Quote from: averil on February 27, 2010, 16:37

Quite some time ago Lise Gagne said the reason to use top equipment is to cater to snobbish buyers - those who will only buy images taken with the best equipment. Actually, what she really said is that it 'proves' you're a serious professional, and buyers like that. Technical considerations have nothing to do with it. It's all about image (surprise surprise).

ETA: Lise's also shooting with a Hasselblad these days.

i could agree with this logic but how you call "snobbish buyers" the guys complaining microstocks
are getting too expensive ?

correct me if i'm wrong, but microstock buyers are the bottom of the barrel
compare to the ones shopping at Getty or any other RM.

for the record, i had plenty of sales on Alamy shot with an ancient nikon D50 in 6MP with a cheap Sigma lens, i don't know if they're snobbish enough but i do know i got paid an average of 100$/image and never had complaints of refunds asked.

would i sell twice with a Hasselblad ? i don't think so.
a D90 or a D700 is way more than enough for stock.

plonk - referring to any buyers as bottom of the barrel puts you there IMO.

plonk

truth hurts eh ?

Quote from: macrosaur on February 27, 2010, 15:21

Quote from: borg on February 27, 2010, 14:36

We can expect further professionalization of micorstock...

be careful, as the next big thing in microstock could be a sudden invasion of
chinese and indian photographers selling like crazy with very low production costs.

actually i'm surprised it didn't happened already, maybe their english isn't good enough
for keywording ? 

I thik it's not possible...

You need army of freelancers for that, that mean new generation there of children in middle class with enough money,  and lot of free time...
So, when they come into this business, India and China will bring the biggest buyers population in this market...

i lived in asia many years, there's already millions of chinese with DSLR and fast ADSL.

india is another story, but vietnam is changing as fast as china, same for taiwan, thailand
and philippines.

if they just can make 3-400$/month out of shooting microstock they're already making
more than the average salary of a doctor or an engineer.

So why they are not already here?
Maybe they have DSLR but they need to work whole day to survive., I think...

Thailand has pics like China, Vietnam is faar behind...

http://us.fotolia.com/Extra/SearchByCountry

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=microstock&cmpt=q
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=sell%20photo&cmpt=q

that's the million dollar question.

the photographers i met there were either working for newswire services like AP/AFP/Reuters/XinHua
or selling art photography to art galleries or shooting marriages, studio portraits, etc

but don't think they were short of gear.
even the pennyless ones had D70, D90, D300, D3, with half decent lens.

of course they can't afford expensive lens but neither they shoot with kit lens.

never met a single chinese shooting stock so far, maybe they don't even know there's
a stock industry ? the impresion i had was that most of them only shoot on assignment
and think the rest of the world do the same.

What really concerns me is the growing preference for non-photographic imagery.  When I do a search for an object I'm thinking about shooting, I very often find the best-selling images are vector renderings, and the trend is growing.  I think we're not far from the day when CGI rendered models (of people) will be preferred for most stock shots.   All those beautiful well-dressed people in business meetings, in lavish futuristic office spaces - all those handsome, rugged looking doctors in scrubs - will be synthesized.  No model releases, no privacy issues, no homely people, perfect teeth, any desired ethnicity, gender and age group.  It can't be far off. 

Maybe I am crazy, but I think the fact that Yuri's production model is ultimately proving to be unprofitable is both predictable and welcome news. 

If there's a business model that still works, it has to be something like this: find someone who already has 2,000 stock images that are selling and have been online for 3 years, and buy them out 

be careful, as the next big thing in microstock could be a sudden invasion of
chinese and indian photographers selling like crazy with very low production costs.

actually i'm surprised it didn't happened already, maybe their english isn't good enough
for keywording ? 

There aren't any Danish people in China or India .

hey nice chat here I am learning!

look at the following (stats from DT):

Andresr's account statistics:
Uploads this month:    1,393

Yuri_arcurs's account statistics:
Uploads this month:    38

ah ok! I am sure he got plenty of stuff on hold

Quote from: michaeldb on February 27, 2010, 19:24

think the wait will be several years at the very least before the imagists who submit microstock (that is, do not have access to Hollywood level rendering engines) can produce people-renders which can really pass for the kind of happy-business-people-photo which which does well as micro.

Once this becomes possible, someone (or company) with the right software will be able to generate any desired number of stock images at eye-watering speed.  That same handsome young Latino guy can be dropped into any number of pre-exising "business meeting" and "confident doctor" setups.   Not only can countless variations of these shots - angles, lighting, age, gender, ethnicity, even mood - be generated at the same time, shots can even be produced to order. 

It's already being done judging from some backgrounds, clouds and settings I see repeated on some sites. Good plan for those who can do it. Save your favorite Sunset and use it over and over. Airplane climbing into the clouds is another. Business people pointing at a chart or the same NASA world map used as a background by numerous individuals. However buyers will soon be looking for something that stands out as different and unique, so there's always room for real and creative shots instead of composites.

People worry too much about Yuri and his business. He'll do just fine even if he stopped uploading anything to micro starting tomorrow. I also think the people with thousands of good images, will do alright without my comments or advise. 

Maybe the prize has gotten smaller because the pool of photos has become larger. More variations and access. Sad that the "race to the bottom" in the form of price competition has become even worse as the market has become larger. Return per image per year, is going down for everyone.

Where it's going to be tough is the new people coming in, reading the estimates of $1 a month per photo that used to be a general estimate. Maybe that works for some and some do better, but I don't think it's the future average anymore.

Amazing sjlocke, I actually agree with you on something! I have always resented the people who publish books and websites that serve to encourage the hobbyists, causing the micro world to become even more over crowded with contributors than it already is. Really, that's the LAST thing we need.

... and, I actually totally agree with Ian Murray:
"What concerns me is that we now have a new type of entrepreneur targeting the hobbyist and encouraging them, really against their own best interest, to enter the micro world. I mean those people who run pro-micro blogs, give workshops, sell books. I have no wish to be personally rude to anybody but this kind of spin-off seems parasitic to me and nothing to do with supporting a creative stock photography industry. It�s about finding positions from which to benefit from crowd sourcing whilst knowing full well the damage that it does both to new entrants and those already within the industry."

They're very chatty over there.

Not only can countless variations of these shots - angles, lighting, age, gender, ethnicity, even mood - be generated at the same time, shots can even be produced to order.

What Stardate are we talking about, approximatively? 

What Stardate are we talking about, approximatively?  

Don't you go to the movies?  The technology is already here, it's just so expensive that it can only be used on projects that make millions.  That will change, and it will happen way sooner than you think.