PR Photography 101 pt06…
…the Distribution.
So now that the shoot is over and the images have been created, what to do with them? Or more importantly, how to get them to the publications that might use them?
Firstly, who is going to distribute them. Normally there will be 3 choices:
1) The photographer.
2) The client.
3) An intermediary, usually a PR person or agency, who may or may not be the client anyway.
Personally it doesn’t matter. If it’s not me, then I like to ensure that 2) or 3) actually know the correct distribution route, which we come to next. There are sometimes sneaky little secret routes that may be given to trusted photographers, that won’t generally be given out to anyone else. Special email addresses for instance (not that I’m a big fan of emailing images).
Secondly, the route. Again there are 3, one of which is commonly known, the second isn’t, and the 3rd is an additional one that I use. Not exclusively you understand. There are other photographers in the world that use the same method
. Often I’ll use a combination of all three routes.
1) Email
2) FTP
3) Download
There are pluses and minuses to all of the above.
1) Email – In smaller publications this can be an effective method. Images and text (press release for instance) may be handled by the same person. In larger publications there can be a couple of downsides. Images and text need to go in different directions. Images are handled by the “picture desk”, who have little or no interest in press releases. Text or press releases will be handled & adjusted to fit the publications style, by a journalist or sub-editor, who have little or no interest in images.
Email systems at larger publications are also often automated, so that the attachments (images) are automatically stripped out of an email and put onto the picture system. The email is then automatically dumped, so don’t put any important information in the body of the email, because it might never be seen. Also, don’t attach a separate file (word doc or similar) to the email, as this could cause everything to be dumped. Some of the auto-email systems will even review the image(s) first, to see if it has IPTC information, and if not, it’s straight in the dump pile again. Yet another problem can be the reverse of the auto-system, in that if you send to an email address that is not the correct person, or is not manned due to sickness, holiday or a long lunch, the images may not be seen until it is too late.
Other disadvantages are the limitation in quantity and file size of images that can be attached, and the speed of transfer. It’s called email because that’s what it was designed for – mail, as in a letter. It’s not called eDHL or eUPS because it was never designed to send huge packets of information like images, so it can be painfully slow at times when sending a lot of images.
2) FTP – (stands for File Transfer Protocol). This a method where a virtually unlimited number of images can be sent directly from one computer (server) to another. In the example we are interested in, it means that the images arrive on the publications’ picture system almost the instant they are received.
Disadvantages – you can’t send any other type of file (like a press release) as the file will be rejected if it is not a recognised image file-type. Only available to photographers that the publication know and trust.
Advantages – very, very fast. Almost twice as fast as email, and direct to the people that are interested in images.
3) Download. For some publications I have an arrangement where they can download images from my archive.
Disadvantage – not instant. Before the images can be downloaded, they have to be uploaded! That can sometimes cause a delay before they are available, but for non-urgent distribution it’s a good method.
Advantages – images are available 24/7. Images can be made available that are much higher file size (and therefore quality) than can be attached to an email.
That’s about it really. The only other thing to remember is basically a sum of this and all the other parts of this series. The image-receiving side of large publications receive thousands, yes thousands of images every day. For a national newspaper in this country, around 2-3,000, and this is a small country. (A popular magazine in Europe, like e.g. Germany’s Stern, will receive 7-8,000 EVERY DAY). These images are being supplied on subscription from agencies, or because they have been commissioned by the publication, or because they have been sent in speculatively.
Most of the picture systems that these publications use are a constantly scrolling and updating view of the newest-to-arrive 30-50 images, viewed as small thumbnails.
In order to stand out, I hope this series has pointed you in the right direction to getting the images you will need.
Previously: PR Photography 101 pt05 The Caption
TTFN









