mitting fi lm originals (normally transparencies) to the stock libraries.
These originals were then indexed and stored. Transparencies were
drum-scanned (an expensive high-quality scanning process), and
selections of new images were included in catalogues made available
in hard copy to image buyers.
It is pretty obvious that the traditional process involved in
producing, indexing, and promoting stock photographs was and
is expensive—unavoidably so. The photographer incurs fi lm purchas-
ing and processing costs. The image library has to hand catalogue
the images received from the photographers and to take great care
of them; the library incurs further costs in periodically producing
catalogues of a selection of images for review by potential buyers.
I can recall visiting image libraries in the 1980s to make personal
selections from their images for use by my then employers. I
must have wasted a couple of hours per visit peering at
transparencies on a light box before fi nding the right one for a
project. It was no fun!
FIGURE 1.4 Shopping without dropping? Just relax with microstock! © mammamaart/iStockphoto
THE EARLY DAYS 5