Webware

A new tool from PhotoShelter lets you import images from a Flickr account to your PhotoShelter Personal Archive.

(Credit: PhotoShelter)

Barely a week goes by when I don't see a story about someone's photo being stolen from Flickr. I guess I'm not the only one, because PhotoShelter today announced that they've added a tool to their customers' Personal Archive accounts that lets them import images from, or export images to, a Flickr Pro-level account. Ultimately, it's a pretty slick way for the company to capitalize on the fact that PhotoShelter's Personal Archive provides a more secure environment for photographers, since it doesn't allow unauthorized viewing or downloads, though photographers can set selected galleries as public if they want to allow non-password-protected viewing. Plus, PhotoShelter's system includes an e-commerce engine, so you can set prices and sell your images.

The new tool also preserves any keywords or descriptions previously added in Flickr, and since PhotoShelter's system automatically recognizes EXIF data, you shouldn't lose anything in the transfer, except the possibility of your image becoming the unwitting star of an international ad campaign without proper compensation. The tool also lets you transfer images from a Personal Archive account to a Flickr account in case you want to take advantage of that service's photo sharing capabilities. If you use both services, this new tool gives you a nifty way to add watermarks to your Flickr photos, since PhotoShelter's system has a tool to do just that. Isn't it great when two photo sharing services find a way to play nicely together?

PhotoShelter's new PhotoShelter Collection is challenging the standard business model for stock photos.

(Credit: PhotoShelter)

Last Saturday, the online image backup and storage website PhotoShelter officially launched its new stock photography outlet PhotoShelter Collection, which will compete with high-end stock houses, such as Getty Images and Corbis. With established stock image providers feeling serious pressure from microstock sites, such as Fotolia, which offer their images for as little as $1, it might seem strange for PhotoShelter to enter the game now, but they plan to distinguish themselves from the competition by giving photographers a larger commission, control over pricing, and by promising that they won't participate in what they see as the devaluation of photography by microstock sites and Getty's recent decision to offer the vast majority of their images for online use at drastically reduced prices.

While PhotoShelter will let photographers set prices and offers tools to help with pricing so photographers can more easily set an appropriate rate for their photos, they do set a lower limit of $50 for the images offered on PhotoShelter Collection. They also have a team of photo editors that review and approve submissions to the site, to maintain a high level of images so that photo buyers can expect quality images from the service. Unlike a lot of stock agencies, which offer commissions of 50 percent, or often much less, for photographers on sales of their images, PhotoShelter is offering 70 percent commissions, with a special promotional rate of 85 percent for photos accepted before November 4, 2007 and sold within the first six months when the site launches for sales on November 5th. Also, the sales process is entirely transparent, so photographers know who buys their images and what they paid for them. Many stock services don't share such information with their photographers, leaving them little recourse if they think that the company is being less than honest with them.

Since a good search function is essential for a stock service, PhotoShelter has gone to great lengths to create what they think is a top-notch search engine for the site. As they are fond of expressing it, the system can tell the difference between a search for orange the fruit and Orange County New York. They also have three categories of images--Contemporary, Pro Stock, and Editorial. When a photographer uploads an image, the company's system automatically reads and incorporates EXIF and IPTC metadata and photographers can add more information, such as captions and keywords to any images that are accepted into the system.

Though the system has only been accepting images for less than a week, they have already received almost 9,000 images from over 1,000 photographers. That's a big vote of confidence for a new agency. It probably doesn't hurt that the service is free to join and doesn't require a PhotoShelter membership to participate. If you want to give it a whirl and see if you can sell some of your images, go to the PhotoShelter Collection sign up page, fill out the application and upload some images.

Photographers' trade groups are speaking out against Getty Images' new online stock photo pricing plan.

Just last week, CNET blogger Stephen Shankland, shared his thoughts that recent changes affecting the professional photography market have a "silver lining that shouldn't be overlooked." While his optimism is a nice respite amid increasingly weary economic times, six professional photographers' trade associations are now speaking out against a new pricing scheme by stock photo giant Getty Images that offers its high-end Rights-managed and Rights-ready images, alongside its lower-priced Rights-free images, for the same low price of $49 when used on the Web. For all but the Rights-free images, this represents a price reduction of more than 90 percent for images that used to fetch anywhere from $550 to $1,460 for their use.

In a press release issued yesterday, the Stock Artists Alliance (SAA), along with the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), the U.K. Association of Photographers (AOP), Advertising Photographers of America (APA), Editorial Photographers (EP), and the Canadian Association of Photographers (CAPIC), expressed their worries that Getty Images' "extreme competitive response presents huge risks to the image licensing business, and threatens the livelihoods not only of Getty contributers, but of professional photographers industry-wide." What makes matters worse is that in many cases, the photos Getty offers are owned by the photographers who shot them. The SSA statement goes on to say, "As the market leader, Getty's actions affect the entire industry. We therefore expect that your action of devaluing digital usage risks the long-term earning potential from image licensing, whether it be stock or commissioned."

It's no secret that Getty Images has been having a hard time of late, with its stock at $30.40 as of this afternoon, compared with a 52-week high of $57.28. As such, the company is likely slashing prices in an attempt to increase sales volume and boost overall revenue. However, it could be a dangerous path to tread for a company that has become known for its high-quality images to alienate the people who provide those images while simultaneously devaluing their work and threatening their livelihoods. Meanwhile, as is usually the case with big corporations, Getty's CEO Jonathan D. Klein seems to have a pretty sweet deal, making a cool $1 million for his annual salary, with up to a 70 percent bonus as well as copious stock-based bonuses, should the company be able to meet its goals. Too bad his plan to meet those goals seems to come at the expense of the photographers who helped build the company up in the first place.

Photoshelter's new storage plan offers 1TB for $1,000 per year.

(Credit: Photoshelter)

Photoshelter has announced that it will now offer its standard- ($29.99 per month) and professional-level ($49.99 per month) members one terabyte of redundant storage for $1,000 per year. If that's too much storage for you, you can also opt for 500GB for $600 per year. Obviously this won't appeal to snapshooters, but it is among the most affordable Web-based bulk storage options for professional photographers at the moment. Photoshelter's standard members already get 35GB of storage with their monthly membership, while professional members get 100GB. The site also offers a basic membership with 10GB of storage at $9.99 per month. Why does this matter? Well...

Lots of Web sites offer a place to show off your photos (Webshots or Flickr), and discount online stock photo agencies let you sell your photos for pocket change, but neither of these solutions help pro photographers who want to make a living off of their work. Photoshelter lets you show off and sell your images online at prices you control, while storing your work in a pair of servers in a RAID configuration for full redundant backup. Plus, since the servers are located on opposite sides of the continental United States, Photoshelter offers another level of protection against catastrophes that could destroy your images, such as earthquakes or tornadoes.

Since storage isn't everything, Photoshelter also includes pricing assistance through its partnership with FotoQuote, so Photoshelter members can take advantage of a database of photo pricing information when trying to figure out what to charge for their images. Another partnership with online photofinisher EZ Prints lets you choose between automatic or personal fulfillment of print orders. Plus, since you can customize your Photoshelter page, you can easily integrate it into your current Web site, or create a new one with a personalized, professional look.