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Publishing Tips

Lesson 13 from: Animal Photography

Rachael Hale McKenna

Publishing Tips

Lesson 13 from: Animal Photography

Rachael Hale McKenna

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Lesson Info

13. Publishing Tips

Lesson Info

Publishing Tips

And hasn't talked about before I hold my copyright in a trust um that is something different should look into because it has discussed your peace of mind as well you know that yeah that you copyrights always safe yeah and as I mentioned before just make sure everyone signs of modern release because that makes its very clear mean to them is the subject that they don't own anything within the image that you you're probably gonna have to go into the school every single time you meet somebody that what you're doing the projects for this and that sort of thing but it's worth it just as long as everybody understands and it's very clear this is I'm so well then I've also got a copy of the model release which is I'm not gonna go through the details but it's my I'm quiet I'm perfectly happy for you guys to use exactly same water release of that's what it is we'll work for you and I use it for babies so mother sign it for babies obviously the owner sign up for the animals so and it works for if ...

I'm working with adults as well so the same model always come work over the hole area of subject matter publicity this is always really important when you do a book it's so what I do is I always if you've got a publisher they'll produce a press release too send out to everything but it's always good yourself to put together what's called a publicly guidelines so it'll just give them information about you about the book and but my bass publisher does my publicity guidelines for me because they've seen co published around the world so like even though my based publishes based in new zealand we even get a different publisher who publishes a book in france in germany in italy in america the u k so I've got like twelve to fifteen co publishers around the world who actually do the book within their within the markets and then you make sure you approach the um book critics for about two weeks in advance before the book's release so you make sure you give them plenty plenty of leeway and it's always good to see in the book a copy of the book out of the press release whenever you're sending it to approach magazines newspapers, news channels if you can get some air time on tv it's always great and also approach people within the areas that your books related to so animal organizations for animal books and things like that if you during a baby book goto local new zealand we call it a plank it so there's all sorts of different things you can you can go to so that's it I'm just gonna quickly flick through this is a standard publicity's guidelines so you have the cover of the book and just another nice image you full up with images if your books about photography, then full up with images and then you've got the thie content. So you've got specifications of the book about the book on introduction from the book so that she included within the published guidelines have actually got the intro, which is with the printed food final copy of the book. Then rachel hail maquinas biography and hid shotting things and had a request, interviews and a few images which have featured in the book, which you pre release so that they can use them for publicity. So you allow you choose a certain number of images from when that within your book what you let them use for publicity purposes and then at the back it's always nice to have a little bit about the publisher as well. So these air so it's about the book, and then this is the opening pages of the book, which you including the publicity guidelines and then a little bit of about the author in this case is me and the head shot what she can use for publicity purposes, helping the contact information of the person who they need to contact and regards to interviews so you might they might get contact you directly or otherwise there might be someone in my case they approached the publishing company and then they fought in the interview requests on to me and to see what my availability is and then images features a featured in the book the terms and conditions on how to use the copyright logo and things the image is featured within the book how to request the images you need to let them know exactly who to contact and regards to getting the images and then these are the pre pre cleared images which they're allowed to use for publicity purposes in the end then just finishing up with a little bit about the publisher and then of course the nice picture on bed cover, which always works well and that's a it's just a classic press release so it's nothing nothing elaborate cover of the book a little bit about the book the were it's available thie specifications price or what sort of things? And then that this is abrahams my american publisher that's the press release which they've just released with the new york dog you also have what's called a blared you don't always do it it's it's like a little miniature book which people often take puppets publishing houses which would normally do it and they give it to this sails ripped toe actually when they're going out to bookstores and things trying to sell the book they have what's called a blared I'll just run you through quickly the what would be a blend? So this is a little bit on why dogs are better than cats actually that wasn't the final cover I wasn't happy with that because that clear cut the the image and it looks really hard it's almost like the year of the dogs being cut off and things so that actually wasn't this is the only this is the blade which I had sorry but it wasn't the cover and that yeah this is actually the bready trip it grieves dogs and I photographed him with his dogs and tasmania in australia on dh this so this is a blade is pretty much just the content of that list a few pages of the content of the book to give people an idea of what the book's going to be so that's just so these air so it was quite it's quite a different book this one yeah that's what the quotes which he put in a good word incredible actually so as you can see it's quite it was quite different that's like bright yellow I would never normally use bright yellow but it was we were talking about birds and canaries and there's some stuff within the text it was a really appropriate image for this I I I broke quite a few of my barriers when I did in my boundaries when I when I did this book and these are just a few more of the other pages from within the book as well so you can see kissy and roller skates my old dog kizzie was actually photograph for this book she was the fitness fanatic s it was a very appropriate image to capture a dog and roller skates for that, you can't just go quickly gonna run. I'm going to talk more about this this afternoon and price pressure, but just quickly when you threw the file preparation in public, what you need to do to supply your images to a publishing unless it's your licensing companies, so supplying images to publisher your first initial selection, you couldjust supply your images and hi res j pigs is fine, they don't need the actual full on higher is tiff format until they actually doing the final design stages, actually placing the images in to go to print. So for them to do the design process and lay out options, that sort of thing they only need higher is j pigs. So if you and so therefore you don't actually have to have all of the retouching or anything finished the post production work done until you supply them the high rears as long as I get a general idea what the images, they're gonna look like it's also, I always find it really good to give them when I'm sending them that my images to give them an a list image in a b list image so the a list of my personal favorites who were right where I would like to see them used as big full pages or double page spreads the b list, of course what I mentioned before a cluster images or images which have created of the animals or subjects which I don't necessarily desperately want to see his big pages um yeah, what I mean before did like for the final final desire stays you need to supply them high risk tiffs and for printing purposes you need to supply them and c m y k form it because when with your printing a book you're printing in four color print unlike when you're getting a print done for your clients, which is you only need to hit them and aggie b, which is a three color printing process but book publication is different, so four color is then it's actually about to move into six color, so I have no idea if it's going to change what you supply you images probably not probably still will be seeing like a butt. I'm sure I'll find out if it changes, but your publisher shouldn't you know what they require anyway, they might do the transfer for you, but I find it's good to do it yourself because it the colors do shift slightly when you convert your image from g d to see him like a so it's good to do it yourself because then you can control and if there's any adjustments need to be made, then you'll be fine and as I mentioned earlier also find out the color profile of the printing company because then you can actually make sure the final and the final file were actually supply to your company and due to your publishing company is seen why k and it's actually sits in the color profile which the printing houses printing too? It sounds complicated but she's really easy if you get given it and I can hopefully I actually do have a re toucher who does a lot of this form because there's just so many images in the end and it's so but I can't this afternoon and I can try and show you how to change it. I can I know how to do the I g b to c m y k but also try and remind myself head of the the color profile thing to show you this afternoon and also it's storing your image is really important like the continuity try and keep the original image caption number within your file name because if you've got your roar images which is purely just the image number which the image has been captured is and then you change the night change it to be called the name of the kit that's doesn't have any takeaway that number how are you going to relate that back to your original image if you need to actually go back and change something on it so I always find but this kit particular get cozier so that that's a file number and then cozier and I keep that accuser if c means french cat so that's my file name for french kit and then I've still got the original caption number there with digital files make sure you keep two if not three files and separate locations I have re toucher here's all my all my files my publisher has all my files and I actually have two files myself so life probably got four spare a bit of overkill but you never know when your hard drives are going to die on you andi might potentially lose your images so just make sure you have plenty of copies when you've got digital format and if you're still working in film or negatives and I've still got hundreds of films and negatives which end transparency is which I keep on file and I've got them all stored in a temperature controlled environment with a storage company and so I have a filing system which it's all hand written but it's all like code numbers of and but so if I need to aiken seem to that company okay I need negative picket one thousand two hundred twenty this is the name on the file and they can actually pull that out for me get curious to me and I can and then as career back and they put it back into the same filing system but that it's quite overkill but that's because I've got so many from my earlier days but it's always not negatives and transparency is if the kept anyone damn, they'll start sticking to the plastic sleeves and then you'll start getting water marks on them and things that's really quite important to keep an eye on that and make sure you're not damaging your negatives and transparency is now much loving if you know about mr data but if you this is more important if you're actually supplying images to photo photo libraries and things just to sell on your images they always going to ask you for me to data so if you while you're shooting it's really good to keep keep note of everything so he had for an example with this image for the meter data it's need to supply for this particular image the file number um the name of the subject so this is clyde the dog details and subject he's a three year old golden retriever dog where the image was taken so this was taken in course if iran in her wrote longer doc france so it's basically the long description of exactly were the image was created when the image was taken, so this image was taken in november two thousand twelve on camera and exposure, so it was shot on the heads of lead h two on eighty millimeter leans and the exposure if start five point six at one twenty fifth of a second. So if you say I supply your images to a photo library agency or something, they possibly will ask you for this information, so they've got it on file because you never know if someone wants to buy the image by the image, they might want to know all this information and then of course, you just need to make sure there were exactly the file size in the resolution to this particular file size is being supplied at sixty three point five megabytes and three hundred d p I now quickly before we finish up, I just want to touch a little bit on self publishing. I was asleep before I haven't done, I have done plenty of little books myself where I put them together is christmas presents and things I love during it of my daughter from my grandparents and great grandparents and things that I really am during calendars of family life and things that's it's a fantastic thing to do for christmas prisons and for those particular ones I've used cos my publishing company actually has just released about a year ago I started a company called milk tailor made book so it's milk books dot com and they do beautiful products she can go in and order online gorgeous photo books and things and they're really, really reasonably priced and really beautiful quality and the same with a company called queensberry dot com so queensbury and milk books at the to which I have used to do those type of things um blue dot com is an amazing I've never used them but I have heard that it's a really great place to go for self publishing and they do all sorts of books but this plant in places online which could do it and I put in here also one another one called at effect uprising I actually haven't had any dealings with this company the reason I've recommended them is because I follow them on instagram and I've seen some amazing product I've looked at the website in this stuff looks great I've never physically seen one of their books but what I have seen for the advertising and the way the websites designed they look like really great stuff so I've given them a bit of a plague like because I'm going to go and use theme in the future as well just to give it a go so but and also I have discovered a fantastic book on line it's an e book called how to self publish your book on bike alec ng and I discover there on a website it's dub dub dub dot pb east dot or ge is where I found there and I was reading through what this book and talks about things and it looks really interactive and got it full of fantastic information, so if I was going to self publish a book, then I'd probably read through there and find out exactly what what everything but I would I would love to know have any of you guys done in the self publishing or anyone online with questions about things and stuff we have so many questions about this dimension and I just think that you took me longer to go through that then I thought it would stories, but I would have a little bit more time for questions, but that was really, really dense, so if you guys have questions, grab a mike but let's start with our with our audience online as we have tons yes and the self publishing questions will come in so we'll just go back to the beginning of this segment. What an incredible segment so sky had asked while signing the contract. How do you take it consideration or calculate how much advance payment will have to be provided for the expenses that you'll incur in the process of creating the images when you signed the contract? There is a lot of research as well and we my husband's fantastic it during budgets trying to figure out what is going on because that when we were doing the french can the french told we were travelling the whole time so there was quite a lot of costs involved and also like for the new york dog we had to relocate ourselves for six months to another country another city and we were very fortunate in that regard we were able to do house swaps so we keep the cost down and they regard so we swapped and we moved around in new york to different places to stay and they kept women stayed in our places in our house in france so there was a great way to keep costs down but seriously you just have to research work out budgets and believe me you won't never get it right you never will it's always going to cost you so much it's like building a house it's always going to cost you so much more than you thought and unfortunately publishers and not that generous what their advances you do if you've got a costly project to work on, you do need to be prepared to put your own money and as well that's good to know yeah great quick question regarding the creative process for your books in the initial planning and laying out in your subject especially with france deciding on where to go by the end result how close did you stay to your initial plan? I guess, or did you find that you were going completely off tangent and ended up somewhere that was completely different from where you started daily? We would move on, sometimes we'd stay in one area for a few days, but we different on the way we were told of new places, which we hit didn't know about, so we went to discover those, but our general trip did follow the route that way had planned, but we did sort of branch off every now and then, but then came back and kept continuing on the way, which we had planned just purely because I had booked with places around france to photograph, so we had to stick on the same path, but with those differently people, and you recommended student places to cover him. Goto so, yeah, you've got to be flexible with how you work things. Did you find with new york? You mentioned you only had about five or six months to get that done? Did you find you're a lot more restrictive with kind of going, often being creative? And I think not. I was not able to cover nearly as much of what I wanted to cover in new york I had I've still got pages and pages of ideas and lists of places, which I wouldn't I have loved to have captured, but I got plenty. I covered a really good I've got a fantastic broad range of new york, the five boroughs of new york, but as I say, I just didn't have time to do everything I wanted, but we were lucky with the new york because we will more isolated within one area was france, it was traveling around the whole country, where is the new york was one city? So even though new york is enormous and it was unbelievable, tio have to cover it all on dim possible to cover absolutely everything. But I did. I didn't manage to get quite a lot on, which was great. Great, thank you when you're first starting out and I realized that the publishers were approaching you initially, but let's say you have an idea for a book. How do you approach a publisher? I mean, obviously you don't have all the pictures, do you give him sample pictures, sample text as kind of a pitch? Yeah, I need to probably even if you're pitching for something which you're going to be creating overseas so you haven't actually created anything for take a portfolio over the work you've done in the past, which is going to be similar to how you're creating these images but if you might have already started a project which you want to create a book some people already have everything completed and they want to just find a publisher to publish what they finished so the best thing is to put together a portfolio a bit like if you're going to an advertising agency or make a scene to try and get work you go to a publisher with a beautiful portfolio so make sure your images look stunning they look the high quality so that they can tell that they when they publish a book it's going to be really top quality so just go with it and just take them your ideas yukon soups your vision for the book and just fingers crossed somebody will pick it up for you thank you how do you protect yourself when you have an idea like that that they're not just going to steal it from you and how you're someone else to do it? I've heard some horror stories about how things like that have happened and it is a risk you take I I don't know how you can protect yourself on that regards unfortunately there's awful people out there who do steal people's ideas um but all I can say is hopefully you won't come across somebody who does it to you but it is it is a risk you have to take yeah I guess that would be really being really comfortable with the publishing company first and having any search that is mad and make sure you don't maybe don't give them to show them everything to start with b b treat carefully to start with a few not not one hundred percent sure of her you owe your meeting and that sort of thing don't be too open um it's which is hard sometimes when you're really passionate about what you do but just your treat carefully to start with and then once you establish a bit more of a relationship then you can share mohr and know that know that it's going to be the right relationship to get into again thanks. So we have a couple of questions about model releases a lot of questions about the release is this is a subject matter that we haven't spoken about on created by anyone before. So this is awesome eso couple people want to know about getting releases if you are working with animals that are in rescue organization do you need teo get releases from the organization and then the adoptive family or what if if the animals are in the position ofthe the animal shelter at the time and you just need to get one moderately signed by the executive off the the animal rescue association too saying that you're allowed to use the images which you have created in the establishment is fine and that will cover pretty much, but you know, it's out of courtesy it's nice to show the images to the to the association to make sure they're comfortable with what you're photographing. Yeah, so in the images which you plan to use and where you are going to be using them. So it's just it's just really important just to be open and that you would only need one more to release in that regards. Great. Thank you, when that was from sarah, as well as restless waiting, but we're about to go a bit and regards if it's an adopted face saying adopted, say you've bean into a rescue center actually, a day had seen an animal you wanted to photograph the animal, but it had been adopted out, and then you had to contact the association had to contact the new owners to bring the animals back in again. Then, in that case, you would need the owner, the new owner of the animals, to sign the model release. All right, we have a couple clarification questions l's asked if you design the cards yourself before submitting them to card companies, and then merrick main wanted to know when you provide the images to the greeting card company, do they usually have writers for the verse? Are you expected to write the verse as well? Right an accident bit nor the carrot cos we signed up with do the design and then they go through the whole design procedure where they have to submit the designs to us for approval they have most card companies have in house designers who will do all the design and they have access to their own quotes and that sort of thing so you don't necessarily have to do any of that work you just have to do a, uh, design approval and make sure that what they're doing it's what you're happy with great then just to follow up one for that from zhou do you need to pay for someone to use their quote whether it's you using somebody else's quote or that the card company or do you know you do sometimes yes yes so in a book my publishing company deals with all of that but that's what comes into the addendum under the under sub dear some syrian right? It's yeah it's all it's complicated sort of scenario again but sometimes you do have to pay for the use of certain quote some things so but it's normal dealt with by the publishing house or the quotes within a greeting card it's dealt with by the licensing company so you don't team to have to deal with those type of things at least you're self publishing and then you will have to deal with him another question from merrick main do licenses are copyrights on material expire? Not if your own images you keep copyright forever but yes possibly you might get a but if you're doing a greeting card which you don't know how long it's going to be out in the market for let greeting cards team to roll over so they probably have a longevity of about two maybe three years so if you've been using it quite, you need to get a license to use it quite you need to make sure it probably last for two to three years or so, but it's very difficult to pull a card off out of the market if it's been there for longer and so I would team to try and avoid using quotes which have got, um like a time frame on the on the copyright issue because it's really hard to control that? Yeah, but sometimes you might come across that I don't know as they say the cat, the cat companies and publishing houses team to deal with that sort of thing so they will probably choose quotes which don't have restrictions. Jasmine w had a question about your beautiful journal and workbook that you put the images in do you actually send that mock up to the publishing agency or do you read the text and or how does that my team to write up the ticks in the end supply them with like a word document with text yes but that the printing of those so you're not showing them the actual market value my publishing companies love mei mei looks like I'm in the french kit and the french dog not the new york dog new dog didn't but they actually do yeah saying there's a page there which actually shows my workbooks which is there was a common online saying have you considered just publishing your hand right yeah my way actually we're goingto my publishers a really king they've always adored my workbooks so way we're going to do a book on henry miller actually my first original dog and was going to be called the life and times of henry miller and it was going toe sorry gonna be printed in in the style of one of my workbooks but we haven't haven't done that yet but we still might you never know all right I have another clarification question which I've seen a few people aso mary wanted to know just a clarification if you meet someone on the street or anywhere and take a picture of their pet you need to have them sign a model release to use that image in your book is that if you want to use it within a book it's in the book sir a little bit more of a yeah a flexible area you don't have to have a model release for a book or magazine article that's. Half of animals photographed publicly, then it's a little bit more of an easy ground, like with a french french captain, french dog there's. A lot of images in there, which I haven't got model releases for because the dogs were out on the street by themselves, weren't with anybody. I don't even know who they belong to, and those regards you can use it to public property, you're on public land. The dog was on public lands so legally you don't have to. If I was going to start releasing those particular images onto licensing and things, I can't really, I probably could with the french police are crazy, but I can't. I shouldn't really release those images without a model release. Can't sew my licensing range for the french can the french dog purely will consist off? The images I've created were, I haven't got a release, so license things different from book publication.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Keynote
Black on Black
Photographing Kitten and Puppies
Shooting for Licensing and Publishing
Working with Adult Cats
Working with More Challenging Animals
Shooting on Location - The French Cat - The French Dog
Taking an Idea and Working Through the Process
Ways to Get Started in the Animal Photography Industry
Rachael on Location - Kelsey Creek Farm

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

This course was definitely worth the investment - both time and money. With about 15 hours worth of video sessions and amazing bonus handouts - Rachael provides some really useful, practical tips that you can apply straight away regardless whether you're just beginning your photography journey or are a seasoned professional. It was great to see Rachael at work in session - especially her techniques used to calm and quieten her models if needed. She had a potpourri of helpful suggestions such as remember to take both landscape and portrait shots (if possible), know your rights to take and use images - don't assume, be extra vigilant with cleanliness especially around kittens and puppies who may not have been fully vaccinated, keep kittens and puppies isolated in pens or cages if not in their own environment as they're escape artists etc. Her extensive experience with licensing agents and publishing houses was insightful ... and not for the faint-hearted, so it seems! Thanks Rachael for taking the time to share your know-how, tips and techniques and giving us a peek into your world and workflow you follow to produce awesome animal shots.

Shawna
 

I loved this class! I don't I tend to be a "pet photographer" but I do want to be a "Pet friendly" photographer! I have gotten lots of tricks and tools to use while photographing occasional clients pets and my own! ( I have a horse, a pony, bunnies, cats, dogs and ducks) I'm super glad I watched the class live and I'm even more glad I bought it so I can re- watch it whenever I want :) (The shoot with the mini horse, dogs, chicken, duck and people was awesome! It loomed like my family picture would look if my husband didn't say "no" on occassion! lol)

Rebecca Potter
 

Love, Love, Love this course... Rachael is so down to earth and inspiring and I enjoyed all the hands-on shooting which shows you how patient you need to be for this type of photography. Truly an amazing course... Thank you.

Student Work

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