[Gary Bagshawe]

Submitting to Alamy


Submitting your images to a big picture library sounds like an ordeal at times and many people think that their images will not be good enough, this simply isn’t true. Many of the images that I see hear on this forum are more than good enough to be accepted by the likes of Alamy. Subject matter is very wide ranging too. Just take a look, www.alamy.com .

First of all you will need to register and decide which payment terms you would like to have. The site is self explanatory in this regard but it is worthwhile reading through all the guidelines before sending off your CD.

Before being accepted you have to send a quality control CD of 10 images which will all be checked at 100% size so when you do have your images ready make sure that you check them yourself at 100%, look for dust marks etc and do not over sharpen them.

The file size for submissions varies depending on what you are submitting.
The following is their reccomendation.
Tiff, pc byte order, 8/bits per channel, minimum 48MB file size (just increase your file size in Photoshop) Black and white images minimum of 16MB, Reportage photographs will be accepted at 24 MB.

You can add keywords and caption information in the file info section in photoshop now or when the images are accepted you can go to the manage my images section of their website and add them then, I prefer to do it straight away and then the info is there and you don’t forget to do it. The importance of keywords etc can’t be underestimated, that is how people will find your images so put a bit of thought into it, if in doubt put it in!!!

Once your images are ready to be sent write your name and e-mail address onto the cd and send it to
QC Test
Alamy images
127 Milton Park
Abingdon, Oxfordshire
OX14 4SA

After about 14 days they will send you an e-mail confirming if you have passed the QC Test, any images that have failed will be posted up with the reason for failure.
You can then make any changes to keywords and captions etc and save the changes.

Next you can then send more cd’s of your pics to them, Do not put too many onto 1 cd, the main reason for this is that they will check random images from your disk and if some do not meet their QC then the whole disk will be rejected.

I hope this has been of use,

Kind regards Gary Bagshawe.

[Dave]

Once again Gary , yooooz the man

I'll give this a go when I get time. Almost like taking an exam again with them checking eveything Have you sold any shots through them yet or anyone else for that matter ?

[northernstar]

Great tutorial - thanks. I might even get around to it one of these days!

[Joe T]

Great thread Gary.

Just a few points to add:

1. The minimum file size is 48mb. You can resize images taken with a gitial camera, providing the origianls are at least 6mp. This means that if you have a 6mp DSLR you cant crop. With an 8mp cam you can crop a little.

2. I dont know if it has been reported on here, but Alamy are due to instigate online uploads. You can already send JPEGS (PS Level 12, when resaved as TIFFs they should be 48mb), and the online service will only take JPEGs. This should be happening fairly soon, and will hopefully improve the time it takes to get the pictures on sale. Currently its around 3-4 weeks from when you send in a CD.

3. Remember not to sharpen the pictures too.

There is a pretty good guide on the Alamy site, which adds a little more detail to all of the above.

Hope this helps.