Key Words: Digital Photo Delivery on a Budget

Sam Merrell

Going by the number of images sold, the preferred delivery mechanism for stock photography is still film. But digital delivery is all the rage, and the business rationale to send images via bits and bytes instead of express mail and shoe leather is compelling. As the number of photo buyers requesting digital delivery goes up — and it has gone way up — so do your profits. Once you’ve recovered the up-front costs for scanning, retouching, and keywording, the margins on every digitally delivered image transaction go through the roof — which is why most stock photo agencies have built or are in the process of building image database web servers. In this case, volume does count.

However, digital delivery is problematic for individual photographers who don’t have the large capital budget necessary to digitize lots of pictures in advance of sales. It’s time-consuming to scan them all, and picking and choosing is even trickier: Who knows which images are going to be hot sellers? Scanning images on demand is the obvious workaround for the cash-strapped; when the phone rings and the buyer wants the image digitally, you then scan the image at high resolution, retouch the file, perhaps decrease resolution on a copy for delivery, invoice the job, and then send the goods out the door.

That last part, though, the actual electronic delivery, can be a thorny process for individual photographers. Industrial-strength web servers and fast Net connections make for convenient and robust deliveries — an easy one-click web browser download. But most photographers have neither. Slower connections and limited online services (email and a portfolio website) are more typical.

Slow Is as Slow Does
A slow connection will always be, well, slow. But things can move a little faster if you take care to properly compress the image file before transfer. Use the compressed TIFF format or a higher quality JPEG setting. Even WinZip or StuffIt can reduce file transfer times. Be aware that you won’t gain anything by compressing an already compressed file, and if your client is not prepared for whatever compression format you’re using, you’re asking for trouble. Communication is key and if you’re not sure, keep things simple.

It’s in the Mail
The obvious low-end digital delivery candidate is to attach image files to an e-mail message. This method usually works when the attachment is smaller than a megabyte, but cast a skeptical glance in the direction of those who say they regularly move 30MB files via e-mail. Sometimes it works just fine, but many e-mail service providers will bounce large attachments back to the sender or worse, into the bit bucket.

As internet services go, e-mail is one of the oldest and simplest. Because e-mail was originally engineered for plain text (i.e., not for the binary codes found in most image files), your e-mail program must translate non-text file attachments into a format that is compatible with e-mail servers out on the Net. One caveat: Cross platform file transfers can be thorny; Mac users must remember to add the proper file extensions –.tif, .jpg, etc. — when emailing files to Windows users.

Given the general unreliability of e-mail attachments then, it’s a good practice to e-mail a preliminary message to the recipient — something to the effect of “my next message will include an image file attachment.” Or, call the client on the phone and tell them they’ve got pictures.

It’s on the Site
Web browser or FTP (File Transfer Protocol) transfers are far more robust, especially with large files. If you have a Web site with enough available disk space, use an FTP program to upload your delivery files into a public directory on the Web server, and then e-mail the URL address of the file to your client. The client can then point their Web browser (or FTP program) to that address; your client sees a list of all files in the directory, and one click on the link corresponding to your image file starts the image download. When the client confirms receipt of your file, use your FTP program again to delete the file. For added security, create a one-time directory for each delivery; after you’re certain the file is on your client’s hard drive, delete that directory along with the file.

Most common FTP programs are available online in the usual places — CNET works for me — and additional FTP information is available online. Windows users may want FTP Voyager, FTP Commander, WS-FTP, or Cute-FTP; Mac users look for Fetch or Anarchie.

Free Parking
Another interesting image delivery alternative has recently emerged. New online file storage and sharing services offer free storage and reasonably easy file transfers. In the course of preparing this article, I checked into freedrive.com, xoom.com, i-drive.com, driveway.com, and Apple iTools.

For image delivery, driveway.com is my pick of the litter, offering 100MB of free online storage, Mac and Windows compatibility, and easy to use tools for file uploading, sharing, and downloads. Once you have an account, you log onto the site (use a 4.0 or better web browser with JavaScript and cookies both turned on). Upload your deliverable image files, mark them for sharing, and specify who may read them. Then, at their leisure, clients can log on and download away. Two caveats: The online “virtual disk” storage and sharing sites are designed primarily for consumers and small business applications, and all guarantees of reliability are explicitly disclaimed.

If the Federal Express guy has become your closest friend, you finally may be able to bid him farewell by using these techniques. Just because you have a small-time budget doesn’t mean you can’t get big-time results using digital delivery.

Read more by Sam Merrell