Keep it in stock?
The market for stock images has changed massively thanks to the impact of the internet, and payment rates may have fallen, but there is still a market there – and you don’t need to invest massively in facilities and equipment like the biggest ‘stock farms’. Over the next few pages, we speak to a range of agencies and successful stock shooters to see what’s selling and get some pointers on doing it better.
‘The stock photography and video market are thriving, and that’s because more and more images are consumed every day,’ says Richard Newstead, Senior Manager of Creative Content at Getty Images. ‘To succeed, you need a passion for photography, consistent quality, variety, style, and high volumes of work. But with more than 825,000 customers purchasing from Getty Images every year, sales are there to be had.’
Get trending
What about trends? ‘For commercial uses there’s a huge range of needs,’ Richard continues, ‘but one of the recent stand-outs is authenticity, as customers search for realness and diversity in their campaigns.’ This has formed a key part of one of Getty’s most helpful tools, VisualGPS, he says, which helps customers discover the images that resonate with their audience using market surveys, search data, and the experience of its analysts. And it’s not just a tool that customers can use – photographers themselves can look for inspiration in what sells.
These trends are backed up by another of stock photography’s big players, Alamy. Sophie Basilevitch, Senior Content Executive, tells us ‘People want to see stories from their own perspective and within their own communities. They’re looking for greater realness in depictions of workplaces, or travel, with a greater number of ethnic minorities featured. They don’t want
