I just got called a “parasite of the stock industry” and I was told to “wake up”. Well, isn’t that special? I’ll just go back to making my living now…

It’s still hard for me to believe how many bitter feelings are still being held about microstock by those who have been in the stock business for decades. I’m not sure the Rights Managed photobanks will ever forgive it. Microstock strikes a very painful nerve with most rights managed photographers. I can understand where they’re coming from, but it’s been a good 6 years that microstock has been in the limelight. I don’t think rights managed will ever go away totally, but its definitely on the decline. But don’t blame microstock – blame technology and it’s advancement. You can get an 8mp DSLR used for $200 right now in the US. That’s less than the cost of an ipod or iphone, and we all know how many of those are in people’s pockets.

A lot of credit has to be given to those traditional stock shooters that have either embraced microstock, or at least given it some respect and consideration.  Guys like Jack Hollingsworth and John Lund.  Not everyone is a hater, thankfully.  Check out their amazing blogs.

Heck, if I could license all of my work at prices ranging from $100-10,000 per license, I most definitely would.  Unfortunately, I had my start in microstock, and I’ve been playing the “bulk sales” game ever since.  If you’re a rights managed stock photographer and are still maintaining your sales, that’s incredible – keep up the good work.  All the best to you.  I’m not knocking that side of the business at all.

All I’m saying… is that the creative fields change yearly, if not monthly.  If you can’t roll with the punches, and the changes of the market (the same as in any other field) then you’re going to be left behind.  Just because some of us choose to sell micro, doesn’t mean we’re giving stuff away for free.  The prices of microstock are, in many case on the increase.  The price wars will continue to go on between the newer and upcoming agencies.  But you can trust me on this: you will never see my giving my work away for free.  It’s one thing to give stuff away.  We all do it, you almost have to nowadays just to get hits to your website.  Free advice, free tutorials, etc.  It helps one another out, and one hand washes the other as in all things.

Different strokes for different folks, is all I’m saying.  I’m done ranting, time for me to get back to work.  Happy shooting!

Related posts:

1. Microstock – Evil and Devaluing to Photographers?
2. Pricing Your Photography – High or Low?
3. Can You Really Make a Living Selling Microstock Photography?

When it comes to searching for the right stock photos, I know from personal experience as a past image buyer that it can be a huge hassle.  You can many times get lost or even sidetracked very easily when browsing through the ocean of stock photos and graphics.  The sooner you find what you need, the sooner you will get your work done, nailing those time sensitive deadlines.  Searching for stock photos can be pretty annoying if you’re not going about it the right way.  Here are some tips and advice I can offer that might just make your next “hunt” a little more successful, or at least maybe a little less time consuming.

Be Specific
Let’s face it, there is a sea of images out there for royalty free licensing.  You can sometimes search for “cat” and get “dog”.  Unfortunately, image keywords are prone to mistakes, spamming, and more.  You don’t want to have to dig through a sea of crap before finding the types of images you’re looking for.  How can you avoid this?  By being specific.  If you’re looking for a photo of a cat, go as far as describing what breed, color, and even what pose.  You just might be pleasantly surprised in your results.  Don’t be so specific that your search string is more than 5 words long, as you might miss a lot of pretty good results.  But, at the same time you don’t want to use simple one word searches and have to sift through hundreds of pages of images.  An exception to this, of course, would be if you were searching something very rare or a rarely covered subject.

Narrow Results With Additional Secret Words
These words aren’t anything super top-secret, but many image buyers might not be aware of them.  They are widely used by stock photographers.  Try them in your upcoming searches and be blown away by how this trims down your results to a more reasonable size.

isolated: A cut-out image or person object with a solid color background.  These types of images make it easy to pop into solid colored backgrounds or layouts, even easily add or remove negative space.  Be sure to include whichever color you would want it isolated over; ie: black, white, red, etc. Other variation: cutout, cut out

clipping path: sick of making selections to isolate images?  Search for this phrase and find images that have a preset clipping path already embedded in the jpeg.

copy space: Use this when you want images with negative space, or a little bit of room to breath.  Every good deigner knows what negative space is, but not many remember to search with the term copy space. Other variations: copyspace or copy-space

seamless: If you’re looking for a texture that tiles seamlessly as a pattern in any direction, include this one.  Also don’t forget about: seamlessly, tiling, tiles

studio: If you’re looking specifically for photos captured in a studio environment, try this word.

vector: If you want just vectors, use the word.  The word illustration also works, but unless you want a lot of jpeg graphic results included, use vector.

Employ the Special Modifiers
There usually are different modifiers you can check off on each website.  These usually are site specific, but are incredibly helpful.  For instance, let’s say you don’t want to see anything but vector illustrations.  Usually you will have the option to choose only vectors, and this will allow you to avoid having to use the word vector in your keyword search string.  Maybe they opposite is true, and all you want to see are photos – not illustrations.  Then you would do the opposite and tick off the “photos only” box.  Some agencies go even further.  If you searched for the word girl on istockphoto.com, for instance, you could then check off whether you meant: Women (Female), Teenage Girls (Female), Little Girls (Female), or Baby Girls (Female). Many of my personal friends say they don’t even bother with doing that, and they simple keep on scrolling through pages upon pages of stuff before they find what they need.  Why would you want to make it harder on yourself?  Make sure you employ these additional features created to help you out.

Restrict Certain Words
Certain stock agencies (the better search engines) will also allow you to restrict certain words from coming up in the image results.  That has helped me tremendously in the past.  For example, you might want a photo of two brothers playing outdoors.  For this search you could start with the keywords boys and brothers.  If that yields too many results, you could also try adding the word two.  You probably might find a bunch of images that have boys or brothers in them, but also have other children or girls in them.  You will probably also get a bunch of family portraits.  This is when you would restrict words like mother, father, girl, etc to narrow down what you need.

Search For Specific Artists
On most stock photography websites you will also see the artist’s name beside every image with a hyperlink.  Yeah, that’s right – you can click it and see all of that artists specific images.  If you like what you see, or are maybe looking for more images from a similar shoot, many times you can search within that person’s portfolio.  Maybe you like one specific shoot theme that artist has done, but only found a few results from the main site’s search engine.  A lot of times you can find similar shots with different angles or with other different variations by searching through that photographer or artist’s personal portfolio.  You can also search from scratch for a certain artist.  For example, if you search username “arenacreative” you might just find my stuff (shameless self promotion, sorry…)

Change the Search Type
By default, most websites employ results by the newest or most downloaded.  Don’t forget, however, that you are able to easily change that search method.  You can usually sort the results by most views, download, popularity (usually that is a mix of views and download), newest, oldest, or random (if you feel like living dangerously).

Spend Less by Shopping Around
Shop around – don’t just stick to one agency just because it’s the same one you’ve been using for 5 years.  It takes only a minute to register an account on a different agency.  Some websites require a minimum credit package purchase, while others are a better deal by getting a monthly subscription (especially if you need a bulk number of images).  If you’re spending company dollars, you boss will probably appreciate how much you’ve saved for the company by purchase (many times the same) images somewhere else for up to 25-50% less.  Prices and selection vary from agency to agency.  Guess what – most microstock contributors sell their work under the same user name.  If you find an image at Pricier Site A try looking that photographer up at Cheaper Site B and you might just be pleasantly surprised to find it there at a much lower cost.  You might even be able to score an XXL high resolution version for the same price as the medium size price at Pricier Site A.

If at First You Don’t Succeed…
…keep on trying different keyword combinations.  You will find what you’re looking for!  Be persistent and enjoy your “hunt”   There’s nothing like the feeling of finding an incredible image that fulfills the exact idea you had in your head.

Related posts:

1. Learn the Trade – Getting Started Selling Microstock Photography
2. Sometimes Conceptual Stock Images Come Accidentally…
3. Our First Twitter Contest – Win 3 Free Stock Photos or Vectors!

ST. LOUIS (May 26, 2010) – Graphic Leftovers (GL) has launched GL4iPad, the internet’s premier iPad-dedicated stock graphics and images website. With the launch of this site, GL becomes the only stock image resource on the web where iPad users can purchase and download graphics and images directly to their photos folder. iPad users now have an abundant resource for affordable, royalty-free JPEG images for use in their Keynote, Pages and other apps.

In developing the site, GL created features that iPad users will love; right-hand navigation, large high-definition thumbnails, one-click favorite tracking, one-page search results that can be browsed with a flick of the finger and a pay-as-you-go purchase platform. Anyone can access GraphicLeftovers.com to purchase images online, but only iPad users can experience the new GL4iPad site, which includes over 30 free iPad wallpapers.

GL co-founders Kelly Jay and Daniel Errante were able to accomplish the rapid launch of the new GL4iPad site by initially developing GraphicLeftovers.com on an open-source, non-flash platform with a scalable database architecture and search functionality. The creation of this new iPad-only site was a natural evolutionary step forward for GL.

“We create everything on a Mac, we love the brand and are huge fans of the new iPad platform. We knew the development of business productivity apps would create demand for users needing high quality graphics and images,” said Jay.

“We intentionally built GraphicLeftovers.com using leading technologies so we could efficiently evolve the site to work with the exploding mobile market. We kept Graphic Leftovers.com simple and it paid off by using HTML5 and CSS3 for the launch of our new GL4iPad site,” said Errante.

Steve Jobs said it best in his recent open letter “Thoughts on Flash” posted on Apple’s website; “Our motivation is simple – we want to provide the most advanced and innovative platform to our developers, and we want them to stand directly on the shoulders of this platform and create the best apps the world has ever seen.” GL heard Jobs loud and clear and launched the only stock image site for iPad users.

GraphicLeftovers.com is the leading equitable stock image marketplace for both contributors and buyers on the internet. The company is an innovative provider of high quality, royalty-free graphics and images serving creative professionals around the world. With thousands of images added weekly, GraphicLeftovers.com is the only provider of downloadable graphics and images specifically built for Apple’s new iPad.

Related posts:

1. Check out Cushy Stock – Stock Photo Management Software
2. Insider Tips for Better Stock Photography Search Results
3. Sometimes Conceptual Stock Images Come Accidentally…

This is the perfect example of why you should never sell a stock image where you’re doing anything embarrassing.  Here I am, digging for gold, featured at a busy international tradeshow blown up at poster size.  Yeah, my mother would be proud.

Gigabyte, a Taiwan based notebook company, used myself as well as a few others in an ad campaign geared towards their dockable notebooks.  The point was supposed to be that it gets better once you “stick it in” to its dock.  I can’t say that I think it’s the best marketing concept, but I definitely got a huge laugh out of it

When you post an image up for sale that you don’t think will be used, chances are… someone just might find a way!

I still think I had the best technique in the series

Related posts:

1. Where do my stock photos end up getting used?
2. The Miz Photoshop Tutorial Series – Photoshoptic Surgery

Shortly after we’ve seen Bigstock and 123rf redesign their websites, here is the next one to do a little bit of “spring cleaning”, so to speak.  It’s very clean, and much improved.  I didn’t have anything against the older logo, but that has been updated as well. Upward and onward!

Related posts:

1. My New Portfolio Site
2. New Blog – So Fresh and So Clean

Over 150,000 images licensed in a little over 4 years in microstock.  Holy crap…

I was definitely taken by surprise with this statistic.  I only wish each one of those images sold for $30 each instead of 30 cents – Haha! I don’t even know what the total size of my portfolio is right now, so that’s the next thing I’ll have to figure out.

Want to know how many images I’ve found in use?  Ha, probably only around 100.

Alright; you got me.  Let me be totally honest with you.  As of today, I’ve only sold 149,110 images.  But close enough… I know I must have missed a bunch somewhere, on some random site I’m forgetting to record.  In another week or so it should be there It’s fun running business related stats once in a while, and you’re going to be surprised with the results, almost always.  Give it a shot with your own accounts, if you sell stock.  I think you just might be pleasantly surprised!

Related posts:

1. Sometimes Conceptual Stock Images Come Accidentally…
2. Pricing Images Between Multiple Agencies
3. Insider Tips for Better Stock Photography Search Results

Aaron Goodman is the man. I’m blown away by his stuff. He knows his gear, his lighting, and (even more importantly) his Photoshop; and he’s not afraid to use all of these skills in unison. His concepts are mind blowingly creative – enough to knock your socks off. Some of them are so simple, yet effective, that you think to yourself, “gee why didn’t I think of that?”.  The SAT’s with the pencil girl is one of my favorites. I want to try and think of more of these types of conceptual images, to add to my stock photography portfolio; as long as I can afford to spend the amount of time on them that they will obviously need. In the past I’ve spent hours and hours on images that have a very low return, so obviously when it comes to selling images like these through microstock outlets, you have to use your own good judgement and planning.

Read more in this excellent article by AfterCapture magazine here.  All images Copyright © Aaron Goodman.

Related posts:

1. Daily Creative Inspiration
2. Daily Design Inspiration – David Carson
3. Sometimes Conceptual Stock Images Come Accidentally…

I hear this a lot from those looking into microstock to earn a full time living.  Questions like this come up frequently on microstock forums.  How many images will I need?  What can I make hourly?  Is building up a sizable microstock portfolio even worth the effort?

Now this article is not an article just to try and discourage people from giving it a shot, or attempting to discourage breeding my own new competition.  There are bazillion other blogs online where you can learn “How to make a living selling stock photography” and obviously there are already hundreds of thousands of contributors worldwide.  No one stock photographer or illustrator is alike, considering that everyone has their own style, their own work ethic, their own methods – to each his own.  Who am I to give my opinion?  I’m nobody special, just your average creatively minded computer geek.  I have been making a full time living for 2 solid years now.   My 2 years full time was built upon 2.5 prior years selling stock part time (approx 5-10 hrs a week) while working full time at a graphic design dayjob; the field I actually have my BA in.  So I’ve been in this stock business a solid 4.5 years… that’s not a very long time, but then again this biz is still very young.  4.5 years isn’t much less time than some of the top selling microstockers, either (ie: Yuri Arcurs and Andres Rodriguez to name a few of the top dogs).  In this short period of time, I’ve first handedly learned and experienced more in this business than I can even put into words in a Tuesday morning blog post.  With just a little over 5000 stock images, I still just consider myself a small fish in a big pond.

Here is my take on getting started in the business – straight up, no chaser.

If you’re just starting out right now… in 2010, I honestly think you’re going to need a prayer to initiate your momentum and to start earning enough images to make a living. I started back in late 05, early 06 – I was paying my mortgage by mid 07 and then went all out full time with the loss of my full time dayjob in mid 2008. If I waited until now, and transitioned from part time in stock to full time, I don’t think that I would make it. Things were much different back then, too.  It was much less difficult to get images approved (if you can’t get past that hurdle, you aren’t going to be able to sell them obviously) and it was much easier to get lots of downloads on simple subjects. It seems like every few years in stock it’s more of an uphill battle. In 06 you could submit a pile of crap, and still sell it like hotcakes. Technically imperfect photos, even. Now you’d better have your skills sharp and be able to hang with the rest of your competition just to get sales.

If you consider yourself an amateur and just want to make $100 a month just uploading a couple of new images each week, sure that’s definitely possible. If you’re looking to make $1000+ a month on a newer portfolio, you’re going to need to have a long road ahead of you, unless your work fills some sort of crazy un-touched niche with high commercial demand. Can you live off $1000 a month? Maybe if you live in India or Asia.  I wish I could.  In the US that won’t even pay the average mortgage or rent for the month.

Saying you want to sell stock is one thing – doing it and actually continually maintaining momentum in it is another. Putting up with the submission process, keywording, uploading (all the tedious parts) is another thing that stops 99% of people in their tracks. They realize all of the work in it, and are either too lazy or just get discouraged from lack of sales.  When it comes to stock – you either “get it”, or you just don’t. Some grasp at straws taking pics of churches, shooting fruit over white or zoo animals all day, while others create useful, commercial imagery. This is going to be the largest hurdle for most contributors, used to producing nice prints for their living room walls.

So here is what you need to make it:

- Self motivation (Are you a motivated self-starter? Can you stay on task without getting distracted while working alone from home? If not you might as well not even bother with microstock)
– Creativity… enough to choke a cow
– Business sense!  At least as much if not more than creativity
– Quality gear to accomplish whatever it is you’re shooting the most, I’d say an initial investment of $2000-4000 at minimum to cover most of your bases – computers/cameras/lenses/studio gear (don’t even waste your time with consumer point and shoots, unless you like getting over 50% of your images rejected for technical quality)
– Technical skills both in camera and off (Photoshop knowledge can make or break you in this business. If you’re lacking, you’d better hit the books or don’t bother uploading at all)
– Tons of regular uploads.  Take whatever you think is a lot to produce each week, and add 50 to that number.
– Good keywording skills (something that takes a lot of time to develop, for most)
– Ability to set and reach hourly / daily / monthly / yearly goals
– Lots of quality and variety
– Quantity quantity quantity in addition to high quality (a portfolio of 3000 images is the “new” 1000 – but 3000 crap images has the sales potential as a portfolio of 300 excellent ones)
– Patience, persistence, and a backup income before you get the stock ball rolling

Us full time microstockers are in the minority – I’d estimate there are probably under 500 in the world. Who knows?  I wish I knew the actual figures, but that would be a tricky statistic to pin down.  I’m not talking RM/ traditional stock sellers, but those that are strictly making their income with microstock, exclusively, whether they are working for one agency and an exclusive artist or they are using multiple agencies to sell their work.  We are a rare breed, and a lot of us are probably crazy for even attempting this feat   One thing you can’t expect from this business is to get rich off of it.  Gone are the days of making money from the snapshots laying around on your hard drive (heck, I myself even claimed that back in 2006 – because that was truly the case back then – but not anymore).   If you’re the type of individual that wants to earn a higher than average income, then you’re definitely barking up the wrong tree here.  It’s taken the seasoned pros years just to develop a portfolio strong enough, large enough, and good enough to consistently earn them a steady monthly income.  Don’t expect for this to be a quickly profitable start-up business without any sacrifice or years of “paying your dues”.

If you’re going to attempt this, you need to treat it like a start-up business.  40-60 hrs a week, working diligently and taking a stab at it.  After a few months you should then evaluate your time & cost vs earnings ration.  Time is money, so if you are seeing a decent return for all of your hard work right off the bat, then there is your answer whether or not you might be able to make it as a full time microstock contributor.  Otherwise, you might conclude that stock is a rainy day side hobby to dabble in whenever you’re bored or needing some extra cash for new gear or to take your wife out to dinner.  If you haven’t noticed, I don’t blog super regularly.  My blogging is highly intermittent.  I’m sorry, that’s just pretty much due to the fact that I’m too busy working, as a one-man operation.  I limit myself to a 40 hour work week, because money isn’t everything to me.  I work to live; I don’t live to work.  When you work for yourself you have to limit yourself; unless of course you want to be a burnt out workaholic that doesn’t have a happy family, spiritual, or any type of other life. I digress.

Do you already consider yourself a pro photographer, because you’re making a living in the wedding or portrait business?  Sorry to burst your bubble, but micro is an entirely different animal.  Please try not to go into it thinking you’re going to be all set and that it’s going to be a piece of cake for you, just because you’ve been a seasoned pro photog for years and years.  I’ve heard many stories of this happening.  You’re still going to have just as much learning curve as the amateurs will, just as any of us did back when we started.  The harsh reality of the nazi-ish microstock quality standards are enough to turn even the best of photographers away from this business.

Timing is everything, so I can understand why there are so many blog posts online explaining how the ship as sailed to be able to have a full time microstock living.  I respectfully disagree with that for those microstock contributors who already have their foot in the door with a large collection of images, established and already selling.  Given the continual move of buyers away from RM and more to budget RF images, as well as the continual movement towards digital media of all types in our daily lives.  If you are currently sell microstock part or full time, and are making a decent living, consider yourself a rare breed.  I wish everyone success in whatever creative field you’re involved in, and hope that my honest evaluation of the business in this article has helped those considering microstock as a career choice.  I’m tired of all of the nay-sayers and doom and gloom discussed about this business.  Remember too that there are a thousand ways to make a living in any creative field; it just depends what you want to set your mind to, and focus on in your own business.  If the microstock market tanks and us full time contributors can’t continue getting by, being forced to explore other avenues of income, then it is what it is.  Only time will tell.  In the meantime, happy selling!

Related posts:

1. Learn the Trade – Getting Started Selling Microstock Photography
2. Microstock – Evil and Devaluing to Photographers?
3. Pricing Your Photography – High or Low?

Getty just put the axe on Stockxpert.com

We’ve heard that Stockxpert was a slowly sinking ship, but this week it has finally sunk.  It all began when stock image giant Getty recently bought out Jupiter, who had recently acquired Stockxpert from Haap Media, a Hungarian based company that owned both StockXchange as well as StockXpert.  It’s like a big square dance in this business… swing your parter round and round, with all of the buyouts.  It was announced a few days back that StockXpert will be no more.  What does this mean for stock contributors?  Well it means some of our images (not all) are now going to be listed on the new subscription based site Thinkstock.com and whatever revenues we were making at StockXpert are basically history.  Can we say pay cut?

I really don’t understand this move, killing a well established brand such as Stockxpert.  What does this mean for stock photo contributors? All we can hope is that the existing Stockxpert buyers move to the other agencies, and that the sales balance out.  Stockxpert was about 8% (a pretty big chunk of change) of my total microstock income, and that’s now gone.  Never a dull moment in the stock photography world! What irks me is that Stockxpert had around 4300 of my images, where istock has just under 600.  This is due to their higher rejection rates, and the fact that I can only submit 20 new images each week as a non-exclusive contributor.  The pressure to go exclusive is ever-increasing.  This is the exact reason why you shouldn’t put all of your eggs in any one basket in this biz.

Related posts:

1. Microstock – Evil and Devaluing to Photographers?

That’s a question a lot of stock photographers and illustrators ask themselves.  People ask me how my images get used, and I usually just say, “in advertising and marketing materials”, just to keep myself from babbling and boring them with a long story (like I’m known to do with my flapping jabber jaw).  It’s even tough to explain to a normal person what a graphic designer does, and somehow people still end up thinking its CAD or something totally unrelated like that.

Anyways, back when I was a traditional graphic designer, I would horde as many stock images as I could whenever I had a stock photo subscription somewhere such as Photos.com or Shutterstock. That way, anything I had a feeling I might be able to use in the future I would be able to save on my hard drive and then use at a later date. This is something that happens a lot; so basically if you sell stock images, a lot of them are probably laying dormant somewhere on an image buyer’s hard drive. When you have a design position you begin to get a feel for which image themes and what type of imagery you go through the most, and obviously you can’t keep on using the same pics over and over again (unless you want to be a boring designer). I worked at a company that went through tons of sports, fitness, and medical related images in the custom magazines we produced for our clients.  I honestly think at least half of my image sales aren’t ever even used – but who knows?

How can you find some of the images you sell in use? Go to amazon and search for your name or username/that you go by on the micros. Also try google book search in addition to plain old google. Lots of books online even have previews, and sure enough you will find your name credited in at least a couple if some of your images were used. Here are some recent finds my wife and I discovered.

Our beagle is pretty famous (he earns his Pedigree dog food, that’s for sure).  Try searching for your own images if you haven’t already, and start a collection of tear sheets. You will only find a small random percentage of images actually in use, because obviously not everyone will credit your name in searchable text in each instance of use.  If you don’t sell stock, but you do buy it – make a microstocker’s day by emailing them a link, or dropping them an email about how you were able to use their image!  It only takes a minute, and you will no doubt put a huge smile on their face

Related posts:

1. Sometimes Conceptual Stock Images Come Accidentally…
2. Our First Twitter Contest – Win 3 Free Stock Photos or Vectors!
3. Question from a Reader – Stock with Commercial Value

What Should I Shoot? That right there is the million dollar question.  Even seasoned stock contributors find themselves asking this at times.  The world of stock is a mindset, and even once you’re in it, it’s easy to get to the point where you wonder, “Okay, what should I try and shoot now”?  If you really struggle with coming up with ideas on what to shoot, then you need to start opening your eyes to the world around you.  I don’t care where you are, what you’re looking at right now – inspiration can be smack dab in the front of your fat head.  Sometimes it’s there and we don’t even realize it.  Open your eyes, and don’t just see, but try to truly observe.  Reflecting on the who what, when, where, why, and how of everything around you is an easy way to come up with stock concepts.  Try to write things down when you think of them.  This applies in the graphic design world, as well.  Rip out that cool magazine ad you saw in the latest issue of your wife’s Elle magazine (I wasn’t looking at it, I swear…I was just sitting next to her on the couch at the time).  Save that piece of junk mail with the interesting modeling pose.  I tend to note things a lot, but I forget to follow through.  Make a little notebook or scrapbook of the things you’d like to try, the things that look are cool, and the things you think would appeal to a buyer, especially.

Getting Organized One of the toughest parts about stock photography is all the organization that goes into planning and properly executing a shoot of any given topic.  It’s a lot of work and effort.  Sure, there are times you might wing it and come up with a nice variety of different themes, but if I find that if I’m always trying to “wing it” my time isn’t used the most effectively.  If you’re going to be shooting models, you need to orchestrate the entire shoot with them.  Then, you need to decide on a location, wardrobe (what to tell them to wear) props, ideas and themes to try.  You want to make the shoot effective for the short amount of time you’ll be working together, for me it’s usually 1-2 hours tops.  Making sure you have your model release ready for them to sign, and not forgetting to have them actually sign them is even a chore.  Then there is the scanning and uploading of the releases to each and every agency you’re submitting those images to.

Shooting Subjects That Can’t Talk Back If you want to shoot food there is the purchasing of the ingredients, the prep and cooking time, the presentation of it all on the plate and table setting.  Food could sometimes be easier to work with than models, depending on the model.  Sometimes models can decide to cancel last minute, then what do you do with your time slot?  It’s very similar to any other business where you have to make appointments for your clientele, such as dentistry or a beauty salon.  There also is no “extra work” later on when shooting subjects other than people.  You don’t even have to edit the entire shoot unless you want to, and there is no mailing of a disk required.  You save on your time and money shipping a disk out to them.  Maybe you’re not interested in food. Well, maybe you could shoot other objects over white. Please don’t bother with apples, unless it’s done in a truly creative way.  Stock sites’ reviewers have seen enough of those and they’re be extra eager to slap that “reject” button as quick and hard as they possibly can.

Motivation This is the part where you come in. If you can’t get yourself motivated, nothing creative is ever going to happen.  Working from home, and being your own boss, can especially be challenging.  Maybe there isn’t a boss looking over your shoulder, and asking you whether or not you’re going to make the deadline.  You need to make your own deadlines for yourself.  Without having weekly, daily, even hourly goals, your time is going to be wasted.  I’m living it right now – some days I spend way too much time doing social networking on twitter or facebook.  Other days I spend too much time editing older, similar images that probably should have just been backed up and tucked away.  If you are having a rough time staying on task, don’t think you’re the only one.  Stay tuned, as one of my future posts here will address this topic.  There are things you can do to minimize distractions, and stick to your workflow.  Speaking of which, I think it’s time for me to stop blogging and start keywording my images!

Related posts:

1. Question from a Reader – Stock with Commercial Value
2. Separating Your Creativity from STOCK
3. Check out Cushy Stock – Stock Photo Management Software

In 2008, a new microstock agency popped up that caught a lot of our attention.  The site’s design was so simple, yet visually pleasing and easy to navigate.  Even the back end for contributors was designed for speed and ease of use.  I’ve been personally selling my images from them from the start, and recently I had an opportunity to interview the team.  I’m sure many will be interested in getting some insight from Yay Micro coming directly from it’s founders and employees.

To give some background information about Yay Micro, they are located in Oslo, Norway.  The company was founded by Jan Ole Kjellesvig, Linda Johannessen and Roger Bystrøm, all former employees at Scandinavia’s largest image agency Scanpix. In January 2009 Oddbjørn Sjøgren replaced Bystrøm as CTO. YAY Micro aims to be the best creative and editorial microstock agency in terms of low price, high quality, a good reputation and a high customer and contributor satisfaction rate. Yay Micro’s vision is to be a leading digital content provider.

Todd: Hey guys!  To start things off, besides Jan, Linda and Bjorn, how many others make up the Yay Micro team?

Yay Micro: The core team in Norway is Jan, Bjørn and myself, Linda. In addition, we have a Chinese office run by Martin and Tormod. People from the China Office are responsible for most of our routine tasks, while the Norwegian office mainly focuses on strategy, sales & marketing as well as system development. When needed we have additional people working for us in Norway, as well as China.

Todd: I’d like to say that Yay is definitely one of the easiest sites to navigate as both a buyer, and a seller.  Was this your original plan, and what did you learn from your experiences in the business prior to opening Yay?

Yay Micro: We get a lot of positive feedback on our design/usability! When we began we knew we had to make the upload process easy for photographers to give us a chance. We got great feedback from the first photographers, and based on this we adjusted the upload process to best suit photographer needs.  The same is true for customers – when we get customer feedback on difficulties we try to adjust our site. In addition, we have a strong interest in usability and clean design. The goal for YAY is that our website is easy to use –for newbees to online shopping, but also for the hyperactive web-user with low, or no, patience. By tracking all movement on the site we’re able to identify problems, and we have several major improvements planned for the next couple of months. (Both for customers and photographers).

Todd: Where do you think you see the stock photography business heading in general, in the next 5-10 years?

Yay Micro: We’re still in the middle of the industry settling into the paradigm shift of the digital era – with the Internet, more affordable, high quality digital cameras and user generated content, growth of RF-licensing and the lack of national boundaries for image agencies.

We can all agree that the largest change for the stock photography industry lately has been the growth of Microstock agencies. And, in the financial climate we have today, with focus on cutting cost in almost all industries, we believe Microstock will continue to grow and dominate the stock photo industry. We also see a future were news and celebrity images, together with microstock, will be the core business for the large stock companies, such as Getty.

For microstock companies I think we’ll see more of footage and audio, as well as other digital content. Some agencies will try to take the place of the traditional stock – as we already see – by making parts of their images more exclusive and sell for a higher price, or they’ll aim for a “midstock” price level. Others will keep true to the original microstock business model with extremely low prices for high quality images.  Nonetheless, there will always be a market for original, quality photos – and these will still manage to get a high price.

Todd: Do you think this low-price model will last, or will the general increase in photo quality and artistry lead to an uprising of the value of the images?

Yay Micro: As mentioned in the previous question, we think some of the microstock agencies will find their place in the low-price range, and others will try to raise their prices, with exclusive or “editors choice”-collections, and also by changing the size/price equation. We don’t expect the increase in technical quality to raise the prices; mostly the customers value the images in numbers (1 image) and the object/content of the photo.  Wasn’t it Yuri who experienced that an upgrade of his photo equipment did not increase his revenue proportionally?

At YAY we don’t have any plans for increased prices.

Todd: With so many microstocks in the industry, a lot of us are pulling for Yay Micro to succeed.  How do you think that Yay will be able to hang with the big boys, so to speak?

Yay Micro: Thank you, we really appreciate all the support we get from both contributors and customers!

We have been a slow, but steady growing company. Too slow some might think, but I like to think of it as the fable “The Tortoise and the Hare”.  We are building a quality company from scratch, and by working long and hard we’ll catch up, and pass, most of our competition.

We try to be an easy to use-site, with a high level of customer support and friendliness. We aim to reach customers looking for an “easy to use”-site, as we see our competitors making it more and more “crowded” at their sites. In addition, we plan to locally adapt the YAY-site to different under-served markets around the world. First of is China, and more will follow in 2010.

It’s important to remember that the stock image market is growing, both from new image users, with converted users from traditional stock agencies and new image markets.  Therefore we don’t have to solely rely on competing for the same customers.

Todd: Why should someone buy from Yay, over another major microstock site that they might already be comfortable with?  What makes Yay Micro stand out from the rest?

Yay Micro: We’re easier to use – and you’ll quickly get comfortable using the site. We have a low price, both for small images €1( = $1.5) and high-res files €10 (= $15.). With our subscription deals you can get a high-res images for as low as €1 (=$1.5).

You’ll also experience a high level of customer support and feedback on your inquiries. And – we pay a fair commission to our photographers and illustrators, with 50% on single image sales and €1 for each image subscription download.

Todd: Are there any current buying trends that perhaps have surprised you?

Yay Micro: Not any in particular. We don’t sell as many vector graphics as we’d thought we would. Given the great quality and variety we’re a bit surprised by this.

Todd: Is the YAY Micro team working on targeting selective world markets at the moment, for example just North America or Europe and Asia?  Or are you trying to expand sales worldwide?

Yay Micro: We began with mainly targeting Norway to gain some experience in a familiar market and with familiar customers. Then we began targeting “the world” in general. In the future we plan to target China, followed by other Asian countries such as India.

Todd: Microstock contributors whether hobbyists or even full-timers are extremely busy people.  The average microstocker probably submits to at least 5-10 different agencies, so their workload is already pretty full.  What would you say to convince a microstock contributor to market their work through Yay?

Yay Micro: The main reasons to join YAY would be the easy of upload, the high commission – and being with a growing company from the start. We also have a forum with some nice photographers, and we try to be an overall good, friendly company. When your business model is based on user generated content it’s important to want, and to have a good relationship with your users. We might not be the biggest or the highest earner, but we’ll do our very best to be a great company to do business with!

Todd: Who is currently the top selling contributor at Yay Micro?

Yay Micro: I don’t have the numbers here with me, but I would guess it would be one of the professional contributors with many files and who has been with us from the start.

Todd: I’d like to thank you for agreeing to do an interview.  I wish Yay Micro all the best and lots of future growth for years to come.

Yay Micro: Thank you for showing an interest in YAY.  If anyone reading this has  a comment or a question, feel free to contact us at post@yaymicro.com, or e-mail one of us directly on: Linda@yaymicro.com, Bjorn@yaymicro.com and Jan@yaymicro.com. If there are any questions in the comments we’ll try our best to answer!

Follow YAY Micro on twitter @Yaymicro or become a fan on facebook

Related posts:

1. Learn the Trade – Getting Started Selling Microstock Photography
2. Starting Out in Microstock – Quick Start Guide & FAQ
3. Microstock – Evil and Devaluing to Photographers?

Shutterstock now guarantees its entire library of more than 8.5 million images and 140,000 footage clips.

New York, NY (PRWEB) October 20, 2009 — Shutterstock, the world’s largest subscription-based stock photoagency, announced today that it will legally guarantee every file inits vast library by providing up to $10,000 to cover legal costs and direct damages for claims arising from the use of an image or footage clip licensed through Shutterstock.

Thanks to Shutterstock’s thorough and selective review process, the agency has become a global leader in providing affordable, high quality images that comply with the highest legal and ethical standards in the industry.

Shutterstock has now gone a step further by covering key areas of liability, including copyrights, trademarks and rights of privacy and publicity. Under the new plan, which begins today, every file in Shutterstock’s expansive library – which consists of more than 8.5million images and 140,000 footage clips – will be guaranteed.

“We’ve become an industry leader by earning the trust of stock imageand footage buyers worldwide,” said Jon Oringer, CEO and founder of Shutterstock. “Although claims involving our content are extremely rare, we wanted to give our customers an even higher level of comfort by providing up to $10,000 in indemnification.”

Shutterstock’s protection plan, along with its uncompromising commitment to the integrity and quality of its images, solidifies the company’s reputation as a trusted resource for image and footage buyers worldwide.  Please see Shutterstock’s Terms of Service for complete details.

About Shutterstock®

Founded in 2003, Shutterstock is the largest subscription-based stockphoto agency in the world. Its outstanding collection of premium photos, illustrations, and vectors combined with a selection of innovative, user-friendly subscription plans has made Shutterstock a trusted resource for an expanding global customer base. An industrypioneer in selling royalty-free stock by subscription, Shutterstock was also the first online photo agency to offer editorial photos and launch a video library. Shutterstock Footage offers a comprehensive library ofroyalty-free video clips available on a per-clip basis or by subscription. For more information, visit Shutterstock.com.

Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/image/indemnification/prweb3071764.htm

I find this very interesting.  Which agency will do this next?  Recently istock made a similar claim, just after Vivo zoom tried to claim the legal aspect their main difference from the rest of the micros.  Will this mean tighter standards on grey area photos for photographers?  It’s definitely a great idea, as long as it doesn’t push the limits so far that we need to submit releases for things shot in a generic manner.  Is it worth even trying to shoot architecture or automobiles for stock anymore?  I’ve given up in those departments.  The way things are moving, contributors are probably all better off keeping stock as generic as can be, unless you can cover yourself with enough signed releases to choke a cow.

Related posts:

1. Sometimes Conceptual Stock Images Come Accidentally…
2. Over 150,000 Images Licensed
3. Pricing Images Between Multiple Agencies

Related posts:

1. Microstock – Evil and Devaluing to Photographers?
2. Starting Out in Microstock – Quick Start Guide & FAQ
3. Pricing Images Between Multiple Agencies

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I don’t have many images that I say, “Hey, I want to print that really big and frame it – slap it on my living room wall.”  I was talking to a close friend this weekend, and said to me plainly, “That’s because you see dollar signs every time you shoot.  You’re looking too much for stock, and missing out on the rest of the world.”  You know what?  He’s right.  I need to start taking time to shoot my own personal artsy/fartsy stuff in addition to my normal backgrounds/textures/model shoots.  My friend Tim can spot things that are dying to be captured.  I give him a lot of credit, he just shoots strangers in the streets and takes their dirty or confused looks, if they even give him any.  Maybe once I can get over that fear, I can start to capture some cool street-photography style stuff that I would normally pass by. Sometimes I also reason to myself, “No, I won’t take that shot – I don’t have a model release for that person, so I can’t sell it as stock anyway.”  That’s probably my main problem. 

Check out more of Tim’s work here – http://www.pbase.com/tsla1124 He is an amazing photographer with a strength in travel, editorial, and lifestyle images. Tim is a busy guy – he has a lot of great images that would even sell great as stock – but no time to sell stock.  If you’re interested in purchasing licenses for any of his images for use in stock or prints, by all means tsla1124 AT gmail.com

He has photography from Italy, Greece, Panama, San Blas Islands, Mexico, Bost, New York City, and more. 

All images Copyright © Tim Sala 2009

All images Copyright © Tim Sala 2009

All images Copyright © Tim Sala 2009

All images Copyright © Tim Sala 2009

All images Copyright © Tim Sala 2009

All images Copyright © Tim Sala 2009

All images Copyright © Tim Sala 2009

Related posts:

1. Shooting Stock Is No Cakewalk
2. Sometimes Conceptual Stock Images Come Accidentally…
3. Question from a Reader – Stock with Commercial Value

Recently I read a story on a forum about how someone noted an artist selling a print (a copy of the print) for a very large price.  He then examined the fact that he was selling his own work at a fraction of that price, and began to wonder.  Public galleries are definitely a way you can market your photos, if you want to do all of the work.  Make the prints up, book a gallery, spend time promoting the heck out of the event, hire a caterer.  In the end, how much are you really making?  You can’t make gallery sales all over the world, any time of day or night – even while you’re asleep. Sure, there are buyers for that type of thing – prints, or even RM licenses. 

Just the fact that a product is priced higher, many times that will make it more desirable to a potential buyer.  Sometimes when products cost more, people think they’re getting a superior product or service when in actuality they might be getting the same thing Joe Smith down the street sells at 1/10th of the cost. 

Is this luxury sports coupe any more functional or reliable than a car that costs half the price?  Sometimes expensive sportscars like these even share the same exact engines as other “economy” cars, but at a much higher cost.

In the end, you can’t look at microstock as 38 cents here, 50 cents there.  You need to look at your income as a whole.  People moan about how they don’t want to sell EL’s just to get $20-$30 after their cut.  Some feel they are giving away too much.  Someone buys an enhance license, slaps it on a T shirt or a large print run of a book cover, and makes thousands while the artist is left with a measly $20-30.  This is how I see it.  If I sell 5-10 a month there’s my electricity and phone bill paid for.   I look at any type of sales as progress, or earnings toward my gross combined sales.

I personally look at Alamy as my “gallery” site.  Every few months I might make a larger sale or two and that, to me, equates to the same thing as taking the time to set up a gallery exhibition to market my work at a higher price.  What it all comes down to, is are you able to create images that buyers need in this market?  If not, you might want to corner another segment of this huge creative market.  Stock is a very small part of the big picture.  Some can do it full time, others like the extra side income, and then others just want to keep it as a hobby.  There’s nothing wrong with that at all, whatsoever.  Some hobbyists might take home more in revenues than those that exhibit their artwork in public galleries constantly.  Someone else might make money in their gallery sales selling 10 images a year than someone with thousands of images on a microstock site could take home.

In the end, which is the best route?  That is for you to decide.  If you don’t take a chance, then you’ll never know.  Test the waters!

Have any experiences with marketing your own work in different ways that you’d like to share?  Successes?  Failures?  We’d all love to hear them – feel free to post your comments.

Related posts:

1. Can You Really Make a Living Selling Microstock Photography?
2. Pricing Images Between Multiple Agencies
3. Microstock – Evil and Devaluing to Photographers?

I just feel like ranting this fine morning.

Has microstock devalued the industry? Sure it has. What once was a $500 photo sale has now turned into a $5 or even 50 cent photo sale.  But in general, the internet as well as digital photography have devalued the industry.  There are even websites being set up where people are posting links to our images, to download for free. One idiot buys them, and then shares them with the rest of the dishonest people that actually take part in the plundering and looting.  There’s really no stopping it, either.  There are contributors that can live comfortably off of a microstock income in many countries around the world.  Do you think these ones give a crap about devaluing the stock industry? Definitely not; they’re probably making a better living than they ever could before.

Traditional and old school photographers can sit around and whine about how much it sucks, or they can adapt to market trends.  Or, stay out of stock altogether.  Sure there’s still a market for macro stock, mid-stock, and rights managed. I personally dabble in a little of each.  Yes it’s nice when I make a photo sale for $400, but honestly if I relied just on those types of sales I wouldn’t be making enough to pay the bills.  Those sales for myself are few and far in between, compared to microstock sales, which are steady and in general, pretty reliable. Overall, the numbers for the rights managed and macro stocks are on the decline.  Getty was smart to acquire istockphoto (and they even recently bought stockxpert from Jupiter) so obviously they are trying to gain back their market share whatever ways possible.

Stock is only just one tiny corner of this incredible industry.  I started as a graphic designer, and even in that field it’s the same way.  You can focus on all sorts of corners of the creative industry…just pick one you enjoy doing the most, and obviously one you can pay the bills with.  If you can juggle a variety of things without trying to heat 6 pans on 4 burners, then go for it.  There are a lot of ways to make money in this business.  We can’t change how the market is, but we can fortunately pick and choose which areas we want to try and compete in.

It never ceases to amaze me…lately whenever I’m traveling every soccer mom, teenager, and senior citizen is rocking a DSLR of some sort.  If not a DSLR, then a state of the art point and shoot.  The technology is here, and it’s getting cheaper.  It’s so available, there is going to be a lot of competition in the future.  Thankfully for us there is a heck of a lot more to know in this business than just buying a camera and pressing the shutter.  BUT then comes the internet and google…where you can learn anything you want in a matter of minutes.  Maybe we’re all screwed

How long do you personally feel this microstock wave will last? A lot changes have happened in this business.  Agencies have come and gone, and there have been some buyouts and mergers.  I’ve been selling microstock for just 4 years now, and there have been changes galore.  The question is…how long will this microstock wave last? Will it continue the way it is for years to come, or will it eventually get to the point where it’s not even worth the time?  What do you guys think?  If anyone is reading this – I’d love to hear your predictions.

Related posts:

1. Learn the Trade – Getting Started Selling Microstock Photography
2. Can You Really Make a Living Selling Microstock Photography?
3. Pricing Your Photography – High or Low?

I was in NYC walking downcanal street (chinatown) back when I was about 20 years old, with a bunch of my friends one afternoon. My friend Paul is a crazy guy, and I told him, “Quick – Go and chase that pigeon over there!” When he took off running, I snapped the shot with my Vivitar point and shoot, and this was the result

Sometimes you get a conceptual image by accident…this one could portray escape, stress, fear, moving away, luncacy – you be the judge!  A little bit of photoshop, a little zoom blur and color isolation, and this was the final result.  An abstract motion blur of a guy running away while flailing his arms around.

Feel free to share your own “accidental conceptual” images here – just post a comment below with a link.

Related posts:

1. Where do my stock photos end up getting used?
2. Over 150,000 Images Licensed
3. Shooting Stock Is No Cakewalk

So, you wonder if you can make any money selling your images online.  I wondered the same thing, back when I was a full time graphic designer.  I was purchasing hundreds of stock photos for use in my designs. Then I thought, “Hey – why can’t I sell my own photos?”. Professional stock photo collections can cost anywhere from $200-$500 per disc, with single shots costing anywhere from $80-$200 themselves. It’s thrilling to find places online where you can purchase high-res, professional quality images at a fraction of that price. In the past 5 or 6 years there has been a boom in the microstock photography and royalty free stock footage business.

Which stock photo agencies are worthwhile?
Trying to see which site sells more images than the next is tricky.  There are a lot of elements involved, and it seems like sales figures fluctuate from month to month amongst the micro sites.  Factors like portfolio size, photo types, site search engines, and even categorization all play a part.  All I can do is give you my best sites – the ones that I personally think are worth my time to upload to. Below are the links to my top-selling sites – sign up, and try them out. Then you can make your own conclusions.

Shutterstock

iStockPhoto

BigStockPhoto

Dreamstime

StockXpert

Fotolia

123 Royalty Free

CanStockPhoto

Featurepics

Crestock

PantherMedia

MostPhotos

Veer Marketplace

Alamy

YAYmicro

ScanStockPhoto

Cutcaster

GraphicLeftovers.com

Everyone creates different types of art, and some of it is very marketable.  Some has high commercial value, while a lot does not.  It might look great, and you might want to make a print of it for your grandmother, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to make enough money to make a living.  How do you know how well you’ll do?  You have to try it for yourself.  Then make your own conclusions. This is definitely not a get rich quick scheme.  You will “get back” out of stock photography, what you “put into it”.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog at the upper right of this page. If you are interested in one-on-one consulting regarding your microstock efforts, contact me for further info. 

Related posts:

1. Microstock – Evil and Devaluing to Photographers?
2. Can You Really Make a Living Selling Microstock Photography?
3. Starting Out in Microstock – Quick Start Guide & FAQ

Question:

“Okay, so I am really trying to improve my stock photography because I have been uploading many images which some get accepted but very few sell because they aren’t really marketing type photos. I know you have had success with stock and was wondering if maybe we could collaborate on a stock shoot or something so I can get a better feel how you approach stock photography. I really want to be a full time photographer and having a good arsenal of stock photos helps keep the income stream going…”
-Anonymous

I feel your pain.  This is something a lot of people express when starting out.  Stock is a mindset, and it’s really tough for a lot of photographers to sometimes grasp.  I know what you’re saying – the glamor shots and general portraits that everyone loves at places like modelmayhem.com, don’t always sell that well for stock.  They’re still fun to shoot, but that is besides the point.  Try to think of themes; get ideas from magazine ads, tv commercials, any wherever else you can find inspiration.  Look around at other people’s work online for inspiration, but don’t copy.  It’s not hard to put your own spin on things.  That also, in turn, gives you an advantage by having images that are more unique, instead of the same old cookie cutter stuff.  People doing things, different expressions on their faces, you have to just think like a designer or image buyer.  Ask yourself, how would someone be able to use this?  Ask yourself, “will this image I’m shooting have sales potential?  Is this image going to tell a story?  Does the message come across clearly?  Is this the type of image that is generic enough where it can be used in a variety of ways, or is it more specific?”  It’s good to have a mixture of both types in your portfolio.  Will someone see this shot and want to buy it?  I’m not talking prints, I’m talking usefulness and commercial value.  Stock is stock, prints are prints  – two totally different worlds.

-Todd

Related posts:

1. Sometimes Conceptual Stock Images Come Accidentally…
2. Separating Your Creativity from STOCK
3. Shooting Stock Is No Cakewalk