The new Flickr-Getty Images deal

jr1104

jr1104

jr1104

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Sorry if theres already a thread on this, had a look and couldn't see one. Read yesterday that they'd signed a new deal, so that free Flickr users could take part in the licensing deals that Getty images offer. From what I could tell, pro users already had this option. I've opted in with my photos, since I'm looking to sell some, but I don't know how successful I'll be.

I was wondering what people though of this, and whether anyone here was already signed up and managed to sell anything?
 
I imagine it'll be one of those things which 95% of users will sign up for than 0.1% will ever see any money for. I'd love to sell more photos but I've almost given up trying to online.
 
Yeah that's kind of what I half expect to happen. I'm even looking at sorting out my own website soon for my photos, but even then I'm not sure I'll be able to sell enough to pay for it.
 
If thats the thing you are interested in then sign up to some microstock website like fotolia/dreamstime/shutterstock and see how well you get on. Much better than going through getty via Flikr.
 
I've read the microstock experiences of photographers far better than I, and based on their experiences I won't be bothering. There're different strategies for getting your stuff seen on these different sites (with some taking months to bring your results to the front), and you can make some minor monies...but it's not big monies.
 
microstock is like any other profession. You dn^t get money for nothing. A fullt ime microstocker earns a reasonable salary. A part time gets a little pocket money.

My friend indests 2-4 hours a week and get 150-200GBP a month. I invest a lot less time and get back much less money, but it sitll pays for photography equipment.

More importantly, it gives you feedback ion technical quality and commercial interests. Even if I didn^t get paid I would still do it for the unbiased feedback
 
D.P. said:
microstock is like any other profession. You dn^t get money for nothing. A fullt ime microstocker earns a reasonable salary. A part time gets a little pocket money.

My friend indests 2-4 hours a week and get 150-200GBP a month. I invest a lot less time and get back much less money, but it sitll pays for photography equipment.

More importantly, it gives you feedback ion technical quality and commercial interests. Even if I didn^t get paid I would still do it for the unbiased feedback
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Have you worked out how much you've gotten paid per image D.P.? It would seem images either take off and get sold many times over or not at all.
 
Ha, I nearly posted that p0ss3s3d, but frankly I don't think it's a battle the anti-microstock crew are going to win. There's too much ignorance of what makes a good photo, and convenience and ubiquity afforded by digital cameras. A lot of people are going to have a lot of crap photos in the future and the life of 'togs of middling ability will only get harder!
 
Interesting reading about the whole microstock thing, and it certainly does seem like the photographer is losing out on a lot of potential money. How else would I go about selling photos though, short of setting up my own website and advertising it?
 
jr1104 said:
Interesting reading about the whole microstock thing, and it certainly does seem like the photographer is losing out on a lot of potential money. How else would I go about selling photos though, short of setting up my own website and advertising it?
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Photos of what?
 
You could try alamy.

Not sure your stuff is quite at their standard yet, but with time you'll get to that point & start earning money from your images.



IMHO, your best bet is going to be to improve untill you can join an image library like Alamy and sell from there. (Note if you join a micro-stock site, most libraries won't even consider letting you work with them...)
 
Cool, thanks for the help. I didn't think my photos would be quite at the standard for professional sales, but I've got the whole summer available to me now, so am looking to improve. I'll have a look at alamy and give it a try, and even if they don't accept any then I'll have something to aim for.
 
Personally I think microstock has it's place, alongside proper stock photography. Microstock for those plane images, like a spoon, or a bunch of grapes, proper stock for the decent works like landscapes and much more difficult photography.
 
Microstock is just a different bussiness model: sell 100x 1 image for £2 each or sell a single image for £200. For the people earning 1 million USD a year it is a useful model. For those that upload a dozen photos and never sees any significant returns then of course it is a waste of time and the only people to win are the agencies.

Now most people would prefer a single sale at £200 but there are a lot of ifs and buts. The probsbility of someone paying 200 for your image is much less than someone paying £2. Therefore you might earn £30-40 from microstock for that image over several years and never get a single sale from macro. Whats more, if your images are used more frequently then your reputation spreads and your confidence and understanding in commerical photography grows.

For the begginer microstock is good option if you don't have expectations of grandeur. It serves as a natural starting point to practice before going into macro stock. Macrostock is a whole different ball game in terms of professonal ability.

Microstock is also useful for the pros who concentrate on macro. From any session or trip there can be large quantities of photos that are more micro orientated. Most pros put these straight into micro to see what happens. The alternative is to delete them all.

p0ss3s3d is wrong - if you join a microstock you can of course contribute at Macro, most pros do the same. There are sometimes rules, like a photo must be not be on a microstock site to be submitted to a Macro, but that is no problem.

Microstock is the future of stock photography. The days of a pro having a few hundred or so high quality photos sold at premium are a relic from the film days. The explosion in photography and the ease of distribution in the digital age has see the large decline in the need for Macro. As in most things in life the people that complain at microstock are those that failed, or think to highly of themselves.

Financially for me microstock is neither here nor there, but that is simply a time limitation. I get a enough to pay some basic equipemnt. I know other that earn substantial amounts. And as I said, even if I didn't get paid, the technical feedback has a lot of merit.
 
jr1104 said:
Cool, thanks for the help. I didn't think my photos would be quite at the standard for professional sales, but I've got the whole summer available to me now, so am looking to improve. I'll have a look at alamy and give it a try, and even if they don't accept any then I'll have something to aim for.
Click to expand...

If you are interested in macro Stock then I would very definitely start with micro first for a year and build up a commerical portfolio before approahcing Alamy. At the least you will learn the minimal technical requirements and sshould learn what photos are commerical sucessful.

If you pick your favourite photos and go staright to Alamy you will be rejected. As a tets you could go to Shutterstock or iStockphoto and try to pass their entrance exam (you submit 10 photos, 7 have to get accepted). msot people don't pass these exams first go, let a lone a macrostock site like Alamy.
 
I forgot to mention, form what I have read over the years, you will earn more money in microstock than at places liek Alamy, and individual images generaly earn more at microstock as well.
 
Is it worth me joining a stock site? Have a look at my DA site and see what you think. I'd love to make a bit more cash out of all my equipment!
 
Problem being join a microstock site and you won't be considered entry to alamy.



Other ways would be to send tear sheets (if appropriate/capable) and/or postcards to magazines whom your shots may be applicable. Get a list of 10 or 15 magazines and send 5 out to magazines each month. Rinse. Lather. Repeat.

Get ONE sale with a magazine and I bet you'll earn more from that than you would from microstock.

Greedy, some of your stuff looks worthy of Alamy, give them a go. I don't think it appeals to magazines because of the subject However, you could get them printed and attend art/summer fares. Especially those b&w ones!
 
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