Vancouver, July 09, 2010. The lives of all creatives, from marketing managers to video editors to entrepreneurs, just got easier with the launch of ShotSpy, the Smart Stock Search Engine. This video and photo search engine enables users to search the contents of multiple photo libraries and video stockhouses simultaneously. The site is now the largest marketplace for stock available today, delivering over 37 million images, according to ShotSpy.

The video and stock photo search engine says the site saves users time, energy, and money by aggregating the content of the leading photo and video microstock sites, such as Fotolia®, 123RF®, Dreamstime®, Crestock®, and ClipCanvas®. The content delivered is royalty-free and ranges from $1 – $70 per clip or image. Users can refine their search and save their favorite images and clips in their personal ShotBox.

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

“There is no doubt that online ads could be far more effective and that outstanding photography and illustrations could certainly make a real difference,” said Daniele Fiandaca, Founder of Creative Social and former European Chief Executive of Profero, a leading global digital ad agency. “Corbis is recognized for having an incredible collection of stock photos and illustrations, and it’s fantastic that the design community is now able to license them so affordably.”

Corbis Images’ Web and Mobile images are priced according to pixel size, license model and price tier. For royalty free (RF) images, Corbis Images is offering one simple 400 pixel file size ranging from $5 to $20. For rights-managed images (RM), Corbis Images is offering two files sizes – 400 and 600 pixels – with prices ranging from $15 to $60.  Creatives can now use Corbis Images’ award-winning creative and editorial imagery collections in their smallest web and mobile uses with minimal manipulation or resizing, for an affordable price. The Web and Mobile resolution files sizes continue to offer customers indemnification and high levels of rights control.

“Creative and media professionals no longer have to settle for lower quality stock photos or illustrations when creating ad creative or publishing on the web or for mobile applications,” said Rajiv Jain, CTO and SVP/GM of CorbisImages.com. “Our new web and mobile resolution file sizes of our world-renowned photos and illustrations are the perfect fit at an affordable price, and people now have the opportunity to demonstrate their best creative work online.”

Quality, affordable imagery will be specifically relevant for advertising and publishing on emerging mobile devices and tablets.  With the instant success of Apple’s iPad(TM), there will be an increase in demand for premium quality images at a low price point, in different sizes and formats, to use in digital magazines, and advertisements.

Demand to use imagery online continues to grow rapidly along with the growth in digital advertising. According to research company Outsell Inc., U.S. advertisers will this year spend more on digital than print advertising for the first time. Spending on Web sites and other digital media will jump 9.6 percent to $119.6 billion, taking 33 percent of the overall advertising market, with print making up 30 percent of the market.

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

Sydney, Australia (PRWEB) April 8, 2010 — Panasonic will publish the work of local LUMIX amateur photographers alongside professionals in a book that will showcase the best of Australian life.

LUMIX Life – ‘Focus on Australia’ launched on 1st April 2010 with budding photographers able to submit their images for consideration at“www.lumixlife.com.au”. The high-quality book will also feature some of Australia’s leading photography professionals and will go on sale in November 2010.

Panasonic Australia Marketing Communications Manager, Matthew Mannall, said: “This is a unique opportunity for our community of LUMIX photographers to be published. Images can be anything from exquisite landscapes, through to the people who inhabit it. Anything that helps show Aussie life in all its diversity will be considered for LUMIX Life.”

Professional photographers taking part in the initiative include Ken Duncan, Peter Eastway, Bill Bachman, Leo Meier, Nick Rains, Frances Mocnik, Ted Grambeau, Hugh Brown and celebrity guest photographer Ray Martin.

LUMIX Life entrants will also go in the running to win win an amazing Panasonic LUMIX DMC-GF1 camera, with three to give away – one each month between April and June 2010. One camera will be awarded each month to the best photo, as determined by Ken Duncan.

LUMIX Life Pro Shooter Leo Meier said that LUMIX Life is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity for an amateur photographer to show their talent.

“When I first started out in photography, I would have leapt at the chance to be a part of something where my work would be published. I am really looking forward to the different perspectives the LUMIX amateur photographers take on this one, the brief is truly open for interpretation, and I ask all entrants to be as bold, creative and adventurous as they can.”

Proceeds from the sale of ‘LUMIX Life – Focus on Australia’ will be used to help fund ‘Walk a While’, an indigenous arts educational program which gives indigenous youth access to training and technology in the areas of photography, film and music.

The 2010 initiative follows the highly successful 2009 LUMIX Life program – where the keys to a prestigious Australian gallery were handed over to amateur photographers from around the world to exhibit their work.

LUMIX users are invited to go to “www.lumixlife.com.au” to enter their images. The site will also allow you to follow the LUMIX Life Pro Shooters around Australia, who for the next three months will be visiting unique spots across the country. The site will also include regular video tutorials from Ken Duncan to help contributors hone their inspiration and creativity.

Every entry will be viewed and considered by the LUMIX Life judging panel. The panel will consider four criteria when reviewing submissions:

Online submissions to the ‘LUMIX Life – Focus on Australia‘ project are welcome from 1 April to 30 June, 2010.

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

The experts behind DepositPhotos.com have worked hard to become the best value on the Internet by offering the lowest prices for the highest quality stock images available, but that’s only the beginning of the story. DepositPhotos.com has enhanced the quantity and quality of the site’s magnificent collection by paying image contributors some of the highest commissions on the Web. By offering a virtually unlimited earnings potential, DepositPhotos.com has become the preferred showcase for the best work of over 10,000 photographers. The site offers unparalleled access to some of the highest quality royalty free stock photos anywhere – and lots of it.

DepositPhotos.com has designed a powerful yet easy-to-use graphical interface that makes surfing through their extensive database of images simple to navigate and fun to use! No more wasted time flipping through page after page of irrelevant “filler” material like on other sites. DepositPhotos.com’s collection is meticulously categorized and cross-referenced for easy viewing. The library of XS to XXXL high-resolution stock photographs and fully scalable vector images is so huge an intuitive search function with impressively advanced options and features had to be developed, enabling customers to search for images effortlessly and efficiently.

DepositPhotos.com is so eager to share the advantages of their service that now a wide array of flexible and affordable payment options are offered. A 14-day Free Trial subscription gives access to 10 free downloads per day, and several Standard Subscription Plans are among the most affordable anywhere. The Pay-by-Credits Plan makes it simple to buy one stock image at a time, and every purchase by credits earns the customer a x2 Bonus Image Credit to use on a second image or equal or smaller size! And every plan allows the buyer to choose not only from different image sizes but also from several standard and extended licenses to fit any publishing needs.

And now, in an exclusive offer not found anywhere else on the Internet, DepositPhotos.com has developed a Pay-by-SMS option! With one simple, short text message customers can order and pay for any image in DepositPhotos.com’s library and have the purchase immediately available for download. Customers can download the stock image from anywhere at any time, making it the most convenient payment option in the industry!

When a project requires the best stock photos money can buy at the lowest prices found anywhere, visit DepositPhotos.com today to take full advantage of the services offered.

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

“Thanks to our powerful and unique API, the Microstock photo plug-in not only offers bloggers a fast and easy way to integrate attractive images at unbeatable prices, but users also have the opportunity to make money by using Fotolia images through affiliation options,“ says Garth Johnson, Executive Vice President for Fotolia, North America.

Writers can use the images for as long as they need to because when they purchase images, for as low as $1, from Fotolia, it includes a standard-use license. Plus, if bloggers enable Fotolia’s Affiliate Program, they earn Fotolia credits every time someone follows their image link, creates a Fotolia account, and downloads an image. The commissions are instant and can be used to download more images or can be converted to a cash payout after 50 or more credits are earned. For more information on Fotolia’s Affiliation Program, visit: http://www.fotolia.com/Info/Affiliation.

To get started with the new WordPress plug-in, visit www.microstockplugin.com to download and install. Follow the Fotolia link to sign-up for a free Fotolia membership. Once a Fotolia account is created, set-up the login and password in the configuration in order to be able to buy and download photos using the Fotolia account. Then, activate the Affiliate Program with a click in the plug-in to earn commissions. Blogging and revenue share just got even easier.

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

“Thinkstock is the new industry-standard in the image subscription business,” said Jonathan Klein, co-founder and CEO of Getty Images. “Thinkstock will change both the reality and customers’ perceptions of image subscriptions. By delivering an affordable and simple offering with excellent legal protection, Thinkstock provides one of the most complete subscriptions available anywhere, with premium, professional and user-generated imagery all in one place.”

Thinkstock offers creative professionals access to a comprehensive collection of imagery that is unmatched in its quality and variety, and provides all file sizes regardless of the subscription package. Thinkstock offers millions of select royalty-free images, vectors and illustrations from the industry’s leading content providers: Getty Images, iStockphoto and Jupiterimages.

The collection combines both user-generated content and professionally art-directed images ensuring Thinkstock provides a genuinely diverse range of concepts and subjects with original and creative interpretations. Each week, Thinkstock will add thousands of new, premium images, all of which have been reviewed against the strict legal standards that Getty Images is known for in the industry.

The streamlined Thinkstock subscription plan complete with broad global usage rights, enables customers to begin using their imagery immediately after it is downloaded to their desktops. The monthly or yearly subscription options, priced at $249 and $2499 respectively, grant customers access to the entire library of Thinkstock images with downloads of 25 images per day, up to 750 images per month. Additionally, Thinkstock will soon offer multiple-shot image packs, with prices ranging from $59 – $999, ideal for customers with smaller budgets or who require imagery for a specific project.

Recognizing that today’s customers are working against accelerated deadlines to bring their creative projects to market, Thinkstock’s simple, user-friendly website – powered by Getty Images – makes it easier than ever to find the right image for any project. The site utilizes Getty Images’ proprietary keyword algorithms, with a vocabulary of 140,000 separate terms, to ensure the best image results are delivered, even for complex and conceptual keyword entries. More than just a convenient way to access imagery in an instant, Thinkstock also provides complimentary legal protection as part of any image pack, monthly or yearly subscription. For any image that is used in compliance with the licensing terms, Thinkstock will protect customers against copyright claims and will defend, and be responsible for, any damages and expenses up to $10,000 for each image downloaded.

For more on Thinkstock, visit www.thinkstock.com.

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

Google (GOOG) announced today that it has integrated Picapp’s Partner API into the Knol editor, along with other embeddable object features. The Picapp integration will enable Knol publishers to access fresh, premium and free images.

Knol has more than 100,000 articles, and is considered one of the most innovative and fastest growing knowledge base platforms.

Picapp hopes to continue working with Google to integrate with additional products.

Unlike other content syndication products that include intrusive advertising, the Picapp solution uses a subtle and user-friendly approach. Each published image is linked to a photo gallery page, displaying additional related images; the photo gallery page, which is fully customizable and can be white labeled, displays unobtrusive display ads.

Picapp enables publishers to easily search and insert images into posts; it has 20 million images covering entertainment, sports, news, travel, fashion, medical, food, and more, with 10,000 images updated daily. Picapp images come fully tagged with metadata and are indexed by image-search engines.

“Implementing our Partner API with a strong partner such as Google, which stands for innovation and excellence and which is committed to reducing online image piracy, represents a major milestone for Picapp with its mission to bring legal, affordable images to online publishers,” said Eyal Gura, CEO, Picapp. “Our image distribution solution is the only one to fully respect and credit the content creators while providing the publishers with added values of content and user engagement.”

News and photo agencies licensing images via Picapp include, among others, Getty Images, Corbis, Newscom, Fame Pictures, Admedia Photo, Entertainment Press, Zuma Press , Image Source and Pacific Coast News. Displaying ads on image photo gallery page provides a monetization tool for content owners.

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

January, 20, 2010. With Image Source vario images represents a new promising partner agency with its headquarter in London. The renowned photo agency belongs to the leading independent producers of creative and commercial Royalty Free-photography. The remarkable image pool contains more than 145.000 images, so that almost every topic in the field of high-quality people and lifestyle photography can be visualized.

“A perfect and highly imaginative picture language with a strong feeling for contemporary trends makes the images of this agency that impressive”, says Susanne Baumgarten, president of vario images.

“With vario images we have chosen a strong distributor in Germany who gives especially editorial clients – besides advertising and book publishers – an understanding of our collection”, says Miriam Mandel, International Account Manager at Image Source.

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

Canon’s 7D, released in late September 2009, produces beautiful still shots and is equipped with a durable, dust-resistant body. Its biggest selling point, though, is its video feature. The 7D shoots full HD video in 24, 25 and 30p and is equipped with several manual controls to allow for further customization. Currently offering what some may consider to be the best in video technology on a DSLR, Canon is generating huge sales, even luring in former Nikon users looking to expand into and experiment with video.

But that isn’t to say that Nikon is not enjoying enormous success itself. While its biggest competitor has joined other camera companies in the race to increase megapixels, Nikon has opted to concentrate on making pixels larger, not just adding more of them. This, in turn, has given Nikon the leg up in ISO technology, making the most attractive feature of the D3s its ISO capabilities of up to 120,400. Nikon’s cameras consistently outperform others in low light situations and now, with the D3s released in November 2009, some could argue they’ve even outperformed themselves (the previous D3 model had a maximum 25,600 ISO setting).

Moving into 2010, these models are regarded as the top digital SLRs in features, performance and value. One can only imagine what these companies will come up with next. But for now, you can expect to see photos of the highest quality, shot by pros and amateurs alike, on everything from Facebook to Flickr to Snapixel.

“New SLR technology has significantly improved the quality of digital photographs” said Ivan Wong, Snapixel’s Chief Operations Officer, who subsequently is an active photographer. “However, while much can be said for post production technologies, great photography always starts with a great eye.”

Since the release of these cameras, Snapixel has seen a significant upward trend in high resolution images added to their site by photographers who share their photos and submit their work to the marketplace. Snapixel members are also encouraged to submit their photos to appear in the company’s monthly magazine, which offers a unique opportunity for exposure. It is on this platform, at least, that the work of Canon and Nikon rivals can exist peacefully, side by side.

© 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)