John Mitchell Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 After a recent forum thread in which book covers were discussed, I decided to have a look at Alamy's "book covers" collection. Interestingly enough, none of the images that I zoomed actually had "book cover" in the keywords. However, a check of Alamy Measures (All of Alamy) shows a considerable number of searches during the past year containing the phrase "book cover." I haven't been putting "book cover" in my keywords. Does anyone do this? It looks as if it might be a good idea for images that could fit this category. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 I see no reason to do that. If you look at book and magazine covers you will see many variations of cropping and layouts and design tricks. How would contributors' know what a buyer (designer) is look for to use as a book cover? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 Those searches may have been for actual book covers of classic books or novels. I had found a bunch of uses, in the New York Times Style Magazine, last Sunday. There were about ten published but only four were Alamy contributor images, so I am sure the photo researcher looked for all of them on Alamy. Time to go and photograph any classic book covers I may have! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Endicott Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 I have actual book covers in my collection with the keywords "book cover" in them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted October 26, 2014 Author Share Posted October 26, 2014 Good points. There is no predicting whether or not an image might be used as a book cover or how it might be cropped. All my book cover sales have been surprises. I was thinking of pictures taken specifically with "book cover" in mind -- i.e. vertical, lots of room for text, symbolic, etc. Randomly putting "book cover" in keywords would obviously not be a good idea. Michael, you're probably correct. A search for "book cover" does bring up a lot of actual book covers. I didn't realize it was kosher to photograph and resell them as stock, even "classic" ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 Nor did I John. I wonder how often they sell? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martyn Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 Often wondered that myself….would it be a breach of copyright to reproduce a book/cd/magazine cover for stock? I did photograph the front page of a 1960s national newspaper covering an important event and that licensed a few weeks ago…. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted October 26, 2014 Author Share Posted October 26, 2014 Often wondered that myself….would it be a breach of copyright to reproduce a book/cd/magazine cover for stock? I did photograph the front page of a 1960s national newspaper covering an important event and that licensed a few weeks ago…. I've photographed newspapers on newsstands and don't see why that would be a problem for editorial use. In fact, one such image of mine leased as a book cover (coincidentally) recently. I've had other newspaper shots lease for textbook use as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 Often wondered that myself….would it be a breach of copyright to reproduce a book/cd/magazine cover for stock? I did photograph the front page of a 1960s national newspaper covering an important event and that licensed a few weeks ago…. I've photographed newspapers on newsstands and don't see why that would be a problem for editorial use. In fact, one such image of mine leased as a book cover (coincidentally) recently. I've had other newspaper shots lease for textbook use as well. I guess a straight on photograph of a cover (or indeed a scan) with no added "design" by the photographer might well be a copyright breach. A fan of three or four book on a theme: author, genre etc probably isn't as the cover design is incidental to the wider "story". Newspapers on a stand, in a rack especially where it is not a complete page or includes multiple titles is again pretty safe I suggest - I have certainly shot them, not sold them though Mind you newspapers and reference books often use newspaper clips to illustrate stories about historic events. That only applies to editoral use of course Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martyn Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 I guess that if it is editorial RM and is ticked as property release needed yes no Idon't have, then it is down to the client that uses it….it would seem to be pretty clear that the photographer does not hold the copyright for a newspaper/book/magazine cover... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted October 26, 2014 Author Share Posted October 26, 2014 I guess that if it is editorial RM and is ticked as property release needed yes no Idon't have, then it is down to the client that uses it….it would seem to be pretty clear that the photographer does not hold the copyright for a newspaper/book/magazine cover... That's what I do as well -- i.e. check all the right boxes and hope for the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted October 26, 2014 Author Share Posted October 26, 2014 Often wondered that myself….would it be a breach of copyright to reproduce a book/cd/magazine cover for stock? I did photograph the front page of a 1960s national newspaper covering an important event and that licensed a few weeks ago….I've photographed newspapers on newsstands and don't see why that would be a problem for editorial use. In fact, one such image of mine leased as a book cover (coincidentally) recently. I've had other newspaper shots lease for textbook use as well. I guess a straight on photograph of a cover (or indeed a scan) with no added "design" by the photographer might well be a copyright breach. A fan of three or four book on a theme: author, genre etc probably isn't as the cover design is incidental to the wider "story". Newspapers on a stand, in a rack especially where it is not a complete page or includes multiple titles is again pretty safe I suggest - I have certainly shot them, not sold them though Mind you newspapers and reference books often use newspaper clips to illustrate stories about historic events. That only applies to editoral use of course Shots of "foreign" (i.e. non-English) language newspapers and magazines on stands can sell, mainly for textbook use IME. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Endicott Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 Editorial use should be fine. New York Times Book Review comes to mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted October 27, 2014 Share Posted October 27, 2014 Editorial use should be fine. New York Times Book Review comes to mind. As a book reviewer I usuallly get my cover images from the publisher and use them with permission as I am sure NYTBR will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted October 27, 2014 Share Posted October 27, 2014 The uses that I reported last week, in "have you found" thread, were of old classic novels, in the New York Times Style Magazine. So since these were not reviews of new books, I am sure it was easier to find them in the stock agencies. I don't remember the theme of the piece that used all those covers. But yes, I am sure that publishers provide art of book covers, for reviews, as a matter course. Sometimes book covers could be used in travel pieces, I have seen that before. Such as a magazine piece I saw on Jamaica and places that Ian Fleming made famous; a book cover was included in that article. Alamy has lots of Ian Fleming book covers in the collection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted October 27, 2014 Author Share Posted October 27, 2014 The uses that I reported last week, in "have you found" thread, were of old classic novels, in the New York Times Style Magazine. So since these were not reviews of new books, I am sure it was easier to find them in the stock agencies. I don't remember the theme of the piece that used all those covers. But yes, I am sure that publishers provide art of book covers, for reviews, as a matter course. Sometimes book covers could be used in travel pieces, I have seen that before. Such as a magazine piece I saw on Jamaica and places that Ian Fleming made famous; a book cover was included in that article. Alamy has lots of Ian Fleming book covers in the collection. Once upon a time I used to write reviews of travel books for newspapers. I always assumed that they got the cover pictures (or "art") from publishers, but that was before it was possible to find just about any image you want with the click of a mouse. Getting back to my original question, here is a contributor (an agency perhaps) who does put "book cover" in the keywords. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted October 27, 2014 Share Posted October 27, 2014 See what you mean, John. I suppose if I shot conceptual shots, like many of these are, I might put in book cover but not sure if many buyers would search that way....but it wouldn't hurt right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted October 27, 2014 Author Share Posted October 27, 2014 See what you mean, John. I suppose if I shot conceptual shots, like many of these are, I might put in book cover but not sure if many buyers would search that way....but it wouldn't hurt right? That's what I figure. I'm going to experiment with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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