Sometimes too much choice could be a bad thing and stock photography is a prime example. For years many of the household-name stock image agencies would promote themselves as being the biggest and having the largest collections. If you have been paying attention though, you might have spotted that is not such a major selling proposition any more and lots of the larger libraries are now desperately attempting to find alternative options to brand themselves in a very crowded marketplace.
The truth is, many photography users find giant stock image collections time-intensive and tedious to search, in spite of the improvements in photo search engine technology. The issue is, the scale of these collections has increased at a greater rate than the search technology has improved ... So in many cases, photo research has essentially gotten slower and more difficult. It's no surprise then that more photography-researchers are opting for smaller 'niche' photo libraries, when they need to buy stock photos on the web.
These boutique stock libraries do not even try and compete on volume and most of the time they cannot compete on price either ... But more photo researchers are heading to these image stock sites regardless, with a completely new set of reasons-to-buy.
Private service, close contact with the photographers, fresh original photographs, unique styles and subjects. OK, perhaps these are not totally new reasons after all , but they're reasons-to-buy which have been pushed to the back for far to long.
A lot of it comes back to how the photography user values their time, and what kind of price they put on finding the right photograph fast. The good news for photographers is, more are prepared to pay a bit more to avoid the tedium of a mass-distribution library and hone in on quality new pictures faster.
So the next time you need to buy stock photography, take a pass on the massive stock image super-stores, and check out a few of the boutique collections instead ... You may be pleasantly surprised.
The truth is, many photography users find giant stock image collections time-intensive and tedious to search, in spite of the improvements in photo search engine technology. The issue is, the scale of these collections has increased at a greater rate than the search technology has improved ... So in many cases, photo research has essentially gotten slower and more difficult. It's no surprise then that more photography-researchers are opting for smaller 'niche' photo libraries, when they need to buy stock photos on the web.
These boutique stock libraries do not even try and compete on volume and most of the time they cannot compete on price either ... But more photo researchers are heading to these image stock sites regardless, with a completely new set of reasons-to-buy.
Private service, close contact with the photographers, fresh original photographs, unique styles and subjects. OK, perhaps these are not totally new reasons after all , but they're reasons-to-buy which have been pushed to the back for far to long.
A lot of it comes back to how the photography user values their time, and what kind of price they put on finding the right photograph fast. The good news for photographers is, more are prepared to pay a bit more to avoid the tedium of a mass-distribution library and hone in on quality new pictures faster.
So the next time you need to buy stock photography, take a pass on the massive stock image super-stores, and check out a few of the boutique collections instead ... You may be pleasantly surprised.
About the Author:
Matt Brading is a photographer and writer with the Global Eye co-operative stock photo agency, where buyers can deal direct and buy stock photos directly from the photographer
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