Just had one experience to share.
A wine company was going to start a campaign recently, I was asked to help with Stock pictures, and then shoot the ones needed to "fill in the blanks".
So - we met in a boardroom, each got a pack of pictures as suggestions to talk about and choose some. Each page had a neat note where the photos came from.
Before I left we had a coffee together, and I asked the staff how they had gathered the photos.
They just entered search words in an search engine, and downloaded the photos to a file, and printed them. Photos that were "protected" from saving were simply skipped. Photos with disturbing watermarks were also skipped, as that distorted the impression.
So - you guys who have implemented smart copyright protections on your sites to prevent that anyone save the photo to the hard disk have been successful in protecting yourself from any sales too.
Another issue. We are no longer just taking photos. I just made one up in Photoshop from five other photos, and I got exactly what I needed. We no longer just take photos, to get the perfect picture, we take long series of photos, and then make up the "final photo" just what is needed. Stock photo sales, content, and pricing systems do not reflect that. A change here could be good. You buy "components" to build up the final result.
A related story.
A guy named Markus Persson created a game called Minecraft, people downloaded it just like they download photos, and many paid for it, so he became a millionaire. He says that downloading (popularly called copyright theft) is not theft at all, because he have not lost anything. He say that anyone downloading, and not paying, is not a thief, but a potential customer.
We just have to rethink how we do this. If half the population of the earth steal one of my photos and use it on their screen-saver and my email is on there I'll be happy as Larry. I have billions of free commercials.
On 23-Nov-2010 6:04 AM, Fred wrote:
This from Jim Pickerell at http://www.selling-stock.com:
"Between now and 2015, there will be a continued decline in the gross revenue generated by the licensing of stock images. This will occur regardless of whether, or how, the U.S. and world economies recover. In addition, many more people will produce and try to license stock images. As a result, the average shooter will earn much less from stock than is the case today."
I agree with this 100%. I also believe that there is an answer for many and that is to learn how to generate traffic from your images. The easy way to start doing so is to go to http://www.blogger.com and start a free blog. Post images every day and link them to their image pages on Photoshelter, Alamy or wherever you license your images.
But don't just give the image a title, write about the place where you took the image or how you took the image or what equipment you used or... and learn how to write to attract visitors because in the long run you will end up making more money from the advertising than from selling licenses or prints.
That's one way to do it. I would love to hear of other ideas.
And don't write off high end RM sales just yet; we continue to make the occasional $1,000+ RM sale from images that you won't find anywhere else. I believe that print sales will also hold up well over time, especially when the economy improves.
Fred Voetsch
Group Moderator - Selling Stock Photography
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/selling_stock_photography/
Owner - Acclaim Images, LLC
http://www.acclaimimages.com/
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