New Info.... Look!

Hi Members

This is an update, a reminder and a very useful comment on work in progress.

On 17th October last, we sent out a Picture Call for high-quality, large format photographs for use by a jigsaw manufacturer. The Call is repeated below; you still have over a month to get your submissions in.

The client has been looking at all the submissions, and he has the following comments to make:

“There is nothing that has been uploaded so far that we would buy. I liked #195913 - Riverside Balcony, but it’s a modern house with an ugly wall at the front and it needs way more colour.

#192228 – Orchids is very good for colour but there’s no story line. Photographs of nothing but flowers is just not enough.

The one that comes closest to being considered is #198309 - Pulls Ferry Building in Norwich. It has a story line — you want to know what lies beyond that arch. But there’s not enough colour — you need flowers between the trees, or autumn foliage.

Where are all the cute kittens and puppies? We want to see them playing together!

#192229 - Portugese Fishing Boats was a distant possibility, but too many rocks, too many samey birds. And it’s Portuguese, not Portugese — don’t you spell check your captions? [Yes sir, we provide the TypoChecker, but some members don’t care to use it — J]

Again, #192231 - Spanish Hill Town, Vejer De La Frontera was a remote possibility, but the background buildings are too white and intrusive.

I liked the colours of #194860 - Chinese painter, but not the figure. There must be smiles and eye contact if there are people on the jigsaws. Also our competitors already have similar images.

#99132 - Snowy Chapel is Royalty Free. We would never ever consider buying a Royalty Free image. And the file size is far too small. And it is only blue and white. Why is this offered to us?

Every picture tells a story. Every picture MUST have a story line.

This client demands extremely high quality images, and he pays accordingly. The successful photographer will be well rewarded.

A note on file sizes which I added to a subsequent newsletter:
‘Several Members kindly wrote to point out that a 5787 x 8031 pixel TIFF would produce a file in the region of 130MB. Which is fine, except the maximum file size that can be uploaded to fotoLibra is 100MB.
Oops. Sorry!
You are all, as always, correct.
I am ruthless about making people adhere to the requirements, and here I am, demanding the impossible.
Here’s what you do. Upload files of 5787 x 8031 pixels as JPEG Level 12. There is an alternative, smaller jigsaw size of 4134 x 5787 which will easily be uploadable. Or, as I suggested, use film and scan it to get a file size below 100MB.
After the first few dull uploads from people who didn’t read the brief (as opposed to the technical specification) we’ve had some cracking offerings. But as far as I can see, many of you are still missing one of the essential ingredients of a great jigsaw picture — the storyline. There’s one lovely picture of a church in snow and sun, but it really needs to have something extra, like a choir procession, to add human interest. Hard to arrange, I know, but I have every confidence in you all.
Putting this point clearly from a fotoLibra member’s point of view, Nick Jenkins writes: "I have started seeking potential submissions for the Jigsaw specification and couldn't help but notice that a lot of the images already keyworded JUMJIG are not meeting the requirements by some large margin. Many of them simply are not to the specified size and others are very lacking in both story line and colours — some are almost monochrome.
“I am concerned that fotoLibra members might run the risk of losing possible sales even though their submissions have exactly met the brief, as they may end up surrounded by work that just hasn't fulfilled the size, storyline, or colour requirements."
Thank you Nick, but this doesn’t often happen because when we submit lightboxes to our clients, they only contain images which meet the brief. So other images simply don’t get seen. So it’s a waste of time uploading them on spec. Please don’t upload images for a picture call unless they are fit for purpose.’

Upload data:
1. DEADLINE: Wednesday February 28th 2007
2. FILESIZE: 300dpi, 5787 x 8031 pixels, TIFFs
3. CODE KEYWORD: JUMJIG (input this among all your other apposite keywords and NEVER use the Code Keyword as your only keyword. Describe the image in full as normal)
4. CATEGORISE UNDER: The subject of your image

Do not mark your uploaded images as Royalty Free.

And remember, the only way you can make your pictures available for consideration by the buyers in any Picture Call is to upload them to the fotoLibra site and to include the special Code Keyword among your other keywords. Please do not send them to me as there is nothing I can do with them, and my opinion would be highly subjective and probably not helpful. Please also make sure that they always match or exceed the requested resolutions and file sizes.

Kind regards

Jacqui Norman