Social Media

Pond5 Launching Web Resolution

By Jim Pickerell | 587 Words | Posted 12/11/2018 | Comments
Pond5 has launched a new Web resolution in an effort to grow the use of their clips in the social-media space. The price defaults to 20% of the contributors 4K master price (or 40% of HD price if it’s a native HD file). Contributors will be able to adjust this percentage in their account preferences or on the clip edit item page.

Model Releases: A Cautionary Tale

By Jim Pickerell | 516 Words | Posted 8/2/2018 | Comments
Photographers know they must have signed model releases for any non-news pictures they want to offer for licensing as stock photos. Commercial stock agencies like Getty Images or Shutterstock won’t accept photos unless they are accompanied by a signed release. But, do the photographers, or the models have any idea how the pictures might be used? Caution! Don’t let any of your models read The Indian Express story about Shubnum Kahn’s modeling  experience.

The Cost Of Trusted Information

By Jim Pickerell | 708 Words | Posted 12/27/2017 | Comments
The European Parliament is debating new legislation that could require Facebook, Google, Twitter and other major players to share some of the advertising revenue they earn from making the information produced and supplied by major European press agencies available to readers for free.

GDUSA Stock Visuals Survey Results

By Jim Pickerell | 828 Words | Posted 11/1/2017 | Comments
The results of Graphic Design USA’s 31st Annual Stock Visual Reader Survey are now available here. Ninety-two percent of the respondents use stock photos, 72% use stock illustration and 41% use footage and animation. This is a must read for anyone trying to produce imagery that the market wants.

Hootsuite Collaborates With Adobe Stock

By Jim Pickerell | 400 Words | Posted 9/5/2017 | Comments
Hootsuite has announced a collaboration with Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Stock that will give its customers the ability to access, edit, distribute, and measure the impact of social content directly from Hootsuite, thus helping marketers get more value from their creative content.

Adobe Visual Trends: Purpose Over Beauty

By Jim Pickerell | 305 Words | Posted 5/15/2017 | Comments
Adobe Stock has released a new Visual Trends report on Purpose Over Beauty based on studying images in more than 75 million social engagements. They found that a lack of content that makes a powerful statement cannot be disguised by pretty packaging.

EyeEm Expands Into Video

By Jim Pickerell | 441 Words | Posted 5/10/2017 | Comments
On May 9, EyeEm announced the launch of EyeEm Videography Early Creator program a stock video platform that will use the same artificial intelligence that powers the still-image option to automatically keyword and organize videos. Current EyeEm users can upload clips between 5 and 40 seconds long as the platform prepares to completely integrate video into the EyeEm platform later this year. The company has already tested the system by invitation-only, with selected users submitting video in the aerial, urban, travel, food, and nature categories.

What Are “Real Photos?”

By Jim Pickerell | 1551 Words | Posted 2/28/2017 | Comments
Recently, I was contacted by a Business School student who is developing an app that “will be used by internet publication firms, as well amateur and professional photographers.” He asked if I would provide some insight into the industry, specifically on topics such as photographer compensation, and the market share of "real photo’s" vs. stock photos. Here’s my response.

Getty Sues Serious Copyright Infringer

By Jim Pickerell | 333 Words | Posted 6/23/2016 | Comments
Getty Images has taken action against a serious copyright infringer who was discovered to have improperly accessed, downloaded and distributed Getty Images content through social media.

Over 97% Of Getty Visitors Come To Look At – NOT PURCHASE – Imagery

By Jim Pickerell | 518 Words | Posted 6/2/2016 | Comments
According to Getty Images CEO, Dawn Airey, “Over 97 per cent of visitors come to our websites to look at – not purchase – amazing imagery.”

Update: Getty's Dealing With Pinterest

By Jim Pickerell | 425 Words | Posted 5/31/2016 | Comments
Since October 2013 Getty Images has been collecting money from Pinterest for images in its collection that have been pinned on Pinterest. The transactions appear on photographer sales reports as $0.03 gross sale and a photographer royalty of $0.01. Indications are that this is a one-time payment no matter how long the image stays on Pinterest.

Uberization Of Stock Photography

By Jim Pickerell | 755 Words | Posted 4/26/2016 | Comments
The take over of the stock photography business by amateurs and part-timers is not new, but the long range implications are worth considering.

UGC vs. Stock Photography

By Jim Pickerell | 938 Words | Posted 7/29/2015 | Comments
What’s the difference between User Generated Content (UGC) and stock photography?
Maybe nothing! When people talk about UGC they are usually referring to pictures that can be found on the web (mostly on social media sites) that “someone else” may want to use. If that someone else wants to use the image (and doesn’t want to steal it) then technically it becomes a stock photograph.

Imagewiki Wants To Help Photogs Get A Share Of Online Ad Revenue

By Jim Pickerell | 1638 Words | Posted 7/27/2015 | Comments
The interests of the multi-billion dollar social media sites and photographers may finally be coming together thanks to DMCA and imagewiki. The safe harbor provision of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) says, “Online Service Providers (OSPs) cannot receive any financial benefit directly attributable to infringing activity.”  Thus OSPs cannot place ads on user generated content unless they can identify the image’s owner and use policy.

Ideal Image Sizes For Social Networks

By Jim Pickerell | 66 Words | Posted 5/27/2015 | Comments
SumAll provides social media tools that may help users make more effective use of social media. Among the information offered is data from 300,000+ business users compiled in an infographic that shows the ideal image size for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Each of these sites has specific dimensions that you need to adhere to if you want your images to look their best.

Where Are The Editors?

By Jim Pickerell | 962 Words | Posted 5/26/2015 | Comments
As the stock photo industry has changed and revenue for many stock images providers has declined many traditional providers have been forced to cut back on staff, and in particular editors. This is also true of many photo users who previously had time to review portfolios, encourage new talent and support new photographers as they improved their skills. Now, most of the editors and picture buyers that are left have trouble keeping up with the images that fly across their desks, let alone find time to seek out the best images and encourage new talent. So who does the editing?

Social Media Landmines For Photographers

By Jim Pickerell | 213 Words | Posted 5/21/2015 | Comments
Posting images on Social Media sites can be a dangerous thing. What rights are you giving away? Can someone else use your image without your knowledge? Can they earn revenue from your image without sharing any of it with you? If someone else mis-uses your image are you legally liable?

Microsoft Promoting PicHit.me – New Image Source

By Jim Pickerell | 1157 Words | Posted 5/12/2015 | Comments
The launch of Windows 10 later this year could dramatically change the way people find pictures. On April 29th during the annual Microstock Build Developers Conference in San Francisco Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella described how Microsoft intends to (1) Build the Intelligent Cloud, (2) Reinvent productivity and business process and (3) Create more personal computing.

EyeEm Market Opens

By Jim Pickerell | 330 Words | Posted 4/1/2015 | Comments
In August 2014 EyeEm announced that it would be introducing a “Market” aspect to its social media site. Market has finally been launched. EyeEm was established in 2011 and currently has over 13 million users who post photos taken with their cell phones and comment on each other’s work. It is unclear how many images are on the site.

Geoff Tompkinson: Career Of A Timelapse Photographer

By Jim Pickerell | 1644 Words | Posted 2/17/2015 | Comments
Recently, I asked Geoff Tompkinson to share a little about his 35-year career in stock photography and where he thinks the business is headed. Before reading his story I suggest you take a look at Geoff’s amazing work – still photography, timelapse and hyperlapse  -- and then begin reading.

Who Owns The Rights?

By Jim Pickerell | 747 Words | Posted 1/23/2015 | Comments
Have you gotten tired of reading all the “terms and conditions” on the social media sites? Or have you just given up and assumed they are OK. If you really read (and understand) all the terms on these sites is there any time left to engage on the sites? Is there any time left to take pictures?

Profit/Loss Calculations For Stock Photography

By Jim Pickerell | 1202 Words | Posted 1/2/2015 | Comments
Should the price paid to use a photo cover the cost to produce it? Most stock photographers recognize it is highly unlikely that they will regularly recover the cost of producing an image from a single sale. The profit and loss calculation is much more complicated.

The Future of Advertising

By Jim Pickerell | 1916 Words | Posted 12/29/2014 | Comments
Before reading this colloquy between Paul Melcher and myself the reader should review my story on “Authentic And Real Images” and all the comments that started our whole conversation. Paul makes some excellent points. To a large extent I agree with his entire analysis. There is about to be some dramatic shifts in the way advertising is delivered. These stories look at some of the implications for photographers.

Dreamstime Creates More Personalized Search For Users

By Jim Pickerell | 445 Words | Posted 9/23/2014 | Comments
Dreamstime has announced the release of a new personalization feature, as well as a new social media function.

Flickr To Generate Revenue For Members

By Jim Pickerell | 1026 Words | Posted 8/6/2014 | Comments
Flickr has announced to its community of image creators that it will be offering a licensing option, but it has failed to explain when it will happen or exactly how it will work.