PhotoAsia Blog

Doreen Lau (left) presenting cheque to Pastor Johnson (right)

PhotoAsia organized a charity calender project in partnership with photographers and photo libraries who generously donated their images for use in the 2010 desktop calendar. Four thousand copies of the calendars were sold and and MYR10,000 were raised from the sales.

PhotoAsia hopes to continue to use its images to make a difference in the lives of the underprivileged and like to thank all the libraries and photographers who have willingly agreed to allow their images to be used for free in the charity calendar. It was through their support and the assistance of many people who have helped in every which way they could that PhotoAsia had succeeded in raising MYR10,000 for Stepping Stones Home. We hope with their continued support this will be the first of many such projects initiated by PhotoAsia.

The cheque was presented to Pastor Johnson, founder of the Stepping Stones Home which is located in Taman Seputeh, Kuala Lumpur. The Home provides a safe haven for children from needy and broken homes regardless of background or belief.

About Stepping Stones Home

Stepping Stones Home is located in Taman Seputeh, Kuala Lumpur. It was started in November 1998 by Pastor Johnson to provide a safe haven for children from needy and broken homes. Currently, children and single mothers are welcome into the Home regardless of background or belief, and are taught to live in, by and for God.

The Home in Taman Seputeh is the first. There are four others which make it possible for older boys and girls to be housed separately. The Home, which has 110 children, 12 mothers and 10 elderly persons is totally dependent on contributions from well wishers and friends.

Please support the Stepping Stones Home to enable the Home to answer every child’s cry for help, every single mothers plea for financial aid and every elderly person’s need for shelter.

PhotoAsia will be continuing organising such projects to raise funds for a needy home annually. Should you wish to support this project in any small way do contact us at 03-7955 3237 or email us at info@photoasia.com.my.

Join to support the children on the Stepping Stones Homes Facebook page.

Image Gallery

Red Chinese lanterns display at Thean Hou Temple, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia during Chinese New Year celebrations. Photo Credits: Wong Sze Fei

The Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year is the most important annual festival for the Chinese community and is celebrated all over Malaysia. The first day of spring in the Lunar Calendar this year falls on the 14th of February 2010.

Marking the first day of the first new moon, Chinese New Year is traditionally an occasion to settle old debts and begin the year with a clean slate. Prayers and offerings are made. New clothes are bought and plenty of food are prepared. Although the festivities continues for fifteen days, the main festival is celebrated on the first three days. On the eve of the Chinese New Year, the family have a joint family dinner to welcome the New Year. Younger ones of the family visit their relatives and get red packets of lucky money known as ang pow as gifts.

PhotoAsia would like to take this opportunity to wish all our friends, good fortune, good health and a prosperous new year!

Portrait of three young women smiling with arms around each other. Photo Credits: Glow Images

Premium Subscription Service from Glow Images now available through PhotoAsia!

Glow Images is a multi-ethnic commercial Royalty-Free subscription service from MYR 1.46 per image! Choose over 1.2 million images and download 750 images a month. Every Glow subscriber gets access to our entire collection of high-end subscription images for one month. Select a plan that’s right for you – full access, unlimited, print or web.

Feel free to view the collection of images at www.glowimages.com.

The Right Plan for Every Budget

Web – Web resolution. 25 downloads / day. Perfect for designers and web publishers who need access to lots of images for one low fee.
Print – Up to 15MB files. 25 downloads / day. Ideal for brochures, newsletters and higher resolution interactive projects.
Unlimited – Up to 25MB files. Unlimited downloads / day. The designers survival kit.
Full access – Up to 60MB files. 25 downloads / day. Get access to every image, file size or resolution.

Pricing

Web – MYR 1,100 / month
Print – MYR 2,100 / month
Unlimited – MYR 2,700 / month
Full access – MYR 4,200 / month

To order Glow Images subscription, fill out the sign-up form on this page.

Want to know more?

Contact us at 603-7955 3237 or email us at at info@photoasia.com.my if you want more information.

2 for the price of 1 - Buy one PIXTAL Virtual CD and get another one for free

Buy an image or CD from the Pixtal collection and choose another one for free!

Search in the Pixtal Royalty-Free Image Collection
Browse this collection’s CD titles (385)

The promotion is valid from December 1st through December 31st and it is limited to purchases of images and CDs separately; the two types of products cannot be combined to qualify for the offer. The free image must have the same value as the purchased image. The offer is limited to offline purchases only.

Can’t find what you are looking for? Call us at +6(03) 7955 3237 or email us at info@photoasia.com.my.

Offer ends on December 31, 2009.

Three children lying on father's back, smiling. Photo Credits: ASIASTOCK

Asia Stock is a new collection at PhotoAsia that specializes in locally significant images that evoke an Asian style that is both traditional and contemporary. This Royalty-Free image collection depicts Asian culture and people including kids and teens to families and seniors.

Search Asia Stock Royalty-Free Images
Browse this collection’s CDs (253)

Can’t find what you are looking for? Call us at +6(03) 7955 3237 or email us at info@photoasia.com.my.

Two young women lying on bed with laptop and apples, smiling, portrait. Credits: IMAGEMORE

Imagemore is a new collection at PhotoAsia offering premium-quality digital imagery that features lifestyle and conceptual aspects of the modern and traditional culture of Greater China and other Asian countries. The Imagemore collection has 30,000 images and over 450 virtual CDs, which can be licensed online at www.photoasia.com.my.

Search Imagemore Royalty-Free Images
Search Imagemore CD collections (495)

Can’t find what you are looking for? Call us at +6(03) 7955 3237 or email us at info@photoasia.com.my.

Iguazu Waterfalls, Brazil/Argentina. Photo Credits: Imagebroker

PhotoAsia, Malaysia’s pioneer stock photo library, is now offering Imagebroker’s royalty-free (RF) and rights-managed (RM) collections. Imagebroker places the highest emphasis on utmost image quality as well as the continued fostering of professional partnerships. The Imagebroker collection offers over 160,000 images, which can be browsed and licensed online at www.photoasia.com.my.

Search Imagebroker Rights-Managed Images
Search Imagebroker Royalty-Free Images

Can’t find what you are looking for? Call us at +6(03) 7955 3237 or email us at info@photoasia.com.my.

Young woman holding mobile phone and reading magazine, smiling. Photo Credits: Panorama Media

Know your buyers

Who will buy your image? Advertisers? Magazine? Web designers? All these have different wants and needs. You have to keep this in mind. Advertisers aren’t looking for the same photos as magazine editors. The latter are usually looking for images to illustrate their stories as many articles are already pre-written. Busy art directors running on empty are searching for images that will give them a brilliant idea to create a theme or tagline that will help launch their client’s product or services. When you see a photo opportunity, think of the concepts and the potential sales it will generate and shoot accordingly. Don’t just aim and shoot without thought or plan or randomly to please yourself. Anybody holding a camera can do that. You have to stand out and be different.

Portrait of two young women and three young men smiling. Photo Credits: Panorama Media

What are we looking for?

Every image submitted to PhotoAsia is carefully examined for clarity, colour, composition and creativity. The image must be sharp and correctly exposed, colours must be bright and cheerful and composition of the subject matter must be exciting enough to catch the eye. The image must also show the ability of the photographer to “see” the image in an unusual and original angle that is so extraordinary that it will capture the imagination of the viewer.

If we accept your images, it is most likely because we believe there is a market for that type of image. And should it generate a sale, it is a very good indication that it is marketable. Keep submitting similar images. Generally, lifestyle images that show people doing some kind of healthy activity sell the most, but are also the hardest to come by. For us to sell images of people to the largest market, you need to have signed model releases. Remember that the editorial market do not pay as well as those in the commercial sector.

Close-up of a young woman listening to music and smiling. Photo Credits: PhotosIndia.com

Tips for Contributors

• Follow the Submission Guidelines to avoid having your images rejected.
• Edit your images before sending them to us.
• More pixels are better! The minimum resolution is 3600 x 2400.
• Be creative. Make sure that your images are unique and eye-catching.
• Shoot more lifestyle images. They sell better than images of sunsets!
• Create images that buyers can’t find in other websites, e.g  Malaysians’ favourite food, multi-racial group of adults or children, people in traditional costumes to name a few.
• Plan ahead and take special note of holidays, festivals or celebrations. There is always a demand for these images in advertistment.
• Check out food or cultural promotions held in hotels and plan your visits to coincide with such events.
• Get a calendar of events in advance from your own country at the beginning of the year so that you can plan ahead. The Tourism Office of your respective country should be a good place to start to get the information you need.
• Study carefully the advertisements in newspapers, magazines and TV commercials to get the feel of what images have been constantly used in the advertisements. Once you know how the advertisers tick you will know what images to create that will sell.
• Know your country and be updated with the current marketing trends, policies and politics. If the trend is promoting multi-racial unity then create images to reflect such unity. When we have such images online that nobody has ever thought of, you bet yours will stand out and it will sell.

Red Sundews. Photo Credits: ChromaZone Flowers

ChromaZone FLOWERS, an exciting new collection of flower images from all over the world, is now available our website. FLOWERS are colourful and symbolic, and represent beauty, nature, the environment, femininity, emotion, health, romance, happiness and peace. During difficult and dark days, FLOWERS make people happy!

Search ChromaZone’s Rights-Managed Images

Can’t find what you are looking for? Call us at +6(03) 7955 3237 or email us at info@photoasia.com.my.

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.