Getting Images Seen: Update

The biggest challenge for a photographer hoping to license rights to stock images is how to get the images seen by potential buyers. It would seem that the first step might be to get the images accepted by a good agency. But given the number of images on all subject matter in most agency collections that doesn’t necessarily mean customers will ever see them.

In June of 2011 we did an analysis of the “Search Return Order” on the Creative stock images section of Getty Images. At that time, based on searches for the four possible image orientations – horizontal, vertical, panoramic and square – I determined that there were 3,532,317 in the collection and 48% of them were RF. Last week I repeated the orientation search and found 7,363,072 images (more than double) in the Creative collection. The RF percentage has risen to 53%.  

I also discovered that if you do a search for an empty search box you get 9,303,041 results. This means that the people keywording almost 2 million of the images on gettyimage.com didn’t bother to include an image orientation in their keywords. One would think that if a buyer gets a search return of over a thousand images (common), and knew that she needed a horizontal image for her project, she would add “horizontal” to her search request to narrow the number of returns. But I digress.



The important thing to understand is how Getty determines which image to show first. If a customer does a search for a Creative stock image Getty lists 103 RM collections and 94 RF collections to choose from. Customers can choose to narrow their searches to either RF or RM and that would probably cut the returns in half. If customers like particular collections, they can choose search specific collections, but we’re told that seldom happens.

Back in 2011 Getty sources told me that 96% of the company’s sales come from images customers find in the first three pages of the search returns. Since the maximum returns allowed per-page are100 images that means it is very important for your image to appear within the first 300 images. Otherwise they change the search parameters, or move on somewhere else. Many narrowly defined searches will deliver thousands of returns, but most of those images are never viewed by anyone. Back in 2011, I did a few Getty searches and found the following images:

	2011	Today
couple on beach	15,199	22,879
senior couple on beach	945	1,535
Chinese couple	5,597	8,313
Istanbul	2,827	11,646
Koi fish	401	682

If only 300 of these images are going to be seen by customers think about your chances of making a sale.

In order to determine which collections come up first I chose to search for “People.” believing that most collections would have some images with that keyword. (I chose not to search for illustrations since I was interested in photography. Also, some photo collections like RooM will probably have no people.)



Below you will find a chart that shows 111 of the 197 collections and the number images from each collection that were shown in the first 600 images returned. This list also includes the names of 9 individuals. I suspect that these individuals are represented in one or more collections, but in looking at the images that were delivered it was impossible to determine which collection.

The first image to come up in this search for “People” was from OJO Images. In any other search you do an OJO image will always be the first image, assuming, of course, that OJO has at least one image in its collection with the keywords listed. Last year Getty purchased OJO for an undisclosed sum and now keeps 100% of any revenue generated by OJO images. The second image to come up will be from the Stone collection.

On any search the first 11 images to come up will be:

1	OJO Images
2	Stone
3	Digital Vision
4	Photonica
5	Flickr
6	Iconica
7	Brand X Pictures
8	Flickr Select
9	Vetta
10	Taxi
11	Riser

The 12th image will not be one from another collection, but a second one from OJO. The 13th is from Stone, 14th is Digital Vision, 15th is another Stone and it isn’t until the 16th that we get an image from a new collection - Caiaimage. The returns are weighted to show many more images from Getty owned collections than from the Image Partners.

In the first 100 images shown all the images come from 21 different collections. In the next 100 images shown at least one image is shown from 31 additional collections but in most cases it is only one image. Between 200 and 300 58 new collections are added, but in most cases they only show one image.

Which Images In A Collection Come First?

So how is it decided which image comes up first from any given collection? It appears that images that have been licensed previously will often be shown first. Other than that the newest image to be added to the collection is shown first. You may have uploaded an image a month ago, but others from your agency have added one or two images with similar keywords since yours was uploaded. If none of these images had been licensed, and your agency is one of those that gets one return every 300 images, your image is already buried so deep that it will never be seen.

If there is some uniqueness about your image, that can be described with keywords that customers will use, but not a lot of photographers will think to add to their images, then maybe the image will have a longer useful life. Images of the popular subjects with a simple set of keywords get buried quickly.

In the first 300 returns over half of the images shown come from 14 collections.

Stone	20
Flickr	16
Flickr Select	10
Flickr Open	6
Digital Vision	14
OJO Images	13
Iconica	13
Taxi	11
Photonica	10
Vetta	9
National Geographic	9
Image Source	8
Cultura	3
Photographers Choice	11
Total	153

It is also worth noting that 32 images come from the three different Flickr collections. Image Source acquired Cultura in 2012 so combined 11 of their images are seen in the first 300.

It is important to understand that there is a fixed sequence that the search engine goes through to find the next image to deliver. Take Blend for example. They have been given the 38th and 100th slots. The first Blend image to be delivered is the 38th assuming that they have an image with the requested keywords. All the images in the first 37 slots will be from one of the brands listed above them. When it comes to the 100th image Blend gets another image. All of the images between 38 and 100 will have come from one of the 20 brands whose first image delivered was less than 100. By that time there will have been 15 Stone images delivered, 9 from OJO and 9 from Digital Vision.

Of course, if none of the other higher slotted collections have images of the same type of subject matter with the same keywords (and remember they must be keywords customers will use) then the Blend images could appear much higher in the search-return-order.

When it is each collection’s turn in the sequence the search engine looks to see if that collection has an image with the proper keywords that hasn’t already been delivered. If it doesn’t then that collection is skipped over. The top brands will get to show all of their images before many of the other brands get to show many images at all, but if the number of returns is greater than 300 to 400 it probably won’t make much difference anyway.

There are certain subjects where OJO, Stone or one of the others with lots of slots may only have a few images. Thus, as they get skipped over the images from other collections that are lower down in the search return order move up. But, I believe (and I don’t have positive assurance) that search return order stays the same.

Depending on their specialization some agencies may move up quickly in the search return order for particular searches. For example there are several Asian agencies whose images first appear in a general search in the 200 to 300 returns range. But, if a customer looking for Asian content were to add "Asia" to their search terms it would probably narrow the number of returns dramatically and bring the images from the Asian agencies up much higher in the search return order.

Order Repeats Before All Collections Considered

Note that on the second 300 the search return order basically repeats the first 300. There are some slight differences. This might be explained if some of the collections had already shown all their people images. I suspect it was more an effort to show a few images from other brands and not leave them out completely. There are 10 people or collections where their first image appeared between returns 300 and 600.

There are at least 19 listed brands that have images of People in their collections. In most cases People is also listed as a keyword.  But none of their images show up in the first 600 returns from a People search. These brands include:

RF – Asia Selects, beyond fotomedia, E+, F1online, fStop, Graph East, Huntstock, ImageRite, IndiaPicture, Ingram Publishing, IZA Stock and Realistic Reflections

RM – AFP Creative, Britain On View, DK Stock, Flickr Unreleased, Fototrove, Nativestock and Solus,

Presumably their images are much lower down in the search return order and will only be shown after the collections higher up run out of images to show.

It is interesting to compare the list below with the list from 2011. There are 37 new collections that were not in the top 300 in 2011.  Even more interesting are the 38 collections that had search returns in the top 300 in 2011, but are not even in the top 600 today. Some of these like Stone+ and Lifesize have certainly been consolidated into other collections. A few are illustration collections that I included in my 2011 search, but did not include today. Nevertheless, there are some that have either disappeared or dropped much further down in the search return order.  They include:

ABSODELS	FoodPix	MedicalRF.com
amanaimages	Gallo Images, ROOTS RF	Photosindia
amanaimages RF	Gorilla Creative	Reportage
Archive Photos	Hola Images	Retrofile
Art Box Images	Hulton Archive	Retrofile RF
BJI	Illustration Works	Rubberball
Botanica	Imagemore	StockImage
Comstock Images	imagenavi	Stone+
Cory Docken	Imagezoo	Tango Stock
CSA Images (illustration)	Indeed/Aflo	The Agency Collection
DeAgostini Picture Library	iStock Exclusive	The Bridgeman Art Library
Dorling Kindersley	iStock Vectors	Workbook Stock
Estnine Inc.	Lifesize

There are also at least 9 collections that have images shown in the top 600 that are not listed among the 197 collections on the site: They are: a:collectorRF, Antenna, Datacraft, ZAM Photography, Uniquily India, BGF Images, Aflo, Indeed and Azul Images

In the chart below the first row shows the position or the collection in the search-return-order today. The second show the position in 2011. It is interesting how much some of the collections have been moved up or down in the past two-and-a-half years.

The fifth column shows the number of images shown in the first 100. The eight column is a total of all the images show for each collection in the first 300 image. The last column is the total for all the images shown in the first 600.

Slot	Slot			1 to	100 -	200 -	Total		300-	400 -	500 -	Total
2014	2011			100	200	300	300		400	500	600	600
1	13	OJO Images	RF	9	2	2	13		9	2	3	27
2	8	Stone	RM	15	3	2	20		15	3	3	41
3	1	Digital Vision	RF	9	2	3	14		9	2	2	27
4	14	Photonica	RM	6	2	2	10		6	2	1	19
5	10	Flickr	RM & RF	9	6	1	16		8	6		30
6	28	Iconica	RM	5	7	1	13		5	7		25
7	46	Brand X Pictures	RF	5		1	6		5		1	12
8	86	Flickr Select	RM	7	1	2	10		7	1	2	20
9	20	Vetta	RF	2	5	2	9		2	5	2	18
10	22	Taxi	RM	9		2	11		9		2	22
11	17	Riser	RM	5		1	6		5		2	13
16		Caiaimage	RF	4	2	1	7		4	2		13
20	72	Image Source	RF	5	3		8		5	3		16
38	35	Blend Images	RM & RF	2	2		4		2	2	1	9
49	154	Lonely Planet Images	RM	1	1		2		1	1		4
52	76	Cultura	RF	2	1		3		2	1		6
67		Mint Images	RM	1			1		1	1		3
68	150	momentimages	RF		3		3			3		6
73	73	National Geographic	RM & RF	2	3	4	9		2	3	4	18
78	240	Onoky	RF	1	1		2		1	1		4
81		Photonica World	RM	1	1		2		1	1		4
114	52	PhotoAlto Agency	RM & RF		2		2			2		4
124	107	Taxi Japan	RM		1	1	2			1	1	4
125		Mint Images RF	RF		1		1					1
128		Hero Images	RF		2		2			2		4
130	15	Photographer's Choice RF	RF		6		6			5		11
131	6	Photographer's Choice	RM		5		5			6		11
134		Maskot	RF		2		2			2		4
139	139	Gallo Images	RM & RF		1		1			1		2
148	252	Aurora+	RM		1		1			1		2
150		Contour Style	RM		1		1			1		2
151	131	Johner Images	RM & RF		1		1			1		2
158	5	The Image Bank	RM		5	1	6			6	1	13
161	148	Fuse - Zefa/Corbis	RF		2		2			2		4
162	95	Altrendo	RM		1		1			1		2
163	161	The Life Picture Collection	RM		1		1			1		2
171		Jakob Fridholm			1		1					1
175	284	Upper Cut	RM & RF		2		2			2		4
178	129	LOOK	RM		1		1			1		2
179	4	PhotoDisc	RF		5	1	6			5	1	12
180	246	Panoramic Image	RM & RF		1		1			1		2
181	221	Antenna			1		1			1		2
182		Photo Researchers	RM		1		1			1		2
187	234	PhotoLibrary	RM		1	3	4			1	3	8
188		age fotostock	RM		1		1			1		2
189	208	Westend61	RF		1		1			1		2
190		Robert Benson			1		1					1
191	223	Science Faction	RM		1		1			1		2
193	185	Asia Images	RM		1	2	3			1	2	6
194		Flickr Open	RF		3	3	6			2	3	11
196	202	Collection: Mix	RM & RF		1		1			1		2
199		Oxford Scientific	RM		1	1	2			1	1	4
202	42	Stockbyte	RF			4	4				4	8
203		Picture Press	RM			1	1				1	2
206		XiXinXing	RF			1	1				1	2
208	212	Allsport Concepts	RM			1	1				1	2
209	229	Radius Images	RF			1	1				1	2
210	155	Stock 4B	RM & RF			2	2				2	4
213	111	Robert Harding	RM			1	1				1	2
214		China Span	RM			1	1				1	2
219		Custom Medical Stock	RM			1	1				1	2
222	245	Superstock	RM			1	1					1
223		AWL Images	RM			1	1				1	2
224	207	First Light	RM			1	1				1	2
225		a:collectorRF	RF			1	1				1	2
226		Alan Bailey				1	1					1
227		Universal Images Group	RM			1	1				1	2
230	203	Stock Food Creative	RM			1	1				1	2
231		Blue Jean Images	RF			1	1				1	2
233	171	All Canada Photo	RM			1	1				1	2
234		Datacraft				1	1				1	2
236		Fotosearch	RF			1	1					1
237	178	hemis.fr	RM			1	1				1	2
238	205	Glow Images	RM & RF			2	2				2	4
240		ZAM Photography				1	1					1
242		Photononstop	RM			1	1				1	2
243	273	Purestock	RF			1	1				1	2
244	231	Arabian Eye	RM			1	1				1	2
245	166	Gulfimages	RM & RF			2	2				2	4
246	235	Design Pics	RF			1	1				1	2
247		F1online	RM			1	1				1	2
248	236	Minden Pictures	RM			1	1				1	2
249		Koji Nino				1	1					1
250	253	FoodCollection RF	RF			1	1				1	2
251	177	Axion Photographic Agency	RM			1	1				1	2
253	122	GAP Photos	RM			1	1				1	2
254		Folio Images	RF			1	1				1	2
255		Sappington Todd				1	1					1
257	168	Image Bazaar	RM			1	1				1	2
258	294	WIN-Initative	RM			1	1				1	2
259		Uniquely India				1	1				1	2
260	190	Science Photo Library	RM			1	1				2	3
261		WaterFrame	RM			1	1				1	2
262		BFG Images				1	1					1
263	247	NordicPhotos	RM & RF			1	1				1	2
264	137	View Stock	RF			2	2				2	4
265	293	Imagewerks Japan	RF			1	1				1	2
266	270	Samba Photo	RM			1	1				1	2
267	248	Dex Images	RF			1	1				1	2
268		TAO images	RM			1	1				1	2
269	259	Japan Images	RM			1	1				1	2
270		Aflo				1	1				1	2
271	215	Latin Content	RM & RF			1	1				1	2
274	206	Discovery Channel	RM			1	1				1	2
275		Indeed				1	1				1	2
277	249	America 24-7	RM			1	1				1	2
279	209	Popperfoto	RM			1	1				1	2
280		Azul Images				1	1				1	2
281	291	RedChopsticks	RF			1	1				1	2
368		Tetra	RF						1			1
468		Bjurling, Hans								1		1
489		Christopher Kimmel								1		1
527		Jessica Peterson									1	1
537		Iromaya									1	1
542		ArIane Lohmar									1	1
545		Visuals Unlimited	RM								1	1
552	296	MIXA	RF								1	1
558	197	Bloomimage	RF								1	1
565		David Malan									1	1
				100	100	100	300		100	100	100	600