The economy is fraying at the edges having been battered by multiple storms and the outllook still looks gloomy. So what are the prospects for the jobbing photographer and stock image producer?

With austerity, recession and credit crunches on every page it is easy to feel pretty gloomy about business prospects at the moment. However they do say this is often the perfect sort of time to start a business and whatever the economic climate there should still be demand for images. In fact if plenty of new enterprises do spring from the ashes of redundancies each is a potential new image user. The thinking photographer will need to be on their toes to find and grab these opportunities! I think the same can be said for stock photography; there will still be demand but it may well change to reflect the times and require a fresh approach from image suppliers.

Stock photography comes in all forms and shades obviously but it is traditionally accepted that images with a positive feel are usually the way to go for sales, especially for shots looking to appeal to more commercial users. Blue skies are better than grey, healthy smiling attractive people outgun  the gloomy and prosperity oozes from each perfect picture.  There will always be a market for these often unimaginative but simply effective images; they sell an ideal that in itself encourages us all to continue to consume in one form or another.

However with it seeming increasingly likely we’re in for at least a sustained period, if not an age, of austerity with the odd recessionary dip thrown in to deepen the gloom I wonder how the demand for images may change. I’m not suggesting we’ll be in for a visually impoverished period; publications and advertisers will still want and need to use images, but that the style of images that may be in demand could shift considerably to reflect the reality of current economic times. Perenially ‘sunny’ images will just start to seem less and less relevant in many contexts and could even be counterproductive for some users by alienating their audiences. If you’re struggling to balance budgets, are out of work, facing cuts etc endless images of easy prosperity are going to start to grate. I think cute smiley girls with colourful shopping bags may have had their day for the moment. This will be true particularly for editorial stock where there is obviously a more immediate need to portray reality but I think even in advertising image buyers will increasingly be looking for images that while remaining positive and aspirational still reflect a reality that people struggling with a tougher economic times can connect with.

Alamy austerity stock photos lightbox.

Annual events and festivals are always worth shooting as there is obviously a recurring demand, especially for fresh contemporary images. Often it pays to stage events well in advance of their reality in order to get fresh material into the market at the right time. Shooting the reality shouldn’t be ignored either though of course, and is perhaps more relevant for submission to libraries like Alamy with more of a focus on images with a genuine feel of real people caught in the act!

The predictabilty of this demand though can be a double edged sword; there is a lot of competing imagery out there. It is by no means a niche subject but I think it’s worth any stock photographer having a few, hopefully interesting, shots in their collection for major events. Halloween might not seem ‘major’ to many of us but anyone who has visited the States in the run up to this festival of spookiness will testify as to its scale in America. It might just be another hook on which to hang consumerism in the US retail mallscape but, love it or hate it, it is a big thing there and the US is obviously a major marketplace for stock photography.

Often stock images are best produced with fairly simple flat even light. I thought Halloween might be a subject that lent itself to something slightly more creative so pulled out the old ring flash adapter. I’m wondering if maybe I might shoot again this year with a little flash in the pumpkin strobist style!

Of course it’s also worth getting a few shots while you’re preparing your props!

The answer to this question is neither simple nor straightforward, but it is an important one for any stock photographer to ponder. The first thing to realise is it that a great photo doesn’t necessarily make a great stock photo. For a photo to have potential as a stock image it needs to have the usefulness factor that will mean it can serve a purpose for picture buyers and researchers. This is, in fact, more important than the image being great; it just has to be right. An average image that paints the proverbial thousand words on an in demand topic will probably do better as a stock image than a great creative photo that has no obvious use.

© Maurice Crooks

Some time ago I made an off the cuff remark on the Alamy forums in relation to an image another contributor had posted. When I saw Maurice Crooks’ shot of a Maori performing the Haka I was so I confident it would do well as a stock photo I promised to eat my lens cap if he didn’t get a sale. Well, fortunately for my digestive system, I’m pleased to say Maurice contacted me recently to report the first sale of the image. I say first because I’m equally confident it won’t be the last time his picture sells!

Why do I like this image as a stock photograph? Primarily because it, almost literally, screams New Zealand! Ask anyone with the most superficial knowledge of the land of the long white cloud what they associate with NZ and they’ll quickly come up with Maori’s doing the haka. It is an iconic image that instantly places the viewer in the desired head space, and Maurice’s shot is a great photo too.

His picture is strong as a thumbnail; Search Alamy for Maori Haka and you’ll see the shot at the top of the results and it pops out at you. If I was wanting to illustrate an article on New Zealand or produce promotional material for the country this is exactly the sort of picture I’d have in mind when I started my search. Maurice has caught the subject in the midst of an intimidating display yet somehow he still looks attractive and friendly; it makes for a really positive image. The framing is tight around the subject which while it leaves no space for copy has, I suspect, cropped out distracting elements around the subject. The background is also nicely blurred adding to the clean simplicity of the image. In the search results it is easy to spot Maurice’s other two shots of the same subject which have something sneaking into the background and consequently aren’t quite as strong.

In the longevity stakes I suspect Maurice is onto a winner with this image. The haka and its significance isn’t going to diminish over time and in this photo the subject will retain his youthful vigour even as he ages in real life! So the image shouldn’t date and at present is one of the strongest in a small search of less than 200 results at Alamy. More general searches for Maori and/or New Zealand are a lot more competitive but now the image has sold I suspect Maurice’s image could find itself gaining more prominence, possibly aided by a little keyword tweaking using ‘All of Alamy’ for research.

So the next time you’re browsing the work of another photographer see if you can pick out the winning shots that you’re confident will sell or have sold. It’s a useful exercise to put yourself in the critical mind of a buyer in order to pick out the shots that are great as stock images. In the meantime I’ve kept a spare lens cap in the larder confident Maurice will have more success with this shot!

My thanks to Maurice for his permission to use and chat about his image. Check out his Alamy collection here.

Alamy, in common with many other traditional stock photography agencies, have a minimum file size requirement for submissions. In Alamy’s case this is a 48mb uncompressed file size at 8 bit but it is often 50mb at other agencies. As Alamy is non-exclusive you may sometimes be submitting the same images elsewhere so it makes sense to upsize to 50mb. Where this size came from I’m not entirely sure but I was told once it is because it allows cropping of a horizontal image for use on an A4 vertical page. Whether that is true or not is really academic, 48mb minimum is the rule, and if you don’t play by the rules your images will be rejected!

So, depending on the resolution of the camera you’ve shot with there is likely to be some resizing of your image, i.e. interpolation, required to meet this standard. This sounds simple enough but does cause a lot of confusion for many new contributors. Hopefully this article will help to clear up some misunderstandings and help with preparing images for Alamy submission.

Firstly, Alamy have a comprehensive guide for contributors which anyone submitting, or thinking of submitting to Alamy should obviously read through. I’m not going to reinvent the wheel here, but hopefully add a spoke or two and maybe oil the chain to help your submissions sail through QC smoothly.

The quick guide

1. Resize your longest side to 5120 pixels
2. Ensure resolution is set at 300 pixels/inch
3. Ensure constrain proportions is selected
4. Use Bicubic or bicubic smoother method
5. Save your file as JPEG at between 10-12 quality

The nity gritty

Remember Alamy now only want JPEG files, so what you upload won’t be a 50mb file because JPEG is a lossy file format meaning the file has been compressed. What this means in practice is your upsized file will usually be between 3 – 10mb depending on the subject matter and detail in the image.

How you get this file can vary depending on your original image size, format and the software you’re using. If you’ve shot a RAW file your RAW software will have an option to resize the image before you open it for any further tweaking in an image editing application or save it as a JPEG.

Alternatively you can leave the resizing to be done in Photoshop or whatever editing software you are using. If you have photoshop 7 or above or an equivalent this is perfectly adequate for interpolating your images. Prior to this it was recommended to use specialist applications or plugins such as Genuine Fractals. While I’m sure these still do a great job, you don’t need them now. Another old piece of advice you’ll still stumble across is the idea of step, or stair, interpolation. This basically involved resizing your image in a series of mind numbing increments until you reached the required size. You don’t need to do this anymore, if indeed it ever added any advantage. Trust me, you don’t need the extra excitement; you have keywording for that.

Now some points to keep in mind are that you are aiming to finish with an 8 bit JPEG file that would have an uncompressed image size of 48 – 55mb. However JPEGs are compressed; so your file will not actually be this large. This is a good thing and the whole advantage of using JPEG as a file format. Uploading batches of 48mb+ files would be painful. If you were to save this file as TIFF however you would have it in its uncompressed size; which is what stock agencies expect their clients will do once they have your image.

JPEG as a file format offers huge advantages for file transmission between creators, agencies and clients. However it is not the ideal format for actually working on images. Each time a JPEG is saved it effectively dies a little. Listen carefully and you can hear the scream under the hum of your hard drive every time you save. Ideally you work on your file as a RAW and/or TIFF and then save a JPEG version when finished for uploading. This JPEG is then sent to any purchaser who, hopefully, immediately makes a TIFF out of it and works on that. In the real world of course that doesn’t always happen, but you should never do more than minor tweaks and one save on a JPEG or you’re asking for trouble when interpolation has been thrown into the mix too.

The caveats

Interpolation inherently asks for trouble. To be honest I’m quite amazed how good a job it does. Despite this never forget you’re effectively conjuring more from less. In essence you need a high quality starting point; if your original image in its native resolution isn’t quite up to scratch interpolating it is only going to make matters worse. You can only push things so far. Alamy state a minimum of a 6mp DSLR and I can personally vouch for D70s images managing the stretch, however having more resolution makes the task more reliable.

I hope that is of some help and wish you luck with your Alamy upoads!

Clustershot is a new site that may interest a lot of photographers. It isn’t a stock photography agency but offers instead the potential to be used as an independent stock photo licensing solution for photographers.

Clustershot are not actively working in an agency role but simply providing the technology to facilitate sales. So throwing your images up onto the site and sitting back waiting for sales is unlikely to work with Clustershot. For that you need a stock photography agency that is promoting their collections to buyers. Clustershot is taking more of a facilitator approach by providing an ecommerce solution for photographers to make their work available for purchase online.

It is therefore up to the photographer to direct buyers to their images. This wont work for many stock photographers, for whom the attraction of stock photography is they can forget about marketing efforts amongst other things!  However for those who do have a direct relationship with some buyers and clients I think Clustershot could be attractive way of making more direct sales while still retaining the automated benefits of working through an agency.

The thing that makes Clustershot really attractive are some of the figures involved. They are only taking a 12% administrative fee on sales meaning the cut to photographers is 88%.  Even given the above points about them not really working as an agency this strikes me as generously high. There is also the option to upgrade to ‘pro’ status which allows you to effectively create your own branded site. This is only $20; about 1/3 the price of a clikpic site with the stock ecommerce admin already integrated. While the Clustershot offering might not quite be on a par I acn’t help comparing it with Photoshelter too; at a considerably cheaper price.

The major drawback I can see at presnt with Clustershot is it only supports Royalty Free Licensing. If you’re a purely microstock shooter looking to create your own direct sales outlet this isn’t a problem. However I, like many stock photographers, have more Rights Managed stock than I do RF, so Clustershot at present is only of use for creating a RF photography store.

On the upside a great feature coming soon is a partnership with Tineye that will mean all images on Clustershot are indexed by them. This can both help potential buyers find your work and you keep tabs on where your images are being used.

Despite the fact I’d put myself in the category of lazy self-aware photographers who’d rather leave the business side of things to the agencies I’ve stumped up my $20 to give the clustershot pro option a go. Click here to have a look at my ‘site’.

So far I’ve added 400 odd of my RF images from both micro and traditional pricing models. I don’t put the same or similar images across different price brackets. One thing that strikes me is that this mix at the same outlet may not be a good idea; I’ll be thinking about that. Clustershot make it very easy to add images via a number of methods. You can import through rss or atom feeds, integrate a Flickr account or, as I did, use their WebDav which creates a virtual networked drive on your local machine that you drop your files into to upload. It worked. Easily.

In keeping with their purely facilitator’s role Clustershot do not edit. You’re not submitting, but uploading. In fact you can simply import or upload low res versions to showcase and mark them as open to offers, then supply the required resolution if and when you make a sale.

Clustershot uses the Flickr API and, in a way, effectively provides any photographer using Flickr a quick way to commercialise their uploads, should anyone want to share for some cash in return for a picture to use! So we now have Getty Images cherry picking from the Flickr collection on the one hand while Clustershot offers the democracy of a true free for anyone who’d like to try and make a sale from their images. An interesting choice; 20% from the big boys or 88% from the unknown upstart?

The image seen in the screen grab at the start of this post is from zpaperboys photography and can be found here.

Sometimes it can be a struggle to come up with new ideas and concepts to shoot for stock photography. Yes, that’s me scratching my head trying to come up with my next (who am I kidding?) big idea.

Doing a bit of self portrait modelling for yourself can be uncomfortably introspective sometimes. I don’t see the back of my head that often. On this occassion it prompted some unforeseen keywording to take in that worryingly thin area that seems to be developing. Dare I say balding? Well for keywording, at least, I have.

The good news is the photo has sold on Alamy. So at least I can afford to try my luck with whatever magical solution Shane Warne is pushing at the moment. Or I might just thin out gracefully. There could be potential for a series of photos perhaps. Always look on the bright side, silver linings and all that.

If there is one thing that is tempting about exclusivity it is the simplicity it would introduce into my workflow if I only had one outlet for my images to consider. While I don’t personally think being exclusive to one agency is the right thing for me I can see it does work for some photographers. Only working with one agency obviously is a great time saver when it comes to submitting images. It doesn’t stop there though as each agency has their own slightly different way of doing things so often optimising submissions for each one can be a time consuming task before submission begins.

Before that there are of course all sorts of decisions that often have to pondered; will it be RM or RF, Traditional or push it through the micros? This is one reason I like images like the one here of a competitor in the recent Tour of Tasmania cycling event. These guys often manage to have more branding on them than Picadilly Circus and move way too fast to grab a model release. So, despite the emrgence of editorial on some microstock agencies, I consider this an RM (rights managed or L on Alamy) photo and don’t spend any time thinking about how or where to try and sell it; It’ll go up on Alamy, and perhaps gekkoimages seeing as its Australian content.

Many stock images aren’t as clear a decision though. I don’t like the idea of putting the same images with agencies working at different price points so I often do have to decide where each image will try and earn me some crust. I think this is an interesting process we have to go through as stock photographers and will be analysing some choices I make in future posts.

I took this fairly mundane looking photo as an illustration of how stock images can end up being used. This is the side of the local hardware store, exhibiting some fairly bland stock photos. They’re so bland I doubt they even register with most passers by but you know what? Bland they may be, but they’ve obviously sold at least once! Stock photos often aren’t up to much creatively, but if they illustrate a point for an end user that is what matters.

This is the sort of competent illustrative imagery that microstock sites can be a good outlet for. They are never going to set the world on fire but are useful and can over time with regular downloads make a quite decent return. For shots like this I personally now favour microstock marketing where I can rely on getting a reasonable RPI (return per image). Placed with traditional agencies images like this are now a gamble on the unlikely event of a sizeable licence fee.

Images that might set the world on fire? Well, despite istockphoto’s Vetta I still don’t want to go the micro route with what I consider my more valuable work.

green recycling concept
Originally uploaded by alexhd57

Lone car in empty car park
Originally uploaded by alexhd57

It’s certainly not the most efficient way of shooting images for stock but I do enjoy a photo walkabout and you’ve got to keep it fun! With a few planned(ish) shots in mind I can feel reasonably productive whatever happens, and with luck I’ll stumble across an extra one or two nice images along the way! I think this one from a recent stroll has potential.

If nothing else I get some exercise.