Microstock Equals Micropayment

Microstock isn't a new beer name and it's not a rock concert either. Microstock refers to the new breed of online stock agency where millions of images reside for purchase for micropayment amounts.

Each agency has it's own structures, but they encourage photographers to post images they have already rejected anyway so that their paying clients can download the images free if they choose to do so. And, for some of the beginners that's all they want is to see their images online, on one of these sites. If it has to be free, then so be it.

In a recent discussion about microstock, I listened to how this would hurt photographers and drive pricing down, and for the most part I agreed that would be the case - in the short term.

My defense of microstock comes from the perspective that I do not rely on stock to make a living and that I take a long term approach to the stock photography business.

If you are making a living off stock images, you are in for some hard times. That is the truth. But, you had to see it coming. Since digital, we have all had hard times as amateurs pick up cameras and call themselves professionals - sans knowledge, sans education and sans experience. Stock photographers - WELCOME TO OUR WORLD!

However, in the long run, look at what will happen. These folks with dreams of making it big in microstock (an oxymoron if ever there was one!) will fall by the wayside as the nickels dimes and quarters slowly add up in their accounts. These folks were drawn by the potential (and there is potential) of a single image to pay their mortgage in a months time of sales. Drawn like a moth to the flame. Before the "falling away" there will be sites and books telling you how you too can live the dream and get rich off your DSLR and microstock agencies. Guess what - they will get rich off the moths as they lead them to the flame. In a year or two there will be these stories about how many accounts there are on these sites that have accumulated a few dollars or cents and have been abandoned. A dollar here and a dollar there, but the dream has been replaced by reality. The reality is you have to be a good photographer producing good photography on a consistent basis.

The second thing that will happen to microstock is that the big buyers will tire, and are already showing signs of tiring, from seeing "their images" being used to promote other - even competitor's - products. Feel free to think! Anyone can purchase this stock. Finally, art buyers will see the value of original images for their specific usages - down goes microstock / micropayment. Back comes real photography from real photographers (a.k.a.-survivors), and at realistic pricing.

REAL STORIES

There really are people making money at the microstock game. All one has to do is look at sites such as iStockPhoto and check out download numbers from some of the "most popular" images. There absolutely are some people making a living at this and the quality of the images is unbelievable.

So, when a photographer has some downtime what does she do? Think of ways to make money with something that doesn't require work. What better thing to do than to recycle all of those images that have been sitting around for years - decades? So, fueled by the numbers she sees on the microstock site, and the hype that is all over the internet, she begins to scan all those old images. FIRST MISTAKE. Most microstock agencies are much more critical of film originals and scans than they are of digital originals. So, fully expect 50-75 percent rejection of your images based on technical difficulties. Oh yes, you also MUST HAVE SIGNED MODEL RELEASES for your images. What are the odds of you finding those people anyway?

Based on the rejections - which no photographer likes - she then decides she has to get something ... anything ... online with the agency. So, she sees what images are most popular on the microstock sites. "I can do a better flag shot than that!" SECOND MISTAKE. Read microsites carefully and you will see there are many subjects they consider to be "well covered", and they say so in not-so-tactful ways.

Perhaps then she decides to expand her research and join some groups online discussions of micropayment/microstock. It shouldn't take long to realize the folks in these groups know even less than she does - at least the vast majority know less.

So, how does one use microstock to benefit themselves - their art and their business? Tune into this post for the answer to that question.