December 3, 2007
Lightroom SDK: Better ties with microstocks?
Source: CNET.com
Author: Stephen Shankland
Here is a CNET story that was posted after the release of Lightroom 1.3. See also John Nack’s blog story and links: Upload from Lightroom to Flickr, SmugMug, & more including a link to Jeffrey Friedl’s site.
“Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is taking its first look at the world beyond its own photo-editing boundaries, and stock-art photographers are among those who stand to benefit.
A view of the Flickr export tool in the Lightroom developer kit.
(Credit: Adobe)
Adobe’s software development kit for its Lightroom software, released Thursday evening along with the Lightroom 1.3 update, is only a preview edition with limited abilities, but already one potential use for the software is evident: easier photo uploads to “microstock” photo-sale sites.”
The SDK preview involves only image export from Lightroom, but it includes several features for interacting with Web or FTP sites on the Internet.
Uploading photos can be a big hassle for photographers who sell their work via the gaggle of microstock sites such as Dreamstime, iStockphoto, and Fotolia that have cropped up on the Internet. Some microstock photographers shoot exclusively for one site or another, lured by higher payments, while others sell photos at multiple sites. Either way, exporting directly from Lightroom could ease export difficulties.
Of course, it might not be the thing for everyone, including those who want to do further processing for noise reduction and sharpening in Photoshop, for example. But it’s a step in the right direction.
Likely to be of nearer-term use is a sample plug-in distributed with the kit that permits uploading photos to Yahoo’s Flickr photo-sharing site. It lets users set a variety of options, including privacy and tags, but doesn’t let users deal with Flickr sets used for grouping photos together.