A new perspective — The Picter-principle
There is one simple principle behind the tools we deliver: access to source files. In this blogpost we want to speak more about what that means, how it helps photographers to save time and maintain creative control and how it helps photo organizations to streamline their process.
As a photographer you love taking pictures. The editing and sequencing of your images in order for them to become a body of work is most probably also the part of your work that you enjoy a lot. But when it comes to working with your image files, that’s when the hustle starts. You have to organize your files.
In order to send out files to your clients, editors, curators etc., you have to resize images. This creates copies, so you might end up with tons of versions of the same file. How do you keep track about who has already seen your work and even more, what do you do with all these versions, sitting on your harddrive or on various clouds? How do you deal with feedback and the resulting versions?
When creating issues of Der Greif, as well as starting to work on exhibitions or online-projects involving the collaboration of a lot of image-makers from all over the world, we encountered these problems daily. They were interrupting our creative process. Today, more than ever, it is about selecting the right images to tell a story, it is about creating context for these images in order to become a body of work, or to shine even outside of their intended context. Images communicate! I’m sure that all of you know this problem, too. And that it keeps you from doing what you love the most: Creating great work!
So we thought that there must be a better solution: What if there is just one source file with different access options? What if you don’t need to resize the same files over and over again because there is a system doing it for you? What if your creative process isn’t interrupted anymore, but you have way more control about who has seen your work, who has downloaded it, and all this in a beautiful and secure platform, especially designed for photography?
Welcome to Picter! Picter lets you easily choose who you share a file with, without sending a resized duplicate from A to B. Each person you grant access to a project through Picter gets the right version with just a few clicks — and you are the one in control.
This is the idea behind Picter since day one. We started out providing as streamlined process for photography submissions. You upload your images once and then you submit them from here to various open calls for entries. We are happy that our value proposition was strong enough to attract the best photography organizations worldwide already in the first year of our existence. With our new sharing features we expand on this idea. Now you can use Picter not only to submit your images to photo contests, but you can also share the same work with clients, co-workers or colleagues. And they all get access to the same source files, with you controlling the resolution and access-rights that Picter automatically delivers and adopts when you change the settings for the project, replace images with different versions, etc.
We recommend uploading high-res files, as you now have a tool at hand, that does the resizing for you, so you can focus on deciding who should have access. For example, if you submit your work to an open call through Picter, you give access to a project, and Picter delivers a screen resolution (1.500px on the longer side) to the organization that you have submitted to. But as the high-res file already sits in the back, in case your work gets chosen for an exhibition or to be printed in a catalogue, the organization can easily get access to the high-res file. We know that this is also an issue of trust, and in case you might wonder how we deal with security and rights-management in relation to your stored files at Picter, please read this blog post.
Together with our new sharing features we give you functionalities to maintain creative control over your work. Our download access options allow you to define who receives what images in which resolution and who is not allowed to download them. And this is just the beginning. We are about to develop many more features that will help you get a new perspective on how you work with photography.
We are on a journey to create the best tool for your best photo work and we invite you to join us on our way! Have you already tried the new sharing feature? Go to Picter and have a look.
We’re curious to hear your thoughts!
Simon Karlstetter,
Chief Strategy Officer at Picter
