Is
It Still Called Stock Photography ?
By: Rohn Engh
Editorial Stock
Photography
Keeping up with the
times...
Is It Still Called
Stock Photography?
A century ago, magazines
featured mostly text. Graphics were secondary.
Today, it's reversed. If you include
advertisements, our periodicals today feature
more graphics than text. The new "automated"
stock photo services (with Royalty-free photos
that offer lower prices for photos), are
providing quality generic images to publishers
who previously couldn't afford photography as an
option. As a result, new markets are now opening
up for photographers who produce generic
images.
The stock photo industry
has finally come around to recognizing a
previously largely neglected major marketing
principle (one that we actually have been
espousing here at PhotoSource International
since our beginning). To wit: there's a vast
market of photobuyers who are not interested in
high-fee, RP ("rights-protected") photos. They
simply want an image they can temporarily use,
one-time, in one of their low-circulation,
limited-readership, publications.
Let me
backtrack.
In the 1950's, there were
few stock photo agencies. When I returned from a
trip through Africa in 1958, I sought out an
agency from the few listed in the Manhattan
telephone directory. My photos landed at Photo
Researchers, then a two-person, New York City
hole-in-the-wall on 42nd Street. Photo
Researchers is still there today.
The dozen or so
"managed-rights" photo agencies of the '60's
have increased to several hundred agencies
today. In the late 80's this "managed-rights"
stock industry was at its peak. Today it's still
thriving, with a major impetus being the
emergence of the massive corporate digital
agency (Corbis, Getty, Jupiter Media, Index
Stock Imagery, etc.). The smaller stock photo
agencies are folding or being absorbed in
mergers, or have resorted to
specializing.
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Editorial
Travel Stock Photos by Bob
Pardue
- Caption:
Editorial stock photo of man
standing on the corner in Winslow
Arizona
-
- Description:
Standing on the corner in Winslow
Arizona inspired by the song
"Take It Easy" by The
Eagles.
-
- Keywords:
Winslow Arizona USA AZ man
guitar statue sculpture Americana
window standing corner historic
route 66 building take it easy
the eagles song bob pardue
landscape horizontal
outside
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- More
Editorial Stock Pictures of
Arizona
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THE
TRANSFORMATION
The Digital Era has
transformed other major industries:
communications, transportation, banking, plus
the military and government. It was bound to
transform our stock photo industry, and it
has.
In the past, traditional
"managed rights" stock agencies demanded very
high fees for their images, and why not? They
had the market all to themselves. There was no
"Kmart" counter in the stock photo
industry.
The formation of micro
digital stock agencies has changed all this.
These new companies are able to reach out to
markets that couldn't afford the traditional
high stock fees of the past. Using "volume" as
their guide, rather than "managed exclusivity,"
these digital agencies have proved that there
was a sleeping market for their inexpensive
on-line offerings.
This movement has opened a
whole new market area for individual
photographers whose files are filled with
generic photos that, up to this point, have been
going nowhere. Today, by using the power of
automation, digital photo corporations are
selling "Royalty-free generic images for very
low fees: $35, $15, and $1.
Do these lower fees
deflate the market? We have seen in other
industries that they do not. The textbook
progression is that after a leveling out period,
thanks to lower fees, the market actually
expands. If you have an automated volume product
at a lower fee, the bottom line usually
improves. The consumer benefits, and so does the
corporation. It's called free
enterprise.
This marketing approach,
of course, is what we have been espousing here
at PhotoSource International since 1976 when we
introduced our first marketletter, The
PHOTOLETTER--still in existence today. Back then
we observed there were thousands of small
graphic houses, regional publishers,
denominational houses, and small book
publishers, whose budgets would not allow the
use of $200, $300, or $3,000 images.
Many of our subscriber
members, by concentrating on only a few
specialized markets among these lower-budget
buyers, found they could earn healthy incomes by
selling to these markets in volume. Back in the
70's, these photographers in effect automated
their selling methods and reduced administrative
costs, much the way corporate digital stock
houses have learned to do today.
The theme of my first
book, Sell & ReSell Your Photos, emphasizes
this approach. If the picture is good, more than
one photobuyer is going to want to use it, when
there's no cross-readership conflict and the
price is within their budget. The early stock
photography pioneers found it was a lot less
stressful selling a photo 10 times at $75 to
these lower budget editorial markets, than
selling one picture at $750 in the high-pressure
commercial arena.
WHAT IS EDITORIAL STOCK
PHOTOGRAPHY?
You know what photography
is, and you know what stock photography is --
yes?
Take another look. During
the past couple of decades, an aspect of
photography has been growing to where it is now
planted firmly on the scene as a photographic
division in its own right: editorial stock
photography.
These are the photos of
everyday slices-of-life, the insights into the
human condition, the events and vignettes and
moments you spot -- and then dive for your
camera. Editorial stock photos show people
involved, doing things; they feature specific
geographical locations; they give a "real" look
at every aspect of human activity and the world
of nature. As legendary Magnum photographer
Elliot Erwitt has said, "[Photos] have
got to tell you something that you haven't seen,
or touch you in some way emotionally..." As to
his personal preference, he says, "With regard
to photography that I respect, my view is fairly
narrow. I like things that have to do with what
is real, elegant, well-presented and without
excessive style. In other words, just fine
observation."
Editorial stock photos are
in contrast to commercial stock photos, the
latter being the slick scenic and product shots,
the gorgeous sunset, the healthy senior citizen
couple bike-riding through autumn leaves, that
we see in advertisements and commercial
promotions.
Commercial stock photos
have to conform to "what sells." The commercial
photographer must engineer the photos to fit
into commercial clients' needs, trends in the
industry, and to appeal to a wide, general
audience. The resulting photos are often called
generic images because they can fit a variety of
uses.
Editorial stock photos are
produced by a different approach. Rather than
appeal to the commercial needs of a client, the
editorial stock photographer follows his or her
own interest areas, and targets certain segments
of life and culture that they enjoy
photographing. Examples: medicine and health,
sports, social issues, travel, etc. The
photographer then sells these photos to markets
that use images in those specific subject
areas.
Buyers in the commercial
field include designers at graphic houses,
corporate art directors, and ad agency creative
directors. There's much turnover in these
positions, so developing consistent working
relationships with these markets is frustrating
and difficult.
In the editorial field,
the buyers range from photo editors at books and
magazines, to photo researchers -- the people
who are hired by publishers and art directors to
seek out highly specific pictures. There's less
turnover and more longevity with editorial
buyers, and editorial stock photographers can
enjoy strong long-term working relationships
with their buyers, which translates to more
consistent sales.
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About
the Author:
-
- Rohn Engh,
veteran stock photographer and best-selling
author of “Sell & ReSell Your
Photos” and “sellphotos.com,”
has helped scores of photographers launch
their careers. For access to great
information on making money from pictures you
like to take, and to receive this free
report: “8 Steps to Becoming a Published
Photographer,” visit http://www.sellphotos.com
- Article
Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rohn_Engh
Article presented by Bob Pardue; a frelance
editorial travel stock photographer located
in South Carolina. You can search
for travel stock
images by
going
here ...
*** Digital stock images listed here are
not included with this article for reprint or
publication and must be licensed for
usage from Bob
Pardue Stock
Photography.
Disclaimer:
We hope you enjoyed reading this article by
Rohn Engh about editorial stock photos and
hope it will be useful to helping you sell
images online or will help you to understand
more about buying editorial travel stock
photos online but Bob Pardue Photography does
not assume responsibility and does not insure
or imply any degree of reliability of this
report or by working with any of the
photobuyers or researchers listed on this
website. Each frelance stock photographer's
goals will be different and results in the
photo business will not be the same. Look
over any image photo source information you
find on this site and always remember to
search online for stock digital images. Hope
you enjoyed this article about stock images
from photographers.
THESE
ARE NOT FREE IMAGES - RELEASE & USAGE
RIGHTS:
All travel stock images on
this website are copyright Bob Pardue so
email
me about usage.
Unlawful usage of images is violation of
copyright and punished to the full extent of the
law.
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