FREELANCE VS. CORPORATE REPRESENTATION
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"Should I go with a stock photo agency?" -- is a question asked by many photographers who amass a substantial collection of images.
"If you do, start at the top," is usually the advice of veteran photographers. The top? In the commercial stock photography world, the top currently is Getty Images.
Getty Images has aspirations of becoming the biggest of the world’s image suppliers. How big is it? Right now about 60 million images big. Getty would like to become the Charles Schwab & Co. of the Internet. In the late 1990's, the company was on a buying spree: EyeWire.com, Art.com, Online USA, and The Image Bank, were some of their major acquisitions.
But big does not always mean best. When it comes to depth of photo supply and services offered, how does Getty stack up against the freelance photographers around the world?
Here’s the Seven "S’s" Test
SIZE: There are at least 345 million images available from freelance photographers through the Internet. Getty, with its 60 million images, falls short by 285,000,000.
SALES: Photographers with Getty Images receive only 40% of sales; freelancers receive 100% of all sales. Freelancers can sell clients quality images at less cost than when a middleman is involved.
SPEED: The bureaucracy of a large corporation means delivery can often be unacceptably slow. Editorial as well as planning decisions handcuff the administration. In contrast, freelancers can make decisions and follow-through with immediacy -- a major benefit for photobuyers.
In the world of the Web, monolithic companies with their convoluted hierarchical structures will lose ground to the streamlined directness offered by small one-person companies.
SELECTION: Getty can respond only to requests for photos that it has in its database. For reasons of cost-efficiency, Getty stores only photos that have promise of a shelf life that will give Getty a return on its investment in the photo. This translates to an emphasis on generic, wide-use photos. However, as the Web is becoming ever more efficient, photobuyers are able to request highly specific images. Freelancers are in a better position than a large agency like Getty, to respond to non-generic requests and with next - day service, even if it means walking outdoors to shoot a particular wildflower blossom in the snow, or a teenager in a red sweatshirt grooming her Apaloosa horse.
SCANNING: Getty must follow protocol in its scanning process (a very small percentage of its 60 million images are scanned thus far, and the entire process won’t be completed until well into 2015, by which time thousands of the images will be virtually obsolete.) Freelancers, on the other hand, have to scan an image (or have a service bureau scan it) only when they’re ready to make a sale. And freelancers don’t need to invest in (and recover the cost of ) industrial strength scanners. They can rely on a high-powered service bureau downtown.
STORAGE: In-house storage of millions of images, a' la Getty, has its limitations and hazards. The World Wide Web is becoming a dynamic storage substitute. Freelancers have the flexibility to roll with the development of the World Wide Web, which has the capacity to outreach any in-house storage of text/images.
SEARCH: Photo Researchers are learning that the World Wide Web offers more volume and variety. Why search 60 million files when you can search 345 million, lightning- quick, through the Internet?
The World Wide Web is making progress in leaps and bounds. Photobuying confidence in e-commerce is gaining momentum. Along in this marketing revolution comes the revelation that the small business person can show the monolithic corporate entity how to survive in the new economy. We will soon have a case (remember the fable?) of the elephant being helped by the mouse. And as a freelance stock photographer you have at your fingertips a fail-safe way to stay highly informed: by keeping up to date through PhotoStockNotes and the PhotoSource website (http://www.photosource.com) you’ll be way ahead of whoever comes out on top as the 'world leader' in stock agencies.
Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of PhotoStockNotes. Pine Lake Farm, Osceola, WI 54020 USA Email: info@photosource.com Fax: 1 715 248 7394. Web site: http://www.photosource.com
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