Macrostock
This story provides links to some of the stories on this site that may be of interest to someone new to the stock photography business, or someone who might to have a
brief refresher course on some of the things that have been happening in the
last few years. Many of these stories will also give you some idea of developing trends and what the
future might hold.
Sometimes there is a silver lining when your stock agency gets acquired or you get kicked out of the agency. For example, clients that previously licensed Stock Connection imagery through Jupiterimages now have to re-license them directly, because Getty Images has phased out some content.
U.K. stock-image company
Alamy
has announced plans to launch a 24/7 news feed service in May. The
service will first launch in beta, with a full product release coming
later in the year.
In the next few years, there will be two major trends in the education
business: There will be less demand for books as a teaching resource.
Electronic “learning objects” will be used to a much greater degree in
classroom and online instruction. Photographers
who agree that these changes will occur, and who supply images to those
producing materials for educational use, should begin to restructure
their businesses and produce content that will be in demand by this new
educational delivery system.
As methods of supplying educational information to students change and schools adopt more and more electronic tools and techniques, photographers not only need to revise their image production strategies, but also to examine the way they will charge for their services in the future.
Jim Pickerell has a long history in stock photography as a stock shooter, an agency owner, and an industry analyst. In this wide-ranging interview he shares his experience and insight on the future of stock photography.
For those who think that the use of photography in education will remain the same, here are some numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Chris Barton, a photographer and the managing director of Photographers Direct, has written an article highlighting multiple uses of the same microstock image and asking why a reputable company would do this to itself. There are numerous answers, and most are so mind-bogglingly simple as to make anyone wonder why stock-industry insiders are still having this meaningless debate.
The Obama administration, through the offices of the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel, has recently requested input from interested parties as to how piracy and copyright infringement is affecting the economy. The deadline for filing was March 24. Virtually all photographer trade associations and many other interested parties submitted reports and made recommendations for change.
As buyer budgetary pressures and competition continue to drive prices downward, production companies and solo practitioners are increasingly looking to maximize their earnings by cutting out the middleman.
There is a persistent idea among many image creators that a photographer somehow devalues his work if he ever licenses it for low prices. Yet recent years have shown that volume can be as significant a factor as price, and there are numerous other considerations.
If stock photography as a profession is going to survive, we are going to have to find a way to develop a two-tier pricing system. One tier would be for commercial use of images, and the other for personal and small use.
Rick Becker-Leckrone, CEO of Blend Images, is interviewed about his background, the success of Blend Images, and the state of the stock photo industry.
After publishing my article on a Two-Tier Pricing System I’ve had a
series of discussions with several photographers. There seems to be some
general misunderstanding as to why I think such a system is in the best
interest of all photographers regardless of whether they currently
license their work as rights-managed (RM), traditional royalty-free (RF)
or Microstock. Two-Tiers is not just another pricing model. The
whole purpose is so all images can be made available to all customers
at appropriate prices depending on how the customer intends to use the
image.
Photography has a long way to go. Compared to other digitized creative forms, like music, it is light years behind. And, for once, that could be a good thing. Like the youngest brother of a family, it can learned from it’s elders. For once, it has not yet been touch at full impact by the whole free file sharing tsunami that hit music a while back. Certainly the dams are leaking and breaking, but we are no where near what the music industry has experienced.
One of the key things to understand about stock photography is why some customers are willing to pay more than others to use an image.
In response to "Use-Based Pricing: Corbis Moves in Right Direction," Jain Lemos said: "I am not convinced that the rights-managed model should disappear entirely, and promoting that idea too soon could have a negative impact that Corbis and others don't intend. Perhaps rights-managed and [traditional] royalty-free are going away on their own, but they have worked well for many years, and I'd hate to see the baby thrown out with the bath!"
Alamy salesfor the 2009 were $22,864,000, down 27% from 2008. Fourth quarter sales
were down less than 2% compared to the third quarter of 2009 and were
down 14% compared to the fourth quarter 2008. British pound and Euro
sales were up slightly compared to the third quarter of
2009, but U.S. dollar sales were down 12% compared to Q3 2009 and 22% compared to Q4 2008.
In response to "Stock Photo Lottery," Bill Bachmann said: "I don't know where you get the idea that 1% of images are sold are RM. I think you are pulling that figure out of a hat."
Usage-based pricing is not going away; there will always be some demand for exclusive uses, for which customers will be willing to pay significant amounts of money. The question is how much and whether or not it is wise for most photographers to chase these customers.
The photo discussed in this article is an almost perfect stock photo. It's not cutting edge; it's not trendy. It's not hip or cool. wshat it is is a photo that will license again and aagain for years....extending its revenue stream long after its production costs have been recouped. This is a photo with a very long tail.
I was recently asked: "If you were shooting stock (hey, maybe you are...), would you be shooting for rights-managed, royalty-free, microstock or some combination?"
Photographer, Art Director and Editor Sarah Golonka shares with us her knowledge and tips on succeeding in stock photography.
In the near future, the vast majority of professional photographers will be unable to earn enough from producing stock images to offset their cost of production.
There are two ways to approach shooting for the stock photo market. The first is to take images you love and hope that someone will want to pay you for them. The more businesslike approach is to try to determine what customers want, and one thing that is beneficial is that the subject matter in demand has not changed: what customers wanted five, 10 or 20 years ago is still in demand today.