Photography related business idea

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bulb763

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Jon
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I've had an idea for an online stock image agency business. I have spent a bit of time doing as much market research as I can using Google (I realise this probably isn't the most effective or reliable method), and I reckon I'm on to a winner. In fact I was quite excited when I had the idea and spent a few hours developing it! I don't want to give too much of the idea away at the moment, but I think it will encourage contributors to join up quickly and contribute more regularly than they might otherwise, as well as potentially offering savings to clients over existing agencies.

So I want to do a bit of research into the market before I dive in and invest a lot of serious time and money.

Do any of you submit your pictures to any online stock agencies?
I know they all have various requirements for submissions before they are added to their catalogues, so do you find these requirements easy enough to work with, or are they a bit restrictive, or even slightly ambiguous?
Have you had many of your images rejected, and what sort of % is this of your total submissions? Do they give reasons for any rejections, and are these reasons reasonable in your opinion?
Do you think they could do more to help you achieve a successful submission by giving more or better feedback?
How do you find the sales performance of your images on the various sites? Are any better than others, or is it much of a muchness?
Are you happy with the cut that the various agencies keep, or do you think they're a bit high? Or would you even mind them taking a bit more if the chance of a sale was higher?

If you have any other experiences of submitting images to stock agencies that you'd like to share, I'd be very interested to hear them. Any other relevant ideas or points would be gratefully received too!
 
Not many replies so far...
..and mine may not help but...

I have never submitted any pictures as so many agencies seem so intimadating, and I am just little me..
I have often wondered about it, but never dared even approach one.
So, I guess that if I have anything to offer you by way of help, then how about making it as approachable as possible (I say this with the understanding that no agency can give hours of time to every camera owner who wants to submit pictures of little Johnny..) and if you are trying to encourage new talent (of which I may not even be..) then make it all as friendly as possible.
Good luck with it !
 
I litterally signed upto an stock agencey yesterday after finding them on google, I am a newcomer to photography really and I am still figuring out the settings on my Nikon D40:bonk:so it was abit of a spur of the moment thing to be honest.
I submitted 10 images last night and they were all rejected, I knew they would be but just wanted to see how it worked.
They did give reasons for each rejection, which was good and overall I was very happy with how things are run.
Sorry for being a bit vague in my reply, Hope it works out good for you.

Good luck in your venture:thumbs:
 
I submit to Istockphoto, I'm an exclusive photographer with them now. They can be a bit critical with the rejections sometimes. The processing is a little bit different for stock as they will reject files for over sharpened, over filtered, artifacting, etc. It has been a sharp learning curve for me and improved my photography and post processing, at the moment my acceptance rate is 60%, which is on the up after a poor start.

Carpaddicted was it shutterstock you submitted to, if so you need to have 7 of the 10 approved. If they reject 4 the rest will be shown as rejected, however they still my have passed the submision if you get what I mean.
 
Agreed Ally, but they have improved over the last two decades or so. Competition and all that, they've had to become more user friendly to contributors, one of the lasting legacies of digital in my humble opinion. In the early days of digi you could just submit your trannies for scanning and clean up etc.
Bulb, whatever your idea is talk to a fella called Paul Beard. He set up a Library a few years back and was starting to do well but someone hacked the site and he lost his whole library. So talk security with him to keep the data base safe. This seems to be his latest venture here: http://www.photographers-united.com/
 
Thanks everyone! First of all, I'd like to apologise for not replying to this thread sooner. Unfortunately I've not had any time. I am taking this seriously, so your responses are appreciated!

steveinspain said:
So, I guess that if I have anything to offer you by way of help, then how about making it as approachable as possible (I say this with the understanding that no agency can give hours of time to every camera owner who wants to submit pictures of little Johnny..) and if you are trying to encourage new talent (of which I may not even be..) then make it all as friendly as possible.
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Steve, this will be part of what my approach would solve, I think. There will be a large, constantly evolving, panel of judges that will be incentivised to provide detailed, honest feedback.

Carpaddicted said:
I submitted 10 images last night and they were all rejected, I knew they would be but just wanted to see how it worked.
They did give reasons for each rejection, which was good and overall I was very happy with how things are run.
Sorry for being a bit vague in my reply, Hope it works out good for you.
Click to expand...

This is another "quirk" that I would do without. What I believe happens for your first submission is that if they find a single image that fails their criteria, they fail your whole submission. I guess they figure that if there is one bad egg, the rest may be too. With my idea, there would be no reasonable reason to judge the images on this basis - they would be done image-by-image.

Wile E. coyote said:
I submit to Istockphoto, I'm an exclusive photographer with them now. They can be a bit critical with the rejections sometimes. The processing is a little bit different for stock as they will reject files for over sharpened, over filtered, artifacting, etc. It has been a sharp learning curve for me and improved my photography and post processing, at the moment my acceptance rate is 60%, which is on the up after a poor start.
Click to expand...

Wile E, can you expand on what you mean by critical? As far as I was aware, the reason for having to submit unsharpened images is because resizing a sharpened image is more likely to introduce artifacts, which obviously the clients do not want.

J Gordon said:
Agreed Ally, but they have improved over the last two decades or so. Competition and all that, they've had to become more user friendly to contributors, one of the lasting legacies of digital in my humble opinion.
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Absolutely JG. The "market" is their for contributors as more and more people invest in DSLRs that are becoming ever more accessible. Not only that, but the PP-ing programs make it even easier to create a half-decent looking image. I think the trick is a business model that makes it easy and genuinely attractive for contributors to upload their shots, without fear of "rejection". And at the same time attracts the clients! By rejection, I mean an abrupt no, with no decent explanation of the reasons.

J Gordon said:
In the early days of digi you could just submit your trannies for scanning and clean up etc.
Bulb, whatever your idea is talk to a fella called Paul Beard. He set up a Library a few years back and was starting to do well but someone hacked the site and he lost his whole library. So talk security with him to keep the data base safe. This seems to be his latest venture here: http://www.photographers-united.com/
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip :thumbs: I am not so clued up on the technical side of things. In fact all I have done all my working life is turned up at 9 and left at 5, so it is going to be a steep learning curve for me, how to run a business, taxes, creating websites, hosting secure websites, expanding websites, dealing with clients, employees, contractors! I am really excited by the prospect though, and cant wait to get out of the 9-to-5!

Once again, thank you all for your responses. I am looking forward to hearing more, if anyone has any more thoughts on the subject :)
 
bulb763 said:
Wile E, can you expand on what you mean by critical? As far as I was aware, the reason for having to submit unsharpened images is because resizing a sharpened image is more likely to introduce artifacts, which obviously the clients do not want.
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Basically yes your right, you can get away with very minimal sharpening. Sometimes I think an image can be rejected because the reviewer doesn't like the picture. I had some rejected for strange reasons or deemed not stock worthy, however I have resubmitted them and had the same images approved :shrug:.
 
Wile E. coyote said:
Basically yes your right, you can get away with very minimal sharpening. Sometimes I think an image can be rejected because the reviewer doesn't like the picture. I had some rejected for strange reasons or deemed not stock worthy, however I have resubmitted them and had the same images approved :shrug:.
Click to expand...

Strange :shrug: I think this would be solved by having a panel of judges, rather than an individual, judge each submission.
 
Sorry to sound like a complete beginner (but I am) and not contribute to the first post, but what exactly are stock agency sites? I looked at them a while ago, as I know it something about contributing your images and people paying to use them if they want, but I couldnt find a site where I could get involved... cheers
 
bulb763 said:
Strange :shrug: I think this would be solved by having a panel of judges, rather than an individual, judge each submission.
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Istock are that big now, over 3 million files online and the queue generally has around 40000 files up for review. They have individual reviewers all around the world who are given guidelines to work to, but it still comes down to the eye of the beholder

adamg said:
Sorry to sound like a complete beginner (but I am) and not contribute to the first post, but what exactly are stock agency sites? I looked at them a while ago, as I know it something about contributing your images and people paying to use them if they want, but I couldnt find a site where I could get involved... cheers
Click to expand...

Yep your right, you upload your files which they decide whether or not it is acceptable for stock. The images are then downloaded by designers for various use (advertising, web use, etc.) and you get a % or the sale.
 
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