Long live to Istock !

I am a new listener to the show and for the most part I like it. I would like to make a couple of comments though.

One, I don’t know if I argree that iStock is hurting the stock photography business, as far as I have seen, anyone buying from iStock is most likely the same folks who would only be using royalty free images bought from a CD anyway but being given a better choice. And those folks who are selling at iStock are only selling photos that more then likely would not be considered by a larger agency. I myself am a professional photographer for over 25 years and even though I have not signed up to sell, I have bought images on behalf of clients who needed a photo, but did not have the budget to pay for a session. They are happy so I am happy.

Another comment I half is the way that the phrase “Professional Photographer” is being used lately. Just because someone sells a photo does not make them a Pro. Being a professional photographer means that you make your fulltime living at it, that you know the ins and outs of the business, that everytime you make an exposure that you are working for your lively-hood and that if you don’t do your best, you can be out of business. Being a pro means that you are a business person as much (sometimes more) as being a good photographer.

I applaud those amateurs and hobbists who can make a buck or two and help to support their endevours. But when the word Professional starts getting used dilly-dally, then it begins to cheapen it for everyone

Thank You

Denise : )

I, too, am a long-standing member of iStockphoto (Pre-February 2002). I started as a buyer. I have bought thousands for projects over the past few years. I am in awe of the amazing image quality overall. It has even gotten better over the past few years. Honestly, I have purchased medium and large images for $300-500+ dollars off major stock agencies that did not compare in quality to iStock’s imagery.

As a designer, I had never really thought about contributing and uploading to iStockphoto. It had been years since college when I had last kept up on my photography hobby. BUT, I did pick up a camera again and reintroduced myself to my favorite hobby and immediately started uploading to iStock. This was two years ago. My camera quality was poor. I upgraded to a digital SLR and uploaded one series that went really well. I have been learning and growing, but for the most part, the rest is history…

It’s still a hobby (albeit an addictive one)…I currently am making enough to pay my mortgage through the site and I have only about 600 images.

The community is awesome. The forums and the people I have met…gosh, i have made life-long world-wide friends through the site, and I am not really an “online” kinda guy.

Side note: I have photos of my kids on iStockphoto. Yes, you sign the release…I personally don’t have a problem with it for three reasons….1) It’s fun to see your kid in print. 2) iStock has stringent usage agreements for downloaders, protecting the photographer/model from all the predators out there. 3) You gotta pay for their diapers somehow. :-)

I hope that helps.

Oh, here is my work on iStock: istockphoto.com/dsteller

-dustin

Any road, I can see how it might seem to undermine the profession by undercutting costs, but my worry is how it dumbs-down photography. I saw it with graphic design when Mac’s first came on the scene, suddenly everyone thought they could do it and standards dropped.

If I need a quick cheep shot for a web site or a comp pic for a visual I look on iStock first, if I want a good shot for an ad campaign I use a pro. The cost isn’t the issue most of the time it’s convenience. If the cost’s were 10 times what they I’d have no problems so long as the shot was of the quality I wanted.

Just an observation from a user, I do think iStock is fantastic and its made my job a lot easier.

As far as the criticism that microstock sites devalue photography, maybe for traditional stock. But, I don’t see it hurting other areas of commercial photography. Wedding photographers will still charge whatever the market will tolerate. There is a market for low cost, high quality stock. iStockphoto, Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Lucky Oliver, and others, are filling that need.

And YES, there is a need for images of the disabled…children, adults in business situations, both with primary caregivers, etc. I actually need some for a website I manage at my day job, and so far its a fairly undeveloped market in microstock. I have a couple of my daughter’s white cane in my gallery (and had to laugh when Kelly brought up the Adidas logo, because my shots where her feet were included were rejected for that very reason), and there is just a handful of other images of blind people / tools out there. Not much to choose from.

Go for it! I know I’ll buy them! :-)

Update on this: My photos got excepted and I have now downloaded my first 3 for sale and they are pending. I’m thinking they need to hire more inspectors then 40. If this company is growing as fast as it sounds, I’m sure that won’t be too far down the road. When I put my first 3 photos in for consideration, it took just about 5 days to get an answer back. Now I have uploaded my first 3 for sale. The first 3 you send in don’t go into your stock. You have to upload them again, and add all the tags or keywords then put them in catagories, which was a bit confusing at first. Be persistent it gets easier.

I started to learn about the site and how it works. I took the test, don’t worry they go over the answers. I saw noise and compression in that first photo but apparently it was just the compression they were looking for so I got it wrong. No worries friends you can make good on your mistakes and it only takes a few minutes once you have read the info.

Thanks to Mark Evans for making me realize it can be done. I enjoyed your photos. I’m wondering if I were to go exclusive that would mean I had to take my photos off of Flickr. I have over 35,000 hits on my photos at Flickr so I know people like my photos. I don’t get paid for them to be there. Maybe one of you could answer that question.

Now on a more personal note…Scott, I loved the photo of the fireworks and the castle. It was possibly the best fireworks photo I have ever seen. I thought it at the time, and now I’m thinking I should have typed you a note in the comments to let you know, because you so deserve the kudos. The two of you bring joy into my life on a regular basis. I get so happy everytime I see a new show on my iPod. Good luck on the move. I lived in Ocean City, Maryland for a while many years ago and really enjoyed Assategue Island the home of the Wild Ponies. I’ve got some stories to tell there but won’t go on. Have a wonderful day. I’ll be listening. Stay safe.

Denise : ) who has the day off today…yehah!!

I’ve been a member on istock since 2002. I’m exclusive with istock and have a diamond canister which earns me 40% royalties. At the moment I’m making over $2000 a month from my 599 images on the site. Bye bye mortgage! :)

Adrian (above) is correct in saying you have to take it seriously. It has taken me 4 years to get to this point and it is still going from strength to strength. This WILL become my full time job in the near future and it will be doing something I love. Bye bye day job! :)

I wish you guys luck with your venture into istock but don’t expect miracle straight away. If I can be of any help just drop me a sitemail on the site.

Just a couple of thoughts on iStock and my experiences. You can see my profile/portfolio, if you click on my name above and can check out what kinds of photos don’t seem to sell (although I have heard from other stock photographers, that they are not too bad)…

making money/number of photos: when the guys of the lightsource podcast interviewed the CEO of iStock, he said, that you would need at least a couple of hundred photos in your portfolio to get recognition. I don’t know if that’s exactly true. I have 33 pics, of which one has sold 6 times so far (the one I like the least), the others have not sold (although I like them better). So since January, when I joined iStock, I made, I think, like 3,60 $. Now I’m not complaining about it, it’s certainly 3,60 $ more than if I would not have joined. But my point is, that there is not going to be a large income by doing nothing, you have to take it seriously, which I haven’t so far, in order to get a decent return. Many of the best selling shots are taken from people with a certain level of skill and often even specifically for iStock. I’m not saying you can’t make money off your vacation pictures, there are certainly people that are that good, but to make “only” 100 bucks a month (you actually need to sell 500 pictures @ .20 $ ;-) ) is not as easy as it might seem.

sharpening: I never sharpen. I don’t know what my pictures are going to be used for, so I don’t know what to sharpen for, right? Plus it is also going to be downsized by iStock for the smaller sizes, so sharpening really doesn’t help in any way. It’s probably even going to be rejected for that matter.

model release: you need a model release for every recognisable face in your shots. this has to be signed by the fotographer, the model (legal guardian in case of a minor) and a witness. Someone once told me, that, at least in common law, consideration has to been given, in order for this contract to come to existence. Now fortunately we don’t have that ***** rule of consideration in our civil code system here in Germany, but I know that you can overcome the requirement of consideration by doing the contract in the form of a deed, but I don’t know if the iStock model release form satisfies those requirements. People living in common law seystems might have to look into this a little closer.

hope I could help a little. All the best luck with you riStock careers, I think the shots of your children or family you talked about, Scott, are a good idea, and keep up the great podcast.

Cheers, Adrian