I think almost every marketing person out there has had to grit their teeth and cough up an obscene amount of money for stock photography. But the glorious internets are allowing the People to take over the channels so any one can create and sell stock images. The upside for you? Great pictures for as little as 25 cents a pop.
These sites should not be confused with (or maybe they should) the photo sharing sites we posted on last week that provide the backbone for online photo albums. Rather than sharing precious moments, the target audience for these sites are designers and marketing teams designing websites, promotional collateral, presentations and anything else that requires an eye-catching image.
The one above was on iStock’s free download of the week. Can’t beat that. Here’s some more sites to explore:
- Dreamstime – you have to register to browse the site, and are given many options to pay in advance (subscription or varied credit fees) for photos so you don’t have to chunk a card number up for every $.35 download.
- Fotolia – interesting galleries, divided by category and region. My favorite is the English Food gallery (in case you ever need a shot of baked beans and streaky bacon)
- Shutterstock – allows you to browse after you register, but the subscription fees make it cost-prohibitive to be a casual user
- Big Stock Photo – there is a lot going on on this site, which makes it a bit less appealing than the others. However, you can browse without registering and register without buying. You purchase credits (1 credit costs $2.50) to shop.
- iStock Photo – this is my personal favorite – there’s a free download a week (pictured above) and different ways to purchase images. The search capabilities also seem a bit more advanced than the other sites so you can easily find what you never knew you were looking for.
The New York Times ran an article yesterday about these companies and the amateur and professional photographers that are using them:
Kelly Cline, a Seattle-based food photographer, has uploaded 1,363 images to iStockphoto, and her work has been bought 68,215 times. Significant payments began to arrive once she had 500 to 600 images in her portfolio, Ms. Cline said, adding, “If you upload more, it’s like shooting arrows in the air.”
Ms. Cline, a former food stylist, began shooting food four years ago. At first, she photographed her own work and then began uploading her material to iStockphoto.
Today, she said, she earns about $70,000 a year, 60 percent of her income, from microstock sales, and she remains an exclusive provider to iStockphoto.
Not bad. I think there is something to this internet thing.
There is a place in the marketplace for both the micro and traditional stock. The only people complaining are the people from the traditional stock since with time the micro will keep on chipping away at their income. Democracy, revolution, whatever you want to call it – micro stock is here to stay!
arsenik – blog.arsenik.com