PhotoShelter Begins Advertising Campaigns
But it doesn't end there.
(Continued after the Jump)
Smaller ads run with the tag line "PhotoShelter: 1000s of stock photos you won't find through Getty. Find a new vision daily",
like the one at left. These ads are appearing on sites that use the The Deck advertising network, on designer-frequented sites like A List Apart, and Icon buffet, among others.
Similarly, if you hit refresh enough times, you'll cycle through the ads, you'll run across the one at right, for Digital Railroad.I think that pointing out the obvious - that PS is offering images that aren't available on Getty is a smart move on their part, and with PS having over 8,000 photographers signed on, and adding over 3,000 images a day, in just under a year, they will be over half-way to Getty's library of content (Dan Heller suggests they have 2M images on his blog here), however you can expect that the PS offering will be much more fresh. This is, of course, if PS maintains their current pace, which you can almost be sure will increase, as compared to Getty's 2M, PS is heading full steam ahead at Getty, with creatives' best interests at heart.
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9 comments:
John, firstly thanks for an extremely insightful and valuable blog. I haven’t commented before, but I subscribe and read all your articles with great interest.
I wondered if you would consider publishing a list of what you consider to be 'good' photography stock sites. I don't currently sell through stock sites but I read your articles on Getty and others with great interest and I (and I'm sure others too) would love to see a trustworthy list of suitable stock agencies that you would recommend. Perhaps another list similar to "What's On Our Nightstand"?
Another excellent post, John.
In response to the last comment, I thought I'd drop in a list I put together for myself a few months ago.
BIG FISH
* Getty - Now licensing video and audio as well as images - http://www.gettyimages.com
* Corbis - High quality imagery and a diverse collection - http://pro.corbis.com/
Specialty Pro Stock
* Aurora Photos - http://www.auroraphotos.com/
* Blend - http://www.blendimages.com/
* Minden Pictures - http://www.mindenpictures.com/
* National Geographic Images - http://www.ngsimages.com/ngsimages
* Veer - http://www.veer.com/
* Polaris - http://www.polarisimages.com/
* Retna - http://www.retna.com/
* Redux - http://www.reduxpictures.com/
* VII - http://www.viiphoto.com/
* Magnum - http://www.magnumphotos.com/
* Black Star - http://www.blackstar.com/
* Landov - http://www.landov.com/
* The Stephen Frink Collection - http://www.stephenfrinkcollection.com/
* Ocean Images - http://www.oceans-image.com/
* Art + Commerce - http://www.artandcommerce.com/
* Lonely Planet Images - http://www.lonelyplanetimages.com/homepage.html
* IPN - Independent Photographers Network - https://www.ipnstock.com/
Second Tier Pro Stock
* Jupiter Images - Good editing, cutting edge marketing, and a vast archive - http://www.jupiterimages.com/
* Masterfile - Decent sized, decent editing - http://www.masterfile.com/
* The Library of Congress - Not necessarily the most diverse archive, but it's high quality historical images that are - free - http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/mdbquery.html
* Image Source (RF) - Higher quality RF images - http://www.imagesource.com/
Second Tier Big Fish
* Photoshelter - Brand new and growing at an astonishing rate, some editing - like Flickr or sale - http://psc.photoshelter.com/
* ALAMY - Established unedited archive has decent quality images if you're willing to wade a bit - http://alamy.com/
Anonymous --
THANKS for that list!
John
Excellent, thanks for the list anonymous.
John, do you have any recommendations and/or ones to be wary of (other than Getty) from that list? Or is it a case of checking through the terms and conditions with a fine tooth comb?
Have you really looked thru Photoshelter without jaded eyes. They need to do some serious editing to get the crap out of their collection or they will be another one of those stock agencies that editors will quit going to becasue the return on investment of time is not good.
I have been a stock shooter for 14 years and derive a substantial bulk of my income from stock. I considered joining PS, but they had so much junk in there I did not want to be associated with it at this time. Plus, I asked many of the major editorial and commercial stock users that I regularly work with whether they use PS, and they all said "huh?"
I love the idea of PS and will get behind it as soon as they quit admitting so many photogs and continue growing at an astonishing rate. Quantity is well covered by Getty. Shouldn't PS possibly consider going after quality?
Anon,
I agree -- there is some crap on PSC, but there is also some pretty unique, edgy, and, IMHO, darn good photography in the collection as well. I think the biggest reason that your colleagues haven't used / heard of PSC (and hence the excitement behind John's post re: PSC launching the ad campaign) is that it literally launched 2 months ago. The $1M ad campaign just started. Word from the PSC folks is that new buyers are signing up -- at a greater rate than they expected. I think once the dust settles, the quality will improve and sales data will help drive their decisions.
Just my $0.02,
-jason
Anonymous wrote:
"Have you really looked thru Photoshelter without jaded eyes. They need to do some serious editing to get the crap out of their collection or they will be another one of those stock agencies that editors will quit going to becasue the return on investment of time is not good."
I'm not sure what you mean by "crap". FWIW, I attended the PS Tour when it was here in Atlanta and one of the comments made by PS's DOP stated that the trend, as she saw it, was for natural, everyday, snapshot looking photos. When see showed some examples of these the first thing that came to mind was 'you've gotta be joking'. She backed it up by showing serveral recent ads that used such images.
Go figure.
Nice list anonymous, I like the way you ranked them as well (Big fish, speciality etc) - in your opinion of course but a helpful guide none the less.
About the 'crap' on PS - there seems to be a lot of amateurish content especially on their site, but thats the nature of technology. Now, everyone can upload and sell stock photography - its just that some sites have higher standards than others. Some do not have the resource to manually check every single photo submission.
Shame a large proportion of Photoshelter stock is what is commonly known as 'Art-Wank' - ie. out of focus toilets/patterns in the snow/goal posts - take a look at their Dec/Jan showcase - think critically, objectively - what's the business/consumer use for these images - nice art but what's the commercial use in a hard-nosed world? I'm not a photographer so I have no axe to grind, but while I hail them for trying to do something different, I also know - because I work in the industry - that the money is not in art-wank. Which means I'll give them six months before they change all their policies & discount what the 'buyers' said about how lovely their stuff was when they launched. It's a shame - for them - but this is the real world......
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