Originally posted by NUKE
Nash, what are the standards for the photos being sold as you mentioned? How does someone offer pics for sale in the stock photography market?
There are pretty much no standards it seems. For eg. the photo I ended up buying wasn't because it was a great pic (it was awful); it was because it was the only pic in the category I needed for that project.
Saburo's had about 10 times the detail, despite being the exact same shot taken from the exact same position with the exact same light.
Stock houses will take anything. But will only carry so many of a certain category. I'm sure that if Saburo submitted his pic, it would bump out of circulation and replace the pic I bought.
As far as what the photographer is paid, I don't know. When you call them up to buy a pic, they run you through about 100 questions. What will you be using it for? What's size will you be using it. Do you want exclusive rights or limited? Web? Print? And on and on....
From that they come up with a price. From that the photographers get paid a percentage. I don't know what that is.
Basically, unless it's a national campaign or something like that, you're looking at anywhere between $300 and $1200 for the photo. You'd do your own shoot if it was something on the scale of national anywyas.
I can give you a list of where to look if you're interested in getting into it.
There are lotsa photographers who supply to stock houses for a living. It's tight. But.... there is a TON of bad photography there. If yours is better, you will bump them out. On a few occasions I've seen better here than what's been provided by them.
