Change View Options:
Articles from December 2007
Corbis recently revealed the top 10 creative trends of 2007. The top three cultural phenomena affecting visual thinkers include the rise of environmental awareness, the spread of obesity and reconnecting generations of family members. These trends are taking place on a global, cross-cultural scale.
In August, Getty dramatically lowered the price for online use of any image in its collection to $49. The company expected this would attract a significant number of Web buyers. Image suppliers expected it would result in a significant decline in their revenue. Indications are neither occurred.
Many who argue that everything should on the Internet should be free are limiting the medium's potential. Stock photographers are not posting pictures online as a way of demonstrating their skills in order to get assignments. (Some assignment photographers do, but promotion is not assignment.) Stock photographers have produced a product at their own expense that they hope to sell.
If agencies charge $510 for the right to print a picture in 1,000,000 copies of a textbook, how do they tell the customer who's producing a book on a specialized topic with a 20,000 press run that he should pay more than $11? That's getting down to micropayment prices.
Image Source founder and CEO Christina Vaughan told Selling Stock that the U.K. brand is in a transitional phase.
Many people want to talk about how to get better prices for better quality images. When we're talking about stock pictures, this concept is irrelevant. Unfortunately, quality has absolutely nothing to do with what a customer will pay for an image.
Pantone, the New Jersey company known as the design industry's color authority, has selected its 18-3943 Blue Iris as the color of the year for 2008.
New York-based micro-payment Web site Fotolia announced the launch of The Infinite Collection with 15,000 images, expanding the agency's reach into the premium pricing space.
Mea Culpa. Using a search strategy that has worked well in the past, I published grossly incorrect conclusions in my recent article on massive editing at Getty Images. Readers deserve an explanation.
Stock Artists Alliance (SAA) continues to seek "accountability" from Photolibrary in the Index Stock situation and says in a press release, "Recent revelations and accusations leave the SAA Board greatly concerned about whether Photolibrary has met its contractual obligation to pay Index Stock contributors all past obligations."
Corbis' decision to remove huge numbers of images from its collection makes its database easier to navigate. But the company's unwillingness to return digital files to photographers, shows little concern for image creators.
Bridgeman Education will take part in a £1.9 million e-learning initiative, Project SILVER, supported by the U.K. government's Technology Strategy Board.
After Getty Images released its much-publicized Web-use license, many traditional stock agencies followed suit. Though companies like Image Source continue to see no reason to mark down premium inventories, other popular brands, including Corbis and Masterfile, also lowered their online licenses to around $50.
According to Alamy's Alexandra Bortkiewicz, this holiday season exhibits a higher stylistic diversity in stock imagery sought by buyers. There is also a trend toward depicting more individual celebrations, though the traditional look remains in demand.
Given recent questions concerning Photolibrary/Indexstock bookkeeping issues, it's worth exploring some problems that can arise when a agency like Indexstock keeps sloppy books.
Getty is not the only company engaging in massive editing of its file. Several Corbis photographers have been advised in letters from Ross Sutherland, Corbis Chief Creative Officer, that close to 50% of their images will be removed.
Image Source launched the latest element of its aggressively creative marketing campaign "Open Your Eyes." This time, the royalty-free producer wants to "Open Your Ears" to a new CD and Web tool that use sound, dialogue and audio effects to describe stock imagery.
In an attempt to relieve Indexstock (IS) photographer anxieties, Photolibrary Group (PL) has made public details regarding payments of outstanding pre-acquisition royalties and the ongoing reliability of PL's accounting system.
Photolibrary executives obviously hoped to keep the matter of unpaid Index Stock royalties on the back burner until the ethics committee of the Picture Archive Council of America finished its investigation. However, photographers have made it clear that they are not willing to wait the six or more weeks this can take.
A major dilemma for stock photo portals is finding the right size for their collections. Customers complain about too many irrelevant images. Thus, a small collection would seem to be better. But an irrelevant image to one buyer, may be relevant to another. Cut the collection size, and customers complain they can't find the right image. What's the answer?
For the past three months, Getty Images has been engaged in a massive reduction of the number of images on its site. The good news is that the average-return-per-image for those remaining on the site is likely to go up dramatically. The bad news is that most suppliers are unlikely to see any growth in revenue.
The Hamburg, Germany-based Avenue Images has launched a budget-image platform, Petit Price. Though Avenue is calling this a microstock venture, there are notable differences.
A couple weeks ago I complained that our industry has established ridiculous price multipliers for book use when large circulations are compared to small ones. So I was asked to supply an answer. I did.
Online content-syndication company Mochila has announced site improvements and a new partnership with domain registrar Go Daddy.
According to The Bridgeman Art Library, this holiday season has revealed a new trend: Japanese art has become third among the top five image categories sought by greeting card and other holiday product publishers.
Recently launched collections with a European flavor can count on market demand. Central and Eastern European markets have seen advertising growth rates of close to 18% per year. Russia doubles its ad spending every year, and Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus and Romania show similar figures.
As of Jan. 7, 2008, Getty Images-owned microstock iStockphoto is raising prices for photography and illustration. According to the announcement on its Web site, the move "balance[s] the creative needs of [iStock] customers with the financial rewards desired by excellent artists."
Photographers are confused and frustrated by recent happenings at Photolibrary's Index Stock brand. The company's Australian headquarters is doing little to explain or reassure.
Launched this week, the Nielsen Media Manager is intended to allow content owners to enforce copyright and monetize online video.
The PICTA Picture Agency Fair will be held in Hamburg from March 6- 8. Organized by the German Association of Press and Picture Agencies and Archives (BVPA), the event will take place at the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce.
Citizen photography has hit the majors. Last week, leading global news service Agence France-Presse took a 30% stake in the Paris -based citizen journalism company Scooplive. French firm IAM also took a 30% minority stake in the online film and photo platform.
Getty Images has decided to pull all its RF images from its Netherlands distributors in order to "add value" to its wholly owned office in that territory. But will the move help Getty or empower distributors?
Majority World, a Bangladesh-based image library that focuses on developing-world imagery, is a year-old. The agency, which provides indigenous photographers with a chance to compete in the global market, reports inventory growth and a rising number of buyers. It attributes this to "ethical sourcing" of photography.
Zenith Optimedia expects 2007 U.S. ad-spending growth to be just 2.5%, down from the 3.7% expansion the company foresaw as recently as last summer. But the situation for still photographers trying to sell images for ad use might be worse than anticipated.
The Creative Commons CEO apologized for license confusion. His remarks were the result of a lawsuit alleging inappropriate use of a minor's CC-licensed photo in an ad campaign for Virgin Mobile of Australia.
On Dec. 11, an exhibition in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, will showcase never-before-seen photographs of historic film and entertainment personalities by Magnum Photos.
OnRequest has abandoned it's "custom stock" format. The company is now focused on dealing with large corporate customers, the end users of the images, not ad agencies. The emphasis is on building custom libraries.