USM accepted values and correct practice- 

If you are shooting negative film or transparency, the original analog image should be professionally scanned with zero USM applied and cropped to appear without any visible or black borders at the edges. 

Interpolation Requirement- Interpolating the image up to our 47.5-52MB requirement is best achieved using a Fractal algorithm like “Genuine Fractal Print Pro”. However, in some circumstances simply re- sizing in recent versions of “Photoshop” (6 and above) is better. As such, it is important to experiment with different techniques. Ultimately, the quality of the final 47.5-52MB file you prepare for submission is your prime consideration: no noise, artifacts, distortion, or moiré should be visible. Remember the largest file size your image can be sold at is 300MB, so image integrity is critical when interpolating digital source material. 

Captioning/Metadata-

Samantha Skelly

 

 

Alamy:  if you don’t have a release, we can still sell your images for editorial uses. If you’re sure the image can only be used editorially, they sell lots of unreleased images to editorial customers like newspapers, magazines and book publishers because they don’t need a release. However, if you do have the relevant releases your images can be sold to commercial and editorial customers

If the person in your image can recognise themselves in any way, you’ll need a model release to sell for commercial use. This includes crowd scenes, parts of the body or silhouettes.

 

Getty: This stock company requires model releases on any and all images featuring people. “Getty Images model and property releases are designed to clearly indicate that the model or property representative grants his or her permission to use his or her likeness or property for commercial uses. This legally binding document helps models, photographers and the client or end user of the image by ensuring that each is aware of what has been agreed to.” This company have no loop holes on model releases like alamy does.

 

 

Alamy: Only when there is a recognisable property of company involved, example if you had an image of an iphone then you would need to sign a property release with apple. Much like the model release section previously alamy also offers a written document of a property release form ready for you to use. So you’ll need this property release in order to sell for commercial use.

Property is not just limited to buildings, it’s anything identifiable that’s copyrighted/trademarked e.g. logos and branded items. This release must be signed by the property or brand owner.

 

Getty: Getty also has the same rules of needing the property release when using a company, brand, logo, or business name in any kind of images. One thing getty has done better is their release forms for us to use comes in 23 different languages so that they have given a wide variety for the public to use and that they also have no excuse for not having a form as it is mandatory.

 

As I said above getty and alamy do have very similar policy’s on release forms for models and for property’s, the only slight differences I can spot are that alamy is slightly less harsh on the model release forms for clients that don’t require them, where in getty its compulsory to have model release forms for any and all images featuring them. Another slight difference is that Getty seems a little more professional given that they made a point of having their release forms in 23 different languages showing that their company expands internationally.

 

Alamy: have a first submission of 3 images, this way they can go through the quality control quickly and easily to see if the photographer understands what check lists they need to complete before uploading more images.

Getty: Getty on the other hand allows first time users to submit a minimum of 15 images that meet the criteria and pass the checklists such as resolution and quality. They can also upload a max of 3 videos which stands out from alamy as they do not give the option to upload video content.  

 

 

Alamy and getty accept digital jpegs for submissions and do not accept film prints. Although Getty does take submissions for video or clips that the photographer wishes to submit.

 

Advice is the right word to use for both of these companies as on my research It seems that they both accept a range of different iso’s from low to high. However what they don’t accept is an image that is too noisy, unsharp, or over exposed, also all images that you submit need to have the ability to be blown-up to a huge degree and still keep its detail and focus, so an iso that is too high and compromise your images is best not to submit.