A prominent photographer needed a crowd sourced localized stock image website.
1. Discussion
2. Requirement
3. Development
1. Challenge
The requirement involved creating a platform for various photographers to upload images for the Indian advertising industry. The first challenge involved the image size, as original images were high resolution, and averaged over 56Mb per image. We needed an effective method by which to categorize images, and quickly access the relevant image when searching.
2. Our Solution
We integrated a CMS platform allowing the site admin to easily update content, and a payment gateway to purchase images. We also created three user roles for the admin, contributors (sellers), and consumers (buyers). We implemented Ajax enabled file uploads, so contributors could monitor the upload progress, and we integrated zip file uploads to improve the efficiency of uploads as this allowed compression of the overall file size. To optimize the search function, and provide relevant images quickly, we included photo-tagging so images could be categorized and found with ease. To allow users to download various resolutions of an image, and to automatically resize the image, we integrated the Photoshop API so images would not be skewed. We also used the API to add a watermark, so images could not be copied and used for free.
3. Results
As we included various user roles, contributors (photographers) were able to easily login to the website and check any revenue made from the sale of their photographs. The integration of the Photoshop API, allowed our images to be resized and downloaded in real-time, unlike other providers who’d quote a two-hour delivery time. Additionally, the auto-watermarking, ensured each contributor’s intellectual property was protected and gave them greater confidence in using our website over competitors. Admins were also able to review reports related to the profitability of each contributor and hence incentivize popular photographers to upload more images, resulting in higher revenues for both parties.