Tag Archives: ImageBrief

Imagebrief Terminate Services

Almost exactly one year ago I wrote a post for Beyond Here called New Ways to Sell Your Images. It looked at a site called Imagebrief which was connecting image buyers with photographers by providing written briefs. My final point in that post raised the question Will It Be Successful? Today that question has been answered. Overnight I’ve received an email announcing the end – Imagebrief terminate services.

Their plan seems to have fallen over. News overnight that Imagebrief terminate services

Directly from the announcement where Imagebrief terminate services

“Dear Craig,

Today, we’re announcing that after six years of connecting agencies, brands and creators, we will be closing down ImageBrief’s photographer marketing services.

We’re proud of the products and apps we built, but even more so, we’re grateful for the community that enabled them to grow. More than 70,000 creators earned millions of dollars collaborating with 12,500+ global agencies and brands in 169 countries.

There has never been a better time for creators to thrive. Demand for content has increased, and the tools to create world-class creative are more accessible than ever.

Our talented team of engineers, designers, developers, and curators have worked tirelessly to make ImageBrief a success in a competitive and rapidly evolving landscape, and our immediate priority is to help you transition to other services to support your business.

In the coming days, our team will be in contact with you directly with detailed information about your specific account, license history, and services. Over the next week, we recommend logging into ImageBrief to download and retain your license history and related assets. Further details can be found in the FAQ’s below.

We want to thank you for your participation and loyalty, and look forward to working with you in the coming weeks to ensure a smooth transition.

Sincerely,

Team ImageBrief”

How Will This Impact Individual Photographers?

I had submitted images to a handful of briefs but it was a tiny part of my business.

I know 2 photographers who invested significant time and energy working on briefs for Imagebrief. They were positive about the financial returns they received. Those photographers also felt the briefs directly connected them with the buyer, and gave them a better understanding of the needs of the image buyer.

They will no longer have Imagebrief as a source of income or ideas.

Multiple sources of income is an asset to any business

What Can We Take From This?

The email from Imagebrief doesn’t explain why Imagebrief terminate services. I assume the business model was not a financial success.

This reinforces the challenge of working with an online business. If it is not going well, that is very difficult for a photographer to know. I doubt any photographers were wholly relying on Imagebrief for their work and income. If they were, they have very short notice for finding alternatives.

As a business this reinforces the value of having multiple sources of income.

What Other Outlets Does a Photographer Have?

There are significant challenges with the stock photography model and distributing through major stock agencies. However, this is still an easy way to access a global market of image buyers. If you’ve got the time and the commitment to produce a high volume of images, stock photography is still an option.

With the announcement of Imagebrief terminate services it also reinforces to me the value of a photographers relationships in their local community. There is always a pipeline of work, both commercial and domestic, where people want to deal with local people who they know and trust.

Investing in local relationships helps produce a pipeline of business

I recently did a shoot for a dentist who runs his own practice. Ironically, he wanted images which did not look like stock images (!) and featured himself and his staff. He asked me to do the work as he knows and trusts me. He didn’t get quotes from other photographers, and he paid my invoice within 3 days of receiving it. That was great value from a strong relationship built over time. Have you been investing in relationships in your local community? Is it providing you a pipeline of work?

For more reading about Imagebrief Terminate Services see this post on PetaPixel – ImageBrief Shuts Down After 6 Years of Trying to Disrupt Stock Photos

Getty Updates Custom Content Briefs

Getty Images recently launched a new service to marry the needs of their clients with their network of photographers. The new service is called Custom Content Briefs. You can read about it in this post Getty Launches Custom Content Briefs. While Getty and iStockphoto have traditionally operated under the stock photography model where an image can be licensed many times, under Custom Content Briefs they can only be licensed by that one client. This makes it tricky for stock photographers to assess the likely financial benefit of shooting to these briefs. And that has lead to this post, Getty Updates Custom Content Briefs.

When the Custom Content Briefs were launched, a sticking point for photographers was the issue of what would happen with ‘unsuccessful’ images. That is, images which were not selected by the client. Getty had outlined that those images would not be able to be added to the photographer’s stock photo portfolio. That made shooting to these briefs more of a gamble for photographers. If your images were chosen by the client, great. If not, the photographer had lost the time and money invested in the shoot.

I can’t see enough financial upside in Custom Content Briefs and will be letting this train pass

So what is changing in this update?

This week, Getty has had a change of mind. Quoting directly from the update on the Getty Images contributors forum ….

“What happens if a client doesn’t select all or part of my Custom Content submission? Can I license non-selects?
If the client doesn’t select all or part of your Custom Content submission and the non-Similar work is suitable for general stock licensing (i.e., it has all applicable releases and contains no client products), then we’ll put it straight into the regular collection you submitted it to in ESP. There is nothing you need to do and the work should appear in your regular collection around two weeks after the submission brief deadline.”

What does this mean? In short, it means if your images are not selected by the Custom Content Brief customer you will be able to use them in your stock portfolio (if the images meet the requirements of the collection).

Does this make Custom Content Briefs more attractive? In theory, yes. By having those ‘unsuccessful’ images in a stock portfolio there is a potential financial return.

Getty will need to increase the payment for ‘successful’ images for me to consider jumping on board with Custom Content Briefs.

Will I be shooting Custom Content Briefs? At this point, no. I can’t see enough financial upside in shooting a one off project as opposed to a steady flows of royalties from successful stock images. While Getty has addressed one piece of the puzzle they need to address another, and that is the financial return for the successful images.

What other options are there? Imagebrief’s business is built around a model like Custom Content Briefs. I wrote about that in New Ways to Sell Your Images. I see higher potential return in the Imagebrief model than I do in the Getty model. While I’m not planning to shoot for either in the near future, it’s clear to me that it would be more financially lucrative for the photographer to work with Imagebrief. What about you? What do you think of this emerging model of crowd sourced contract work?

Thanks for reading Getty Updates Custom Content Briefs. I hope it’s helped you.

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.