Imagekind: an update and a new Catnapping gallery

Introducing the first image in the Catnapping Gallery
(http://makingamark.imagekind.com/Catnapping)
(click the image to see a larger version of the screenshot/ click here to see the real thing)

The major changes in my Imagekind account in the last 24 hours with are that:

• I have signed up for a Platinum Account which gives me unlimited images in umlimited galleries and unlimited bandwidth
• I've now got four flowers in the flowers gallery (check the change in the banner in the right hand column)
  
• plus I've published a second Gallery for the "Catnapping" drawings series.

I've also decided to start providing feedback on the Imagekind site in stages as there's a lot o good points being raised and a lot to comment on!

The new Catnapping Gallery

I've realised that I have a number of drawings which I will never extract from sketchbooks but which could look great as a print. The other benefit of selling prints is that I don't have to scratch my head and try and remember whether or not I was using pigment based archival ink in the pen and ink drawings!

The first gallery of monochrome drawings - the catnapping series - has been created and can either be accessed if you put 'catnapping' into the search facility at the top of the site. or you can find it here http://makingamark.imagekind.com/Catnapping.

For all catlovers I've also got a separate Feline Art Gallery (for colour images) waiting in the wings and will introduce it when I write about the SOFA exhibition in September. It will include any images which are included as originals in the show.

I'll also be reviewing drawings of other subjects to see whether I can generate a good enough scan for a print.

Upgrading

There are a number of options. The free account offers one gallery, up to 24 images, storage facilities of a maximum of 200 MB plus and 200 MB bandwidth per month. That's great if you only have a small number of images or you just want to test the service.

However after a day, although I'd identified a few irritations by and large I was sold on the concept and the service and was itching to get on and try loading a sample of images - and I wanted more than one gallery for these.

I looked at the prices and, if you crunch the numbers and have the cash available, there's no question that the upfront payment of an annual fee offers best value for money. So last night I signed up for the annual Platinum option which gives me unlimited facilities in relation to images, galleries and bandwidth. The choice is pay an annual fee upfront of $94.99 for the Platinum option (which = $7.91 per month) or spend $7.99 per month for the Pro option or $11.99 per month for the Platinum.

Scanning and scans

I'm scanning smaller works @300dpi and saving as a tiff file. This giving me files of about 20+ megabytes. Using PS Elements I'm also making sure I save the SRGB file information with each image. The colour looks fine on my screen and has needed absolutely minimal tweaking. This is in the context of my scanner having the following resolution settings:

• Scanner resolution digital: Up to 9600 x 9600 dpi
• Scanner resolution optical: 2400 x 4800 dpi

The imagekind website - intuitive navigation and signposting

The site is easy to navigate and intuitive up to a point. Generally it's very well written. However people have commented about options not being available when they are and I don't think it's as clear as it could be in relation accessing certain information. In addition, the actual choices available - while excellent - can get quite bewildering. I came to the conclusion that are some gaps and omissions - for example I only learned about what the tiny '+' icon on images of paper, mats and frames did late last night - as I was setting up my 4th image! (For those who haven't a clue about what I'm wittering about - read on!)

Two welcome additions would be:

• a very basic step by step set of instructions walking you through the whole process which can be printed off (one for buyers; one for creators and one for sellers) and
  
• a checklist at the end to make sure you've done or considered every option you have.

What is available

The following are aspects of the service which people commented on or asked about. It does seem to me that the site is well set up for artists as well as photographers who can often dominate similar services.

I can confirm:

• you can choose whether to set your mark-up (ie fee/'profit') on the base price of each image by a specific number of dollars or a percentage of base price (I'm opting for the latter)
• this page describes the 'creative options' available - in brief. To access the detail you need to upload
  
• for the custom framing (customers will click the custom frame button in the above screen) you can have a choice of:
• as many sizes as your image allows (minimum size 800 pixels) upto a maximum of 6
• 8 different papers for different purposes and with different prices. You can get detailed information about each one by clicking the little '+' sign in the bottom left hand corner. Some are particuarly suitable for paintings in oil, acrylic or pastel which have a texture.
  
• there are 20 categories of frames and in excess of 500 individual frames listed (some appear in more than one category). For each of them you get images and text of the detail of each frame by clicking on the '+' in the bottom left hand corner
  
• a collage frane (for more than one image) - I've not looked at this yet but do have some sets which might suit this
• you have a choice of 3 acrylic and 3 glass glazing options. One of the acrylic options offers UV protection.
• all your customers can choose the papers, mats, frames and glazing that they want and they can afford. the process keeps people informed as they make their choices as to the impact on prices.
  

Updating and RSS Feed

The updating within the site doesn't seem to work too quickly. For example, I created the new catnapping gallery some 5-6 hours ago and uploaded one image and am still waiting to see it appear on the "recently listed" screen.

A big plus point is that each gallery that I create has an individual feed - that comes through straight away. This can automatically update subscribers/fans of your work whenever you publish.

I seem to be doing a lot of saving, going back in tweaking, saving, having another look at the moment and I don't know that will work its way through to the feed. I've subscribed to my own feed (something I always do so that I know if something is wrong) so we'll see what happens. It would be good to have an e-mail option because I know a lot of people read their feeds via e-mails rather than a feedreader.

This feature has implications for how you allocate your images between galleries. For example, I don't think all my fans of the catnapping drawings will also like my flower drawings - hence I have two different galleries.

What improvements I'd like to see

Most of this is a subject for a future post - but I do have one niggle.

Member art covers orginals which are paintings and drawings in traditional media, photographs and digital art. You can view Member Art by subject (limited choice) and genre (limited choice). What you can't do is just see images of paintings and drawings using traditional media. I think there should be an option to do this very early in the process.

International Shipping....and tax!

I'm going to deal with what I've found out so far in the next post.

If you want to make sure you read this and don't have a subscription can I suggest you go either to the top right (just under the map) or scroll right down the bottom of this page and subscribe to this blog via your regular feedreader or by e-mail.

Links:

• my website: Catnapping Gallery
• imagekind: my Catnapping Gallery