Category Archives: Craig’s Comments

Comments from Craig

Use Recognizable Backgrounds to Add Impact

There has long been a place (and a market!) for images shot in a studio on a plain background – just ask any established studio photographer. Studio images on plain backgrounds help to focus you entirely on the subject. But what if you are looking to bring a more contemporary look to your images? Have you tried to use recognizable backgrounds to add impact? And by backgrounds, I don’t mean studio backdrops – I mean real locations.

Why do recognizable backgrounds help to make a strong image? Recognizable backgrounds add location and meaning to an image. They create a connection with the viewer who will often know the exact location the image has been shot at, and may have even stood in the exact same location.

People who know Melbourne will instantly recognize this location

In this image, people who know Melbourne, Australia will instantly recognize this as the front entrance to the Flinders Street Railway Station on the corner of Flinders Street and Swanston Street. The location adds a distinct local flavor, and creates a connection with the viewer. Many people have stood in this exact location.

Why is this an opportunity for your photography business? Demand for images shot in the studio and isolated on white is falling, and demand for real people in real locations (including recognizable locations!) is booming. It is about creating genuine images which the viewer can relate to. Real people, real locations.

It’s possible to shoot in a variety of locations in a single shoot

Here are seven quick reasons why you might want to catch this wave.

clients love to shoot images which connect them to the location. Whether it’s permanent residents or travelers, people have an emotional connection to their home town, whether it’s a permanent or temporary home town.
locations look different at different times of year. Use the seasons to your advantage and shoot different styles in different seasons. Think how you could use this to shoot different images of the same client at different times of year?
if you are starting out, you can shoot this style of image with minimal cost. You may want a reflector or two, but you won’t incur the costs of setting up a studio when you shoot this type of image. This can be a very cost effective way to build a portrait business or stock portfolio.
demand for ‘local’ stock images is growing rapidly. Stock buyers are moving away from images which could have been shot anywhere, to images which clearly have context and location. If you are interested in driving your stock photo sales, shoot local and make it clear that the images have context and location.
shooting images on location is fun. I find it really enjoyable walking around my hometown finding new locations and shooting interesting local images. Often you can generate a very wide variety of images in a short period of time.
there is an almost limitless range of possible locations. I am shooting a stock photography series using locations in my home town. I started by writing down some locations to use, and ended up with a list of ideas three pages long! You won’t run out of locations to shoot at. Think creatively and you will be able to generate a huge range of shoot locations.
clients love to share location images on social media. This can only be good for business.

Thanks for reading this post. I hope you can use recognizable backgrounds to create some cool images and benefit your photography business. Happy shooting.

New Ways to Sell Your Images

While many in the photography industry lament the loss of “the way things were” – I continue to be positive that there are more ways for photographers to make money today than ever before. Not only that, there continue to be new ways to sell your images.

This shot was taken at a remote beach on the east coast of New Zealand. Very specific images like this suit the ImageBrief model.

Currently, some of my key ways for generating income through photography are:

Selling my images through a stock photography site
Local wedding clients
Local family portrait clients
Local portrait clients
Selling prints online
Helping other photographers to run their own businesses
Selling copies of an e-book I wrote about stock photography

This week I’ve been learning more about an online business called ImageBrief. It has been around for a while now, but is new to me.

How Does it Work? ImageBrief works by people who need images writing a specific brief for photographers to work to. The buyers are, in the main, advertising agencies and corporate clients. They are looking for specific, unique images and don’t want images which are broadly available like on a microstock site. On their home page these words sum up what they are aiming to provide to buyers – “Un-Stocky Stock Images”.

What about payment? For each image you get paid a few hundred dollars (in US dollars) through to several thousand dollars. The amount is outlined on the brief. One brief I look at was for hero images of Australian and New Zealand cities. The buyer was needing multiple images and was prepared to pay $3500 per image. That is an attractive amount per image.

How is it different to microstock? It’s clear from the payment structure that images sold via Imagebrief follow a low volume, higher price model compared to microstock. Microstock was built on high volume and low prices which made it attractive to the occasional image buyer and the mass image buyer. Imagebrief is an evolution to meet the needs of the specific image buyer. They don’t want an image which is readily available and widely used elsewhere. In many cases, they want exclusivity of use for a period of time and are prepared to pay for it.

ImageBrief connects buyers and sellers around specific requirements.

Why is this attractive for image buyers? For the buyer, using a service like Imagebrief is still cheaper and easier than hiring a photographer to shoot the image directly and gives them some control of the creative process. If they write a good brief they should get a range of images to select from which meets their needs. In that sense it is better than hiring one photographer who shoots in one style. A pool of photographers will provide different images with different styles.

What’s in it for the photographer? Firstly, there is a pipeline of briefs being written by buyers every day. If you are wanting to know what is in demand by modern image buyers, start reading the briefs. Secondly, it gives the photographer access to image buyers around the world. If you are only shooting for local clients, Imagebrief brings you in contact with a much broader range of buyers. And thirdly, the combination of the first two points means this is a financial opportunity and one of the new ways to sell your images.

Interestingly, the information on ImageBrief talks about being able to use your existing library of images to meet buyers needs. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a lot of commercially useful images just sitting around. They are either being used by clients, or available through my stock photography portfolio. I believe it’s more realistic to be using the briefs to go and shoot new content, rather than using your existing files.

Will it be successful? This model has the potential to be very successful. It enables the buyer to tap into a pool of photographers around the world, and to write a specific brief for them. Photographers should be able to produce images which match directly to the buyers needs. In many ways I see this model as an extension to stock photography, but improved by the fact the buyer outlines exactly what they need, rather than hoping they find a suitable image in a stock library. It is a great example of leveraging the ‘connected world’ through an online marketplace to better match the needs of the buyer and seller.

Thanks for reading new ways to sell your images. Head on over to ImageBrief to check it out.

Disclosure – the links to the Imagebrief site in this post have a referral which Craig Dingle Photography Pty Ltd may benefit from financially. Under the current terms of the program my business would earn a US$50 voucher when any photographer who signs up with ImageBrief via this link sells their first image.

Starting Your Best Photography Year Ever

Welcome to the new year! How exciting, you are starting your best photography year ever!

Over the Christmas and New Year period I’ve been catching up on my editing backlog and did one stock photography shoot. As I’ve worked through the editing and uploading of those images, I’ve had time to look back on my most recent shoots. They have been very enjoyable sessions – my three most recent shoots were a family portrait session and two stock photo shoots. They’ve provided the impetus for this post – tips for starting your best photography year ever.

My latest stock photo shoot tackled a new challenge. Shooting on location with city backgrounds.

Tip 1 – Tackle Something New! If you are going to have your best photography year ever you are going to need to get out of your comfort zone. If you typically focus on flowers and objects, is this the year to start photographing people? Or if you are a wildlife shooter, is the time to get to know studio photography and lighting? If you’ve toyed with getting into the business of photography, is this the year to make the leap?

I’ve done a lot of stock photo shoots since I became an iStock contributor in 2008. Most of these have been in studio settings, and so I’ve ended 2015 the way I want to start 2016 – tackling something new.

I’m responding to a brief from Getty Images and iStock to shoot stock images in real locations. My latest shoot was using iconic Melbourne locations as a background. It was different, it was fun, and will bring a new dimension to my stock photography in 2016. Tackle something new.

Shoot images of markets you understand

Tip 2 – Play to Your Strengths. While tackling something new will help you stretch, playing to your strengths will bring a strong foundation to your business.

After 20 plus years working in the corporate world, I have a strong understanding of the types of images which work well in that environment. I can imagine the use of the image before and during the shoot. I can almost see in advance the images being used on a website or in a corporate document.

I have a much better understanding of this market than I do for technical and industrial images. While I will tackle new things, I will also play to my strengths and shoot for markets I understand.

Tip 3 – Look After Repeat Clients. My most recent family portrait session was for a couple whose wedding I photographed in March 2012.

I’ve subsequently done family portraits for them when their son was born, and again when he was 6 months old. Last month I had the opportunity to do another family portrait session – this time with a baby daughter added to the family! Repeat sessions are a lot of fun, as you already know the client and have your previous sessions as a reference point. I feel very lucky to have great clients like them.

Look after your repeat clients as you are starting your best photography year ever.

Is this year to get help with the heavy lifting in your business?

Tip 4 – Get Help. If you are going to make a leap forward as you are starting your best photography year ever – look at where you can get help.

If you keep doing the same things, you’ll get the same results. If you are bogged down with editing – is it time to reorganize your workflow? Is it time to outsource your image editing? is it time to free up your time by having someone else setting appointments and responding to email for you? is it time to partner with others to let you focus on your strong points? is there a specific style of image you want to learn to create? is there a local photographer that can help you? Plan for great things as you are starting your best photography year ever. You don’t have to do everything yourself. Get help.

Thanks for reading Starting Your Best Photography Year Ever. The new year is a great time to re-assess, refresh, and set your business on the path to success. Have a great year.

The Benefits of Working in a Photographic Series

It’s not a single picture here and there. It’s not an image or two, it’s about leaving a trail which tells a story. It’s a body of work which speaks to the subject and the photographer’s vision. Many are ongoing. They get better with time. The total body of work is more important than any individual image. That’s a photographic series. If you have never tackled one, read on for the benefits of working in a photographic series.

I read an interview with Annie Leibovitz which highlighted the view of someone who understands the benefits of working this way. Of all the celebrities she has photographed, she was asked which was her favorite image or images. Her answer was that none of them were her favorite, but that the most important thing was the body of work she has built over time and continues to build. She understands building a body of work, and the series being more important than any individual image.

What are the benefits of working in a photographic series? What is in it for the photographer?

Shooting extended series gives greater opporunity to capture unique images

(1) More unique images. More exposure to one subject or one series increases your chance of getting unique images of that subject. In the images on this post I have used wildlife images, but this principle applies to any subject. With repeated exposure to the same subject you are going to be able to create more unique images than if you only shoot that subject once. It took time to get a shot of a winking koala.

(2) Shooting a series forces you to find different ways to capture your subject. Shooting a series is not about building a large collection of similar images. It is about focusing on a subject and producing a diverse range of images. Producing different images is where your development as a photographer comes from – as you find new, different, unique ways to shoot your subject. You get the chance to experiment with different lenses, different lighting, different angles, and different exposures.

(3) You develop a greater affinity with your subject – and a greater affinity helps you to produce better images. Again, this applies to different subjects. If you are shooting images of a toddler, getting to know the child and making images of them over time allows you to develop an affinity with the child and to produce varied images. In the example is a flying fox image. This shoot location is near my home (details here) and after repeated visits in different wind conditions, I learned to better predict where they would fly, allowing me to capture stronger images. I’ve also come to know, that if I visit this area in early summer, there is a good chance of seeing baby flying foxes clinging to their mothers chests in mid air. A greater affinity with the subject lets you shoot better images. What do you have an affinity for? Where does your interest lie?

Shooting an extended series on Flying Foxes has enabled me to capture a wide variety of images in different light conditions

(4) Different shoots, different lighting, different images. Shooting in a series will produce variety in your work as each shoot will be in different lighting conditions (unless you choose to keep the light the same in a studio setting). I have shot an extensive range of images of grey headed flying foxes, and the lighting conditions have a significant impact on the style of image produced on any given day. In this example with the sunlight behind the subject, it highlights the wing structure and the veins.

Shooting in different lighting conditions generates very different images.

(5) Shooting in a series allows you to select only your very best work to display. It gives a depth to your collection, and gives you options to select only your very best work to display. That leads to a high quality portfolio, not a mediocre collection of many subjects. It allows you to develop and display a photographic style.

Thanks for reading the benefits of working in a photographic series. If you have never tackled one, take up the challenge!

Why Make Time to Shoot Personal Projects?

Running a small photography business can seem like a never ending challenge – finding new clients, planning shoots, doing the shoot, editing images, posting to social media, organizing albums and prints, delivering the finished product, and repeat! Yet we constantly hear about the importance of personal projects. I have both long running personal projects and shorter ones. They are a great asset for me and my business. So, why make time to shoot personal projects?

Shooting images of Australian wildlife is a long running personal project of mine

What sort of personal projects am I talking about? When I am not shooting weddings I shoot images for my stock photography portfolio. When I’m not shooting a specific theme for my stock photo work I will shoot a personal project. An example would be Australian wildlife images. I am a wildlife fan, and believe in the work being done by conservation organisations. I enjoy shooting wildlife images, and it feels good to know that conservation organisations can access those images at a very affordable price through my stock photo portfolio. I shoot Australian wildlife images and take particular interest in shooting images of endangered species.

I have taken up Getty Images brief for my latest personal project, ‘re-picturing femininity’

I have recently started a new personal project which I am also going to use for my stock photo portfolio. As an exclusive contributor to iStockphoto, I get access to the Getty Images briefs written for photographers. One of those looks at the theme of ‘re-picturing femininity’. That is, showing girls and women in a new light. Not traditional roles, but the new women of today – leaders, working mothers, trades people, and more. It is exciting to think that the images I shoot can have a small impact on the images available in this category. I’ve completed shoots showing women as business leader, corporate regulator, pilot, and athlete, with many more to come.

Personal projects make a difference and are fun.

So, why make time to shoot personal projects?

1. It fuels the passion! Shooting for somebody else or trying to shoot what somebody else will like is ultimately hard work and draining. If you are in a cycle of weddings every weekend, or corporate head shots every day, try something different to fuel the passion. Re discover what you love to shoot and why you picked up the camera in the first place.

2. It makes a difference. A difference to what? The causes you believe in, and to you. Shooting wildlife images may not appeal to everyone but it provides needed images to conservation organisations. That is important to me – so it makes a difference to know that my images are helping wildlife.

3. It lets you experiment. It is not easy to keep learning new things on every shoot, and if we are shooting weddings each Saturday that’s not the place to practice or experiment. That’s the place to make sure the bride and groom have a great day, and that you create great images. Personal projects on the other hand give you opportunities to experiment, to try new things, and to push your boundaries. Shoot a close up with a 400mm lens – just because you can.

4. Personal projects attract like minded clients. Clients who share your interests will be attracted to your work. I have several wedding clients who first came across my work through my wildlife images. We instantly had something in common and an easy talking point. Shooting personal projects will attract like minded clients.

5. It’s fun! Yes, it’s fun to shoot personal projects! For that reason alone we should be able to find the time.

Thanks for reading ‘Why Make Time to Shoot Personal Projects?’

iStock Changes Payment Frequency

Beyond Here has been following the changes in the micro stock photography industry, and particularly the changes at iStock. This coming week, on 21 January 2015, iStock changes payment frequency options for contributors.

Previously contributors were able to request payment of their earnings on a weekly basis as long as their earnings were above the minimum payment threshold. That process was outlined in the earlier post How Does Payment from Stock Photography Work.

Midnight on 21 January 2015 (PST) is the final date you will be able to request a weekly payment of earnings from iStock

What are the changes? 21 January 2015 is the final date that iStock contributors will be able to request a payment of earnings. After this date, contributors will be automatically paid on a monthly basis, as long as they are above the minimum payment threshold and have entered their payment details.

Who will this impact? This change will effect all iStock contributors. This isn’t an opt in or opt out exercise, it is a change in the way that iStock operates to be more in line with its parent company, Getty Images.

What impact will it have? This change will have the biggest impact on contributors who are currently requesting a payment on a weekly basis. Instead of the steady cash flow of a weekly payment, those contributors will be paid monthly. To operate their businesses they will need to plan for the more ‘lumpy’ cash flow of monthly payments. Ironically those that it will impact the most are those contributors who generate all or most of their income from iStock and rely on the weekly cash flow.

What benefits are there? Not many that I can see from a contributors point of view. For iStock it will simplify their payment processes and presumably bring some cost savings. How that might be reinvested for benefits for contributors or customers hasn’t been made clear by iStock yet.

What do I need to do? If you are an iStock contributor and wish to make a final payment request – this needs to be done by 21 January 2015 at midnight MST. Keep in mind the time difference to where you live. Then you need to make sure your payment details are entered in your profile so that you can be automatically paid on a monthly basis. That first monthly payment will be made on 25 February 2015.

Thanks for reading ‘iStock Changes Payment Frequency’. If you are running or plan to run a photography business and would like regular articles from Beyond Here, please sign up in the area in the margin of this blog.

Moving iStock Forward?

Last weekend iStock, one of the leading microstock photography agencies, implemented some significant changes in the pricing of their images. I outlined those changes in the post My Take On this Weeks iStock Announcements. So what has happened since then, and is it moving iStock forward?

The most significant change iStock introduced was to make files of all sizes the same price. Previously a small size image would be cheaper than a larger size. That meant that buyers who were using the image on the web only would buy the smallest size, and a buyer who was going to use the image in print would buy a larger sized image for a higher price. After the changes, all sizes are the same price.

Contributors will have to wait until subscription sales are reported to fully understand the impact of the changes

So what has been the impact on buyers and contributors? After less than a week of the ‘new iStock’ there is mixed reaction from buyers and contributors. Buyers who mainly purchased small size files for web use have been very vocal that the changes have resulted in a large price increase for them. And in effect, for this buying group, they have. These buyers have expressed their anger in iStock discussion forums and in social media. Many have said that they will use up their current credits and then move to other microstock agencies. To see some examples, check out the iStock facebook page. For me, as an exclusive iStock contributor, it’s pretty ugly reading.

What is unknown is the response from large buyers who mainly purchase larger sized files. For this group the changes are effectively a price decrease. So that should mean an increase in downloads.

The way the new pricing structure works, this group has an incentive to use the subscription program rather than make individual downloads. While individual sales are reported as they happen, subscription sales are only reported in the middle of the following month. So subscription sales being made in September will not be reported to contributors until the middle of October. It won’t be until then that contributors will know whether there has been a large increase in downloads from this buyer group.

What has the contributor response been to date? Well, it has been more balanced than the buyer response. Some are reporting an increase in sales, but many are reporting a decrease. Contributors with a lot of content in the Vetta collection seem particularly upset. These high priced files have become much more ‘affordable’. The price decrease also means a decrease in royalty per download for the contributor. To generate the same total royalty will need a large increase in volume which is not apparent yet. But in reality, contributors will not know the total impact until subscription sales are reported in the middle of October.

What’s my experience? My downloads and average $ per download have both decreased since the changes. That said, we are less than a week since the changes were made.

I am going to resist the urge to jump to any conclusions until we have more data. I’m sorry and disappointed that many buyers of small images are upset and are considering moving to competitors. But I don’t yet know the impact of larger buyers through the subscription program. I will wait to see those results before considering changing course.

I am hoping there has been a large increase in subscription sales. iStock and its owners, Getty Images, will be hoping so too. The direction they are taking iStock is very difficult to reverse, and the customers who leave will be nearly impossible to attract to return. Such a big move would not have been made without detailed research – now I hope the reality matches the research. Fingers crossed.

Are you an iStock buyer or contributor? Do you think the changes are moving iStock forward?

6 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Launching a Photography Business

Consider these questions before you start in photography business

In the last week I have been working with a photographer who is considering turning his hobby into a business. He has had positive feedback on the work he has done to date – which has focused on family portraits. He has also shot 2 weddings this year. As I have helped him, we have worked through issues ranging from the quality of his work to the challenges of a variable income. He is not the first photographer to grapple with doubts about launching a business. In my experience, most don’t know what they are getting themselves into. I have put together this starter list of questions if you are considering turning your hobby into an income. Here they are – 6 questions to ask yourself before launching a photography business.

Question 1 – Am I Passionate About Running a Small Business?

All of the photographers I have spoken to about turning their hobby into an income have been planning to start a small business. In the same way that I run Craig Dingle Photography Pty Ltd, they are considering establishing and running a small business. For photographers reading this – I am assuming you are passionate about photography and image making. The key question to ask yourself is – am I also passionate about running a small business? Will I welcome the challenges which come with small business? Generating new clients? Following up people who haven’t paid their bill? Doing book keeping and taxes? When times are tough, will I welcome the challenge and find a way forward?

I have deliberately put this question first. It is a very important question to ask yourself. Are you up for the challenges that come with running a small business?

Question 2 – How Will I Handle the Challenges of a Variable Income?

I don’t know any photographers who have a steady income every week. They must be out there, but I don’t personally know any. Where I live there is always more business around in spring and summer than there is in autumn and winter. Whether that is family portraits, weddings, real estate photography, or other work – there is not a steady supply of business all year round. Even in stock photography, the income slows down very predictably every northern hemisphere summer.

A variable or seasonal income is very different than working for a corporate and receiving the same pay check every week or month. Have you considered this? How will you handle the lean weeks? Months? Seasons? Will you shoot some business events when the wedding season slows down? How will you find this business? Are you prepared to shoot jobs, which might not be your favorite type of work, to make ends meet in the lean months?

Question 3 – How Will I Generate New Clients?

This question is key. If you plan to add your work to your facebook page and think that will generate new clients for you, I suggest its time to pause. How much business has your facebook page generated to date? In most cases, the answer is not much. You are going to need a solid plan for generating clients if you want to make a fair income from your photography. Are you going to advertise online, in your local school newsletter, by tapping your range of contacts, attending bridal shows? A solid plan around how you will generate clients will vary depending on what type of work you want to do – but having a good plan is key. New clients are unlikely to start calling you out of the blue just because you have set up a business. You will need a plan to generate new clients.

Question 4 – What Unique Offer Will I Be Bringing to the Market?

There are lots of photographers out there, and the number is growing every day. What is the unique thing you will bring to the market? Why will clients choose you? What sets you apart? If you have 2 minutes to talk to a potential client – what are the key points you want to make? This is a challenging and important question. It takes time to work through this one, and a strong answer can help you with understanding how to generate new clients. Is it the the experience you will give your client on the day? Is it your unique product offering? Is it your one of a kind shooting style? Are you a specialist in a niche? What else? If your answer is ‘my friends and family say my images are great’ or ‘I’m told I have a great eye’ these are danger signs. You need to know specifically what it is that you will be bringing to market, and why a client should choose you.

Question 5 – Is My Work Good Enough?

This is a perennial question for photographers! The more clients you work with, the more your confidence will build over time. When you are starting out, a slightly different question can sometimes help. If you have been asked by a friend to shoot their wedding – consider asking ‘Am I confident enough that I can charge $X?’. Often a first time wedding shooter will not be confident and will feel anxious about shooting their first wedding. If that’s the case, discuss that with the client and perhaps shoot with no charge. A client will appreciate your honesty and forgive some rookie errors if you have been frank with them. They are unlikely to be happy if you try to maximize your income from this wedding and then miss key shots. Think about building a foundation for your business. You want happy clients, and you want them to refer you. Make building a strong foundation your business focus when you are starting.

Question 6 – Am I Prepared to Learn?

Regardless of your answers to the first 5 questions, if you are prepared to learn you can make it. If you are prepared to learn – mistakes are progress not problems. Every mistake will make you better. Every positive experience will give you a new learning about what works. If you don’t know how to run a small business but are prepared to learn, you can build your skills and business over time. There are thousands of photographers out there – and that number is growing. Don’t be overwhelmed. If there is space for those photographers, there is space for you too. If you are prepared to learn you can make it.

I am passionate about photography and the business of photography. If you have found this post useful, you may like these recent posts:

Thanks for reading 6 questions to ask yourself before launching a photography business. What has your experience been? Are you considering turning your hobby into a business? Do you have additional questions? Please add your comments or questions to this post. If you’d like some help privately, please email me on craig@beyondhere.com.au

3 Months of Beyond Here

Thanks very much for being one of over 200 readers of Beyond Here in its first 3 months of existence. I started this blog in June 2014, and it is great to have more than 200 readers from around the world, lots of emails about topics that you would like covered, a guest contributor, comments on the blog, and a number of subscribers. If you would like to be a subscriber, just fill in your email address on the side of the page, and then look out for the confirmation email (be careful, it might end up in your junk mail folder). Once you are a subscriber you will receive a weekly email with links to the most popular recent posts.

Thanks again for reading Beyond Here. The most popular posts over the last 3 months are:

Here’s to the next 3 months of Beyond Here.

Thanks for being one of the early readers of Beyond Here

My Take on This Weeks iStock Announcements

Over the last 3 months I have written a series of posts on Beyond Here about stock photography. Several readers have since opened microstock photography accounts and become contributors. Many are turning their passion for photography into an income. Super.

In those posts I have shared my positive experiences with iStock, where I have been a contributor since 2008 and an exclusive contributor since 2010. This week iStock announced some significant changes that will come into effect on 15 September 2014. Here’s my take on this weeks iStock announcements.

First, some background. In April 2014, iStock introduced a subscription offering in addition to its normal offer. This allows high volume image buyers to purchase high volumes at a fixed price. This is an area where competitor site – Shutterstock – had been doing considerably better than iStock for many years. iStock’s subscription offer seemed to be a re-focus on the large volume buyer.

In this weeks announcement iStock states that ‘in only a few months, these subscriptions now represent a meaningful percentage of total iStock sales and materially increased spend per customer’.

It is the final part of this message which I find interesting – the ‘materially increased spend per customer’. In microstock photography there has long been an obsession with the calculation of dollars per download to assess value. The statement from iStock suggests their thinking has changed. If a customer is spending $1000 per month on images and buys 1 image from iStock for the month for $100, the revenue per download is $100. What that statistic overlooks is that the customer is spending $900 with competitors. The announcement suggests to me that iStock are refocussing to look at that remaining $900.

Unfortunately for the buyer, iStock’s highest quality content has previously been excluded from the subscription offer. That is about to change.

So, what’s changing?

iStock are taking several steps to ‘dramatically improve the simplicity of the iStock site, search and messaging’.

The key changes include:

Offering just one payment method – credits
Dividing the collection into 2 tiers
Implementing one price per file

What do the changes mean?

(1) Offering just one payment method – credits

iStock previously offered two ways to pay – the buyer could use credits, or they could use a credit card to pay for images directly. The credit method suited the regular buyer, the credit card method suited the occasional buyer.

Going forward buyers will only be able to use credits. Discussion in the iStock forums suggests that this change will simplify the coding on the site. It seems again, that iStock are focusing on the needs of the large volume buyer and are prepared to fore-go the needs of some smaller buyers. This seems a fair trade off, if the large buyers in the example above bring more of their monthly budget to iStock. I like this approach. It strikes me as another application of the 80/20 rule. I expect 80% of downloads come from 20% of buyers, and iStock seem to be tuning in to that 20% of buyers.

(2) Dividing the collection into 2 tiers

iStock’s collections were previously divided into 4 areas – Main, Signature, Signature+, and Vetta. From the middle of September that will be consolidated into 2 tiers – Essentials (standard content) and Signature (premium content). The old Main content will become the Essentials tier. The old Vetta, Signature+ and Signature collections will form the new Signature tier.

The big implication here is that Vetta and Signature+ content will become significantly cheaper – good for buyers, and potentially good for contributors only if an increase in downloads makes up for the reduction in royalty per image the contributor will receive (because of the lower price).

The second big implication here is that the best content on iStock (Vetta) will now be available to those buyers who have taken up the subscription offer. This will make the subscription offers more attractive.

(3) Implementing one price per file

Currently the price paid per file downloaded depends on which size the buyer wants. A small file suitable for web use only is cheaper than a large file suitable for printing. From the middle of September the price will be the same regardless of the size. This is a very big change for iStock. It will make life much simpler for buyers. It will be to the advantage of buyers needing large sized images and to the disadvantage of buyers only needing small sized images.

Again, this seems to support the view that iStock has asked and listened to what the high volume image buyers want. And they seem to want access to the best images in the subscription offer, simpler collection structures, lower pricing, and more transparent pricing.

What’s my take?

iStock’s moves are bold and have the potential to re-shape the microstock industry again. iStock has a reputation for having a high quality collection of images – and the Vetta collection is the jewel in that crown. There will be high volume, large budget buyers who are now considering switching to iStock. There will also be current iStock customers considering spending more of their total budget with iStock.

I expect these moves will generate a higher volume of downloads, at a lower average price per download. iStock will be counting on the volume increase to drive total revenue increases. Whether that happens will be known in a few weeks.

What’s the risk?

There is a lot at stake for iStock. Successful execution could see benefits for buyers, contributors, and iStock itself. Failure could see current customers move to competitors, and exclusive contributors looking for alternative sales avenues for their images.

Overall, I am very positive about the boldness of this strategy from iStock. I can see benefits for buyers and contributors. But having a good strategy is only half of the challenge – being able to execute it is another question. iStock’s record for implementing major change over the last 5 years is not great – I’m hoping this time it will be different.

iStock is making a big move in 2 weeks time that may re shape the stock photography industry. It seems to be focussing on the needs of the high volume, large budget buyer. I like the focus and the offer. As an exclusive contributor I just hope iStock execute this well.

That’s my take on this weeks iStock announcements. What’s yours?