Stock
Photo News from A-Z FOTOS
November 1999
Content
* Current issues in the stock photo business.
* The new version of Alta Vista gives problems for website
positioning.
* Will we see Dynamic Pricing of stock photos in the
future?
* Where to find the best online discussions on the stock
photo industry ?
* How to make the best of the last year before the New
Millennium.
* Website promotion.
* New stock photos.
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Current issues in the stock
photo business
Besides the game between digital photography and traditional film materials,
the film size question has got new perspectives. With a higher proportion of
stock photos selected from online viewing on web sites the traditional preference
for medium format slides are now no longer obvious. On the screen of your monitor
you can not tell the difference in size from a 24 x 36 to a 6 x 7 original,
or even much larger. You can have a quick look at the differences of the originals here.
Use your browser to come back.
This gives the small format of 24 x 36 photography a short
cut through the online competition. When this is coupled with
the much lower cost of film, and not least proper scanning,
it opens many doors for amateur photographers to make online
business. Scans of 24x36 slides on Photo CDs by Kodak or Digital
Science, or by the photographer with fine slide scanners like
Nikon Super Coolscan 2000 or Polaroid SprintScan 4000 are much
more affordable, than the traditional professional drum scans.
The preference for 24 x 36 in professional photography for
news and press has been successful for many years. For a long
time many other fields of photography have also benefited from
the quick and easy handling and versatility of the 24 x 36
format. A good example is Seth
Resnick.
In the overall picture I expect to see a preference for the
larger formats for many years to come. The impression is that
most stock photo buyers still want to see the original film
on the light table - and here the classical competition between
the 35 mm film and the medium formats gives results as usual
to the advantage of the medium formats. Have a look at the difference
in size?
Many picture researchers have been tempted to make use of
the large panorama formats, e.g. 6 x 17 cm. In the final publications
it is usual obvious what the size of the original was - not
because of the exceptional quality, but because these images
keep the panoramic format. In reality this effect can easily
be obtained through proper cropping of suitable stock photos
in more common formats.
Here is an example of the panoramic
format.
The new version of Alta
Vista gives problems for website positioning
The "new" Alta Vista, lounged the 25. October,
has given much worries for commercial website owners. After
this date Alta Vista seems to have thrown
a lot of former registered website pages out of its database. They claim it
is an effort to make searching with Alta Vista more useful. Many website owners
with photographic content has put a lot of efforts into producing the so-called
doorway pages, each optimized for a specific short phrase to get a higher position
when such phrases are searched. The discussion about how to overcome this problem
is worth following at Market Position
Talk. It seems to be a must now, if you use doorway pages, to shape them
with substantial different content, besides the differences in key words.
Will we see dynamic pricing
in the stock photo business in the future
In his excellent book "Digital Darwinism", Evan I. Schwarts focuses
on the dynamic pricing of goods and services on the internet, among several
other thought provoking aspects ("7 Breakthrough Business Strategies for
surviving in the cutthroat web economy"). His point is that the online
businesses have more potential than the traditional ones, but at the same time
online businesses are in a harder competition in the online global market place.
The traditional weapon of the competition is the pricing policy, and online
it is possible quickly to adjust prices. If your business is not set off for
this combat, you might loose. In the stock photo business we might see the
differentiation of prices linked to higher or lower resolution to be an example
of that. Corbis Digital Stock for example has recently made big efforts to
offer such differentiation of prices to online buyers.
Where to find the best
online discussion on the stock photo industry
You will find the most extensive discussions about the stock
photo industry seen from the side of photographers (and mainly
American) at the STOCKPHOTO
network:
From a British (and more general European) perspective you
will find a lot of interest at Photo-Forum
How to make the best of
the last year before the New Millennium
Both as a buyer of photographic services and as a photographer, it pays to
be aware of the potential of portrait photography in 1999. The passing of 1999
will stay in history as a sharp line which will make photos and especially
portraits have a special value for the years to come. What about announcing
special offers to families to have taken individual portraits of all family
members? - or in other ways to benefit from the situation? - And remember to
organize to have taken portraits in your own family, as well!
Web site promotion
All web sites´ wellbeing depends on exposure. If your
customers can't find you, your nice website will not generate
the expected income. Read more about ALLeMarketingTips
here.
New stock photos
If you need new stock photos from India or England, search
here for the photos.
PS
If you are eager to increase the traffic to your
web site in a dramatic way, take a look HERE.
Seeing you in January, 2000! Soren Breiting. A-Z
FOTOS.
Copyright 1999 by Soren Breiting, A-Z FOTOS.
Stock Photo News from A-Z FOTOS - www.azfotos.com
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