Last week, I made the statement on my Facebook page that opportunities for professional stock photographers would decline in next few years. Several of my friends and colleagues responded.
Ellen Boughn, Dreamstime: “Opportunities for pro stock photographers will expand if they learn how to market and license for direct sales and if they develop niche collections presented with best search-engine optimization practices on their own stock Web sites. Consider all ‘layers of the cake’. Photographers need to place images in all models, including paying attention to their own stock Web site and using systems such as License Stream.”
The problem with niche collections is that there is usually niche demand for those subjects, particularly in light of the current oversupply of images on all subjects.
Patrick Donehue, Corbis: “Professional stock photographers that are capable of making killer images on an ongoing basis will continue to do well. It’s all about the image, and as Ellen says, finding the image.”
There are already too many killer images, and a lot of them are in microstock. The killer image on the high-priced Corbis site may still not make many sales, because there are great images—or at least very satisfactory images—at much lower prices in microstock.
It is also necessary to find a client who thinks a “killer image” is really a killer. “Killer” is in the eye of the customer, not necessarily the photographer or the editor at a stock agency. Many of the best selling images in microstock are what I would call good journeyman images that effectively illustrate a point. They are not necessarily images that artists would refer to as “killer.”
Jonathan Ross, photographer: “More markets, more money. Just spread your eggs and know what to shoot. My sales have dropped in some in my macro collections, but with my diversification and consistent uploading, my annual return has not changed. Work hard and pay attention to what the buyer needs today and especially tomorrow.”
Lanny Ziering, SuperStock: “Jonathan’s advice to pay attention to art buyers is one key. Art buyers will always want great images, but they, like most of us, want to put out a minimum of effort to find those images. Content aggregators who have a great selection of images and can give buyers a great business-to-business buying exprience (search, research, clearances, order history, etc.) will attract the most art buyers. Photographers need to put images with those agencies.”