MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => Microstock News => Topic started by: leaf on March 11, 2009, 10:38
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The Getty Flikr collection is now live, you can see it here
http://www.gettyimages.com/search/search.aspx/1/creative?brands=fkm,fkf,fks
Front page is here
http://www.gettyimages.com/Creative/Frontdoor/Flickr?isource=direct-entry_flickr_frontdoor_usa
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http://www.gettyimages.com/Flickr
It's up! What do you think? Some great shots in there - many which would likely not pass microstock inspectors for being too artistic. ...which is a great thing as it means there's still outlets for artistic content! ...but will it sell there?
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ha, beet you to it :)
(http://www.dreamstime.com/beet-thumb6446586.jpg) (http://www.dreamstime.com/beet-rimage6446586-resi146)
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*!
Nice one.
Will you close this one?
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I merged them. You're link was nicer!
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[url]http://www.gettyimages.com/Flickr[/url]
It's up! What do you think? Some great shots in there - many which would likely not pass microstock inspectors for being too artistic. ...which is a great thing as it means there's still outlets for artistic content! ...but will it sell there?
yeah looks interesting with some great shots. I think microstock is really shooting themselves in the foot by wanting plastic smooth quality and studio lighting every time. Microstock is where the artistic interesting shots should be allowed to shine. Unfortunately that isn't the case. Perhaps Veer will turn that around.
How do people get in that gallery by the way? Do they just pick at random .... that is to say, you upload to flikr in the hope that you get picked to be included in the getty collection?
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yeah looks interesting with some great shots. I think microstock is really shooting themselves in the foot by wanting plastic smooth quality and studio lighting every time. Microstock is where the artistic interesting shots should be allowed to shine. Unfortunately that isn't the case. Perhaps Veer will turn that around.
How do people get in that gallery by the way? Do they just pick at random .... that is to say, you upload to flikr in the hope that you get picked to be included in the getty collection?
Artistic shots appeal to a much smaller group of buyers, so they don't work in microstock where volume sales - and subsequently, mass market appeal - are prerequisites for success (in terms of sales/ROI). I think that's the power of traditional stock at the moment: artistic shots and anything with a smaller target market.
Yes, Getty apparently had all hands on deck voting on Flickr photos for inclusion. They're then checked by editors and an invitation is sent. All that you can do to get in is post your photos on Flickr then wait and hope.
Also check out Daryl Lang's piece on the topic: http://www.pdnpulse.com/2009/03/gettys-flickr-collection-is-online-and-pricey.html
As usual, he makes some great points.
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ahhh haa, now you beat me,
I was just going to post that PDNPulse link :)
Yeah, he did make some good points. I am surprised and how macrostock the pricing was.
As for artistic images and micro / macro etc. Yeah, I suppose I agree to an extent but I also think there are images that aren't serious enough for macro and not good enough quality for micro that haven't seen the light of day. I suppose they wouldn't be big sellers on micro, but I think there could be enough market for them to provide a high enough return.
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They launched with 4k of photos and when I was invited there were over 5k people in Flickr group (now 7K). Hopefully it means that my photos are close to being reviewed now :-)
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Forgive me if this is a stupid question - I don't know FLickr very well... but don't people post their photos at higher resolution?, and without watermark? I have thought about putting shots up in the past, but was worried about people helping themselves to them. And if not - if they are low resolution files, then how does Getty do the review properly? How does it work?
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You can find most of your answers here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/gettyimagesonflickr/ and here: http://www.flickr.com/help/gettyimages/
Forgive me if this is a stupid question - I don't know FLickr very well... but don't people post their photos at higher resolution?, and without watermark? I have thought about putting shots up in the past, but was worried about people helping themselves to them. And if not - if they are low resolution files, then how does Getty do the review properly? How does it work?
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Forgive me if this is a stupid question - I don't know FLickr very well... but don't people post their photos at higher resolution?, and without watermark? I have thought about putting shots up in the past, but was worried about people helping themselves to them. And if not - if they are low resolution files, then how does Getty do the review properly? How does it work?
It's pretty simple. Getty asks for high resolution images to be submitted for review. For me many images they asked for very 800 pixels wide on Flickr.
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thanks for the Flickr info
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This is kind of an interesting idea. You think that Flickr would be the last place Getty would be looking for images.
Are there really people out there who's photos are good enough to be on Getty that are totally unaware of it and just posting images on Flickr to share with friends?
Seems like it is just Flickr's way of encouraging professional photographers to post on Flickr to get some good photos on there.
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I found this on Flickr website: (my highlight)
"What rights does Getty Images have over photos I post for sale in the Flickr collection on Getty Images?
Getty Images has the exclusive right to sell your images and images substantially similar to those in a commercial context once you've accepted their invitation (and signed the Getty Images Contributor Agreement). Any and all of your other non-similar photographs not in the Flickr collection can be sold freely by you, though not on Flickr itself, because that goes against our Community Guidelines. You know, like, don’t use Flickr for commercial purposes."
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One of the things Getty has changed recently is that if they selected one of your images on Flickr.....and you've already sold it elsewhere as royalty free.....then you can still submit it and simply remove it from other sites from this point forward.
That freed up about a dozen images for me that I removed from other sites and made exclusive with the Getty Flickr collection.
We'll see how it goes.....but 20% of a $80 to $350 sale seems a tad bit higher than the same percentage on a $10 sale elsewhere.
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seems like i'm on a merry go round...
i started on flickr way before i even thought of micro stock. it was there i met a lot of nice people and some awesome photographers. then i came on micro stock almost a year ago, but really 6 months for most activity, when i invited my flickr friends to join as affliates. none of them were interested.
now Getty is there looking and i had already closed my flicrk account for almost a year.
this revolving door is getting me dizzy... ;D
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With all of the zero tolerance requirements on micros (and even Getty) about noise, artifacts, etc., are they screening this stuff for quality control?
How many Flickr people are spending any time editing out technical issues before they upload? None?
I must be missing something here.
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It's really only the micros that have a weird phobia about digital noise. The rest of the world has been very tolerant of it since digital's birth. I saw a bunch of ads by Chevron up in the Metro in DC and most of the photos would never have made it past the keen eye and the 400% magnification of a micro inspector. However the photos were good, albeit slightly blurred.
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Just to loop back to this topic.....I've had 65 of my images up on the Getty Flickr collection for sale the last six weeks or so....and here's the results:
7 Sales (three in Europe and four in the USA) - average selling price approximately $300 and average commission just under $60 per sale. Total earnings from this new venture for me so far are just a tad shy of $400. Half of the sales were to big well known ad agencies in New York.
For comparison, I've got approximately 250 other images for sale on the Big Six microstock sites. During the same six week period I've earned approximately $175 combined from all sites on approximately 100 sales.
Thus, I'm very pleased with the Getty Flickr arrangement so far. We'll see if the Getty sales curves goes up or goes down as their Flickr collection grows - but they clearly have some blue chip clients that would probably never have seen my stuff via the microstock agencies.
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Just a question Jeff. How do they find the images to invite? I mean is it from the Commons area or do they snoop everyone's account for possibilities? None of my stuff on Flickr would be considered stock... maybe I should throw some stock style stuff in there.
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They claim they are reviewing all photos marked public from all Flickr members .... but with 30,000,000 Flickr members, I don't know how they are finding anything.
I was surprised they found my stuff....but all of my photo are marked public on Flickr.
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Congrats, Jeff. Just curious, do you have to remove your photos from Flickr after they are accepted by Getty Flickr collection?
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...average selling price approximately $300 and average commission just under $60 per sale...
Ouch, ouch, ouch.
Getty, the Macro-Istock.
It's funny though, you could have put those images non-exclusively on various Macros with a 40/60 or 50/50 split (60% you and 50% you) and enhance the chances of making more sales through more sub-agencies...
Seems like you do a lot of travel. I think you would have quite some sales with Macros... and I mean other Macros... like ones that are not being sued by its own photographers for commissions that give you chills.
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For me most of the images they picked are already on micros so I could not agree to exclusive agreement. I ended up with 2 photos on Getty Flickr :-) I am not expecting any sales from that but recently they made new announcement, you can now suggest images too.
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In answer to your queries:
1) No - you don't have to remove your photos from Flickr if Getty selects them....in fact, they put a link alongside your image on Flickr that says "license this image from Getty Images" right on the Flickr site.
2) A couple of my Getty sales were on images that I had previously submitted to a couple of other micro-stock (and macro) agencies and been turned down for "not commercially viable".....so it makes it even better when they sell for much higher prices at the Getty site.