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This post is directed at those who are developing web sites and buy stock photography.
While the search features on existing stock photo sites has improved, pricing has gone through the roof. Subscription sites are now $150/month or more, and individual photos are $2 and up for anything useful. The free stuff is usually really, really bad, and the really good stuff (like Corbis) runs about $450 per photo.
I'm a photographer -- the other side is not much better. I submit to istockphoto, but they have reduced payouts to about 20% of the sales income, it's really time consuming to upload, and fantastic shots are routinely rejected.
SO....
I'm gonna build a new system from scratch. I want to try to keep web sized photos at $1.25 or less, pay the photographers about 50% of the take, and accept photos that may not be great at 2,500x3,800 but are excellent at 800x600.
This also means I will accept photos WITH PEOPLE without release, with a warning to the buyer to obscure the identity when using and reducing photos. In other words, most stock photo places refuse photos of distance people/crowds without a release from every person -- impossible. But when reduced for web use, people become unreconizable.
Of course, it needs to have a great keyword search and display, watermarking to prevent unauthorized use....
And other ideas before I get started?
I already have a domain name (KillerImage.com) so please don't send me doman names.
Thanks!
While the search features on existing stock photo sites has improved, pricing has gone through the roof. Subscription sites are now $150/month or more, and individual photos are $2 and up for anything useful. The free stuff is usually really, really bad, and the really good stuff (like Corbis) runs about $450 per photo.
I'm a photographer -- the other side is not much better. I submit to istockphoto, but they have reduced payouts to about 20% of the sales income, it's really time consuming to upload, and fantastic shots are routinely rejected.
SO....
I'm gonna build a new system from scratch. I want to try to keep web sized photos at $1.25 or less, pay the photographers about 50% of the take, and accept photos that may not be great at 2,500x3,800 but are excellent at 800x600.
This also means I will accept photos WITH PEOPLE without release, with a warning to the buyer to obscure the identity when using and reducing photos. In other words, most stock photo places refuse photos of distance people/crowds without a release from every person -- impossible. But when reduced for web use, people become unreconizable.
Of course, it needs to have a great keyword search and display, watermarking to prevent unauthorized use....
And other ideas before I get started?
I already have a domain name (KillerImage.com) so please don't send me doman names.
Thanks!
