Stocksy takes a different approach than your average, run-of-the-mill stock photo agency. You see, if you wanted to become a photographer, you might be stuck wondering who would buy your photos. With the advent of the Internet, it became clear that stock photo agencies were more than willing – and still are – to buy up as many of these photos as they could. Most of them offer a competitive compensation plan. If you take good pictures, and people buy your photo from the stock agency, you would get a commission. The law of averages says the more photos you submit, the higher chance of you actually deriving an income based off that commission alone. The more agencies you sign up with merely increase your chance of stock photo customers choosing your work. It’s easy, right? Not so fast, says I. Stocksy’s approach to curated quality is different. You have to pass certain prerequisites to be considered as a photographer for Stocksy. Stocksy has a smaller library organized into special themes. When you browse through their library, you’ll be impressed with the quality of their photos. All of a sudden, Stocksy’s discriminatory policy makes sense. Discriminatory, in this case, merely means that they will not take photos from just anybody. Each photo in their library can be many times more expensive than some your cheaper options like Photospin or DepositPhotos. What you get in return, however, is a photo that looks like it was taken in an expensive photo shoot. That’s the other thing about stock photos. Too many artists – when you say the phrase, “stock photos,” they cringe. Many people see stock photos as a cheap alternative for people who are unwilling to pay a fair wage to aspiring photographers. To an extent, they have a point. Professional photo shoots can be very expensive. Stocksy’s photo library isn’t quite as expensive as a professional photo shoot. They are more expensive than your average stock photo, but then again, they only choose the best photos. When you select a picture from Stocksy’s photo library, you’re choosing a photo that looks like it came from a professional photo shoot – without the expensive photo shoot prices. It’s an aspiring goal – to make your work look like you spent the money on an expensive photo shoot. It’s one thing to say a particular photo is unique. It’s a whole other thing to say that their entire library is unique among stock photo agencies. Their curated approach sets them apart from the rest. Click here for Stocksy review from StockPhotoSecrets
“Curated by Stocksy:” A Different Browsing Experience
A good look at the Stocksy website will tell you that you’re in for a different browsing experience. Stocksy is certainly not the cheapest stock photo service, check Stocksy Review from www.StockPhotoSecrets.com, but they are arguably one of the best and well worth the money. Many stock photo services may get away with paying photographers pennies for their photos, but not Stocksy. Stocksy takes a different approach. Stocksy has a unique photo collection. There is a certain artistic flair that is captured beautifully on the front page. It has a very indie feel to it – a very artisan feel. They can accomplish this because they are a “co-op” company. They stem from the stock photo industry as veterans who wanted to create something different. The freedom to be selective in both their artists and their photos is evident in their collection. The reason they are little more expensive than other stock photo agencies is because they are proud to be able to offer fair pay to the artists and photographers that contribute to their collection. They offer up to 50 percent of the initial royalty fee and up to 75 percent of extended licenses. This is money that goes into both the owners and contributors pockets at the end of the year. The word curated is another word for saying organized. Stocksy United likes to use that word because of the way they organize their photos. They’re not interested in quantity. Instead, they’re interested in quality. That’s a rare trait among stock photo agencies in this modern era where people think more is better. They do organize their images into galleries. These images are often related and called sister “images.” You can browse through the photos and tell that many the photos were taken mere moments apart. Many images feature unique cultures. Stocksy excels in these kinds of images from around the world. We find the word curated again in one of their frequently asked questions. The question states, “Why do Stocksy images look so darn good?” The answer is simple. They are selective in both the photographs and their artists. There is no application that says you’re instantly in the club. Instead, you may apply as a contributor, but there’s no guarantee that you’ll make it past the gate. They have to handpick you and invite you to be a contributing artist to the Stocksy team. That is what they mean by curate. To sustain their image, they must be selective and discriminatory and only allow a certain brand of artist on the worldwide team.