A few weeks ago we let you know about PhotoShelter’s new push in the stock photo world with Shoot The Day! They have done their homework and found out what the people who buy the photographs really need. And we’re talking about the subject matter.

Then The big boys come in like Corbis with SnapVillage, where you can sell your images for reuse for $1-$50. You have to hope you sell them a lot of times. Seriously though, check ‘em out for the details.

Today, Getty Images announced a partnership with Flickr.
Yeah, that’s what we said. You know the place where everyone uploads their pix with subjects from party time, semi pro work; artistic (or fartistic), and even Nikon has its own site within Flickr.
What Getty will do is seek out the work that they feel their clients want to buy and broker the deal. Click the link above to get some initial FAQ’s hopefully answered.

Here’s the real truth (redundant?) photographers:

As one who has worked in advertising agencies for years, the honest deal is art directors are CONSTANTLY scanning any and all sites, Flickr being the biggest and having best search engine, for the most real images out there to use in either presentations, or perhaps even a small “borrow” for a web design. Yes, I guess borrow is as good a word as any.

Just a fact. Even if you have your site made in FLASH, it can still be grabbed. Cheap software programs can do that. Not at a great resolution but they can. And when you are looking to represent a lifestyle, what better way than the photos from real life, posted by an enthusiast.Not the posed stuff, not the overly art directed stuff. Apparently authentic materials.

So, if you want to have some representation, even for your snapshots, this may be a new revenue stream.
Of course with the Getty deal, they take a substantial percentage and you can’t sell the photo anywhere else.

Check it all 3 and see which may work for you. You know there are a ton of choices, but you also want to be with the company that the people who actually buy photos will go.

We’ve now shown you some high end and some lower end trends in stock photography.

The point is that the democratization of the sales market of photographs has dropped the prices for reuse, but made so many more of the authentic digital images available.

Looping back around to PhotoShelter, it’s their research that showed how much of this modern imagery is needed. When was the last time you saw an ad with someone staring at a full size CRT monitor? Methinks it is pretty much flat screens around. And it seems there are not enough stock photos of those.

See what we mean?

Who knows whom Getty will pick from the herd of photographs at Flickr. If it’s you, let us know how it all works out.

Honestly, we would love to see every shooter making bank, in as many ways as possible.
All of this news just opened the door for even the talented neophyte.

Maybe now it will be easier to afford that new piece of glass you’ve been looking at. Or the full tank of gas you’ve been after.

Right on.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 4:15 pm and is filed under Photo News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.