Billboards: A Place For RM

Posted on 10/6/2009 by Jim Pickerell | Printable Version | Comments (12)

An Atlantic City billboard that uses an image shot by Jon Feingersh illustrates a discouraging trend in stock-photo pricing. Feingersh produced the image two years ago, as part of a $35,000 Venezuela shoot. A decade ago, The Stock Market probably would have licensed one of Feingersh's images for billboard use at between $4,000 and $5,000; the photographer would have received 50% of the sale. Today, however...

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Copyright © 2009 Jim Pickerell. The above article may not be copied, reproduced, excerpted or distributed in any manner without written permission from the author. All requests should be submitted to Selling Stock at 10319 Westlake Drive, Suite 162, Bethesda, MD 20817, phone 301-461-7627, e-mail: wvz@fpcubgbf.pbz

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Comments

Leland Bobbe Posted Oct 6, 2009
no . . . pricing seems to have nothing to do with the price of production and value received which is ridiculous. i can't think of another industry where this holds true. for john to make $89.44 on this shot/media placement is absurd.

welcome to the current world of stock photography.

leland bobbé
president of SAA 2003 & 2004

Mark Turner Posted Oct 6, 2009
Farming is the other industry in which the cost of production has little connection to the price paid by the end user. At least in stock photography we're not quite so dependent upon the weather for our crop.

Mark Turner

Gerard Fritz Posted Oct 6, 2009
Unlike factory-farming, photographers do not get government subsidies.

Bill Bachmann Posted Oct 6, 2009
Lesson is... send your GOOD images to RM and you won't feel raped like this. Why don't people take this seriously IF THEY WANT A CAREER in photography. Now I know Jon and I am not blaming him. But too many people (I won't use the word "photographers"think they HAVE to send images to RF or Micro. You DON'T!!!

I have no images with Rf or Micro.... and I make many hundreds of thousands per year from stock. Think you are worth it and just maybe YOU WILL BE. I lecture always on this around the world, but most photo people think they need to go to RF right away! My advise... go for RM and you will be surprised. I wrote lots of this in my newest stock book "Remember The Joy". Yet it is hard to convince people who don't have confidence enough in their work...

Bill Bachmann
www.billbachmann.com

Bill

Jon Feingersh Posted Oct 6, 2009
I realize there was a market anomaly--severe editing-- occurring when I put this into RF. I hated to do it, as I'm an old-time RM guy who has always questioned the RF model. But at the same time I wanted to support Blend in its' efforts to build a large quality file. And the shoot has been selling pretty well, even at RF pricing.

What disturbs me most is that the large distributors--Getty and Corbis-- are leading a fight to the bottom on pricing. It's a strange kind of ritual suicide in an industry they control. I firmly believe that they could exert positive pricing pressure which could eventually change for the better.

Jon Feingersh

Gildo nicolo Spadoni Posted Oct 6, 2009
I'm gonna get a cabbie license.

Bill Bachmann Posted Oct 6, 2009
Why don't all Getty & Corbis photographers just DEMAND that they QUIT dropping prices out the bottom?? Getty is the largest.... the photographers should get together and make Getty quit selling out their work!

I agree with Jon... this is one of the major problems--- the big boys, who should make the rules, instead sell out at any price, thereby dropping the market price constantly to commit suicide in the industry!

Bill Bachmann
Orlando, Florida

Jagdish Agarwal Posted Oct 7, 2009
Even in Bombay now Mumbai, cab drivers make more money, than photographers. But seriously, last year in India, 1,000,000 digital cameras were sold. On an average, one photographer comes to me everyday, to show his porfolio. We say no, and he goes and uploads his pictures on some site! What can you and I do?
jagdish / dinodia / india

Maggie Hunt Posted Oct 7, 2009
Getty and Corbis are leading a fight to the bottom and dragging the rest of us with them. However, we still believe (despite evidence to the contrary) that there is a place for a boutique stock agency that gives its photographers 50% of the license fee (gross for RM and net for RF).

Leland Bobbe Posted Oct 7, 2009
as current SAA getty ombudsman i am in frequent contact with artist relations at getty. they are claiming to be the victims of this car wreck, not the ones behind the wheel. they also clim to be as concerned about about this state of affairs as the contributors. considering they are making a fortune with istock i find this hard to believe.

leland bobbé

Julia Dudnik Stern Posted Oct 7, 2009
Getty might be making a fortune with iStock, but it's also losing a fortune on all other creative imagery. Last we saw their numbers, its losses were greater than its gains--and I'd bet that in the past two years this trend has been exacerbated by continuing drop in pricing and macro-economic conditions. iStock was also a purchase, not a new product Getty developed--so it hasn't been all profit.

David Sanger Posted Oct 7, 2009
It doesn't seem to me that Getty and Corbis are in the driver's seat at all. They are trying to maintain market share and facing hideous competition from micro, during a recession, with a massive oversupply of images.

The classic economic response to oversupply is lower prices, much as we might rail against it.

As for RM vs RF it is RPI over the long term for a photographer that is the important number, so looking at one single image or sale is misleading. I'd be interested to see Jon's long-term RPI for his two collections. My own experience is that until recently RF RPI at Getty was higher than RM but much depends on subject matter and brand.

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