Miron Abramovici

Astrid Pardew, 6 months ago

Miron I think every self-respecting photographer should boycott stock photography sites unless one is allowed to set one’s own fees. Of course this is open for discussion but this is my humble opinion. Such sites have only their own interests in mind and that is how to make money from photographers. Photos submitted to stock photo sites are usually dirt cheap and are normally sold as royalty-free. This means that anyone can buy your photolinks for a few cents, or dollars at best, and use them to their heart’s content even commercially. It takes times, energy, effort and expensive equipment to produce saleable images! Why should anyone want to sell them for next to nothing?... As I said, this is open for discussion. Good luck if you decided to join such as site, but be prepared. It may not go as you would like ti to.

Miron Abramovici in reply to Astrid Pardew’s comment, 5 months ago

Thanks Astrid. Appreciate your input.

Gracey, 5 months ago

Well you have to understand the business model in stock photography. Some make a much better living in stock than do we artists. There’s nothing that says you can’t do both, as some of us here do.

With art prints it’s unlikely you are going to sell 100 (or 1000) of the same print, let’s say over the course of a year. But you can (and some often do) with stock. If you average out the sales you have on a piece of art against what you earned on a popular image from your stock sales, you’d probably find you earned more profit from the stock image. But stock is not art (well, it is an art of sorts, but different from “art” as we see here), and the stock shooter can’t have an attachment to their work – you have to see it as a job, not as a labour of love.

The fact is, in stock photography your work has to meet standards that are above the ordinary print (in terms of technical things like noise, focus, colour balance, composition, etc.) and generally the type of image wanted at stock is not often the same as some of the artistic work we find on RB.

To be honest, I would not want to see RB turn into a stock site…I came here to get away from that.

Chris Clark, 4 months ago

I agree with Gracey

I have been a member of a stock Library for 2 years, submitted specific works when asked and made a big fat zilch. I have earned more here at RB. If you want to look at a stock Library, try photolibra 50/50 split on sales Alamy 60/40 split Getty Images I have not even considered.

Busy setting up my own web site and once have finished uploading all my images will market myself to picture buyers and galleries direct with a link to my own site where i can answer any questions they have and negotiate my own price.

Good Luck Miron