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PHOTOGRAPHY ARTICLES PUBLISHED BY BAREBULB GALLERIES
The Pros and Cons of Stock Photography Representation
Stock Photography is photography that is made available for commercial use. It differs from assignment photography in that it is not custom made to a client or buyer's specifications. Stock photography is mainly bought and used by publishers of magazines and books, advertising agencies, and calendar & greeting-card companies, to name but a few. Such companies will buy stock photography as opposed to having assignment photography done, for various reasons: Stock Photography is often cheaper, offers a variety of ready-made photos to choose from, as well as in most cases a better quality of photography than assignment photography, as well as offering the distinct advantage of being readily available.
The advantage of selling your photography as stock photography is that not only do you have ultimate control over the creative aspects of shooting photography, you also are able to retain your photo copyrights and re-sell your images.
The concept of Stock Photography has been around for a few decades, but its popularity has particularly picked up since the 1980's. Today it is only of the fastest growing fields in photography due to its use and application in the print, publishing and multi-media indutries. This growth has resulted in a greater demand for a variety of photographs by smaller, less public use of stock photography, but it has also caused the sales price of stock photography to drop.
Creating and selling Stock Photography can be done either through representation by stock photography agencies, self-representation, or a combination of the two.
Below we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of both Stock Agency and Self-representation:
STOCK AGENCY REPRESENTATION:
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ADVANTAGES:
- Less Administration and Marketing Hassles: Being represented by a stock agency takes care of all your administration and marketing head-aches - as this is done for you. This means a photographer can concentrate on what he/she is best at - shooting photography - and not have to worry about marketing or mailing his/her photography to prospective clients.
- Legal Backing: Photographers have the added peace of mind knowing that if their transparencies are lost, stolen or used illegally, the stock agency will take care of such legal matters.
- Foreign Representation: A photographer's target market is often broader, if his/her stock agency also markets their stock photographers overseas.
- Target Market Advice: Stock agencies, in dealing with buyers, often have a much better idea of the trends & needs of both stock photograpphy and their clients, and therefore can give up-to-date advice on the type of images they may feel would market and sell well.
- Volume Sales: Being represented by a stock agency, also enables a photographer's work to be sold in volume, for example by encyclopedia and textbook publishers who often by pictures in bulk.
- Visibility & Marketing: A stock agency, as stands to reason, has better financial and other resources to market and promote a photographer's work through use of brochures and catalogues, than the photographer him/herself. The more marketing, the more visible is a photographer's work and the more sales are generated. Stock agency catalogue sales, for instance, can account for almost half of all stock photography sales.
- Assignments: Many stock agencies also give a photographer the added benefit of representation in the field of assignment photography, if they also generate corporate, advertising and editorial assignments in addtion to their stock archive sales.
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DISADVANTAGES:
- Profit-cuts: Stock photography agencies often take a hefty commission in every sale, usually ranging between 40-50%, but sometimes even higher. This of course means less income for the photographer.
- Contracts: Some stock photography agencies require photographers to sign an exclusive contract with their agency which will prohibit them photographer from being able to sell his/her photography through other stock agencies. This limits the photographer's target market.
- Trustworthiness: It is very important to be sure of the stock agency's trustworthiness, and to know whether your photography is actually being properly promoted or even sold.
- Difficulty in finding representation: Be aware that is is more dificult to get a stock agency to take you and your work on unless you are a dedicated stock photographer. Many stock agencies prefer to sign photographers that are serious about the quality of their stock photography, not just the quantity.
- Format: Although many stock agencies do accept 35mm film, larger format transparencies are more often preferred and submitted to buyers for review due to the ease in their viewing as well as the additional quality such a film format delivers.
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SELF-REPRESENTATION:
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ADVANTAGES:
- More Profit: Photographer earn 100% of their earnings, no commissions to cut into your profits.
- Higher Personal sales: A photographer has a higher chance of selling his own work as there is no competition with other photographers' photography.
- Generation of Assignments: If a client cannot find the image neede in a photographer's portfolio, very often the photographer can shoot the desired image on assignment.
- Personal Client Contact: A Photographer's personal contact with clients is one of the best selling techniques to generate sales - many buyers prefer the personal touch.
- Niche Market: If a photographer shoots and deals in a very specific type of photography that a client is partial to, very often the client will return for future photos of a similar nature.
- Personal Responsibility: Photographers can be personally responsible for their own income, without having to depend on the efforts of an agency.
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DISADVANTAGES:
- Competition: Competing again the large stock agencies is tough. Often, clients are lost to stock agencies with larger photo variety.
- Time Investment: Be aware of the investment needed in terms of creating, maintaining and marketing a photo library.
- Administration Costs: Bearing the financial costs involved in setting up your business, maintaining, marketing and legal/litigation costs can be steep - You have to be both photographer as well as savvy business person.
- Tied to the Office: Unless you hire staff to handle client requests and all admin/office work, you can often times find yourself tied to the office and unable to travel for photographic shoots.
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This should give you a better idea on whether you, as stock photographer, are more uniquely suited to stock agency representation or self-representation, and hopefully enables you to make the right choice for your stock photography!
Copyright Silver McBain © 2004 (BareBulb Galleries)
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[ This article is copyrighted and may not be reproduced in part or whole in any way without prior permission from the author. If you are interested in using this article either in print or on your web-site, re-publication is free-of-charge, requiring only a link back to www.barebulb.com and visible display of the author's copyright. Please CONTACT US for the necessary permission. ]
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