The day started with keynote speaker Brian Nemhauser, Director of Design Product Management with Adobe. Brian shared his insights and perspectives on the State Of The Art (the theme of the conference) and articulated how print designers can ensure that they leverage the tools and skills they have to be a part of the digital revolution.

Other keynote speakers included Phil Mui, a very entertaining Product Manager with Google Analytics, and Kit Hinrichs, the founder of Studio Hinrichs. Throughout the event were seminars covering topics from Marketing Sustainability to Designing for the Social Good.

We wish we could have attended all of these seminars and share our learnings with you, but we had a different game plan– to spread the good word about PicScout ImageExchange! “Wow, we use stock images all the time. Our department definitely needs this” and “Really? It’s that easy?” were just a few responses we received upon introduction of ImageExchange.

We ran into old friends and made some new friends in the creative community at Visual Media 011 and we hope to see you all again next year! If you haven’t attended the Visual Media Conferences, we recommend you check it out. Here’s what you missed this year!

On Thursday, May 12, the U.S. PicScout team will be attending the Visual Media 011 event at the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center. We are excited to join creatives from all over the country as they come together to discuss the latest trends in design, web, mobile and marketing. The organizers have put together a great line-up of speakers and keynotes. We hope that if you’re attending, you’ll stop by our booth and say hello.

Later in the month, from May 18th-21st, PicScout will be attending CEPIC Congress 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey. Offir Gutelzon will be participating in two speaking opportunities there, which we’ve included below:

1- As part of the the CEPIC stakeholder meeting on May 20, Offir will be speaking on a panel titled: “Visual recognition technologies and orphan visual work.” Moderated by Alfonso Gutierrez, the other panelists include Kelli Grant, Pixway Inc. and Avinoam Omer, Corrigon.

2- On May 21, Offir will be participating in another panel, this time discussing “The Future of Picture Distribution” with moderator Lanny Ziering and panelists: Tom Tinervan, Picturemaxx; Alfonso Gutierrez, age photostock; and Laurent Di Costanzo, Sekooa.

We are excited for these upcoming opportunities to reach out to customers and partners about the power of ImageExchange!

How it Works:
The first step is to pick your starting color. Let’s say your client’s logo is red. If you know the RGB value, you can enter it into the bottom right of color wheel by clicking “RGB”.
Here’s where the fun begins. There are six color schemes to choose from:
-Monochromatic (one color)
-Complementary (two colors that are opposite)
-Triad (three colors that are equal distance apart)
-Tetrad (four colors that are equal distance apart)
-Analogous (three colors that are neighboring each other)
-Accented Analogic (four colors, one opposite and three neighboring)

Here’s our red (RGB:FF110A) in the triad color scheme.

Not sure how this will play out on your website? You could see how it’d look on a light or dark webpage. (Don’t let this feature drive you away from choosing your color scheme, as the design examples aren’t all that impressive.)

So you’ve got your color scheme and you’re ready to go, now what? Color Scheme Designer has an export feature that allows you to export as an HTML+CSS file, text file, or even a Photoshop palette.

The Verdict:
We love Color Scheme Designer, whether it’s for a new webpage design or to help get the creative juices flowing. It’s fast, easy and takes all the guesswork out of creating color schemes. So go ahead, pick a color and explore the design possibilities.

Click here to check out Color Scheme Designer.

To all of our ImageExchange users, we thank you for your support! We have worked hard to build ImageExchange into the application that it is today. And, with your feedback, ImageExchange runs better than ever with support for all major browsers including Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Special thanks go out to the folks who have participated in our Advisory Council and our latest beta program for Safari and Chrome. Your help has been tremendously valuable to us as we made improvements to ImageExchange.

Of course, PicScout is known in the photography and stock image industry for more than just ImageExchange. Our ImageIRC platform has helped image content owners ensure that Every Image Gets Its Credit™.

With this new opportunity from Getty Images, you can expect expanded protection and promotion of image content owners serving the creative professionals, stock agencies and professional photographers.  Per Getty’s release, here’s a glimpse at what they have planned:

“This acquisition will build and grow upon Getty Images’ existing range of products and services, enabling Getty Images to amplify its digital content licensing expertise and leverage PicScout’s technology in developing new image identification tools for customers.  Getty Images will invest in PicScout’s technology and continue to work across the entire image industry, to improve and expand protection of Intellectual Property, thus ensuring a stronger overall content licensing industry. “

We are proud to be part of Getty’s plans to provide stronger content licensing support to this industry and hope you’ll continue to use ImageExchange for online image search.

-Offir Gutelzon
PicScout co-founder and CEO

Whether you are already savvy about image copyright or are just learning about the topic for the first time, there are many web sites that provide valuable information on the topic. With so many choices out there – where should you go to find answers to your questions? Here are a few industry favorites that we like to refer to regarding image copyright.

(Listed in alphabetical order)

-American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP):
http://asmp.org/tutorials/licensing-guide.html

-American Society of Picture Professionals (ASPP):
http://www.aspp.com/index.php/mnews/50/83-aspps-best-practices-for-locating-copyright-owners-of-photographic-and-visual-art

-Artistic Rights:
http://www.arsny.com/basics.html

-Stock photo rights information:
http://www.copyrightalliance.org/

-Picture Archive Council of America:
http://www.pacaoffice.org/library.shtml

-US Copyright office:
http://www.copyright.gov/

There were a few suggestions that stood out to us:

-“Pretend you’re a cartoon.” Cartoons have no limitations; they can do whatever they want. What would it be like if you had no limitations?

-“Discuss your situation with the least creative person you know.” Talk about a different take on things. The author points out that the least creative person you know might actually be creative in a different way. But even if that person is actually uncreative, he/she might help you find the simplest solution to your problem. Interesting thought.

-“Reuse an old idea.” This might be counterintuitive for someone seeking creative inspiration, but it makes sense. Things change, and an idea you had in the past might help you out now.

The Verdict:

At first, we were a bit skeptical of Think Unstuck, because there are so many books on creativity out there, and most are about as useful as books that promise you a six-pack in two weeks. However, Think Unstuck is the real deal. This book provides practical suggestions that make a lot of sense. And it’s precisely when you’re feeling stuck that it’s often most difficult to get unstuck, which makes this a great book to keep handy at all times. Plus, it only costs $0.99!

Click here to get Think Unstuck.

Getting the Most out of ImageExchange

So you’ve downloaded ImageExchange and you have this little pink -icon in the corner of your browser window – but time has passed and you may be wondering – what is that thing and when should I use it? The value to you is ImageExchange instantly IDs images anywhere online and here are a few tips on how to use ImageExchange to your advantage.

-Be sure you have the latest version of ImageExchange and install updates as they become available. We just announced the new Safari and Chrome versions along with a host of new features just a few weeks ago. To download ImageExchange for Safari and Chrome, click here.

-Keep ImageExchange open, but collapsed, in the right corner of your screen. Leaving ImageExchange open on your computer, means it’s there when you need it, you just have to click on the pink -icon to open the sidebar window.

-When using ImageExchange on Google Images, scroll down the Google search page – doing so will ensure you see a complete list of ImageExchange identified images (why: Google Images doesn’t actually load the images until you scroll down – so we can’t identify them until they are shown).

-Pay attention to the ImageExchange icon as you surf the web. Move beyond Google Images and use ImageExchange to find available images on other web pages. You never know when you’ll stumble across a great image to use in your work. Note: Even if your ImageExchange side-panel is closed, you can see the number of images identified on the page by the number shown under the icon.
That’s your clue to click on the icon to expand the panel if you’re in image search or inspiration mode.

-When searching for licensable images, expand your creative options by using your favorite search engine images site – such as Google Images, Yahoo Images and Bing Images. We bet you’ll be amazed by the diversity of images available from a myriad of stock agencies.

So, here’s to harnessing the power of the web to find the right image for your project – with the simple one-click connection to the appropriate licensor.

How it Works:

Log in via Twitter to begin using Favwork. Then, upload an image of one of your favorite designs, give it a title, explain why it’s one of your favorite pieces of work, and add some tags. Then, click “Add Work” so that other can start viewing your skills and providing feedback.

Users can find your work by filtering designs by upload date or by sorting with the help of tags.

The Favwork homepage defaults to showing you the most popular designs of the day, with a number of “likes” overlaying each image.

You can click on any design image to see the full size of the design, all the “likes” that it has garnered and any feedback that the designer has received.

The Verdict:

Hey, we all want to be recognized, and Favwork is great for that. But Favwork’s differences from Dribbble are both benefits and drawbacks. Whereas Dribbble limits you to uploading images of 400 x 300 pixels, Favwork lets your images be as large as 600 x 400 pixels. But Dribbble lets you crop images on the site after you upload them; not so with Favwork. Favwork is open to anyone and everyone, but maybe there’s an advantage to only exposing your favorite designs to other creatives. Regardless, anyone who’s interested in posting his or her work online for compliments or criticism should check out Favwork.

The final winner of the ImageExchange Dream Vacation Image contest is Anita S. from Maryland! Anita will receive an Intuos4 Pen Tablet by Wacom for voting for her favorite dream vacation image.

Anita chose Paris as the best dream vacation image, but Greece received the most votes in the end. After all the ballots were cast, 58% of you voted for Greece, 26% chose Paris, 9% said Miami was the best dream vacation image, and 7% selected Vail. Guess most of you are ready for warmer weather!

Thanks to everyone who played in the ImageExchange Dream Vacation Image contest. Stay tuned for the next ImageExchange contest for another chance to win great prizes.

Last Tuesday, we posted part 1 of a Q&A on image copyright from our March 23 webinar, “Avoid the Confusion! Learn When and How to Safely Use Online Images in Your Design Work.”

Today, we pick up where we left off with John Grant (right), copyright attorney at Imua Legal Advisors, who is back as a guest blogger to address the remaining audience questions from the webinar.

(Special thanks to John Grant for participating in the webinar and taking the time to address these questions!)

Q: I was taught that if I change an image when I’m creating something artistic, it becomes “mine.” Is this still accurate?

– Nikki

A: It depends on a lot of things, including how much you change the underlying work, how much other material you add to the underlying work, how much of the underlying work you use, and other factors. It is certainly possible under the fair use doctrine to create something new using raw materials from copyrighted content, but fair use is a complicated analysis. If this is something you’re doing as art or commentary, as opposed to something you’re doing as paid work for a client’s marketing campaign, then you may have an easier time establishing fair use. But if it is client work, you owe it to yourself and your client to clear your uses of other people’s content as completely as possible.

Q: What about trying to duplicate the same image (or concept), but you take the photo yourself?

- Evelyn

A: As I said during the slideshow, there is a huge difference between duplicating the image and duplicating the content. Images are copyright protected; concepts are not. A great question to ask yourself is, “Am I being artistically lazy or taking a shortcut by referencing someone else’s work?” Put another way, are you substituting someone else’s creative expression for your own?

Take the example I gave with the photos of a businessman in sandals and a red polo walking down the street with columns in the background (below). The defendant in that case specifically argued that they were merely using the concept of “causal office dress’, but the judge (ruling on a summary judgment motion) said that the similarities between the images themselves were enough for the copyright infringement claim to go to a jury. There’s no way to know how things might have come out differently, but my guess is if the guy in the second image were wearing a blue shirt instead of a red one and were walking in front of a different building then things may have turned out differently.

Q: What if I use an image without permission in a non-commercial way? For example, what if I Photoshop a photo of myself next to a celebrity and post it on Facebook for a laugh with friends. I receive no compensation. Am I infringing copyright?

– Don

A: Yes. Any use of someone else’s protected work is technically copyright infringement—there is no legal requirement that you make money from the use. It may be excusable infringement (such as fair use) or it may be so trivial that it flies under the radar, but you take some risk any time you use someone else’s work.

Q: Say you want to use one part of an image, like the palm tree from a picture of a Hawaiian beach. Could you use that part of the image without getting a license, or does that depend on things like whether the tree is the main focus of the design, etc.?

– Renee

A: Again, the base assumption is that it is copyright infringement to use anybody’s work without permission. It may be fair use or de minimus infringement, but fair use can be a close question that ultimately is decided by a judge. I don’t want to say that you can never use someone else’s work in your own, and I have an article on my website that specifically discusses fair use and appropriation art, but every time you do so you run some risk that the copyright owner is going to make a legal claim against you.

Q: Can you discuss the standard licensing agreements from popular stock photography sites like Shutterstock, iStock or Fotolia?

- K. Smith

A: Licenses can vary from site to site, so there isn’t really a good way to generalize. I recommend that you review the agreements carefully yourself, and if you have any questions about any of the provisions don’t be afraid to contact the agency to clarify for you. If there is a site you use often, you may even want to have your own lawyer review the license for you.

Note: The information we are providing is accurate to the best of our knowledge; however, no warranties or representations are made to the accuracy of the statements made in this post. You should seek out legal counsel input for your specific situation.