And also, aren't agencies witholding taxes only if they're US based, because 500px is Canada based if I'm correct. Or is this the same as if they were in USA?

Hi, I'm quite new here but I've been reading this thread for the past few days... I just noticed something in the Store Settings on my 500px account and thought to share it here because I don't know how many of you are aware. I attached an image of the following place: Settings->Store->Settings... it's kind of confusing. Any way, in my case that check box in the image wasn't checked by default, and if I understand correctly this detail can affect the images visibility in the marketplace search...

What is the conceptual difference between 'portfolio' and 'my profile' in 500px?

Quote from: samards on January 25, 2016, 12:32
- You can upload small resolution photo with your watermark there, so I'm uploading 960px photo with my watermark. If somebody want to take that and bother with removing watermark...

However, from marketplace, anyone can download a comp image (900px) only with that tiny watermark (user watermarks will not be there).

Quote from: amabu on January 23, 2016, 06:58

Quote from: angelawaye on January 22, 2016, 21:42
Yes, you can share your photos and get comments and favs but there is also a marketplace which SELLS the files ...
You don't need a HUGE preview image if you are just looking to share some photos...

They are NOT previews! They are the images users upload to the community!

The marketplace is just an add on because 500px realized the sales potential of the community images. There is no way to upload to the marketplace directly/only.

So if the community is not for you, 500px is not for you. Simple as that.

Very helpful post.  I'm not interested in the community /photo sharing part.  Guess I will not bother with them.

Is there a dedicated forum or facebook group for sellers somewhere? i have tried to follow their groups, but it  is extremly hard to read and there don´t seem to be longer discussions. Just very simple questions and hardly anyone answering. Most people just asking for feedback on individual images or portfolios.

Or should we write to their support for questions? Does their support respond?

I also made the exclusive files non exclusive. I asked several times if there is a genuine difference in sales or promotion in the search or inspections, but got no answer.

Overall from what I gather from the groups is that sales are extremly rare, it really doesn´t seem to be the main focus of the site.

No point in giving them exclusive images if they don´t do anything with them.

Quote from: cobalt on March 05, 2016, 14:05
Is there a dedicated forum or facebook group for sellers somewhere? i have tried to follow their groups, but it  is extremly hard to read and there don´t seem to be longer discussions. Just very simple questions and hardly anyone answering.

That was my impression too.  I guess it's just a social site for photographers to check out each other's work.   You can license images, but how often would that ever happen? 

Puzzling because they recently got a lot of investment money and hired a former top guy from IS.  Maybe someone thinks it can become a reboot of IS.   

Since they announced Kelly Thompson as VP of Marketplace, I've been wondering what changes there might be. As it's been a few months and there's been radio silence, I've been doing google searches every week or so to see if something turns up. This afternoon it did:

https://iso.500px.com/meet-the-man-at-the-helm-of-the-500px-marketplace/

I don't see anything much here about what they're actually going to do to build the image licensing business. There's talk about having great tools for people to be able to find images, and the move away from "stocky" images, but it seems to me an "if you build it, they will come" approach. How will they compete with the existing agencies for customers?

I'm off to shoot local toilets (read to the end to see why)

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on March 09, 2016, 01:08
Since they announced Kelly Thompson as VP of Marketplace, I've been wondering what changes there might be. As it's been a few months and there's been radio silence, I've been doing google searches every week or so to see if something turns up. This afternoon it did:

https://iso.500px.com/meet-the-man-at-the-helm-of-the-500px-marketplace/

I don't see anything much here about what they're actually going to do to build the image licensing business. There's talk about having great tools for people to be able to find images, and the move away from "stocky" images, but it seems to me an "if you build it, they will come" approach. How will they compete with the existing agencies for customers?

I'm off to shoot local toilets (read to the end to see why)

Well that interview sure didn't tell us much.   What it comes down to is, are they going to sell 'stock' or 'art'?  Selling 'art' means selling prints - and they quit doing that.  Nobody licenses 'art' except to offer it on other PODs in competition with the original artist.   So they're going to transition into stock, it's that simple. Yes I read the part about how they don't want 'stocky' images. Every new agency starts out with that claim, it means nothing.   

Reading between the lines, I think they just want to go back in time and reboot IStock.   Speaking for myself, I don't want another 'stock' site, I want a new 'art' site that does it right, and gives clunky old FAA some serious competition.  Something like Crated - but with actual sales.  Guess I'm not getting it.

I knew it when I took this one that there was going to be a use for it in the future.

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on March 09, 2016, 01:08

I'm off to shoot local toilets (read to the end to see why)

Quote from: AlessandraRC on March 09, 2016, 02:53
I knew it when I took this one that there was going to be a use for it in the future.

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on March 09, 2016, 01:08

I'm off to shoot local toilets (read to the end to see why)

I have a feeling that door handles of the toilet doors will do even better! Can you go back to that place and do some macro work? 

Well he does say that they want localized lifestyle content, preferable with "authentic" mobile phone look. Which is what all agencies are asking for these days.

That is a world away from pretty nature and landscape shots, which is what their community has been uploading in the last two years. For what they need, they´ll have to add a healthy dose of real stock artists, preferable those that enjoy working with models and invest in localized production.

A strong focus on tools for the customers is a good idea, especially good tools for organizing and managing lightboxes.

What is missing is the encouragement of the entrepreneurial spirit for the artists, getting connected to stockperformer, professional watermark etc...

Also what about the queue???

If it takes months to inspect files and move them into prime or core etc...this will deeply frustrate a lot of people.

The needs of a photo enthusiast community and professional agency are often at the opposite ends of each other.

Where will their main money come from - renting portfolio pages like photoshelter - or stock?

Also "real" mobile stock stuff that actually sells is visually pretty ugly, at least this is my experience from eyeem, how will their community react when true life shots enter their flow?

I do wish them all the best and Kelly certainly knows the stock industry very well.

Will keep an eye out for some localized Cologne toilets, so they can meet all international needs. 😀

Eta: I found a German toilet sign and it already has four likes...

Quote from: cobalt on March 09, 2016, 11:58

Eta: I found a German toilet sign and it already has four likes...

There are 110k toilet photos on SS already 
I doubt 500px will make money out of selling toilet photos

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

Remember, they want the Authentic Cell Phone Look on those toilet photos.  But please, no selfies. 

Quote from: Zero Talent on March 09, 2016, 17:13

Quote from: cobalt on March 09, 2016, 11:58

Eta: I found a German toilet sign and it already has four likes...

There are 110k toilet photos on SS already 
I doubt 500px will make money out of selling toilet photos

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

But my sign is on a black WOOD background. So it is real art   and deserves a high price...

What 500px really have going for them is their public gallery system.

If they can improve on that for customers, contributors and the fans and collectors, they can create a vibrancy that other large libraries don't have.

I have been a contributor there for over a year. Or almost one year. Can't remember. IT was my first "stock" agency. People there act more like someone who wants exposure for their work and approval (likes) from other photographers. Likes will get your work on the top pages of their "popular" pages and, they say, give you more exposure.

The bulk of photographers there aren't stock photographers and a few months ago the community got really upset when changes were introduced that facilite entrance of people who produce stock type photography. Toilet pictures there will not get any likes or exposure, it is really a more "artsy" place, or it used to be, and now I am not sure which direction they are going.

The toilet thing is just a little joke, don´t worry about it. We have developed quite a cynical kind of humour over the years and Kelly has an uncanny talent of tapping right into it. (My toilet sign now has seven likes...)

Stock images can be stunningly beautiful, it is a misconception that we all spend our days taking 100 images of the same tomato from different angles.

But overall commercial photography is supposed to be useful. A stock agency needs all kinds of technical and industrial images, it needs very detailed medical shots etc...

Completly different needs from a photo community looking to share beautiful pictures that might look great on your wall.

So I can understand why people are upset.

And the stock artists, who invest a lot of time and money in their productions also want to be respected. I see many new places talking with a disdain about stock artists and commercial photography until they realize that normal photo communities don´t produce what they need.

And then there is the real world out there, where the whole globe has developed their own visual language and suddenly the agencies are realising they don´t have any content that looks natural enough to blend into social media feeds and social advertising.

But the images that actually sell in that genre, are the kind of stuff all agencies have rejected for years. Nobody wanted the real world.

Even now I cringe when I see newsletters asking for "authentic" content that are illustrated with hypertrendy images that are anything but.

I think many editors spend too much time in their visually trained circles and have no idea what normal people do.

We will see which direction 500px takes, but maybe they should have just stayed a beautiful photo community.

But they do have very interesting tools that can be reworked into a good stock agency.

A lot of people are ready to support a fair trade site that has a longtermvision.

But the atmosphere has to be positive and welcoming to stock entrepreneurs, not consider us the ugly stepchild but unfortunately needed part of the business, like a necessary evil with all our horrible and demanding expectations like professional watermarks and a fast inspection queue.

The most important though is a clear commitment to making money with stock. For that you need a team that truly loves stock photography, which is a very distinct genre of its own.

For me 500px is a club rather then agency.

Quote from: doppelab on March 10, 2016, 08:26
For me 500px is a club rather then agency.

Also never made a  sale there

How much of you make there regular sales? Just curious

I am consistently amazed at the vast amounts of Mind Blowing talent on 500 compared to Micro. whatever there doing we need it to be inspired. But no one who shoots like some of these folks is gonna sell that on Micro for 25 cents. I am amazingly shocked at the talent I see there.

Quote from: Rinderart on March 10, 2016, 22:11
I am consistently amazed at the vast amounts of Mind Blowing talent on 500 compared to Micro. whatever there doing we need it to be inspired. But no one who shoots like some of these folks is gonna sell that on Micro for 25 cents. I am amazingly shocked at the talent I see there.

And that's the reson buyers, in search for special photos, are ready to spend hundreds there, instead of wasting time searching for hidden gems, in a pile of garbage and similars, furiously uploaded on microstock sites.

Quality rules!

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

But if they transition into a stock site, what's going to prevent that "pile of garbage and similars" from showing up on their loading dock, as it has everywhere else?  How are they going to be different? 

My question is rhetorical, of course because 500px isn't talking. Whatever they're planning, we'll find out via the traditional Exciting Announcement.

That is true. Came across this fellows work the other day. simply stunning.

https://500px.com/photo/143509577/little-hunter-by-jakkree-thampitakkul

Quote from: stockastic on March 11, 2016, 00:55
But if they transition into a stock site, what's going to prevent that "pile of garbage and similars" from showing up on their loading dock, as it has everywhere else?  How are they going to be different? 

My question is rhetorical, of course because 500px isn't talking. Whatever they're planning, we'll find out via the traditional Exciting Announcement.

Their curated section, Prime, will definitely not include a "pile of garbage and similars".
Photos like the ones Rinderart is impressed by are already curated into Prime:

https://marketplace.500px.com/mingmuang

Checked the ones priced at $250 RF and $750 for extended uses. These are Prime photos. This guy has about ~85 Prime photos, out of ~185 available for sale. That's a very good ratio!