Reportage or Archival- what is the benefit and can you add this designation to images after upload?

[Tawna Brown]

Hi all!

 

In preparing a new batch of images, several of them are from a newsworthy past event (there was news media and this got national attention, even some international attention).  I've already uploaded some images from this event in the past but did not check off "reportage or archival" upon upload.  Can I add "archival" designation to my images after the fact (after they've been uploaded?)  

 

However, with my new batch- that I'm preparing to upload, I'd like to know, what happens if I check this box off (for the images that are "archival" (i.e. news event from 3 years ago).?  Do they go to a different place than all of my other images, or will they still all appear with my other images that have the same keywords?  Is there a benefit for me to even check this off?  (There wasn't a ton of news media present due to the remoteness of the event, so I do have some great images by being there myself).

 

I was planning to upload right now, but I realize with this question I have, I didn't want to until I got clarity on the "Reportage/archival" option.

 

Thank you!

 

Tawna

[Tawna Brown]

1 hour ago, Chuck Nacke said:

 

I would be interested in a response to this thread by Alamy.

 

Chuck

Thank you.... so would I:)  So what would you consider newsworthy images to be from an event in 2017, and there are very few out there as it is. I uploaded as "reportage". I uploaded only 4, and they all passed. I just uploaded 50 more (but not from the specific celebration/special event in 2017, but rather of the larger project that spanned 4 years)- those are now going through review.  (I marked them as "photograph"- i.e. regular stock.

 

Tawna

[Chuck Nacke]

46 minutes ago, Tawna Brown said:

Thank you.... so would I:)  So what would you consider newsworthy images to be from an event in 2017, and there are very few out there as it is. I uploaded as "reportage". I uploaded only 4, and they all passed. I just uploaded 50 more (but not from the specific celebration/special event in 2017, but rather of the larger project that spanned 4 years)- those are now going through review.  (I marked them as "photograph"- i.e. regular stock.

 

Tawna

Tawna,

 

I have no idea of the event that you are speaking about in 2017? Harvey Weinstein, Las Vegas shooting and Donald Trump being sworn in as the U.S. President were all events in 2017 that were "newsworthy" and of historical importance i.e. Archival.  Exceptional images of those will be in demand for for a very long time.  

 

If I were you or where I believe you are working, I would concentrate on Climate issues and images illustrating Climate change and its effects on "local people's' lives and wildlife.  Also make sure you have good captions that will stand up in a year or ten years.

 

Chuck

Edited February 11, 2021 by Chuck Nacke
addition

[Vincent Lowe]

6 hours ago, Tawna Brown said:

WHAT IS THE WORD/CHARACTER LIMIT FOR STOCK CAPTIONS?

 

I'm not sure your question has been answered - apologies if it has.  It's 150 characters.

[Tawna Brown]

1 minute ago, Chuck Nacke said:

Tawna,

 

I have no idea of the event that you are speaking about in 2017? Harvey Weinstein, Las Vegas shooting and Donald Trump being sworn in as the U.S. President were all events 

in 2017 that were "newsworthy" and of historical importance i.e. Archival.  Exceptional images of those will be in demand for for a very long time.  

 

Chuck

It's nothing of that calibre, but it is part of a national interest story in Canada, and of interest to the international audience that deals with climate change, permafrost, global warming, sovereignty and the arctic.  (Construction of a highway in the arctic that represents the final link of a highway network connecting the rest of Canada to the arctic ocean by an all-weather road for the first time; built on permafrost, where a lot of international research is being conducted to see how this engineering holds up (there is not another highway of its kind in North America, and maybe only 1 other another part of the circumpolar world).    

 

So the actual opening ceremony/ speeches, etc (Governor General, federal Minister, Premier, etc).... I was thinking would be more of "reportage" vs. "archival" - and I thought it would be "reportage" vs. plain stock photos, because if it was submitted in real time, it would have been live news and would have likely been accepted, but since it's after the fact, it wouldn't be "live".... but I think it would fit in reportage because the actual project has received a lot of regional/national and international attention, along with research/ academic interest as well.... and that interest will continue well into the future.    The bulk of my images from this project have been submitted as regular "stock photos", but I've submitted a small handful as "reportage" - those are the ones of the officials doing their speeches, the crowd of people and media in the room during the opening ceremony, etc.  i hope this makes sense. In any case, it has been done already. Uploaded and accepted as reportage. Just with a click of a button.  I just wish there was more clarity about why one would choose reportage over regular stock.

[Tawna Brown]

6 minutes ago, Vincent Lowe said:

 

I'm not sure your question has been answered - apologies if it has.  It's 150 characters.

Thank you @Vincent Lowe, no i didn't see a response.  I've uploaded 4 images as reportage and the captions all were fine since you get more words.... but the 50 other images that are under review now.... most of them will have to be adjusted manually now (as i wrote out the captions in lightroom and uploaded that way.... now I'll have to shorten the majority:(   Live and learn!!!  (Ps- Have I read somewhere that the words used in the caption are equally as impt, possibly more impt, than the keywords and super keywords???)

[meanderingemu]

3 hours ago, Tawna Brown said:

It's nothing of that calibre, but it is part of a national interest story in Canada, and of interest to the international audience that deals with climate change, permafrost, global warming, sovereignty and the arctic.  (Construction of a highway in the arctic that represents the final link of a highway network connecting the rest of Canada to the arctic ocean by an all-weather road for the first time; built on permafrost, where a lot of international research is being conducted to see how this engineering holds up (there is not another highway of its kind in North America, and maybe only 1 other another part of the circumpolar world).    

 

So the actual opening ceremony/ speeches, etc (Governor General, federal Minister, Premier, etc).... I was thinking would be more of "reportage" vs. "archival" - and I thought it would be "reportage" vs. plain stock photos, because if it was submitted in real time, it would have been live news and would have likely been accepted, but since it's after the fact, it wouldn't be "live".... but I think it would fit in reportage because the actual project has received a lot of regional/national and international attention, along with research/ academic interest as well.... and that interest will continue well into the future.    The bulk of my images from this project have been submitted as regular "stock photos", but I've submitted a small handful as "reportage" - those are the ones of the officials doing their speeches, the crowd of people and media in the room during the opening ceremony, etc.  i hope this makes sense. In any case, it has been done already. Uploaded and accepted as reportage. Just with a click of a button.  I just wish there was more clarity about why one would choose reportage over regular stock.

 

 

Maybe a bit of historical background.  Reportage was something introduced recently when Alamy decided to reduce how many people had access to Live News.  It was mainly created to allow those that got News event, but no  longer access to Live News with a way to submit and bypass QC, and potentially be up for sales faster- as someone mention the further introduction of five star rating has reduced this major impact, since many of us get our Stock images up for sale quickly.  It is pretty much transparent to clients, beyond the "may contain imperfection", there is no search filter saying "show me reportage", and Alamy does not push the content out in any special way, so not like Live News.  

 

 

 

 

By the way the examples you presented would be reportage, but they also fit as stock in the Alamy world where focus is on editorial images.  

Edited February 11, 2021 by meanderingemu

[meanderingemu]

3 hours ago, Tawna Brown said:

 Have I read somewhere that the words used in the caption are equally as impt, possibly more impt, than the keywords and super keywords???)

 

 

I did a test and this is the order my images appeared . obviously this can vary, but it should be a general view on impact of each

 

 

1)Caption + Supertag

2) Supertag only

3) Caption + KW

4) Caption only

5) KW only.

Edited February 11, 2021 by meanderingemu

[Chuck Nacke]

5 hours ago, Tawna Brown said:

It's nothing of that calibre, but it is part of a national interest story in Canada, and of interest to the international audience that deals with climate change, permafrost, global warming, sovereignty and the arctic.  (Construction of a highway in the arctic that represents the final link of a highway network connecting the rest of Canada to the arctic ocean by an all-weather road for the first time; built on permafrost, where a lot of international research is being conducted to see how this engineering holds up (there is not another highway of its kind in North America, and maybe only 1 other another part of the circumpolar world).    

 

So the actual opening ceremony/ speeches, etc (Governor General, federal Minister, Premier, etc).... I was thinking would be more of "reportage" vs. "archival" - and I thought it would be "reportage" vs. plain stock photos, because if it was submitted in real time, it would have been live news and would have likely been accepted, but since it's after the fact, it wouldn't be "live".... but I think it would fit in reportage because the actual project has received a lot of regional/national and international attention, along with research/ academic interest as well.... and that interest will continue well into the future.    The bulk of my images from this project have been submitted as regular "stock photos", but I've submitted a small handful as "reportage" - those are the ones of the officials doing their speeches, the crowd of people and media in the room during the opening ceremony, etc.  i hope this makes sense. In any case, it has been done already. Uploaded and accepted as reportage. Just with a click of a button.  I just wish there was more clarity about why one would choose reportage over regular stock.

Tawna,

 

You are welcome to email me directly, my email is not hard to find, and I will express my opinion to your question

directly.

 

Chuck

[geogphotos]

Tawna,

 

Not sure if you are still looking for opinions.

 

If your images would pass QC ( and there clearly isn't a News element here) I would upload them as Stock. 

[NYCat]

On the subject of keywords, it is important to include the latin name for animals. Put it in both the caption and tags. I would also make it a supertag. Sometimes people search that way. I suspect they think they will find images by the more knowledgeable wildlife photographers and not so many casual shots.

 

Paulette

[Tawna Brown]

11 hours ago, geogphotos said:

Tawna,

 

Not sure if you are still looking for opinions.

 

If your images would pass QC ( and there clearly isn't a News element here) I would upload them as Stock. 

Thank you! yes, the quality wasn't the issue... it was more of me wanting the subject matter to be categorized properly. But I still don't get when it would be appropriate to use "reportage" (not archival or news).... This forum sure brings about all kinds of perspectives:) 

[Tawna Brown]

19 hours ago, Chuck Nacke said:

Also make sure you have good captions that will stand up in a year or ten years.

 

Chuck

I definitely will pay attention to the caption, but purpose does it have? Does the client have to use the caption if they were going to include a caption? Or is it just meant more for a guideline? Now you've got me thinking about changing all of my captions for future purposes (instead of it being a mini summary of what the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk highway is (when it opened, how long it is, cost, etc. - i might instead want to be more generic and say that it's an all weather highway built over permafrost in Canada's arctic.... something like that.... I don't know! I don't want to get too fussy, but at the same time, I want to get it right as much as i can from the beginning so that i'm not having to re-do things afterwards.

[Mr Standfast]

Tawna, the caption is searchable, much the same as keywords. Buyers use the caption or it's content depending on their need.

[meanderingemu]

1 hour ago, Tawna Brown said:

I definitely will pay attention to the caption, but purpose does it have? Does the client have to use the caption if they were going to include a caption? Or is it just meant more for a guideline? Now you've got me thinking about changing all of my captions for future purposes (instead of it being a mini summary of what the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk highway is (when it opened, how long it is, cost, etc. - i might instead want to be more generic and say that it's an all weather highway built over permafrost in Canada's arctic.... something like that.... I don't know! I don't want to get too fussy, but at the same time, I want to get it right as much as i can from the beginning so that i'm not having to re-do things afterwards.

 

 

The Caption is your marketing.    Make it mainly things that will be a viable hit for people looking for what is in your image.   On news caption, it is actually a delicate balance, as much of the additional information could lead to false search results, so much of this information may be better serve in the " Additional Info" which is not searchable. 

 

 For example, on you image with the G.G. i probably would have only included the first sentence in my Caption (adding Canada and maybe "all weather gravel road" if i felt this is something someone looking for this image would look for.).

 

 

 

 

The goal of the caption, and the KW is to get the image in front of the buyers.    

 

 

Note:  Though there is more than one flag, so flags is correct as KW, i would add "flag" also because the image would illustrate "Governor General Flag Northwest Territories" 

 

(and as i wrote that i went to add " Canadian GG" to my KWs just in case with Ms.Payette, as the abbreviation could be used 🙂  (it never stops)).....and of course i notice i never thought a putting "woman" in there, which could be a search term as "Woman Governor General"... one of the big reason i answer these queries as it forces me to look at my one stuff. 

Edited February 11, 2021 by meanderingemu

[meanderingemu]

1 hour ago, Tawna Brown said:

 i might instead want to be more generic and say that it's an all weather highway built over permafrost in Canada's arctic.... something like that.... I don't know! I don't want to get too fussy, but at the same time, I want to get it right as much as i can from the beginning so that i'm not having to re-do things afterwards.

 

 

this is always hard to determine.  Your image does not in anyway show "permafrost" or "all weather".  How likely are people going to be using these words for an image of a press conference.    As i go, i find i end up going to regularly remove Generic stuff because of number of face positive i get. 

 

Also if you feel it may be used, you then go into optimising placement.  By putting "permafrost" only in KW, it would reduce its weighting, so you will not likely be on someone's search for "Permafrost"  as you should be low on that search but yes on "Opening Ceremony permafrost highway" (if this is likely) 

 

i hope this helps, for me working my Captions, ST, KW of my portfolio is about 30 minutes weekly looking through my search results, plus adhoc review when i realise, like just 5 minutes ago, "ah, never thought of including xxxxx in this subject".  

[Sally]

21 hours ago, Tawna Brown said:

Thank you @Vincent Lowe, no i didn't see a response.  I've uploaded 4 images as reportage and the captions all were fine since you get more words.... but the 50 other images that are under review now.... most of them will have to be adjusted manually now (as i wrote out the captions in lightroom and uploaded that way.... now I'll have to shorten the majority:(   Live and learn!!!  (Ps- Have I read somewhere that the words used in the caption are equally as impt, possibly more impt, than the keywords and super keywords???)

There is no particular reason to choose Reportage over Stock unless it is for the reasons Ian Davidson has outlined ie image quality due to being in a news type environment. In the end, they all go into the same pot. Better to have them as straight stock and no “could have imperfections” tag attached to them unless there is a particular reason to have them up quickly - assuming you are not 5 stars in which case there is no difference with the speed.

Edited February 11, 2021 by Sally

[Tawna Brown]

1 hour ago, meanderingemu said:

 

 

The Caption is your marketing.    Make it mainly things that will be a viable hit for people looking for what is in your image.   On news caption, it is actually a delicate balance, as much of the additional information could lead to false search results, so much of this information may be better serve in the " Additional Info" which is not searchable. 

 

 For example, on you image with the G.G. i probably would have only included the first sentence in my Caption (adding Canada and maybe "all weather gravel road" if i felt this is something someone looking for this image would look for.).

 

 

 

 

The goal of the caption, and the KW is to get the image in front of the buyers.    

 

 

Note:  Though there is more than one flag, so flags is correct as KW, i would add "flag" also because the image would illustrate "Governor General Flag Northwest Territories" 

 

(and as i wrote that i went to add " Canadian GG" to my KWs just in case with Ms.Payette, as the abbreviation could be used 🙂  (it never stops)).....and of course i notice i never thought a putting "woman" in there, which could be a search term as "Woman Governor General"... one of the big reason i answer these queries as it forces me to look at my one stuff. 

thank you @meanderingemu- very helpful comments:)  I kind of forgot about the "additional info" section, so i see this would be a good place to add more info (although since it's not searchable, why would I spend much time on the section? It would take forever to do that for 1000s of images (i plan to be uploading A LOT over the next couple of months)..... I suppose if I have a collection of a certain subject (such as this highway), I could enter this additional info into several images all at once - (I hope!)  PS- I will be responding shortly to your other msg that you sent me:)

 

[Tawna Brown]

1 hour ago, Chuck Nacke said:

@Chuck Nacke with such experience, you're a great resource to this forum!  I'm approaching my stock contributions/uploads differently than most, working from my existing content rather than shooting new content specifically for stock or to meet the current trends. I have a great abundance of content that is just sitting on ext drives and they are suffocating and eagerly waiting to be shared and given a new life!  So while this may be a bit backwards (focusing on what I have to contribute rather than looking at what the trends are and trying to fill those gaps), I am trying to learn the right way to do my data entry, so that I can save time down the road from having to fix things.  Although I imagine that you are never finished with your keywording, etc... you will always be going back to freshen things up, add new words, etc, etc! 

 

[Tawna Brown]

1 hour ago, Sally said:

Better to have them as straight stock and no “could have imperfections” tag attached to them unless there is a particular reason to have them up quickly - assuming you are not 5 stars in which case there is no difference with the speed.

Thanks @Sally! Good to know..... I don't believe I have any images that I would be uploading that would not pass the QC test, so if "reportage" doesn't benefit me in any way, in terms of my images being found, then it sounds like "stock" is the way to go.... (except that you get a longer caption for reportage.... although I can just use the "Additional info" field in the stock category to expand upon the image info, except that doesn't do much for me either since it's not keyword searchable.... so if the captions are just as impt at the keywords, i see the one benefit of "reportage" being a longer caption- which allows for more keywords and may increase the likelihood of my images being found...... (But it is very likely my images on this subject matter will be found, as I was the unofficial photographer over the project's 4 year term and likely have the most robust collection of images covering the subject!  And.... hardly any are out there in the stock agencies, so I have a lot of room to fill up with  my images- with or without longer captions, i think they have a good chance being found (if being searched) just because of my fortunate circumstances!)

 

[Tawna Brown]

1 hour ago, meanderingemu said:

 

 

Your image does not in anyway show "permafrost" or "all weather".  How likely are people going to be using these words for an image of a press conference.    As i go, i find i end up going to regularly remove Generic stuff because of number of face positive i get. 

 

Also if you feel it may be used, you then go into optimising placement.  By putting "permafrost" only in KW, it would reduce its weighting, so you will not likely be on someone's search for "Permafrost"  as you should be low on that search but yes on "Opening Ceremony permafrost highway" (if this is likely) 

@meanderingemu... I see what you mean... those specific KWs may not be so relevant to those particular images, but they are to the subject matter of the event/project/overall story.... so i will probably be adding such KWs to most of the images of the project (which will be images of the actual road), as this is a high profile highway, very unique, and people around the circumpolar world are watching it, in terms of global warming, permafrost, the geotextile fabric that is laid underneath the gravel to protect the permafrost, etc, etc.   So this is why these keywords are impt to this project..... So I should probably add these more generic keywords in the captions of the images that show the actual road.... and this will boost my chances for those images to appear.  

 

That being said, as I just mentioned in a previous comment, I have an advantage on this subject, as i was one of the very few main photographers and had access throughout the 4 years documenting its construction (not open to public at that time)..... I was receiving random (and international)  inquiries on a somewhat regular basis to license my images on this topic- and this had nothing to do with being on Alamy- in fact it was before i ever uploaded to alamy. I have my website and i've wrote a blog post, etc, etc..... and for awhile there, people knew somehow to contact me for these images.  

 

But for the past 2 years, I've not received any of these inquiries for some reason!  So.... it's time to get them out there on a larger platform with a much wider reach, as very few people in the world would ever know to contact/google Tawna Brown when it comes to accessing image content on this particular highway!  And this is just 1 topic of many, many, many that I want to upload!  (Having done a 10month round the world photographic journey, and not doing anything with those 1000s of images yet!)  I've got my work cut out for me, so good thing I am on a gap year from work and have the time to attend to this..... so long as i can stay focused and dedicated!

[meanderingemu]

3 hours ago, Sally said:

There is no particular reason to choose Reportage over Stock unless it is for the reasons Ian Davidson has outlined ie image quality due to being in a news type environment. In the end, they all go into the same pot. Better to have them as straight stock and no “could have imperfections” tag attached to them unless there is a particular reason to have them up quickly - assuming you are not 5 stars in which case there is no difference with the speed.

 

one other thing I thought of, is if not 5 stars, uploading as Reportage clean images also reduces opportunity to improve rating, and getting to 5 Stars. 

[Tawna Brown]

On 11/02/2021 at 18:13, meanderingemu said:

 

one other thing I thought of, is if not 5 stars, uploading as Reportage clean images also reduces opportunity to improve rating, and getting to 5 Stars. 

@meanderingemu Do you mean that since i'm not at 5 stars yet, by uploading some as reportage, that upload doesn't count towards QC rating, and with them having been good quality images that very most likely would have passed QC, I would be better off uploading as stock- if my primary goal is to help me get the 5 star rating faster (particularly seeing that my reviews are taking FOREVER at the moment).  (I hadn't logged in to this forum for a few days, so pardon my delay in response).

[meanderingemu]

47 minutes ago, Tawna Brown said:

@meanderingemu Do you mean that since i'm not at 5 stars yet, by uploading some as reportage, that upload doesn't count towards QC rating, and with them having been good quality images that very most likely would have passed QC, I would be better off uploading as stock- if my primary goal is to help me get the 5 star rating faster (particularly seeing that my reviews are taking FOREVER at the moment).  (I hadn't logged in to this forum for a few days, so pardon my delay in response).

 

 

that would be exact (in theory) Since image loaded as Reportage do not get reviewed for QC, Alamy will not look at them as a proof of quality upload.  Stars rating is based on passing QC..  

[Niels Quist]

- and a comment to earlier posts about something I forgot I was aware of until recently:

 

The Reportage images that go right through QC  can be seen right after using the link:

 

alamy.com/[image-id]

 

You can probably also create a lightbox - and tweet necessary text and these images - even directly to news offices, if they are following you.

 

But you may, of course, already know this.

 

Niels

[MizBrown]

On 11/02/2021 at 14:21, Mr Standfast said:

Tawna, the caption is searchable, much the same as keywords. Buyers use the caption or it's content depending on their need.

 

It also shows up on a mouse over.  The better it is, the better.  One of my recent licenses was searched a couple of times, once probably by a photo research assistant, then by my caption which the assistant apparently had jotted down.  Zoomed one day, licensed the next.   You're showing you know what you photographed and the historical or cultural  importance of what you photographed in the caption.