Picture This : Computer Disc Offers Publishers an Image Bank

A Solana Beach photographer and a Miramar software publisher are collaborating on a compact disc they hope will be music to their ears.

The pair are taking advantage of a new technology that allows virtually anyone with a personal computer and a special reader to copy color photos directly off a CD and incorporate them in their computer-generated annual reports, four-color ads and desktop publications.

The low-cost technology is considered a boon for the advertising and publishing industry, which consumes literally thousands of images daily in ads, magazines and newsletters. The disc would eliminate the need for photographers and their agents to mail slides and color transparencies to publishers.

However, other photographers, including a spokesman for the American Society of Magazine Photographers, say that, without some safeguards, the computer CD may hurt photographers trying to make a living from the resale rights to their work, because it allows unlimited use of the photos on the disc. The unprotected disc may also make it difficult for photographers to police pirating or the unauthorized use of their work.

But, for 37-year-old photographer Rick Doyle, the compact disc is just one more avenue for getting his products to market, he said. Doyle, a photographer for 12 years with a collection of 40,000 photos, makes his living selling photographs of sailboats in the sun, surfers riding inside the tube of enormous waves, and other scenic shots. He has been published in Sports Illustrated, the National, Surfer Magazine, Windsurf Magazine, San Diego Magazine, and Travel & Leisure magazine.

Much of his work he sends to stock photo agencies who sell the one-time use rights of his work to advertising agencies and magazines, and then split the gross 50-50 with him. Doyle said a single photo can command a price of $800 for use once in a half-page ad in a nationally circulated magazine with 1 million to 3 million readers. Yet a set of 104 of his pictures on a compact disc will sell for $99 with nearly unlimited publication use. The only restrictions are that the photo must run with his byline and may not be used for posters, postcards, calendars or T-shirts.

“The trade-off is I’m getting exposure in an area I would never have gotten before,” he said.

Doyle said he has negotiated a three-year contract with Educorp Computer Services, a software publisher in Miramar, to publish and distribute the compact discs. Doyle will receive 15% from the gross sale of the discs.

The disc can be used by anyone with a Macintosh, IBM or IBM compatible personal computer with a special, laser disc reader. Users who want to incorporate the photos in layouts also need a page-layout program such as Pagemaker.

The nation’s professional organization of magazine photographers has issued no official guidelines for its members on compact discs, said Richard Weisgrau, executive director of the New York-based American Society of Magazine Photographers.

However, if the computer disc is so beneficial to photographers, then “why aren’t all the pros jumping to put their work on disc?” Weisgrau asked.

“Photographers are extremely concerned that, once their photos are captured to disc, there is almost no way to police usage,” he said. Because of the high quality of the CD image, “all you have to do is be able to read it off the disc.”

Once a photograph is put on a CD, it is like putting it in the public domain, he said. “There’s no protection in a CD.”

Instead, most of the photographers who are authorizing their work to be used on CD are opting for another route that permits their photos to be displayed on a computer screen but will not let them be used directly off the screen without an access code, Weisgrau said.

“The sensible way is that photographs should all be coded, and there should be some central clearing house so that a publisher who wants to use the image can identify the photographer and the rights and the cost of those rights,” he said.

The professional association plans to convene an on-line computer conference this year that includes photographers, lawyers, scholars and representatives of magazines, newspapers and other areas of publishing. The information and opinions gathered from that open electronic bulletin board will be put into a major paper on the issue, Weisgrau said.

“We’ve been around for 45 years, and we’ve learned not to be impulsive in judging what’s right. This requires study and then action.”

In the meantime, “our stance is to be very cautious if you’re a photographer about the agreement to which you commit yourself and about the protection the software manufacturer is going to offer to you,” Weisgrau said. “One pro took four months to negotiate the contract alone.”

“My fear is those jumping into this may in the long run be removing themselves from the collective protection of many minds working on this and negotiating this,” Weisgrau said.

Doyle said he contacted the San Diego chapter of the ASMP, and the group told him of the fears individual photographers have about the technology, but he decided to go ahead because the discs are not the only market for his photos.

“It’s another way to get exposure,” he said.

Doyle’s publisher, Educorp Computers Services, also has published a CD of more than 100 erotic paintings by international artist Olivia De Berardinis, and the company is a distributor for other discs.

Some stock photo agencies have compiled collections of photos by various photographers that include scenic views of San Francisco, a photo of the Lincoln statue, fireworks, sunbathers and pictures of bell peppers, but Doyle is the first individual photographer Educorp has published exclusively on a CD.

Educorp publishes 15 titles altogether, and distributes many others, said Vahe Guzelimian, the 41-year-old owner of Educorp.

He started his company in 1984 selling Macintosh hardware accessories and software, he said. His company, which now has 16 full-time employees, has been selling CDs since 1988. Some of the discs are sold through retail dealers, but most of his sales come from his mail-order catalogues, he said.

“It’s been a small-volume business till now,” Guzelimian said, but the compact discs make up about a third of his business now.

Doyle’s Ocean Imagery disc is listed among the more than 100 titles in Educorp’s CD catalogue. Disc prices range from $25 for the disc “About Cows” to more than $500 for an indexed list of more one million place names drawn from U.S. government maps.

The 88-page catalogue is sent to a 350,000-client mailing list and also includes such discs as Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute” published by Warner New Media. The $60 CD is a blend of music and explanatory text about the opera and singers.

The whimsical “About Cows” is a reprint of Sara Rath’s book by the same name. It is billed in the catalogue as “THE disc for the serious and amateur bovinologist alike.” It contains color pictures, cow folklore, riddles and information about cheese making.

On the drawing board is a 200-picture disc of selected America’s Cup contenders, Guzelimian said. The disc is scheduled to be published in late April.