Stock Agencies to Work With - Getty Images - The Business of Photography by Brad Rickerby

Let's face it, if you want to make money with stock photography, Getty Images (www.gettyimages.com) is the place to be. Getty is the number one stock agency in the world in both size and sales volume. When combined with Getty's closest competitor, Corbis (who is the topic of the next post) it has been reported that the two control upwards of 85% of the sales in the stock photography marketplace.

Enchantment

While Getty is THE place to be, it is exceptionally difficult to get Getty to represent your images. As such, I'm going to talk about Getty and three other agencies for your Rights Managed and Royalty Free images, Corbis, agefotostock and Alamy. Subsequently, I will post a blog on the microstock photo agencies that you can work with.

Getty Images is the bull in the stock photography market place china shop. They control the majority of licenses in the stock photography marketplace. Their power to make sales for you is enormous. To make the most money with your photos, they should all be placed with Getty.

This is particularly true of what is called the hero shot. You know the shot. You see it splashed across two pages of leading magazines. It is the photograph that tells the story in brilliant colors that just grab your eye and scream, "look at me". Getty loves the hero shot. The hero shot is what Getty sells best. Sure they also do the little inch square detail shot, but they love that image that tells it all. The hero shot has emotion and saturated colors and drama. It tells the story, conveys a mood and describes the human condition all in one dramatic moment, captured the instant it appears before immediately vanishing again.

The Runner

The hero shot is the one I always tried to capture. The images with this article are all hero shots created by me, that are in the Getty collection.

Every photograph represented by Getty is good, some are great. Getty licenses commercial stock images, editorial images, sports, celebrity and vintage photos too. They also have a video section and music tracks.

It would be great if you could get all of your images into the Getty collection. Sadly, this is not possible. Getty is extraordinarily selective about the photographers they will work with and the images they will represent. Further, Getty can be very difficult to work with.  A number of years ago, Getty CEO Jonathan Klein remarked that photographers were entirely replaceable. While this sentiment may be true, it is difficult to work with a company that has the attitude that you, as the supplier of its product, do not matter.

While Getty Images is the best bet for generating revenue, for these two reasons, you are going to have to spread your work around. Up next I talk about Corbis. You can be sure not to miss any of my posts by subscribing to my newsletter (above right).