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Author Topic: Science image - to sell on microstock or not?  (Read 11164 times)

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« on: April 05, 2017, 22:32 »
0
I'm a contributor that submits photos to a few microstock sites like SS, DT, Fotolia etc. At present, I have pretty small portfolios on all of them but they are growing. I have a photograph which I have not uploaded as yet and in my view, it is kind of special. It demonstrates two principles of physics - water surface tension and refraction. Now there are many photographs where you can see refraction - they are very common. Though there doesn't seem to be too many photographs that show surface tension being disrupted in the way that I have captured. There are such images out there but there doesn't seem to be a lot of them. And so far, I haven't come across another photograph that demonstrates both surface tension and refraction together in quite the same way as my image does. There could well be others that do.

Originally, I was going to submit this image to the usual microstock sites but if it's as rare as I think it is, it would be a shame to sell it for 25c or a $1. Just wondering what other options could there be for selling it? Not surprising, I think it would likely have some appeal within the field of science. I haven't really explored the macrostock / RM options in any detail. Would there be any other options out there?
« Last Edit: April 09, 2017, 21:57 by dragonblade »


dpimborough

« Reply #1 on: April 05, 2017, 22:40 »
+1
Ever thought of submitting to the Science Photo Library?

http://www.sciencephoto.com/


« Reply #2 on: April 05, 2017, 22:48 »
0
Ever thought of submitting to the Science Photo Library?

http://www.sciencephoto.com/


Interesting website. I haven't come across these guys before. I note that they deal with RF images though what are their pay rates like compared to microstock? I couldn't see any prices.

I admit I am a bit reluctant about selling this image as RF.
« Last Edit: April 05, 2017, 22:57 by dragonblade »

« Reply #3 on: April 05, 2017, 23:23 »
+1
I looked into this a little bit a while ago - it seems most sites want a hundred or more images to start with. I'm not sure if that is still the case or is the case everywhere. It certainly would be nice to make more per sale with specialized images.

It looks like SPL pays 50% and does so in pounds with 100 gbp payment threshold and wants 60-100 images in the first submission.

« Reply #4 on: April 05, 2017, 23:35 »
0
I looked into this a little bit a while ago - it seems most sites want a hundred or more images to start with.

Oh darn, I didn't realise that. I hope there are some exceptions. Most of my images that I intend on selling have gone into microstock already.
« Last Edit: April 05, 2017, 23:37 by dragonblade »

« Reply #5 on: April 06, 2017, 00:46 »
+2
The thing is - who will be the buyer?

Mostly schools and educational facilities I would presume.

They have very little money, so they will probably go to the micros.

Surface tension is a very basic principle, it is not high end rocket science or elaborate research.

It is up to you, but I do believe in supporting science, so I would place images like these on the micros.

I am working on a science basics photo and video series and have decided, I'll be placing it on the micros.

Again your choice, of course.

« Reply #6 on: April 06, 2017, 00:56 »
+4
Just for info, Science Photo Library is the BBC's, so it's a prestigious agency and presumably supplies material to BBC science programmes and stories, as well as for general use.

« Reply #7 on: April 06, 2017, 01:57 »
0
It is up to you, but I do believe in supporting science, so I would place images like these on the micros.

I do get great satisfaction out of my images being used for education, particularly science. Ive got a cousin who is a teacher and she has shown some of my time lapse videos to students in a classroom environment. Yea I guess I could reconsider the micros.

Just for info, Science Photo Library is the BBC's, so it's a prestigious agency and presumably supplies material to BBC science programmes and stories, as well as for general use.

Oh cool. Definitely worth looking into. Just wondering if you have to be exclusive with them (just found some contributor info - I'll start reading.)
« Last Edit: April 06, 2017, 03:59 by dragonblade »

dpimborough

« Reply #8 on: April 06, 2017, 02:58 »
0
The thing is - who will be the buyer?

Mostly schools and educational facilities I would presume.

They have very little money, so they will probably go to the micros.

Surface tension is a very basic principle, it is not high end rocket science or elaborate research.

It is up to you, but I do believe in supporting science, so I would place images like these on the micros.

I am working on a science basics photo and video series and have decided, I'll be placing it on the micros.

Again your choice, of course.

Check the science pages on the BBC website they use a lot of SPL images

So before you blither just check  ;D



Anyway for those who care here's their filed data

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/01550520/filing-history
« Last Edit: April 06, 2017, 03:01 by Sammy the Cat »

dpimborough

« Reply #9 on: April 06, 2017, 03:04 »
0
Just for info, Science Photo Library is the BBC's, so it's a prestigious agency and presumably supplies material to BBC science programmes and stories, as well as for general use.

The BBC's?

I don't see that the BBC has any holding on this company yes they use them but it's an independent limited company

« Reply #10 on: April 06, 2017, 03:09 »
0
They demand image exclusivity and uncompressed size for photo 36 mb and for illustrations 60mb. Format - tiff. No filters as they wrote "no cleaning and sharpening". Which noise level they accept it is not clear, no samples. Wild life photos are often enough noisy, especially from dark forests. Condition to have sales - regular work with them. This will leave less time for already existing relations, doubt if it is worth to try if you don't have ready portfolio to send. Otherwise when you have no other things to do. Uploading looks like time consuming process, they demand to send a preview jpeg with high res image
« Last Edit: April 06, 2017, 03:11 by skyfish »

dpimborough

« Reply #11 on: April 06, 2017, 03:13 »
+2
They demand image exclusivity and uncompressed size for photo 36 mb and for illustrations 60mb. Format - tiff. No filters as they wrote "no cleaning and sharpening". Which noise level they accept it is not clear, no samples. Wild life photos are often enough noisy, especially from dark forests. Condition to have sales - regular work with them. This will leave less time for already existing relations, doubt if it is worth to try if you don't have ready portfolio to send. Otherwise when you have no other things to do. Uploading looks like time consuming process, they demand to send a preview jpeg with high res image

To hard? Want it handed to you on a plate? Then don't submit  to them ::)


« Reply #12 on: April 06, 2017, 03:53 »
0
Yes, too hard and not necessary for now. But you can try, i have no problem with this. To that time i hope they will upgrade their system to modern level and at least not demand generate previews for them.
« Last Edit: April 06, 2017, 03:55 by skyfish »

derek

    This user is banned.
« Reply #13 on: April 06, 2017, 03:56 »
0
There is a high rated agency I think its called Science agency or something and they sell lots of these images. Its not a micro agency. Just so you know.

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #14 on: April 06, 2017, 04:36 »
0
They sent me a contract and it definitely wasn't exclusive.

« Reply #15 on: April 06, 2017, 04:38 »
+2
The thing is - who will be the buyer?

Mostly schools and educational facilities I would presume.

They have very little money, so they will probably go to the micros.

Surface tension is a very basic principle, it is not high end rocket science or elaborate research.

It is up to you, but I do believe in supporting science, so I would place images like these on the micros.

I am working on a science basics photo and video series and have decided, I'll be placing it on the micros.

Again your choice, of course.

Check the science pages on the BBC website they use a lot of SPL images

So before you blither just check  ;D



Anyway for those who care here's their filed data

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/01550520/filing-history


That doesn't tell you anything about how much the BBC is paying for these images.

High list prices of an agency mean nothing, these days, my files on Getty are being sold for 2 cents.

 If the BBC is using many images, then they are probably getting them very cheap. Or do you think they are always paying 500 dollars a piece?

Macrostock is no guarantee for high returns, they all have "special deals"...

But I am putting my science clips on the micros for easiest and widest distribution, not to make the most money. It might actually be the best returns longterm, but that is not why I am putting them there.

But you don't have to understand that.

« Reply #16 on: April 06, 2017, 04:43 »
0
They sent me a contract and it definitely wasn't exclusive.

I found this on their page http://www.sciencephoto.com/static/media/contact/SPL_DigitalGuidelines.pdf  "The images you give us are not given to another agency (image exclusivity)."


ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #17 on: April 06, 2017, 04:53 »
+1
The BBC doesn't necessarily pay high prices: they seem to have a deep discount with Alamy, for instance. As a supplier, I'm not necessarily ecstatic (I've had Alamy pics used there), but as a licence holder, I would expect them to negotiate the best deal.
Schools (certainly here) don't usually have the budget to buy images; where I worked there wasn't the possibility to pay in advance for anything. In addition, in the UK (at least England & Wales and Scotland) these is access to an enormous internal library of educational images free to use within the establishments. Anyway, use within a school in the UK is 'fair use'.

Educational publishers (again, here: I have no experience of other countries) don't tend to use Micros because with non-editorial pics, they have no guarantee of the image's authenticity/integrity.

As mentioned above, most of the specialist agencies, which certainly supply educational textbooks, require a good number of images for initial consideration. Many of them also require a set number of images to be submitted per month or quarter thereafter.

Where that leaves occasional "star images", I can't work out, now that iS files can get sold to Getty premium partners and we might get <10c.
Alamy might be a reasonable compromise; be aware that they offer large discounts, so don't get too excited about their rack rate. Also be aware if you submit RM there, you can't have similar files RF elsewhere, but you can sell the same image RM elsewhere, if the other company allows Non-exclusivity and you keep track of usages in case a future buyer wants a degree of exclusivity (rare on Alamy.)
« Last Edit: April 06, 2017, 07:17 by ShadySue »

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #18 on: April 06, 2017, 05:04 »
+1
Could be different for video. I'll dig out the contract after I've been to the pub. It'll all be clearer then.

« Reply #19 on: April 06, 2017, 08:07 »
+3
The BBC doesn't necessarily pay high prices

No surprises there. The BBC once contacted me through youtube - asking me if they could use one of my videos for a childrens TV show. They wanted the footage for free. Not only that but they wanted me to sign away my rights to the footage to them. Glad I didn't do business with them on that occasion. And that's not an isolated incident. Ive heard of other instances of the BBC asking other people for free use of their footage. And on those occasions, the video shooters rightfully refused.

« Reply #20 on: April 06, 2017, 11:01 »
+2
I'm going to guess this image isn't really as interesting as you think it is, and probably isn't worth the trouble.  A straw in a glass of water would demonstrate both surface tension and refraction.

« Reply #21 on: April 06, 2017, 11:37 »
0
I'm going to guess this image isn't really as interesting as you think it is, and probably isn't worth the trouble.  A straw in a glass of water would demonstrate both surface tension and refraction.

Well you guessed wrong. Other people have seen this image and I can assure you that it's a lot more interesting than a photo of a straw in a glass of water (which by the way would only demonstrate refraction - not surface tension.) If the straw is sitting passively in the water, the surface tension is not being visibly disturbed. And I'm not going to fall for your trap by posting the image here. It's not available on the internet at this current time.
« Last Edit: April 06, 2017, 11:46 by dragonblade »

« Reply #22 on: April 06, 2017, 11:44 »
+3
I'm going to guess this image isn't really as interesting as you think it is, and probably isn't worth the trouble.  A straw in a glass of water would demonstrate both surface tension and refraction.

Well you guessed wrong. Other people have seen this image and I can assure you that it's a lot more interesting than a photo of a straw in a glass of water (which by the way would only demonstrate refraction - not surface tension.) And I'm not going to fall for your trap by posting the image here. It's not available on the internet at this current time.

Sure it would demonstrate tension.  You can see the water clinging to the straw as well as to the sides of the glass.  Well, you'd have to get a sufficiently close up image.  https://www.google.com/search?q=straw+glass+refraction&tbm=isch

I don't care if you post it.  When people have posted similar queries, sometimes it turns out it's not as interesting or unique as they had thought.

« Reply #23 on: April 06, 2017, 11:53 »
+2
. And I'm not going to fall for your trap by posting the image here. It's not available on the internet at this current time.
If you knew who Sean Locke is you wouldn't have said that. He's one of the most respected figures in the industry.

« Reply #24 on: April 06, 2017, 11:59 »
0

I don't see that the BBC has any holding on this company yes they use them but it's an independent limited company

I guess I'm mistaken, I read that somewhere a while back.


 

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