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Search by image from Google – First impressions

Antonio Marques — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 11:55:00 +0000

Earlier last week Google announced a new reverse image search service. In a similar fashion to other reverse image search engines on the market users can upload images, point to an image URL or even, if a Chrome or Firefox extension is installed, right-click on an image and directly perform the reverse image search. The results should, in principle, return other sites where the image is being used, similar images, and if the algorithm was able to recognize the subject of the image, suggested pages about said subject.

What does this mean for photographers?

One of the major concerns photographers face in the digital age is the unlicensed use of their images. Whether being done by lack of knowledge or knowingly infringing on other people’s copyrights, using unlicensed images is an increasing trend and represents a serious loss of revenue for photographers both amateur and professional.

The commercial need to showcase our images to the masses, whether on photo sharing sites and networks or on our own sites, exposes whole collections to those thinking that “just because it’s available online, it must be free”.

If you’re paranoid enough (not saying it is a bad thing), reverse image search engines permit us to, up to a limited extent, fight back this unwelcome side effect by allowing photographers to find where their images are being used online, albeit generally one by one. After an infringing image is found, the next step is up to the photographer, deciding to ignore it, attempting to license it, using take-down notices, or suing.

The concept is not new and there are several services on the market doing exactly the same thing, raging from free (e.g. TinEye) to very well paid (e.g. PicScout). Some services even allow you to upload your whole collection and, periodically, they’ll screen the web and report on any findings. Some large stock agencies are widely known for using these large scale services and aggressively pursuing infringers.

With the Orphan Works legislation (that I seem never to know if it has been approved or not, with all their back and forward), reverse image search provides another strong method for a photographer’s identity as author of an image to be established. Many would probably agree that this is the most important function reverse image search can have for photographers.

First impressions of Google’s reverse image search

The service seemed to become fully functional for me through a Chrome extension even before the roll-out at images.google.com. When you read this, I’m sure that the roll-out will be complete.

To test how good it was finding image use on the web, I tried it first with some images that I know to have limited stock value and, as expected, besides my own sites, weren’t found anywhere else. This totally changed with more conceptual images – Google was able to find them in many different sites, unlicensed, and of which I was not aware of. On the left you can see an example of a results page. This image was found 27 times, 21 of them unlicensed use.

The results with the similar images feature was not as good. One of the uses of similar image search can be to find derivative images, and it did not find some derivative work using my images I know to be around. At most, it was able to find images with similar color tonalities or similar patterns. This is probably the feature that needs more development in this service, but it is also the most difficult to do well.

The service is very very fast. Also surprising was its ability to recognize some of the subjects and point me to sites where I could read more about them (Wikipedia mostly).

In general, this service is very useful, easy and fast. It can be another tool for photographers to use against copyright infringers, but it can also turn into an immense and depressive waste of time. If you’re prone to paranoia, use in moderation.

If you want another first impression of this service, David Sanger has a very nice write up on this.

In the next days I’ll write my comparison between Google and TinEye when it comes to usability and results.

What do you think of this service? Have you tried it? Do you think it will be any useful? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Story behind the image

Instagram – The Good, the Bad and the Dirty

Antonio Marques — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:00:00 +0000

The booming of smart phones, and all the apps associated with them, transformed the way that many people approach photography. Basically, if up to recently, the idea of carrying a compact camera everyday and everywhere was something that many, for various reasons, would not consider, now a fairly powerful camera is available as long as you carry your phone with you (and who doesn’t, right?). Consider that, on Flickr, the largest photo sharing platform available, the iPhone is now the most prevalent camera.

The Good

One of the apps that has exploded of late, both in number of users as well as number of photos shared through it is Instagram. The mix of a nicely designed app with a fairly good amount of filters for immediate processing, allied with powerful social features – photos can be immediately shared not only inside the app but also on the most widely used social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook, elevated this app to one of the most successful photography apps amongst the hundreds available. Arguably, even more than the camera and processing features, the social integration makes of Instagram the camera app of choice for many.

Another powerful feature of this app is its openness – a user can share not only photos made within Instagram, but also any photo on the phone’s drive (or “Camera Roll”). Therefore, if a user prefers a different app for usability or processing reasons, Instagram can still be used to broadcast the final image to his social circle, including the Instagram feed, which users can elect to “follow”. So far so good.

The Bad

However, this openness creates a situation that is driving me away from the app (or at least from the feeds) and, in my opinion, defeats the whole purpose of Instagram when it comes to sharing images specifically made with an iPhone – so called iPhoneography.

Having the possibility to share any photo on the Camera Roll, including images made with dSLRs and transferred to the phone, allows users to inject these latter images into the Instagram photo feed and therefore placing them right in front of anyone who follows them. This I find objectionable.

Now you can argue that I can stop following these users. I know and understand that, as I also understand the marketing reason for this, but this argument is besides the point I’m trying to make here.

The Dirty

There are more than enough venues for showing photos – if I like your work I’ll follow you in Flickr, or 500px, or your blog, or… When I look at the Instagram feed I’m expecting to see the more alternative, candid and spur of the moment images that can be made with a mobile phone, not the high-end camera produced, Photoshop retouched images you can make.

Keep my Instagram photo feed “dirty” and leave the “clean” images for other venues where they’ll be much more appreciated.

Discuss

Now to you. Have you noticed this trend before? Is it something that bothers you or is it an acceptable practice to share any images on the feed, independently of having been produced with the phone?

Discuss and leave your thoughts and ideas in the comments bellow.

Sebastiao Salgado: The Photographer as Activist

Antonio Marques — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 10:00:38 +0000

I came across this video and just had to share it. It features a conversation between Ken Light, Fred Ritchin and documentary and fine art photographer Sebastiao Salgado, at UC Berkeley.

The importance of photography, due to the enormous prevalence of cameras, is sometimes trivialized. If you’ve ever doubted the importance of the still frame and of the documentary photographer in activism, do take the time to watch it.

This is a video that will put you on a new frame of mind every time you go out to photograph.

If you’re interested I wrote a short comment on Salgado’s book “Africa” some time back.

Introducing Aksgar Magazine

Antonio Marques — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:13:36 +0000

Some time ago, and after a series of conversations with like-minded people, I was included on the Editorial board of a new magazine…

After a long time in planning and then some more for execution, I have the pleasure of introducing to you Aksgar Magazine.

In a sentence, Aksgar (Urdu for photographer) is a new magazine dedicated to the publication of documentary and narrative photography from around the world, in the form of photo essays.

Our aim with Aksgar is to provide a platform to publish work that has normally “less space” in traditional media, whether due to it’s alternative content or because the authors are not well known, but still deserves to be seen.

Besides the online presence, Aksgar will periodically be distributed electronically (pdf, app, etc)and in print. And as a sort of welcoming treat, if you subscribe to the newsletter, you’ll receive the first issue of Aksgar in pdf for free. Want different ways to connect with Aksgar? Follow us also on twitter.

We are currently accepting submissions. If you think your work is suitable to be featured in Aksgar, read the submission guidelines and click that submit button.

This is going to be quite a ride and, I expect, way out of my comfort zone, but I’m sure it will also be a rewarding one.

Take a look at some of the essays already published and tell me what you think…


Emergency by Anne Holmes	The Chenchus by Anil Cherukupalli	Land of a Thousand Struggles by Sohrab Hura

Great Deals on Adobe Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5

Antonio Marques — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 13:25:04 +0000

Going around Amazon today just to check if something was deeply discounted, I’ve noticed that some Adobe products’ prices got slashed.

As you probably know, I’m a Lightroom 3 user and I’ve been recommending it both here on the blog as well as on PhotoNetCast.

So, if you still don’t have Lightroom 3, this is a great opportunity to get it at a very good price. Since Amazon had a Black Friday deal on LR3 and it sold out VERY quickly, you might want to think really fast on this one.

Although not so much as Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5 is also slightly discounted.

Pick of the Week: Photo Edition – June 28, 2010

Antonio Marques — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:55:25 +0000

Here goes this week’s selection of some of the photos that caught my attention of Flickr. I hope you enjoy them. As before, there’s a great deal of Black & White images on this pick. I’m always amazed at what the lack of color just by itself can transmit.

Congratulations to all the photographers. Great works here.

Don’t forget to go to the photo pages and leave your comments. I’m sure the photographers appreciate it.

Five Stars of the Week

This image represent not only itself, but it’s a small sample of what is one of the most creative, beautiful and brilliant photostreams on Flickr. Rosie’s talent goes well beyond words, and coming from someone so young. Memorize her name. You’ll be listening to it again in a few years. I’ll try to get her on PhotoNetcast to share some of her experiences. My Five Stars of the Week.

All thumbnails copyright of respective photographers. Used with permission.

How much is a print photography magazine worth to you?

Antonio Marques — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 23:11:05 +0000

A few days ago I got one of those emails from a generalist photography magazine (a very large publication I might add) trying to convince me to subscribe to their print version for a very attractive price. It’s the old marketing technique, enrolling subscribers at a loss for the first year and hoping they’ll remain subscribed after that for a substantially higher value. I mean, I’m sure that what they were charging for 12 issues of the magazine would not even cover the shipping costs.

I have to confess that the offer was so appealing that I almost went for it. But then…

I was subscribed to them once, maybe up to 2 years ago, and at the time decided not to renew my subscription for a number of reasons:

1. News way too old – By the time I actually had the opportunity to grab it and go though the news sections, chances are I would have read all about it online before and would just skip these sections entirely.

2. Uninteresting content – A couple of articles would probably grab my interest, and I would definitely enjoy admiring some of the photographic work, but in general the interesting:uninteresting ratio was just too low.

3. Advertisement everywhere – Do I need to say more? Every third page would be a full page ad, not to mention the smaller ones sprinkled everywhere. Scratch what I said above about my money not paying even for shipping, the ads pay for everything.

If i were to rip from the magazine the pages that actually interested me, the number would not be so great. I did not subscribe again.

All this got me wondering what would I enjoy in a printed photography magazine. Not news, I can get them online; not technical articles, i can definitely get them (and better ones) online; certainly not the ads, although I don’t mind them when not in exaggerated numbers.

Now, if instead we start talking about photographic studies, photographic essays and, to a large extent, photojournalism/documentary work, that I would enjoy. That I would pay to get in print. Sure, all of these are also available online, but in this case I would prefer the print. Call me old fashioned.

A number of publications like this still exist, but are getting fewer and fewer, unfortunately.

Now comes my question to you…

How much would you pay, if anything, for a print magazine, well edited and curated, showcasing quality work in the form of essays and photojournalism?

How much would you pay for a quality photography magazine?

And just out of curiosity, what do you enjoy more on a photography magazine (generalist or specialized)? Leave your thoughts on the comments…

Download your Flickr Stats files NOW

Antonio Marques — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 08:40:14 +0000

Flickr Stats

Just a small reminder that from today, June 1, Flickr will stop delivering historical statistics data (hits, refferers, etc) for photos and videos and allow access only to the previous 28 days.

If you’re interested in keeping thesa data, and if for nothing else at least for historical reasons you should, relevant files can be downloaded either in CSV or Excel format for each month up to May 2010. I still can’t understand why files have to be downloaded one at a time and there is no option for bulk download (at least that I could find), but ok, better than nothing.

But you have to act fast, the files are only available until today, June 1, 12pm PDT (8pm GMT).

Pick of the Week: Photo Edition – June 14, 2009

Antonio Marques — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 11:01:00 +0000

Here goes this week’s selection of some of the photos that caught my attention of Flickr. I hope you enjoy them.

Don’t forget to go to the photo pages and leave your comments. I’m sure the photographers appreciate it.

Five Stars of the Week

At first this image can be overlooked without a second glance. After some time admiring it, I got caught on the tensions created by the irregular posture of the model, the unexpected and creative use of a helmet on what could be considered a nude portrait (definitely something you don’t see everyday) and the contrast between the model’s skin tone and the prop. A very creative and masterful capture. My Five Stars of the Week.

Pick of the Week: Link Edition – June 13, 2009

Antonio Marques — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 11:45:23 +0000

Not much time to write this one, so no comments, but here goes a list of worth reads (+ a fantastic video) from this past week:

10 Tips to making your first photo book – Beyond Megapixels
10 Tipps zur Hochzeitsfotografie (in German) – Kwerfeldein.de
SoFoBoMo published – A Roadtrop Through SE Australia – Neil Creek
Help! I’ve Been Infringed! – Photo Attorney
Styling: Pure Hell or a place to “shine” – Yuri Arcurs
Creative Partnerships vs. Self-Motivation – Rasmus Rasmussen
5 Tips to Get Followed on Twitter – JMG-Galleries
Letting Things Marinate – PhotoWalkPro
Making Fine Art Prints: Signing – Epic Edits (check also the other posts of Brian’s series on Fine Art prints)
How to Price Assignments: Price High and Give Your Clients an Experience – DSLRBlog

(via Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection)

PhotoNetCast turns one

Antonio Marques — Sun, 03 May 2009 22:01:24 +0000

Yeap, it’s true. As incredible as it may seem, at least to me, PhotoNetCast, the photography podcast hosted by me, Brian Auer, Martin Gommel and Jim Goldstein, just got a bit older. The 28th episode marks our 1 year anniversary.

On a personal level PhotoNetCast has been a fantastic experience. For these 28 episodes, if I count the show prep, recording, editing and publishing, on a quick count, it’s probably more than 200 hours of time invested in this project and worth every minute of it.

Our objective, since the beginning, has been to produce a quality show in which we can openly discuss our ideas and topics that are brought to the table, independently of our point of view. It has not been an easy task with all the hurdles for a beginner in the medium, but personally I’m more than satisfied. I believe that PhotoNetCast is informative and entertaining to listen, and focuses on topics that matter for all photographers, independently of their "level".

PhotoNetCast allowed me to reach to the great photographers and industry professionals we had as guests and learn while they share their opinions. Yes, learn. The show has been a huge learning experience. My appreciation to all of them.

The audience feedback has been superb and it’s all that support that motivates to keep producing and always trying to publish a better podcast, every episode. Thank you. This is what makes me believe that PhotoNetCast is becoming a reference podcast for photography.

And finally, Brian, Jim and Martin: Thank you very much for joining me on this trip. It has been a year of waking up early or staying up late and fighting with sometimes frustrating technical issues, but also a year of great laughs and shared knowledge. Here’s to many more years doing this together.

If you’re still not listening, I’d like to encourage you to subscribe to PhotoNetCast on iTunes, or just grab the regular feed.

Since my last update of the podcast here on the blog, 3 episodes were published:

PhotoNetCast #26 – Going Beyond your Comfort Zone – We tried to discuss how important it is to grow photographically to always try to push yourself, whether with gear or just changing your approach.

PhotoNetCast #27 – HDR Photography – With Dave Wilson as guest, we discuss HDR photography.

PhotoNetCast #28 – Travel Photography – Logistics, preparation, regulations and the actual shooting. How to make the most of your photographic travels.

I hope you enjoy it. And thanks for listening.

Pick of the Week: Photo Edition – April 21, 2009

Antonio Marques — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:54:28 +0000

For this edition of Pick of the Week: Photo Edition I’ve noticed a pattern in my choices – Black and White. Not all, but I’m spending more and more time admiring black and white photos. I hope you like the selection.

Don’t forget to go to the photo pages and leave your comments. I’m sure the photographers appreciate it.

Five Stars of the Week

I have to say that I’ve spent a LONG time admiring this photo. Overall, everything seems right with it. The backlighting creates a perfect mood, and even the light in the curtains looks good. My Five Stars of the Week.

Pick of the Week: Link Edition – April 18, 2009

Antonio Marques — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 22:08:31 +0000

And here is a roundup of some interesting articles from the past days.

Cooking with light… Errr… Lighting with Cookware (Davidejackson) – This one made me laugh. Want to be innovative with your lighting without breaking the bank? What about some cookware as light modifiers?

Camera Corner – Part 1 – My Gear Bag (Zoriah) – Want to see how a photojournalist going to the most troubled areas rolls? I probably take more gear with me to photograph around the corner.

Great Digital Argument #1 – PC vs. Mac. Let The Wars Begin (Digital ProTalk) – David tries to show that the ~~too boring~~ old arguments between Mac and PC users leads nowhere. Main point: use whatever you need to get the job done.

Developing Multiple Streams of Photographic Income (DSLRBlog) – Going pro might mean having more than one income stream from your photography and the trick is diversify.

Photo Project: Symmetry (Beyond Phototips) – If projects is your thing, here is another one with some great potential to tickle your creativity.

My Favorite Film after a Year of Shooting (Epic Edits) – When you dedicate yourself so much to film photography as my good pal Brian has, a list of the true goodies comes out. If you’re into film photography (and you should be once in a while) you have to read this.

Why You’re NOT Making Photo Sales (Photopreneur) – A few simple advices that have the potential to increase your chances of licensing a few of those old images you have laying around on your hard drives.

And that’s it for this week. I haven’t had that much time to read all my favorite blogs, but the gems always pop-up.

Sony World Photography Awards 2009, and some amazing footage

Antonio Marques — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 22:39:37 +0000

Just in case you’ve missed it, on the April 14th, the Sony World Photography Awards ceremony debuted in Cannes. As in previous editions, there is some great photography to be admired in this competition and it’s definitely a good time investment. You can check the galleries at the Sony World Photography Awards site.

As I was writing this small post, I stumbled upon a video demonstrating the capacity of the SprintCam v3 HD by i-movix, a full HD camera capable of capturing up to 1000fps directed at the sports broadcasting and advertising markets. This video was made for the NAB 2009 exhibit by David Coiffier, and you just have to see it.

Is Photography just supposed to capture reality?

Antonio Marques — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:17:38 +0000

Visual reality has much to do, not only with the real physical disposition of the world or scene, but also with how it is perceived. Someone with color blindness or some other visual impairment will have a different perception of reality than someone who’s vision is considered normal.

In photography, even if we assume that all film stocks and all digital sensors would capture light the same way, the simple fact that different lenses distort to a certain degree the light, is enough to conclude that photography cannot capture reality, but simply capture light.

What started me thinking…

A few days ago, I was reading a report mentioning how a Danish photographer saw his work disqualified from the Danish version of the “Pictures of the Year” contest. In short, the photojournalist got disqualified when judges requested his RAW files for comparison with the submitted processed images. Although the contest rules mention that "Photos submitted to Picture of The Year must be a truthful representation of whatever happened in front of the camera during exposure. You may post-process the images electronically in accordance with good practice. That is cropping, burning, dodging, converting to black and white as well as normal exposure and color correction, which preserves the image’s original expression.”, it seems that this photojournalist’s processing was too much for the judges.

I’ve passed this story to my twitter followers and this generated a nice discussion, with @marcoschmidt replying “but what’s real? the JPG? with which picture style? the RAW? With which converter? black and white?”

Capturing reality in photojournalism

I firmly believe that if what a photographer is doing is photojournalism, then the final images should indeed resemble as much as possible the original scene notwithstanding any different interpretations that may arise from framing, composition, etc. If too many exceptions are allowed, photojournalism will turn into a field of doubt and many publications have, indeed, strict rules on what is allowed in processing. But asking for the RAW files?!? I’m not sure I agree with this move. If a photographer messes his exposures and ends up with a RAW that is overexposed, does that mean that the original scene was flooded by light? What if the white balance was not properly set? RAW files are exactly that, the raw information. Even a RAW file, outputted with different converters will originate slightly different images. Note that I’m not defending the photojournalist. I believe that what he saw in those places was probably much close to the unmodified RAW than to the images he submitted for the contest and he tried to make them more appealing. But when documenting something, the appeal should come from the story that photos are trying to tell, from good composition, good lighting, good angles… not from Photoshop. Individual ethics play a major role in photojournalism and I still prefer to believe that photojournalism tries to capture reality.

Photography as an art form

If we look at photography from an artistic point of view, then all of the above does not apply. Photography becomes a tool to express the photographer’s creativity, and it’s up to each individual artist to modify it (or not) as he pleases, in order to pass to an audience (or at least try to) the story he’s trying to tell and elicit emotions. Nobody asked Dalí if he actually saw that somewhere when he painted “The Railway Station at Perpignan” (one of my favorite works by SD). I can have my personal preferences regarding a certain photographic work or a certain style of photographing or processing, I might like it or not, but no artistic photographer should ever listen that his work is bad because it doesn’t resemble reality.

Photography is not supposed to capture reality, just to capture light.

Twitter me this…

Earlier I asked on Twitter “In 140 chars or less answer this: "Is photography just supposed to capture reality?"

These are some of the replies I got… Interpret and take your own conclusions. Thanks for your thoughts.

@jeffcrossphoto “I think photography is supposed to be an interpretation of reality from the photographer’s point of view.”

@danzphoto “Absolutely not. Did Monet only try to capture reality? Like him, photography also captures mood, feeling, impression.”

@dawilson “Documentary photography is supposed to capture reality as closely as possible given equipment capabilities. / Art photography uses reality as a starting point. What the photographer/artist does with that is entirely up to them.” (Dave cheated and used 2 tweets… That’s ok Dave )

@dwterry “Photography is a tool. It can reflect or augment reality. It can create works of art. It’s all in what you do with it.”

@pawoli “each photo is real, photographers and viewers have their own realities which may differ and evolve over time”

@EricBooth “By no means. IMO photography is an art form. An expression of ones self. I have no problem using all the tools available to me.”

@Raquita “Just capture reality limits its power, I think photographs should live up to the 1000 words thing – tell stories beautifully…”

@Celippitt “Photojournalism is supposed to capture reality…Photography is the process of producing images on photosensitive surfaces.”

@mcgraths “Photography is an art. I think it should be a blend on imagination and reality, but really it is up to the artist.”

Your thoughts?

And how do you mix photography with reality? Should it capture just reality or is it, a tool to be used? Share your thoughts with us…

Photo credits: “reality tag” by Scoobymoo (CC by-nd), “sheffield: what’s your reality?” by paolo màrgari (CC by-nc-nd), “Reality” by Bright Meadow (CC by-sa)