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Topics - hqimages

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General Stock Discussion / Buyers frustrations

« on: April 22, 2010, 08:28 »

And here we go again: http://www.veer.com/products/marketplace/

Click on big business, portraits, teamwork, practically anything, and yet again we have siai syndrome, same images as istock...

Is there no gallery can offer fresh business images that we HAVEN'T seen before, or do they all wet themselves when Yuri uploads his portfolio and push them to the top of every category, cos by God I'm sick of those models..

General Stock Discussion / Where did she go wrong?

« on: September 10, 2009, 17:07 »

http://fashionphotographyblog.com/2009/09/ultrahip-magazine-flaunt/

Interesting article and experience, and many questions!

1. Where did she go wrong? (I think I know, it involves the word free)
2. Is it professional to blog about these things?
3. Should this treatment be expected in this industry? What if the magazine was suddenly given exclusive images of Angelina Jolie (or someone!) and had to make a cut-throat decision, should we the photographer be told in advance? What about the credits?

It's a really good link you should go read, and GORGEOUS pictures.. just, stunning.

General Stock Discussion / Microstock tug o' war

« on: August 26, 2009, 17:30 »

Microstock started off as offering images for free on the internet via a web site. Then went from that to 1 dollar a download, slowly that boundary has been pushed up to 10 dollars a download, now they are trying to push that to 50..

Is the reason for this an evolution? Microstock started out as hobbyists with spare time and spare images, now the industry is FULL of professional photographers, with 10's of 1000's of images a pop. Microstock has grown to DEPEND on these images, to brand microstock as good quality at low prices, otherwise it's crap quality at low prices which, no-one is going to buy in fairness!

As the true hobbyist gets sqeezed out of microstock because of professionals, the professionals are also becoming more demanding. There is a level of unease among ALL microstock pro's as to the path they have chosen, and they find it hard to generate a moderate income, however the web site can't afford to lose the pro, because the pro is what they now depend on for their survival.

I think it's really interesting and, what do you think? What will happen in the end? Will everyone just keep treading that line? How will the microstock sites keep their pro's happy, and CAN they really do it?

General Stock Discussion / Got sick of agents - out on my own :)

« on: August 24, 2009, 09:15 »

So, I just got sick of all the competition on these microstock sites, and I set up my own web site (www.photosfordesigns.com).

Who knows if it will work, I really don't have a clue.. it won't be easy that's for sure. Things that make me feel hopeful are things like, on a search for 'male retro fashion' (and there are other searches this applies to), my site is no. 7 on page one of google results, before the microstock sites.. so it is possible to compete in google with the 'big boys' if you know how to search engine optimise.. the question is, do people REALLY use google, or do they go to their preferred provider, also are they prepared to pay 10 quid for a download?

.. Will they trust a non-corporation?

So I'm starting off like this, if I don't make sales, I'll drop the price, although not by a massive %, and I will only sell my images on other sites where I can set my own price, and that don't do subscription sales.. so that my images will never be available cheaper on another site no matter where you go it will be a uniform price across the board.

So that's the story, just thought I would let you guys know that, it is possible to do other things, maybe even to sell directly to the buyer on your own, although it remains to be seen, but if it is a disaster I'll let you know

It'll be an interesting experiment either way!!

General Stock Discussion / Lightbulb moment

« on: June 01, 2009, 18:45 »

What if all contributors join the sites where you set your own price, delete all your images from other websites, and see what happens?

As long as there is a minimum price set on these web sites, eg. Can't sell a high res image for less than 5 euro or whatever, no-one can undercut their neighbour, and you will all get a nice return for your work.

The whole problem here is that you are letting the agency dictate the price, my advice would be to support the agencies that let you set your own price MUCH more than the agencies that don't, even if you don't take the radical move of deleting your images from them..

The unfortunate thing about this is that is takes an initial loss of income, but after that, more profit for you, as long as the majority follow suit.

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