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Monday, March 3, 2008

Special Delivery - The Best Ways To Transmit Images

Getting images to your clients fast is a hallmark of the Internet era, but too many pros get sloppy in their haste to get things there "right now." Here are a few tips on how to deliver work fast.

You have choices for transferring files to clients via the Internet. Services like SeeFile's FTP servers and third-party file transfer options from GLOBALedit and StuffIt allow you to send images via e-mail. If you prefer to go snail mail, use an archival-grade CD or DVD that's professionally labeled and stored. Be sure your work is prepared exactly the way your client wants it and in a way that shows off your professionalism, which will ensure current and future success.

High-Speed File Transfer
Companies that offer high-speed Web server applications allow you and your client to be connected in real time. Acting as sort of a third-party online image-management system, GLOBALedit provides a link to clients and professional photographers through an Internet connection.

GLOBALedit just recently released a service called Transfer, which is 50 to 100 times faster than an FTP site, says Aaron Holm, Vice President of Development and Integration at GLOBALedit. You can create a user account for your client and send them files with other management tools like advanced metadata writing and talent approval, a way for the client to review images and approve or deny them.

“You upload an entire job, it goes into the system high-speed, and then it's available to use all the workflow tools,” says Holm. “So with a markup editor, you can edit metadata, do image comparison, mark selects, make notes, make lightboxes and distribute them and send talent approvals.”

The workflow tools include items like a contact sheet generator, an image editor, a metadata editor and a talent approval module.

Web Server Software
One piece of Mac OS software that turns your Mac into a Web server is SeeFile 4. Patrice Gouttebel, Global Account Manager at SeeFile, says that the software allows clients to download, make comments and approve or deny pictures without any software needed on the client side.

“You mostly create a catalogue online that your client will be able to see,” says Gouttebel. “The advantage of SeeFile as a photographer is that you'd simply put your files directly on your hard drive and everything will already be online—it will directly be on your hard drive.”

Gouttebel says that if you have a high-speed Internet connection, SeeFile 4 will allow you to share your images on a shared folder with your client at somewhere in the ballpark of 1,000 images transferred in 15 minutes, depending on the speed of your connection. This allows you and your client to share a folder. Another thing to note is that SeeFile 4 has a Windows application that can be used if the client isn't working on a Mac OS.