Saturday, July 9, 2011

The Biggest Challenge Facing Stock Photographers


Picture of a man searching the universe, and the night sky, with binoculars in a stock photo metaphor for online searches.
In a world where it seems there are as many stock photos as stars, how do you get your work seen?

The Biggest Challenge For Stock Photographers
I believe the biggest challenge for stock photographers is in getting your work seen. No one sees it; no one licenses it no matter how good the images are.  Jim Pickerell recently wrote an article about the challenge of having your photos found on Getty Images. He explains that each brand on the Getty site has a certain allotment of “slots” in the search results. Jim has been kind enough to provide a chart of those slot allocations that can be seen at the bottom of this post. You can also see his full article “Getting Your Images Seen” here. BTW, Jim has a great site for stock photographers "Selling Stock".

Stock Income From Getty
In his article Jim reports that 96% of those licensing images from Getty do so after looking at a maximum of 300 images. That means that if you want to make any kind of appreciable income from Getty you have to get your images into that top 300 level. Not only are we faced with getting our images into that first 300, but those results are further filtered by the slots granted the various brands. If the brand your images are in has 26 slots out of that first 300, then you have to have your work be among the top 26 of that brand.

Search Results For Getty Images
When I think about the challenge of getting images through that gauntlet, well, it seems a wonder that I ever make any sales at all!  After reading the article I went to Getty and started searching various searches to see how I would fare. I was actually pleasantly surprised in a few cases. One search in particular stood out for me. I did a search that returned over 6000 results. Image number eight was one of my Stone images. It was the first Stone image in the results…and was an image I created in the mid-1990s! The image came up before other images of mine, also on Stone, on the same subject that had been submitted much more recently. I repeated the search with the same results on different days and different computers.  The only explanation I can think of is that the fact that this image is a best seller is somehow taken into consideration in Getty’s algorithm.  Other similar searches have convinced me that this is the case…and yet there are inconsistencies as well. I do need to point out that I am not all that scientific and thorough in my research, and that there does exist the possibility that I am wrong.


The Most Important Question For Stock Shooters
This brings me to one of the most important questions for any stock shooter: How can we photographers improve our chances of being found on agency sites (In this case the Getty Portal)? Well, the obvious answer is to have lots of best selling images…gee, that seems easy (not). I would say that more and more it is important to do everything you can to make sure your images have that extra something that makes them stand out from their competition, that pushes them past the ordinary so that they do sell multiple times and can rise up in the search rankings. This is no time to be a lazy photographer!

Your Images On Your Site
The second thing we can do to get our images seen requires even more work, and yet seems to me to be more of a sure thing. That is to get our images up on our own sites and direct interested buyers to the images at the agencies. I know that in the past twenty-four hours (of writing this blog post) that nine people have found images on my site through Internet searches and then have clicked on through to Getty (additional searches have sent visitors to Blend Images, Corbis and SuperStock). I don’t know how many, if any, then went on to license the images. I do know that some do because over the past two years I occasionally have heard from art directors, designers, and even lay people that have done so. It works.  And in each case that my work on getting my images in front of people has resulted in a successful sale, then that image has just a little bit better chance of moving up on the stock agencies internal search.

Addition Image Revenue
Of course, there are other benefits that I have reported on in past blog posts. There is revenue from on-site advertising (Adwords in my case). There are those occasional instances when I license images directly, and there are a smattering of print sales, photo imprinted gift sales, and even a few assignment offers. In addition you never know what interesting opportunities will arise from being visible!

Long Term Strategies, Perseverance and Elbow Grease
Don’t get me wrong. The process of succeeding in this online supplemental marketing effort is slow and painful. But just like the ten years it took me to reach a level of stock photo income that allowed me to quit the assignment world, someday I will wake up and be very, very glad that I undertook the effort to get my pictures online and do the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) work needed to build traffic. Success in stock photography requires long-term strategies, perseverance and huge amounts of elbow grease!

Here is Jim Pickerell's Getty Slot Chart:

Slot

1st Pg.
2nd Pg.
3rd Pg.
Total in 300
1
Digital Vision
6
4
1
11
2
Lifesize
3
2

5
3
Stone+
4
4
3
11
4
PhotoDisc
6
2

8
5
The Image Bank
6
3
2
11
6
Photographer's Choice
4
2
2
8
8
Stone
9
7
2
18
10
Flickr
12
5
3
20
13
OJO Images
5
2

7
14
Photonica
3
3
2
8
15
Photographer's Choice RF
3


3
17
Riser
1
1
5
7
20
Vetta
2

1
3
22
Taxi
6
5

11
28
Iconica
4
3
1
8
32
FoodPix
1
2
1
4
35
Blend Images
2

1
3
37
The Agency Collection
2


2
38
StockImage
1
1
3
5
42
Stockbyte
2
1
1
4
46
Blend X Pictures
2
1

3
49
Comstock Images
2
2
1
5
52
PhotoAlto Agency RF
2


2
53
Retrofile
1
1

2
67
Botanica
1
1
2
4
72
Image Source
1
3
1
5
73
National Geographic
2
3
8
13
76
Cultura
1

1
2
82
CSA Images
1
2
1
4
83
iStock Vectors
1

1
2
86
Flickr Select
1

1
2
89
Reportage
1

1
2
95
Altrendo
1

1
2
98
Workbook Stock
1
2
1
4
107
Taxi Japan

1
1
2
111
Robert Harding

1

1
122
GAP Photos

1

1
129
LOOK

1

1
131
Johner Images

1

1
137
Visuals Unlimited

1

1
139
Gallo Images

1

1
147
iStock Exclusive

1

1
148
Fuse - Zefa/Corbis

2

2
150
momentimages

1

1
152
Stock 4B RF

1

1
154
Lonely Planet Images

1

1
155
Stock 4B

1

1
160
Retrofile RF

1

1
161
Time Life Pictures

1

1
166
Gulfimages

2

2
168
Image Bazaar

1

1
171
All Canada Photo

1

1
173
PhotoAlto Agency RM

1

1
177
Axion Photographic Agency

1

1
178
hemis.fr

1

1
179
Archive Photos

1
1
2
181
Imagezoo

1

1
183
Art Box Images

1

1
184
Asia Images Group

1

1
185
Asia Images

1
1
2
188
amanaimages RF

1

1
190
Science Photo Library

1

1
191
Photosindia

1

1
193
Rubberball

1

1
194
Indeed/Aflo

1

1
195
Imagemore

1

1
196
Cory Docken

1

1
197
Bloomimage

1

1
198
Dorling Kindersley

1
1
2
200
amanaimages

1

1
202
Collection: Mix


1
1
203
Stock Food Creative


1
1
205
Glow Images


1
1
206
Discovery Channel


1
1
207
First Light


1
1
208
Westend61


1
1
209
Popperfoto


1
1
212
Allsport Concepts


2
2
214
Hola Images


1
1
215
Latin Content


1
1
221
Antenna


1
1
223
Science Faction


1
1
226
Estnine Inc.


1
1
227
DeAgostini Picture Library


1
1
229
Radius Images


1
1
230
ABSODELS


1
1
231
Arabian Eye


1
1
234
PhotoLibrary


1
1
235
Design Pix/ Ron Nickel


1
1
236
Minden Pictures


2
2
238
Bridgeman Art Library


1
1
240
Onoky


1
1
245
Superstock


1
1
246
Panoramic Image


1
1
247
NordicPhotos


1
1
248
Dex Images


1
1
249
America 24-7


1
1
251
BJI


1
1
252
Aurora


1
1
253
FoodCollection RF


1
1
254
imagenavi


1
1
255
Illustration Works


1
1
256
Tango Stock


1
1
259
Japan Images


1
1
260
Hulton Archive


2
2
266
Gorilla Creative


1
1
269
MedicalRF.com


1
1
270
Samba Photo


1
1
273
Purestock


1
1
284
Upper Cut


2
2
291
RedChopsticks


1
1
292
Gallo Images, ROOTS RF


1
1
293
imagewerks


1
1
294
WIN-Initative


1
1
296
MIXA


1
1







Totals
100
100
100
300

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