Calm Photos

Crowdsourcing: Faces in the Crowd: Interview Series Part I

I picked-up this article by way of a fellow Photodoto.com contributor who recently posted the link on the site. The article is an interview with a stock photographer who has made a pretty decent living with just her work that has sold on iStockphoto.com.

I too sell an occasional image license via my portfolio listed with iStockphoto, however, I’m not a mass uploader of images nor do I hold-out any hope that this venue will add any real $$$’s to the revenue stream of Picture Ohio, LLC. I like to keep a little bit more profitable control over my most popular images that are purchased for stock licensing, either directly or by way of my portfolio listed with Alamy.

What I submit to iStockphoto has more to do with my own curiosity as to what is accepted and what will sell, and I only like to submit those images which I think may have a niche market versus wide appeal.

One of the questions I’ve always had about iStockphoto is their image approval process. I could never quite figure out the process because there wasn’t any real rhyme or reason to it. It just seemed like whoever happened to be doing the inspections when one of my images came through, and probably what kind of mood they were in, had more to do with whether or not it would be accepted rather than the image being objectively judged based on technical merit and true quality.

As hinted to in the Crowdsourcing article, it looks like iStockphoto utilizes a pool of other contributing photographers for their quality control process, kind of like how software companies will use beta testers. But in this case the actual “testers” are making the final decisions.
It may be just me and my naivety, but isn’t that a bit like having the fox watching the hen house ? Maybe iStockphoto has some type of process that makes sure that submitted images are sent for approval within categories that the other contributing photographer does not usually submit. But still, I have to wonder, how objective could the process be ?

Also, one of the responders to the article brings up an excellent point regarding the negative impact that microstock agencies are having on the commercial photography industry, specifically, clients choosing penny stock images over professional assignment work.

I still think that there is plenty of both to go around. Sooner or later a client who uses nothing but stock photography for their web site and print ads will get tired of the generic look and recognize the benefits of visually communicating their actual products, employees and facilities, especially if they want to focus on a particular geographic market area. Conversely the client who uses nothing but local, assignment photography will eventually need to use a stock image or two.

For the most part it has been my impression that professional photographers aren’t exactly warming-up to the concept of microstock. It will be interesting to see how the photo industry responds. I do know that the photographers who can make a successful living off of nothing but microstock sales are VERY far and few between.