Anyone submitting to Photographers Direct?

I read that no one having photos in any microstock site can join and sell photos at Photographer Direct.

They haven't stopped me selling there and I submit to micro.  As long as they're making money I don't think they really care.

I've never heard of anybody making any real money through Photographers Direct, and if you read the link that leafs provided you'll soon see they haven't got a clue about the fundamentals behind microstock and to be honest stock in general.

Then they quote that woman from the SAA ... why anybody pays to be a member of a club she's involved in is beyond me.

Quote from: leaf on April 29, 2008, 04:12

Quote from: Seren on April 29, 2008, 01:02

They haven't stopped me selling there and I submit to micro.  As long as they're making money I don't think they really care.

Yes they DO really care. 

Yes, I know, I've read all that.

But I still sell there.  As I said before, if they're making money I don't think they really care.  I even have the same username.

Are you sure you're talking about the same site, Photographers Direct, because if you are I couldn't find you on there.

I was with PD for about 2 months.  I've since pulled all of my images because of their rules.  The site and the rules are just dumb.  Why would anyone want to have a exclusive deal with a site that sells so little.

However, with the way they run the site I would think that it takes very little in the way on manpower to manage it.  So I guess slow sales won't hurt them really. PD isn't for me, that's for sure.

Photographers Direct cannot represent photographers who have any images on microstock sites. This is part of our Fair Trade policy.

How they can repeat this lie over and over in the FAQ is sad.

This is not Fair Trade it is restraint of trade.

It's probably illegal, but since I don't want to be on that site and don't care, I'll leave it to someone who does.

The only point I'd make is, if you have a photo up on PD or ALAMY, or similar agencies, you would be in serious conflict with ethical considerations, to put the same or a very similar photo up on any Microstock site.

If someone wants to fuel the fires of hate for micro, be greedy and try to sell the same images for a dollar that you have up for a couple hundred dollars on a full scale stock site.

I've  always made more on RM sites than Micro, traditional sites offer better long term prospects whereas micro have that instant sale appeal, it's just finding the balance, I'd suggest however you keep your identities seperate.

I just explain that I have different bodies of work for different types of sales.

Royalty free on microstock is for stuff that people won't pay alot of money for.  An isolated shot of an apple is not worth $200.  But it might be worth 200 people paying $1 each.

Rights Managed is for rarer work.  For instance I'm starting to get a small collection of images of RAF bases and so forth.  These are sold Rights Managed so I can protect the images and where they are displayed.  In the future I expect to go down this route far more, since I'm hoping to get into the RAF myself soon as a photographer, so my "off duty" shots will hopefully include such interesting things as Iraq and perhaps even some shots from planes.  They've already told me I'm going to be able to continue with my stock shooting, but I'll need to clear anything remotely military with my CO before selling it.

Serene,
Make sure you get your CO's permission/clearance in writing concerning Military equipment.  Som planes are classified top secret.  When I was in the AF, I guarded U-2's.  At that time it was a court martial offense for anyone who even looked uner the tarp covering the cockpit if they were caught.  Wven the guards were not classified to see anything.

BTW - if you are in Iraq, thanks for serving!  And take good care of yourself!!!

Name is Seren.

I'm not in the RAF yet, but my partner is hence the cool shots.  All the top secret stuff is done in Nevada, USA at the moment, which I'm hoping to go out to one day to photograph the predators for PR work.  I almost applied as a pilot last year, but decided that photographer was far more fun and far less stress!  Just got to wait for the job applications to open...

Hi,

I was on PD but left after about a year.

Main reason - Many images on the site are over stated on the resolution of the the original image. i.e. A image photographed with a 4MP Camera being stated as an 8MP. Many of these images apear in the "WOW" section.

How do I know this, right click and save the thumbnail to your harddrive. Open it up in Photoshop and check the EXIF data. Many photographers leave their EXIF data. Many of the cameras are some $2.00 point and shoot piece of ....

Very annoying.... and misrepresenting work is not fair.

So I left...joined the micros and makin $$$$$$

Apart for that I don't want to have to "deal" and play "duck and drakes" to make a living. Just pick up the $$$ from the micros.

Cheers

Mollypix

Umm... you might want to look into the OSA before putting these up for sale, specifically the part about photography,making notes, sketches or anything related to the recording of government or military bases in the UK.
Because you can't !!

Actually.... you can.  You just have to be careful what you sell.  Anyway, this is irrelevant to the discussion, continue by PM if you want.

And it seems that Photographers Direct DO care, but only if someone points out to them that you're submitting to micro, they're too bloody lazy to investigate themselves!

Ah well, good job fotolibra is looking up, plus they're a Welsh site, they actually know what a pixel means (I always wondered why PD measured everything in inches).  Plus I don't think I'll miss their impossibly designed site.

Has anyone noticed too, that fotolibra tends to put the picture calls out first, then PD puts the same calls out often?  It's been happening more recently.