include Time, Inc. http://www.timelifepictures.com, along with many agencies, including Aflo http://www.aflo.com; Dreamstime http://www.Dreamstime.com; Glow Images http://www.glowimages.com; Maground http://www.maground.com; Masterfile http://www.masterfile.com; Mauritius Images http://www.mauritius-images.com; PlainPicture http://www.plainpicture.com; SeaPics http://www.seapics.com; and Trunk Archive http://www.trunkarchive.com. As PicScout IRC and ImageExchange clients, these companies have enrolled millions of images with Image IRC. Each image is indexed with a digital fingerprint; registered with associated metadata that identifies vital owner and licensor information; and through ImageExchange, available for real-time connections between image buyers and licensors for use and/or purchase.

These rights managed stock agencies also license PicScout ImageTracker(TM) which provides the copyright protection. Separately, PicScout and the PLUS Coalition http://www.usePLUS.org will announce an alliance later this week.

“Time, Inc. publishes our image collection on Google Images; the Image IRC technology enables us to quantify actual use and distinguish between consumer and syndication traffic, as well as to gain insight to ways we can better monetize our images,” said Jeff Burak, director of Business Development, Life. “It is important for images to be credited, and we are pleased to see the industry moving toward that goal.”

“Masterfile is enthusiastic about PicScout’s newest technology. It creates a seamless connection between potential clients and licensors for images published online – anywhere, anytime, in any form,” said Masterfile CEO, Steve Pigeon. “Our years of experience with PicScout in automated tracking of online images for copyright management assure us that this will be another commercially successful initiative.”

The many millions of images now available through PicScout Image IRC can be recognized by anyone equipped with the free PicScout Image Exchange(TM) Firefox add-on. Those equipped see all Image IRC images marked with the universally used “i” information icon, wherever they may encounter one online. Pointing to the icon exposes metadata that identifies the image’s owner or licensor and the connecting link to buy/use the image directly from the licensor. http://www.picscout.com/images/stories/pdfs/3STEPS.pdf

“PicScout’s Image IRC is a major innovation for photographers and stock professionals alike. It will be a tremendous asset to anyone who licenses photographs for a living,” said Dan Nelson, Attorney at Law, The Nelson Law Firm. “PicScout Image IRC makes it easy for anyone to secure rights for high quality photographs and should eliminate the argument that someone may have been oblivious to a copyright.”

“We are pleased to announce the first round of industry clients participating in the Image IRC beta period and the valued encouragement from the industry at large. We look forward to ongoing announcements about additional Image IRC and ImageExchange clients in the near future, as the industry imperative has become that every image gets its credit,” said PicScout CEO Offir Gutelzon. “We believe–and today’s news about our industry and Image IRC corroborates the view– that when credit is restored, appropriate value can be assigned and recognized for every image and legitimate transactions ensue.”

© 2009, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)