Contributing Photographers

What is Stock Photography?

Simply put, a stock photograph is a photo that already exists. Art Directors license the rights to existing photographs for many reasons and for many purposes. Some reasons include:

  • Art Directors can view sample stock photos and select a photo, or photos, that fit their specific project needs,
  • They can be assured of high-quality without waiting to view images taken on assignment (AsiaPhotoConnection is also available for assignment work),
  • Licensing stock photography often takes less time and planning than setting up and completing an assignment, and
  • The licensing fee for stock photography is usually less than photographs produced on assignment.

Stock photographs are licensed for many reasons, including: print advertisements, advertising brochures, catalogs, direct mail pieces, corporate magazines and annual reports, editorial usage in magazines, newspapers, consumer, trade, and text books, etc. How many images do you see when you walk out the front door of your home to go anywhere? Many of those photographs were probably licensed as stock photography.

We do not offer Royalty Free images and none of our images have, nor will ever, appear on clip-art CDs or on micropayment sites. We cannot accept ANY photos that are available as Royalty Free, and/or are on micropayment sites.

Who Is AsiaPhotoConnection?

AsiaPhotoConnection, AKA Henry Westheim Photography, is similar to many rights licensing photo portals/agencies, but we have been told we are unique. We are specialized, focusing only on Asia (including the 'Middle East'), we offer personal service, and our business is run from the photographers' viewpoint and not accountants or shareholders. We do not, nor will we ever, license royalty free images and our photos will never be included on micropayment sites. All licensing fees are split between the photographer and AsiaPhotoConnection on a 50% - 50% basis. No additonal fees, i.e., account fees, wire-transfer fees, etc., are deducted from photographers' 50%. All photos in our catalog and appearing on our website are ONLY available, ANYWHERE, as rights managed.

Like other top international photography portals/agencies, all images that we represent are carefully edited and selected for inclusion in our stock. We are not a 'clearing house' and we only include top images to help our clients meet their specific image needs.

Once we review and select samples to be added to our stock, our library, we will ask for high-res files. However, for the first submission we accept an initial submission with only between 5 and 10 images for us to review for quality control. Based upon the initial images being satisfactory, photographers can submit as many hi-res image files as they would like. However, images are added to our stock based on high quality and current stock need; submission of an image does not necessarily mean that it will be added to our stock.

For digitally photographed images: All images must have been photographed using an 8 mega pixel camera, or greater. Images must be photographed in RAW format, converted to TIFF format, and saved at 8 bits, 300 ppi, Adobe RGB colorspace, unsharpend, uncompressed, and in PC Byte order. Please note that the default settings for most digital cameras is JPG format and sRGB colorspace. These MUST be changed, PRIOR to photographing, to RAW file type and RGB color space. Digital images submitted should be submitted at their ORIGINAL file size with NO interpolation (uprezzing/upsizing), NO sharpening, and NO compression. Should a client need a larger sized file we will resize the image(s) to meet the client's specific needs. This helps insure our clients receive only the best quality images.

For scanned images: Image files submitted should be between 50MB and 70MB (8 bits), 300 ppi, Adobe RGB colorspace, unsharpened and uncompressed, scanned in *tiff format, and saved in PC Byte order. Larger file sizes enable us to license images for greater uses, i.e., two-page magazine spreads, a full-page in an oversized book, posters, etc.

If you have transparencies and are not able to achieve professional scans at the above criteria we can still accept the images; we can do the scanning for you for a nominal fee.

If you do your own scanning, all images should be scanned in *tif format, RGB, 50 MB or above, unsharpened, no compression applied, and saved in PC byte order. Please note that the default color space on many scanners is sRGB. This MUST be changed to RGB PRIOR to scanning. Below is a brief explanation why:

...while the sRGB space is the choice for Windows PC users and is based on the high definition TV color standard (for broadcast), sRBG might be the color space to use for web design projects but is quite unsuitable for repro quality work. The sRGB space clips the CMYK gamut and you will never get more than 75%-85% cyan ink in your CMYK separations (Evening, M. (2001). Adobe Photoshop 6.0 for Photographers. Focal Press: Boston).

According to Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft, "The goal of sRGB is to develop an "80%" solution that puts a single "stake in the ground" on a single recommendation that solves most of the color communication problems for office, home and web users" (http://www.srgb.com/srgboverview/sld001.htm).

sRGB is the truncated version of the RGB color work space. It is perfect for web graphics "because it represents the colors projected by a run-of-the-mill PC monitor. It also happens to be Photoshop's default setting (McClelland, D. (2001). Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible. IDG Books Worldwide, Inc., New York, NY.).

Detailed guidelines for digital image files can be found on the Universal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines (UPDIG) website. (http://www.updig.org/guidelines/index.php)

I hope you enjoyed viewing some of our stock photos and we look forward to hearing from you.

Best Regards,


Henry