Aurora Contributor News

What is the Three Track System? This is the system that dictates how we organize and distribute your image submissions to Partner Agencies. Aurora runs on a Three Track workflow system, where in your accepted images are channeled through one of three distribution paths, each one identifiable by a Track Suffix, assigned to your submissions by your editor.

What are the “Track Suffixes”? The suffixes look like this: -ED, -COM, -RF

How do I know my images’ track designation? You can determine your image’s track destination by the two or three letter suffix added to the end of your submissions folder name, by your editor, once selections have been made. You can view your submission folder names:

• In your Contributor Incoming FTP folder, on the Aurora FTP, once you have been notified that selections have been made by your editor
• OR by logging into the Aurora Site and accessing your image sets through the drop down menu in your Projects Area.

Here is a brief description of each distribution track:

• Editorial : (ED) Rights Managed images will be distributed to Aurora’s global network of Editorial Partner Agencies including Alamy, Corbis, and Masterfile.
• Commercial: (COM) Rights Managed images (generally model released, logo/brand name free, commercial images) will be distributed to Aurora’s co-exclusive Commercial Partners: Getty or Corbis.
• Royalty Free: (RF) Royalty Free images (which must be released, logo free, and restriction/embargo free) will be distributed to Aurora’s global network of RF partners including Alamy, Corbis, Getty and Masterfile.

Here are a few ideas for local photo shoots.

The deadlines for these requests have passed but we are confident that these subjects will continue to be in demand, and result in good possibilities for sales.
Please remember, even though there is a need for these subjects, Aurora’s high standards for quality and uniqueness still apply to all submissions.
If you have these images in the archive please be assured that we have sent your images to the clients but we are always looking for newer images.

Thank you!

Local Ideas:

• Local school-Our commercial and editorial clients consistently ask for educational images
• Shoot your hometown. Your images could end up in a travel publication!
• Summer events
• Local events that could be news related
• Upcoming elections including political signs
• Local businesses (office portraits!)

Aurora’s Retouching Policy allows for photographers to pay to have Aurora retouch images for them, in house – or for photographers to choose to retouch their own images. As many choose to take on their own scrubbing, the Production Team would like to offer some pointers on locating all those pesky little logos that hide throughout your images that would need to be removed.

SAVE YOURSELF MONEY!! If we find logos that you have missed, it is likely that you will be charged to have Aurora remove them in-house.  Read on for helpful tips on how to spot all the logos hiding in your images and avoid unexpected retouching fees.

Retouch Rule To Live By:

Places Where Logos Hide:

If your images contain any of the following items – it’s likely there are some logos hiding in there!

Click here to download this list as a PDF.

• Construction Sites
  • Tools (Stihl, Coleman, Husky, Black & Decker)
  • Equipment
  • Machinery (John Deer, CAT)
  • Cars (license plates, hood ornaments and tires)
  • Housing wrap (Tyvek)
• Camp Sites
  • Tents (Marmot, Black Diamond)
  • Sleeping bags
  • Kerosene, oil and gas containers and products
• Cityscapes
  • Billboards
  • Storefronts
  • Building tops (banks and hotels often have large lettering with the company’s name across the tops of their buildings)
• Anywhere With Food
  • Food packaging (plastic water bottles! Poland Spring is everywhere)
  • Trash cans (garbage still has logos on it)
  • Beer & wine bottles
  • Condiment containers (Heinz, Lea & Perry’s, Tobasco – all brand names)
  • Coolers (Igloo, Coleman)
• Sporting Events and Sports Equipment
  • Climbing shoes (tags at the back with designs or brand names – Salomon)
  • Ropes, harnesses or lanyards with brand names or logos all the way around as a “design” (particularly Black Diamond‘s diamond and Petzel on helmets)
  • Bottoms of sneakers, hiking boots or water sandals
  • Walking poles & ski poles
• Clothing
  • T-shirt designs
  • Tags on the seams of shorts, pants, shirts, etc. (Patagonia, Columbia, North Face)
  • Brand names or logos in the designs of swim trunks (Roxy)
  • Buttons or snaps that when viewed close up have a brand name around the perimeter
• Everyday Household Locations
  • Garages – tools, paint cans, cars, sporting equipment
  • Living Rooms – electronics, toys, books
  • Kitchens – appliances, wine and beer bottles
  • Bedrooms – clothing and shoes

Review our previous post on our Retouching Policy, including a link to the policy itself as well as fees here – Aurora’s New Retouch Policy & How It Will MAKE YOU MONEY!

The deadlines for these requests have passed but we are confident that these subjects will continue to be in demand, and result in good possibilities for sales. Please remember, even though there is a need for these subjects, Aurora’s high standards for quality and uniqueness still apply to all submissions. If you have these images in the archive please be assured that we have sent your images to the clients but we are always looking for newer images.

Thank you!

Technology:

• Released images are preferred
• Diversity
• All ages
• People using or sharing multiple devices (TV, laptop, phone, video games)
• Kids
• Families
• At the office or at home
• People in third world countries using technology
• New technology (iPad, iPhone 4)
• R&D Labs
• Get creative!

The Aurora Open Collection, Aurora’s premium Royalty-Free offering has seen increasing sales and increased distributorship around the world. If you haven’t gotten your feet wet in this pool yet, now is the time to jump in!!  And if you are already an RF shooter, here are some great ideas to keep you inspired through the dog-days of summer.

Below you’ll find a Needs List – ideas and activities that might inspire you to head out your backdoor (in some cases) and shoot today.  Take advantage of your natural surroundings and the activities that you’re already enjoying with friends and family, all in the relative ease of balmy summer weather shooting. Take advantage!

Remember, with our new retouching policy, it is in your best interest to PLAN to shoot scenes that are as free of logos as possible. Have your models wear plain clothing with only small logos, no large designs. Choose a bike that has minimal branding or a surf board that isn’t covered in designs. Make your life easier and your prep time shorter.

MODELS -
When conceiving a shoot, try to think outside the box when it comes to who you are shooting.

• Non-Caucasian-looking models
  • African-American-looking
  • Asian-looking
  • Hispanic-looking
• Disabled citizens doing outdoor sports
• Seniors

IDEAS & ACTIVITIES -

Non-Traditional Sports -

• BASE jumping
• Ballooning
• Birding
• Bungee jumping
• Canyoning
• Caving
• Four-wheeling
• Frisbee golf
• Geo-caching
• Hang gliding
• Hunting
• Orienteering
• Paragliding
• Spelunking
• Triathlons
• Ultra-marathons
• Ultimate Frisbee

Water Sports -

• Cliff diving
• Deep sea fishing
• Free diving
• Kayak waterfall descents
• Kiteboarding
• Ocean fishing
• Power boating
• Rowing (in shells – crew)
• Scuba diving
• Snorkeling
• Spear fishing
• Surfing
• Wake boarding
• Whitewater rafting
• Wind surfing
• Yachting

Other -

• Bivouacking
• Camping in yurts
• Eco-vacations
• Flying kites
• RV-ing
• Running with strollers
• Volunteer vacations
• Men doing yoga
• Seniors doing yoga

Our editorial clients consistently ask for images of people shopping for travel stories and for stories about economic growth and our commercial clients need these images as well.

The deadlines for these requests have passed but we are confident that these subjects will continue to be in demand, and result in good possibilities for sales. Please remember, even though there is a need for these subjects, Aurora’s high standards for quality and uniqueness still apply to all submissions. If you have these images in the archive please be assured that we have sent your images to the clients but we are always looking for newer images.

Shopping:

• Released images are preferred
• Diversity
• Get creative!
• People shopping to show economic growth
• Travel images showing stores
• Images of sale signs with percentages
• Shopping for durable goods (washing machines etc), electronics, cars, food, clothing, and luxury items (yachts)

We are still looking for summer images

Aurora’s Retouching Policy regarding retouching logos and brand names in commercial and royalty free imagery accepted to our site, went into effect on July 1st, 2010. Here we will clarify how the system works, outline the details of the policy, and your options as a contributing photographer.

Why does Aurora have this policy?

• In the five + years preceding the implementation of this policy, the Aurora production staff  spent a great amount of time “scrubbing” images clean of trademarks and logos. It was a tremendous expense and drain on resources. We conducted extensive research on how this is handled by other agencies, and almost across the board, the responsibility of retouching falls to the photographer prior to submitting final high res images.
• This  policy enables Aurora to spend less time doing production work, and spend more time actively getting images out into distribution – faster and in greater volumes – ultimately resulting in more revenue for contributors.

What exactly is the policy?

• The Retouch Policy (AKA the “scrubbing” policy) allows contributors to choose one of the following options:
• Handle all their own logo / brand name retouching before submitting their high res
• Allow Aurora to continue to scrub their images in-house for a nominal fee
• Opt out of Commercial & Royalty Free distribution all together

A detailed explanation of the new policy can be downloaded in PDF format from the following link, also available in your projects area:
Aurora’s New Retouch Policy – Effective July 1, 2010

The PDF document explains the following aspects of the policy:

• Detailed explanation of the three options available to contributors regarding their “scrub” preferences.
• Fees for in-house retouching
• Visual examples and detailed list of the types of logos and brand names that would need to be “scrubbed”
• Retouching fault list – explanation of technical quality errors that may result in retouched images being rejected, or kicked back for a resubmission

Can I still label my “scrubbed” images Journalistic?

• No. Images that have been retouched may not be labeled Journalistic.
• *Upon submitting your initial low res for editor review – if you do not yet know which images will require scrubbing, and which can receive a J-Tag designation, please indicate that the submissions is MIXED. We will notify you when the images area available in your projects area, at which point you may access them and label the J-Tag status accordingly at any time.
• If you choose Aurora’s in-house scrubbing, you can continue to label appropriate images as journalistic. Aurora will keep the unretouched journalistic version of the image for the archive, and only distribute the retouched version.

How will Aurora know which option I have chosen regarding my scrubbing preferences?

• Please notify us NOW, if you have not already if you will be retouching your own images from now on and Aurora will note your choice in our database.
• * IMPORTANT * BE ADVISED *: If we do not hear from you, we will do our best to notify you of new high res images that will require scrubbing. If high res images continue to be submitted that require retouching, and you have not notified us of your preference we will assume that you want to take advantage of Aurora’s in-house logo and trademark retouch service. Any fees will be deducted automatically from royalties for established contributors. If you are a new contributor (less than six months signed or fewer than 100 images in the archive) you will be invoiced.
• This ONLY applies to images that are accepted for commercial (RM and RF) distribution.
• Editorial track (ED) images do not require retouching.

Any advice for a retouching newbie?

• Check out our Workflow Tip of the Week Archive and read about tutorials, photoshop tips, and especially last weeks tip on the Adobe Photoshop CS4 & CS5 upgrade:
• http://news.auroraphotos.com/contributornews/?p=623

If you have any questions or concerns at all about Aurora’s new Retouching Policy, please do not hesitate to contact any member of the Aurora Production Team.  We are happy to address your concerns and answer your questions.

submissions@auroraphotos.com
207.828.8787

The deadlines for these requests have passed but we are confident that these subjects will continue to be in demand, and result in good possibilities for sales. Please remember, even though there is a need for these subjects, Aurora’s high standards for quality and uniqueness still apply to all submissions. If you have these images in the archive please be assured that we have sent your images to the clients but we are always looking for newer images.

Thank you!

Elections:

• Andrew Cuomo running for governor in New York
• Harry Reid fighting for re-election in Nevada
• More women running for office (for example Meg Whitman and Carley Fiorina)
• How the tea parties are affecting elections
• States that have always had Democratic governors leaning toward Republican candidates

~We are still looking for summer images~

A few weeks ago, Aurora announced a new policy on retouching logos and brand names that will go into effect this July. Under the new policy, many contributors may opt to become responsible for the “scrubbing” of their own images, as opposed to covering the costs of Aurora scrubbing the images in house.

While we know many of you have probably already upgraded your Photoshop software, in light of the new scrubbing policy, the Aurora Team would like to share some of the features of the latest versions of Photoshop that we have found useful for our retouching purposes…. in case you’re not yet familiar. Some of the improvements and additions to CS4 and CS5 have proven to be excellent time savers while retouching and here are those that we’ve found most helpful.

Content Aware Spot Healing Tool

There’s been a lot of buzz about the improvement to the spot healing tool – namely, the content aware filter:

In many instances, the content aware feature can do in one step what would have taken the clone or patch tool 2 or 3 steps, at least, to produce the same results.

While it’s no magic fix, and won’t always anticipate what you’re trying to do … for certain tasks it can dramatically cut back on the constant clicking of the mouse with the clone stamp (which can often lead to over-smoothing and inconsistent texture), or the precise selection process required for the patch tool.

Review a tutorial on using the spot healing tool with the new content aware feature here: PhotoShop Essentials – Spot Healing with Content Aware
Watch a demo of the content aware feature in action: YouTube CS5 Demo – Content Aware

Clone Stamp Improvements in CS4 & CS5 – Prediction Overlay

The clone stamp has become more sophisticated as well – with features like prediction overlay & sample source rotation, retouching edges and wheels has become much simpler.

(Click image to view larger.)

Not sure you’re ready to upgrade?
Try out the new versions of Photoshop for free with a 30 Day Trial Download: http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/photoshop/

Review Aurora’s new Retouch Policy, which goes into effect July 1st, here: Retouch Policy – July 1st, 2010

Below are a few locations that our travel clients have asked for more than once. We we are always looking for new travel images around the world from small towns to big cities. Please take a look at our previous travel tip for a few ideas.  We are also still looking for Summer Images!

Travel Images:

• Tahoe
• Hamptons
• Boston
• New York (with people!)
• Adventure towns
• Houston and Austin, TX
• Bitterroot Divide, ID
• Grand Canyon – Bright Angel Trail, South Kaibab Trail and North Kaibab Trail
• Florida Keys