Adobe Stock offers customers a very useful search feature that Shutterstock, Getty Images and iStock have chosen to ignore. Adobe lets customers search for
“Undiscovered” images. We assume that means image that have never been used, although Adobe doesn’t make that entirely clear.
Shutterstock, Getty Images and iStock all let customers organize their entire search based on the “Newest” images in their collections, but they show everything they’ve got with the particular keywords used, not just the images that are new in a certain time period. The customer has no way of knowing if the 100th image, or 500th was uploaded an hour, a day, or a month ago. If the customer is looking for something that has never been used that’s not very useful because it is possible that an image recently uploaded has also been used.
However, even more interesting is the percentage of images that are “Undiscovered” or have never been used.
I searched the Adobe collection for a number of commonly requested keywords to determine the number of images in each category and how many were Undiscovered.
The first thing I wanted to know is the number of photos compared to illustrations. Adobe lumps photos and illustrations together on one search and calls them all “images.” It is possible, however, to add the keyword “illustration” to the other search term and get only the illustrations with that search term. I then deducted the illustrations from the relevant images and got the number of Relevant Photos in the collection for each of my chosen keywords.
| |
Relevant |
Relevant |
Relevant |
% of Photos |
| |
Images |
Illustrations |
Photos |
In Collection |
| Food |
11,122,440 |
876,330 |
10,246,110 |
92.12% |
| Business |
10,710,685 |
3,314,387 |
7,396,298 |
69.06% |
| People |
10,468,818 |
1,130,641 |
9,338,177 |
89.20% |
| Travel |
7,125,070 |
883,724 |
6,241,346 |
87.60% |
| Architecture |
4,471,910 |
399,973 |
4,071,937 |
91.06% |
| Animals |
4,008,750 |
918,844 |
3,089,906 |
77.08% |
| Children |
3,902,367 |
665,866 |
3,236,501 |
82.94% |
| Office |
3,422,520 |
665,419 |
2,757,101 |
80.56% |
| Computer |
3,093,050 |
933,392 |
2,159,658 |
69.82% |
| Education |
2,390,941 |
548,255 |
1,842,686 |
77.07% |
| Family |
2,050,527 |
212,975 |
1,837,552 |
89.61% |
| Finance |
2,014,776 |
518,463 |
1,496,313 |
74.27% |
| Couples |
1,720,396 |
170,015 |
1,550,381 |
90.12% |
| Baby |
1,638,929 |
275,010 |
1,363,919 |
83.22% |
| Wildlife |
1,602,679 |
293,889 |
1,308,790 |
81.66% |
| Recreation |
1,455,801 |
162,592 |
1,293,209 |
88.83% |
| Medical |
1,334,408 |
331,683 |
1,002,725 |
75.14% |
| Pets |
1,205,087 |
199,875 |
1,005,212 |
83.41% |
It is also very interesting to realize the percent of images in the collection that are photos compared to illustrations. With “Food” for example 92% of the images are photos and less than 8% are illustrations. In most cases the percentages for illustrations are under 20%.
Illustrators tend up upload many fewer images, but have a higher percentage of sales than photographers. A few years ago Shutterstock said that about one-third of their revenue came from illustration. Over the years that I have tracked over 400 of iStock’s leading contributors the illustrators tended to have much smaller collection, but often more downloads than the photographers.
The next step was to determine the count of the Undiscovered Images and Illustrations and subtract the illustrations from the images to determine the number of Undiscovered photos. See the chart below.
| |
Undiscovered |
Undiscovered |
Undiscovered |
| |
Image |
Illustration |
Photos |
| Food |
8,533,402 |
637,280 |
7,896,122 |
| Business |
7,469,662 |
2,402,998 |
5,066,664 |
| People |
7,182,567 |
754,247 |
6,428,320 |
| Travel |
5,329,642 |
629,224 |
4,700,418 |
| Architecture |
3,277,364 |
264,977 |
3,012,387 |
| Animals |
2,906,304 |
614,871 |
2,291,433 |
| Children |
2,568,246 |
426,625 |
2,141,621 |
| Office |
2,332,983 |
481,511 |
1,851,472 |
| Computer |
2,103,085 |
661,847 |
1,441,238 |
| Education |
1,623,293 |
380,673 |
1,242,620 |
| Family |
1,364,234 |
139,444 |
1,224,790 |
| Finance |
1,430,575 |
392,735 |
1,037,840 |
| Couples |
1,146,245 |
113,896 |
1,032,349 |
| Baby |
1,112,428 |
181,667 |
930,761 |
| Wildlife |
1,218,476 |
195,854 |
1,022,622 |
| Recreation |
969,256 |
111,023 |
858,233 |
| Medical |
890,769 |
229,347 |
661,422 |
| Pets |
825,352 |
133,058 |
692,294 |
Finally, I divided the number of “Undiscovered” Photos by the total “Relevant” Photos to determine the percentage of Undiscovered photos in the collection. Note that the percentage of photos that have never been used ranges from 66% to 78% depending on the keyword.
| |
|
|
Percentage |
| |
Relevant |
Undiscoverd |
Undiscovered |
| |
Photos |
Photos |
Photos |
| Food |
10,246,110 |
7,896,122 |
77.06% |
| Business |
7,396,298 |
5,066,664 |
68.50% |
| People |
9,338,177 |
6,428,320 |
68.84% |
| Travel |
6,241,346 |
4,700,418 |
75.31% |
| Architecture |
4,071,937 |
3,012,387 |
73.98% |
| Animals |
3,089,906 |
2,291,433 |
74.16% |
| Children |
3,236,501 |
2,141,621 |
66.17% |
| Office |
2,757,101 |
1,851,472 |
67.15% |
| Computer |
2,159,658 |
1,441,238 |
66.73% |
| Education |
1,842,686 |
1,242,620 |
67.44% |
| Family |
1,837,552 |
1,224,790 |
66.65% |
| Finance |
1,496,313 |
1,037,840 |
69.36% |
| Couples |
1,550,381 |
1,032,349 |
66.59% |
| Baby |
1,363,919 |
930,761 |
68.24% |
| Wildlife |
1,308,790 |
1,022,622 |
78.13% |
| Recreation |
1,293,209 |
858,233 |
66.36% |
| Medical |
1,002,725 |
661,422 |
65.96% |
| Pets |
1,005,212 |
692,294 |
68.87% |
While Shutterstock, Getty Images and iStock do not provide creators, or customers, with this type of information, I suspect their percentages of photos actually used are very similar. Shutterstock’s unused photos may, in-fact, be an even higher percentage given the huge oversupply of imagery in their collection.
I have had some top professionals tell me that less than 30% of the images in their collection ever get used and that the percentage is declining. On the other hand Cathy Yeulet of MonkeyBusinessImages
told me last week that “literally every image she uploads sells at least once,” but I expect she is the very rare exception. Cathy has a very clear understanding of the subject matter that is in greatest demand, only shoots what she knows customers want and edits carefully.
Photographers trying to earn part of their living in this business would be well advised to carefully track their images that sell and not waste time shooting more of the images that aren’t selling.
Adobe could do photographer and customers a great service if in addition to their “Undiscovered” search option they added a “Discovered” option that enabled customers and photographers look through a selection of images that have actually been purchased by someone.