Often too much choice could be a bad thing and stock photography is a good example. For years lots of the household-name stock photography agencies would promote themselves as being the biggest and having the largest collections. If you have been paying attention though, you may have spotted that's not such a favourite selling proposition any more and many of the larger libraries are now desperately trying to find other ways to distinguish themselves in an overcrowded market-place.
The truth is, many image buyers find enormous stock photo collections time-intensive and tedious to search, regardless of the improvements in image search engine technology. The difficulty is, the scale of these collections has increased at a greater rate than the search technology has improved ... So in plenty of cases, photo research has actually gotten slower and more difficult. It's no surprise then that an increasing number of image-researchers are opting for smaller 'niche' photo agencies, when they need to buy stock photos online.
These boutique stock libraries do not even attempt to compete on volume and most of the time they can not compete on price either ... But more photo buyers are flocking to these photography stock sites anyway, with a whole new set of reasons-to-buy.
Personal customer service, direct contact with the photographers, fresh original images, unique styles and content. OK, maybe these aren't totally new reasons after all , but they are reasons-to-buy that have been pushed aside for far to long.
A lot of it comes back to the way in which the image buyer values their time, and what sort of worth they put on finding the right image fast. The good news for photographers is, more are prepared to pay a more to avoid the tedium of a mass-distribution library and hone in on quality new photographs faster.
So the next time you need to buy stock pictures, take a pass on the big stock photography super-stores, and check out a few of the boutique collections instead ... You might be surprised.
The truth is, many image buyers find enormous stock photo collections time-intensive and tedious to search, regardless of the improvements in image search engine technology. The difficulty is, the scale of these collections has increased at a greater rate than the search technology has improved ... So in plenty of cases, photo research has actually gotten slower and more difficult. It's no surprise then that an increasing number of image-researchers are opting for smaller 'niche' photo agencies, when they need to buy stock photos online.
These boutique stock libraries do not even attempt to compete on volume and most of the time they can not compete on price either ... But more photo buyers are flocking to these photography stock sites anyway, with a whole new set of reasons-to-buy.
Personal customer service, direct contact with the photographers, fresh original images, unique styles and content. OK, maybe these aren't totally new reasons after all , but they are reasons-to-buy that have been pushed aside for far to long.
A lot of it comes back to the way in which the image buyer values their time, and what sort of worth they put on finding the right image fast. The good news for photographers is, more are prepared to pay a more to avoid the tedium of a mass-distribution library and hone in on quality new photographs faster.
So the next time you need to buy stock pictures, take a pass on the big stock photography super-stores, and check out a few of the boutique collections instead ... You might be 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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