Stock photo services

[iCe]

Another thread made me wonder something. How many people here use a stock photo agency? I don't and I'm starting to wonder if I'm missing something?

[SaundraU]

You forgot a choice: Not yet but am thinking about it

[iCe]

How strange. MY poll is hosed up... it looks like the contest poll has overridden "plain ole" polls

That's what the thread is for Sandra

[PIC]

In Advertising ...
30 years ago ...
it was 95% custom work with High $ image budgets.
Now its 90 % Stock Photos with Low $ image budgets.
Hope this helps you.

[iCe]

Sounds like stock photos are good for business and not so good for the photog...

[Moses on the Street]

Sounds like stock photos are good for business and not so good for the photog.

But, theoretically, don't you have the same ability to sell the same image thousands of time via the internet?

[iCe]

I don't know... I was hoping that we could get a lot of pro/con discussion going...

[josphy]

I've been submitting some photos to the microstock agencies recently. Stuff that would otherwise be sitting on my hard drive doing nothing, so it might as well be bringing in a few pennies here and there. Once in a while when I'm bored, I'll set up some kind of shot on a white background -- like cough syrup pouring into a spoon, for example -- and take several versions of that. Best part is you can submit the same photo to multiple microstock agencies (once you get accepted by them -- some are stricter than others), so even if it doesn't sell well on one site, it may on another. Just my 2 cents.

[Russell]

Hmmm... Let's see.

Before I begin, let me say that my answers refer to more selective stock agencies than the micro-payment agencies typically are.

Pros:

• Offer a way to market your work to clients you may never have access to
• If you have a good collection of images, you can make a decent and steady monthly income
• Makes you learn about trends and what kinds of images sell
• If you are with a good, agreesive agency, they can still find markets willing to pay good money for quality images

Cons

• Unless you have pictures of aliens or Sasquatch, you have to have a TON of quality images on file at the agency to make much money
• Takes time to prepare images and keyword them to the agencies specs.
• Your images are competing against other photographers in the agency for exposure
• Takes a bit of time to keep up with graphic design trends

The stock business takes a lot of images and a lot of variety of images. I think people with a specialty do better than people with general images. Right now the market is flooded with the general imagery that you see in the micro-payment agency sites.

With what I do, I am not getting rich by any means but the checks I do get from the two agencies I work with every month are a nice little addition to the bank account.

In addition to the agencies I deal with, I am also an agency of one. At russellgraves.com, I represent Russell Graves and that stock agency performs better for me than do the other ones.

Good stock photography, in the end, takes research. Learning to spot visual trends and then capitalizing on them with diverse and creative imagery can make you some money if you get accepted by an agency.

I hope that helps.

-Russell

[Russell]

Originally Posted by Moses on the Street

But, theoretically, don't you have the same ability to sell the same image thousands of time via the internet?

The key phrase is theoretically. I am not saying that is isn't possible to sell an image thousands of times through a micropayment agency but how likely is that?

Personally, I'd rather have an image sell once for $1,000 than to let the money trickle in over time from a bunch of sales.

Thanks,

RG

[iCe]

It helps a ton Russell. Mostly reenforcing what I thought. Thanks.

I can see the railroad tracks... but I can't figure out how to get my train on them so I can get moving

[PIC]

Originally Posted by iCe

Sounds like stock photos are good for business and not so good for the photog...

Yes -

From my viewpoint of having been on Madison Ave !

Its like 5 cents on the dollar compared to the old system.
The thought of selling thousands or hundreds or even 10 are a pipe dream w so many images at so many stock photo agency.
The age of common and cheap are not so bad ... just common and cheap.