Books devoid of photographs or illustrations are very rare nowadays. Even tomes filled with technical prose and formulas are jazzed up with engaging illustrations. This perhaps best explains the significant momentum gained by image services, a niche segment that covers photo research and editing.

For Delhi-based Q2AMedia, a specialist in creative services for k—12 educational and reference publications, riding on the momentum is a no-brainer, and its annual research capacity of 25,000 images is set to double over the next 18 months. The SmartSearch division, staffed by 20 researchers and three reviewers, is 100% dedicated to image research. “We have just completed a primary English reading program involving more than 1,000 images for one major educational publisher,” said CEO Sudhir Singh Dungarpur. “The research, high-resolution downloading and rights clearance, including third-party rights, took about three months. Process-wise, we gave our client an initial selection that was based on their art briefs. Our client spent a week reviewing and approving the images, after which our team worked on the requested changes and uploaded the second selection four days later. Once we received their go-ahead, we delivered the high-resolution images in batches within the next five days, along with the credits list and the permissions obtained.”

The biggest challenge in most image research project, according to Dungarpur, lies in keeping a record of every transaction with the client and tracking the work progress. “In huge projects with very tight deadlines such as the reading program, sudden editorial changes are inevitable. As such, it is crucial to have an efficient and effective project management team.”

Added Dungarpur, “Ideally, we should have both photo briefs and the manuscript. Most of a researcher's work is considered done when the briefs are clear and the context in which the photos will be used is fully understood. Having the manuscript is therefore very helpful as it gives a better idea of the subject matter.” Team Q2AMedia also insists on having details such as the print run, distribution markets, age group and other information pertinent to rights clearance.

Meeting clients' budget is yet another challenge. “Cost-wise, we are one of the most competitive in the industry. We work with all the major photo agencies, freelance photographers as well as museums and specialty agencies on a regular basis. We are also known for quick turnaround,” added Dungarpur, whose team consistently achieves 85%—90% client approval on the initial research results. “We allow up to 10% changes in the art briefs without charge, and we do not charge a client for an image until it is approved.” In instances where an image is dropped owing to space constraints in the final layout, only the time spent researching for that particular image is charged.

Over at Chennai-based Vikatan Publishing Solutions, its image editing division has been laboring over one big project involving several European magazines. “We have 15 graphic designers processing about 300 images daily, and the work includes masking, color correction and, at times, redrawing. The turnaround time varies between three and 24 hours,” said CEO A.R. Nallathambi, whose team faced a steep learning curve with this project, as “the Europe-centric images were quite different from what we are used to. Even our staff with 10 to 15 years of graphic design experience was stumped. To resolve this issue, we worked with our clients to produce a comprehensive e-training module that is also relevant to other graphics-based projects.”

Huge file size is always a challenge, said Nallathambi. “Considerable time is spent on downloading and transferring images. And this is compounded by the tight schedule. We also frequently receive low-resolution files or fuzzy pictures that need to be redrawn or improved in terms of color and resolution.” Presently, Vikatan's 45-strong division can handle up to 6,000 images per month, with each image taking an average of 45 minutes to edit from start to finish. “The incoming volume has been growing steadily and it is expected to hit 1,000 per day soon. Naturally, we are working on ramping up our production and technical resources to meet this growth.”

Clearly, the picture (pun intended) of India's content services industry is changing, from the plain XML/PDF to a montage of various products and services.

This is part of a regular series highlighting content/publishing services provided by companies in India.