PhotoAsia Blog

We know that there are some very talented and creative photographers amongst our visitors. Some of you may be toying with the idea of submitting your images but are not sure whether your images are good enough. Some of you are keen to submit but are undecided as to which images to select for submission. Are you one of them? If you are then let us help you and make submitting images as easy as a walk in the park.

Edit your images

Father and daughter clowning. Photo credits: Bustaman Mokhtar

Close to 90% of our clients are from the advertising agencies. Creative art directors will only select images of the highest standards, unique, never seen before, one that will take their breath away. Therefore your images need to be of the highest quality – don’t ever think of submitting over- or under-exposed images because they will be rejected in a heartbeat. Make sure that the images are free of smudges of finger prints and without any scratch marks.

Copyright and trademarks

Images should not carry visible logos or trademarks of well-known brands without a signed property release. For example, you cannot take a photo of a Coca-Cola can and submit it to us unless you have written permission from the trademark owners of the Coca-Cola company. Preferably do not focus on famous logos like McDonalds or Starbucks because the chances of the image being selected will be markedly reduced. Do you think the end user will be willing to give these companies free advertisement on their publicity material?

Very important point to note is that you should only submit images that you own the copyright. Never submit work taken by someone else. Rule of thumb: If you did not take the image, you do not own the copyright and if you do not own the copyright do not submit the image to us.

Office work. Photo Credits: Datacraft

Model releases

Every image that you take that has an identifiable person in it, must be accompanied by a model release. If the person in question is a minor, you will need the minor’s legal guardian to sign the model release. Without a properly signed model release, these images cannot be used for advertising a product or a service. We will accept the image if they are exceptionally good but we will have to label it “without model release” and it will be used for editorial purposes only. If you want your image to earn big bucks then make the effort to get a signed model release so that the image can be used for commercial purposes as well. All model releases should be scanned and sent to us via email.

Give informative captions

All your images should be properly captioned, the more information the better. Give a good description of the image, the name of the place, state and country, the history if you have the information, the scientific or medical term if any. An informative & comprehensive caption will also make it easier for the end-user to select your image. One of the most annoying practice is to caption an image of a hibiscus, “a flower” and a butterfly, “an insect”! The correct way to caption it is to describe it, name it and say where it is taken. E.g. “A red hibiscus from Pulau Langkawi, Malaysia” or “A Lacewing Butterfly feeding, Belum Forest, Malaysia”. If you want your images to be selected and viewed by the end-user, label your images correctly otherwise your images will never see the light of day and will probably be lost in cyberspace.

Lotus flower. Photo Credits: Song Jin Tek

Why keywords are important

All images on PhotoAsia and other stock photography websites can be found by keywords. For example, the keywords to use for a picture of a lotus flower taken on a rainy day, could be bloom, blossom, botany, lotus, petal, lotus, pink, rain, raindrop, raining, rainy, wet, nature, leaf, leaves, weather, day, outdoor and many more. You should carefully consider what keywords to put in the image. Without proper keywording, people are not likely to find your images and you won’t earn anything. The more keywords you use, the higher the chance that someone will find your image and eventually buy your image.

Do not use only generic keywords, like flower or animal. Be more specific and use keyword phrases to increase the likelihood of someone finding your image. If you are stuck on how to describe your image, try to search for similar image and use those keywords. Feel free to use Bahasa Malaysia or Chinese keywords if you think it will help.