Submissions

Photography Submission Guidelines:

Drive Images are pleased to work with contributing photographers who wish to submit digital images to us for inclusion in the Drive Images collection.

General:

The Drive Images collection is focused upon a number of elements to create the look and feel of the content.

  • Images of cars or associated content. Cars, cars, cars!
  • Images of how life is touched or altered by the automobile. Images or roads, by-products of driving, people in driving situations, car parks etc.
  • Manufacturing, sales or repair of vehicles.

Our immediate desire is more lifestyle-automotive imagery.

Step 1: Review these Submission Guidelines.

Please review our guidelines to ensure that the files you would like to submit meet all of the required specifications.

Step 2: Submit Low Res files.

Submit your low resolution files either via CD or DVD. See submission guidelines for all requirements.

Step 3: Notification of Selection.

We will notify you of the files we selected. We then request that you prepare and upload your files within four weeks.

Step 4: Contract signing.

We will send you a contract to review, sign and return.

Step 5: Submit High Res files.

Submit your high resolution files either via CD or DVD. See submission guidelines for all requirements.

Step 6: Becoming part of Drive Images.

After the contract has been signed and all high res files have been received we will process your images and upload them to our own website and to our network of worldwide distributors.

Submitting low res Images:

Please submit your photo files for editing as JPEG files. Non-digital images will not be accepted. Only images that meet our final submission standards (see below) and only images that have Model Releases and Property Releases where required should be submitted for consideration. Please ensure that we receive not less than 25 and not more than 100 initial submissions so that we can evaluate the style and other technical details. Upon confirmation that the images meet our 'creative and technical' standards, we will contact you for a fuller submission.

JPEG settings should be RGB color or Grayscale at 72 dpi, high quality (JPEG 10) setting. Images should have unique names consisting of alphanumeric characters. No spaces or unusual characters (#@!* etc.).

Images can be submitted on CD or DVD. Physical media will not be returned unless requested.

For direct mailing of submissions, please send to:

Submissions at Drive Images
595 E. Colorado Blvd. Suite 411
Pasadena, Ca 91101
Attention: Creative Submissions Department

Final high res Submission requirements:

Please submit images within 4 weeks of selection notification.

All images must be submitted for final use as uncompressed TIFF files that are approximately 50 MB, flattened with no guides, layers, paths or channels in 24 bit RGB Color.

Camera and Image Sizing:

Drive Images Approved digital cameras: Nikon D200 & D300, Nikon D2X & 3X, Canon EOS 20D/30D & 40D, Canon EOS 5D, Canon EOS 1D MK II , Canon EOS 1Ds, Canon EOS 1Ds MK II, Canon EOS 1Ds MK III, or equivalent SLR cameras by other manufacturers as well as all medium format backs (e.g. backs by Phase One and Leaf etc). If you have a questions about your specific camera and file sizes, please contacts us at stocksubmissions@driveimages.com

Scanned film files are acceptable if they have been drum scanned by a professional scanning house and meet the above size requirements or if scanned using scanners from the following list: Imacon 949, 848, 646, 343; Fuji Lanovia Quattro and Finescan; Creo Eversmart Supreme 11, Eversmart Select 11, IQsmart 1,2,3 and equivalent or greater scanners. Images must be scanned without interpolation.

No RAW files or JPEGs. Do not use software to increase image resolution. Images must not be sharpened using Software.

Color settings should be set to Adobe RGB (1998) profile, maximum black point should be 5,5,5 and maximum white point should be 250,250,250.

Visible Logos:

All isolated visible logos must be removed via retouching prior to submission. All dust, hair, scratches etc. must also be removed. All transitions and gradations between tones should be smooth with no abrupt changes, banding, etc. Any retouching done on the image should not be visible when viewed at 100%.

Model and Property Releases:

Model and Property releases are required where relevant and must be supplied in digital format. If you require a standard property or model release form from Drive Images, please request this at stockinfo@driveimages.com.

Where there is a recognizable person in any of your images, we REQUIRE a model release, signed by that person. It is not essential that you provide a property release, but this may restrict your returns on licenses of these images. Trademark releases, while obviously nice to have, are rare and we do not expect them with submissions.

Metadata

Image information must be supplied to us digitally in IPTC, XMP, Excel or Text File formats.

This should include the following details:

  • Location where image taken
  • Time and date of image
  • Vehicle and or other details known
  • If person(s) in image, approximate age
  • Copyright for image (photographer)
  • Other data that may help us keyword and add the image to our library.

If you wish to receive a Drive Images Photographer contract, please send a request to stocksubmissions@driveimages.com and we will be in contact electronically.