Author Topic: PurePhoto - new site to share and sell prints and images (Read 17112 times)

steheap · « **on:** May 18, 2011, 16:03 »

I saw an article in Professional Photographer last month about a new site that is aimed at creating a community of artists displaying and selling their works of art. The team behind it is quite new – it launched in January – but it appears to be very professionally created and organized. The initial membership is free and you can upload and share 1GB of files. The images are “Right-click” protected, and the terms of the site appear fair. For $29 for the first year and $49 for future years, you can have unlimited storage and the ability to put forward individual files for sale. To keep the standards high, the suggested images are curated by a team of artists/agents and if they are chosen, the site does the marketing of the images. Some of the ones already for sale are very good (and expensive at $3900!): http://eastway.purephoto.com/#/image/1466/13606

The site lets you create your own collections, share individual images into one of the many groups that have been put in place, look at images individually or as part of a slide show – in fact a wide range of professional features. Here is mine (just a starter set as the big downside is that the uploads don't recognize metadata in the files) http://steveheap.purephoto.com/#/collections

The big question – will any images sell? Too early for me yet – especially as I have only activated the free membership – but I will see what interest I get in my images over the next week or so before I decide to shell out $29!

Anyone got any experience or knowledge of the site and its prospects?

Steve

gwhitton · « **Reply #1 on:** May 18, 2011, 16:25 »

My guess would be that its probably on par with imagekind or similar sites. Although what does marketing really mean? Showing it on a website? Selling Google ads about the site in general? Representing specific images like an agent would a book? etc.

There are definitely some people on that site with pretty fat heads? $2700 for an unframed, unsigned 30x40 inch print. Are you kidding me.

madelaide · « **Reply #2 on:** May 18, 2011, 16:31 »

Where are the watermarks?

Beach Bum · « **Reply #3 on:** May 18, 2011, 16:39 »

Quote from: madelaide on May 18, 2011, 16:31

Where are the watermarks?

The images are right-click protected.

Beach Bum · « **Reply #4 on:** May 18, 2011, 16:41 »

I like it. Thanks for the link.

steheap · « **Reply #5 on:** May 18, 2011, 16:45 »

Yes - it seems like a professional version of Flickr, and nicely done. As I say, I have no way of knowing how successful it will be - I guess you could look on $29 for a years worth of unlimited storage as being a reasonable deal!

I have had a bit of correspondence with one of their senior people - he is creating a "Cat" group and wanted one of my pictures as an icon - all seems very "above board."

Steve

steheap · « **Reply #6 on:** May 18, 2011, 16:47 »

And not all of them are $3000+ - here is a nice one for $20... http://destinywormlight.purephoto.com/#/image/1502/14615

Steve

Xalanx · « **Reply #7 on:** May 18, 2011, 16:48 »

Quote from: dehooks on May 18, 2011, 16:39

Quote from: madelaide on May 18, 2011, 16:31
Where are the watermarks?
The images are right-click protected.

There is no such thing. Maybe for IE users only. Or for those who can't set up Javascript in their browsers. Not to mention screen capture.

luissantos84 · « **Reply #8 on:** May 18, 2011, 16:50 »

I have seen you are in smugmug too, * that´s a lot of places to manage after all agencies.. and one more? don´t know it is worth IMHO

steheap · « **Reply #9 on:** May 18, 2011, 16:53 »

You are right. I use Smugmug as a place to display what I think are my better pictures to friends and family, and it is pretty easy to upload directly from Lightroom. The keywords all get picked up as well. So maintaining that is a no brainer. I was surprised to sell some images of Warsaw recently (for $90!) and so that gave me renewed enthusiasm to keep going with that site.

I'm not convinced with PurePhoto - the upload is harder (and no FTP as far as I am aware) and sales performance is uncertain. I'm just playing with it at the moment.

Steve

shiyali · « **Reply #10 on:** May 18, 2011, 18:47 »

I signed up and uploaded an image, but no IPTC data is read. Adding titles, keywords etc by hand is rather cumbersome. You can get the same deal of unlimited uploads at fineartamerica.com for 30.-U$/year and they read metadata and their setup seems more professional (of course that doesn't mean you will actually sell stuff).

madelaide · « **Reply #11 on:** May 18, 2011, 20:29 »

Quote from: Xalanx on May 18, 2011, 16:48

Quote from: dehooks on May 18, 2011, 16:39
Quote from: madelaide on May 18, 2011, 16:31
Where are the watermarks?
The images are right-click protected.
There is no such thing. Maybe for IE users only. Or for those who can't set up Javascript in their browsers. Not to mention screen capture.

Yup. right-click protetion only impedes the simplest theft technique.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #12 on:** May 18, 2011, 21:39 »

Try Bruce's new employer, http://www.saatchionline.com/

I mean, I don't know if they have anything as futuristic as right click protection or anything ...

RacePhoto · « **Reply #13 on:** May 19, 2011, 00:53 »

Quote from: madelaide on May 18, 2011, 20:29

Quote from: Xalanx on May 18, 2011, 16:48
Quote from: dehooks on May 18, 2011, 16:39
Quote from: madelaide on May 18, 2011, 16:31
Where are the watermarks?
The images are right-click protected.
There is no such thing. Maybe for IE users only. Or for those who can't set up Javascript in their browsers. Not to mention screen capture.
Yup. right-click protetion only impedes the simplest theft technique.

Kind of like a lock on a door or padlock on a shed. It just keeps honest people honest, it's no protection.

Right Click disabled just makes someone try a little harder and keeps people who think "everything on the Internet is free" from making an error. On some of my pages, the right click pops up a screen with copyright notice and how to buy the image. At least it's simple and friendly.

sharpshot · « **Reply #14 on:** May 19, 2011, 02:13 »

Quote from: sjlocke on May 18, 2011, 21:39

Try Bruce's new employer, http://www.saatchionline.com/

I mean, I don't know if they have anything as futuristic as right click protection or anything ...

They want an ITIN number from non-US contributors. None of the big microstock sites ask for this now, that really puts me off.

lthn · « **Reply #15 on:** May 19, 2011, 13:50 »

Looks like there is officially a total oversaturation of everything you can / can't think of, that has to do with imagery. I'm taking up woodcarving.

stockastic · « **Reply #16 on:** May 19, 2011, 14:37 »

I have 2 problems with sites like this.

1. As others have pointed out, it's possible to snag an image with a screen capture app. But visible watermarks discourage sales of artistic images. Someone could systematically mine this site for a lot of good images at sizes quite usable for web sites.

2. Sites like this seem to want conventional 'art photography' subjects and don't like my oddball stuff. That's what I concluded after participating in 1x.com for a while, anyway. A lot of high quality sameness there.

Despite my reservations I might give this site a try.

LSD72 · « **Reply #17 on:** May 19, 2011, 15:50 »

Quote from: lthn on May 19, 2011, 13:50

Looks like there is officially a total oversaturation of everything you can / can't think of, that has to do with imagery. I'm taking up woodcarving.

Want my referral link to Etsy

Ron · « **Reply #18 on:** December 28, 2013, 05:57 »

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on May 18, 2011, 21:39

Try Bruce's new employer, http://www.saatchionline.com/

I mean, I don't know if they have anything as futuristic as right click protection or anything ...

Anyone has an experience with them in selling?

I just signed up, but they dont read IPTC data. I want to find out if they are worth it.

Thanks

Ron · « **Reply #19 on:** December 28, 2013, 05:57 »

Quote from: steheap on May 18, 2011, 16:45

Yes - it seems like a professional version of Flickr, and nicely done. As I say, I have no way of knowing how successful it will be - I guess you could look on $29 for a years worth of unlimited storage as being a reasonable deal!

I have had a bit of correspondence with one of their senior people - he is creating a "Cat" group and wanted one of my pictures as an icon - all seems very "above board."

Steve

How did this site pan out for you Steve?

Thanks.

steheap · « **Reply #20 on:** December 28, 2013, 14:27 »

Quote

How did this site pan out for you Steve?

Hi Ron

I had totally forgotten about this site - in fact, if you had asked me if I uploaded to them, I would have said no!

The site is still there, my images are still present, my sales (just checked now) are still zero.

I've only got 20 images there, so perhaps there is not much chance of a sale, but for me, it is a dead duck.

Steve

Ron · « **Reply #21 on:** December 28, 2013, 14:31 »

Thanks Steve.

I have also cancelled my account on Saatchi. Turns out they dont read IPTC and you need to get a ITIN number to sell prints. Otherwise they keep 30% tax. Thats two big reasons not to sell there.

Too bad though, I am looking for a few new outlets to sell some work.

kalevitamm · « **Reply #22 on:** December 30, 2013, 05:43 »

Sorry for my incompetent, but what is an ITIN number, is it something like VAT number?

Thanks,

Kalevi

Ron · « **Reply #23 on:** December 30, 2013, 05:46 »

No worries, Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), its the US equivalent of the identification number used by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the administration of tax laws.

An ITIN, or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, is a tax processing number only available for certain nonresident and resident aliens, their spouses, and dependents who cannot get a Social Security Number.

http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Taxpayer-Identification-Numbers-(TIN)#itin

You need one as a non US citizen to sell stuff in the USA.

JPSDK · « **Reply #24 on:** December 30, 2013, 06:23 »

As always, with these splendid business proposals you receive over the internet, I try to find out what is the good and who is the customer.

It helps if you look at the money stream. He, who pays the money, is the customer. And what is paid for, is the good.

And I have all the server space I need on my own disks, I do not need new places to store things, so I wont pay for such a service.

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Author Topic: PurePhoto - new site to share and sell prints and images (Read 17112 times)

steheap

gwhitton

madelaide

Beach Bum

Beach Bum

steheap

steheap

Xalanx

luissantos84

steheap

shiyali

madelaide

Sean Locke Photography

RacePhoto

sharpshot

lthn

stockastic

LSD72

Ron

Ron

steheap

Ron

kalevitamm

Ron

JPSDK

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