Industry Standards . . .

By Ron Rovtar
Stock Asylum Managing Editor
April 7, 2006


If all goes as planned, the Plus Coalition should have all three pieces of new image licensing standards in place by mid-October, the organization's CEO and president told a gathering of picture professionals in Chicago on this date.

Jeff Sedlik told members of the Picture Archive Council of America (PACA) and the American Society of Picture Professionals (ASPP) that working groups are being formed to bring together the last two pieces of the puzzle.

Plus published the first piece last year when it finalized a standard glossary of 1,500 image licensing terms, a first for an industry where different people can use the same terms to mean radically different things.

Sedlik said work is just starting on a "universal media matrix" of licensing rights and a "standard licensing format." Among other things, the matrix, which is simply a way to represent all the factors (duration, size, regional exposure, etc.) that can go into pricing an image license, should help buyers compare prices of different licensing entities like stock photography distributors.

The standard licensing format will provide a way of expressing the exact licensing parameters in a simple format. The licensing format, matrix and glossary will be codified in a numerical system that can be stored easily on computers.

When all three pieces are in place, Sedlik said, much of the confusion around image licensing should disappear. And, with a numbering system, he suggested, Plus could eventually create a central registry of licenses for image suppliers of all types.

The Plus presentation, by Sedlik and Judy Feldman, owner of Feldman and Associates, a picture research company, was one of two programs at the PACA Annual Meeting about attempts to standardize aspects of the stock photography and imagery industry. Chris Bain of Barnes and Noble and David Riecks, chairman of the American Society of Media Photographers Digital Standards Committee, talked about the Universal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines (UPDIG).

Other programs were offered about the editorial market, rights and clearances, different stock models and keywording.

"Plus is not an advocacy group for any section of the creative industries," Sedlik emphasized. He said organizations, companies and individuals from all industry segments are involved.

There is no effort to set prices, he said. "We want to simplify the licensing process. The system of licensing is not very transparent right now.

He said that the Plus standards will not be a replacement for a contract, but, he added, "As long as two parties agree on the definitions involved, you've got an agreement that is less likely to fall apart."

Sedlik praised coalition participants for working together. We've seen a tremendous level of cooperation on every level and very little conflict," he noted,

The Plus effort has attracted participation for all kinds of image buyers and sellers, including design firms, illustrators, ad agencies, application developers, legal experts, photographers, publishers, researchers, stock agencies and trade organizations.

"I think we have more in common than we have differences," asserted Feldman.

In discussing UPDIG, Bain and Riecks offered a number of suggestions about maintaining high image quality standards. "If you don't have a calibrated monitor, don't play with the colors," Bain said.

But, even a with a calibrated monitor, it is impossible to provide consistent results if the room lighting changes from day to day, Riecks added. He suggested a darkened room is best for consistency.

Bain said it is important to attach a color profile to all images so that the final users (one with a properly calibrated monitor, of course) knows what the colors are supposed to look like. He suggested the Adobe RGB color space because it has more colors than others like sRGB, which has a color-range most suitable for display on computer monitors.

Both cautioned about the use of overuse the jpeg format, noting that some image users open jpeg images and resave them in the same format several times.

"Don't jpeg a jpeg," said Bain. It's basically throwing away bits of information that it thinks you won't notice."

 

The Plus Coalition web site is at: http://www.useplus.com

UPDIG is at: http://www.updig.org

PACA is at: http://www.pacaoffice.org