Welcome to the September 2023 Brutally Honest Report, where as usual I’ll discuss my happenings including meeting up with two stock-wizards, industry news and of course reporting on my earnings for the month. Let’s get started!

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Now onto the monthly highlights, followed by my earnings broken down by the major agencies.

Monthly Highlights

Four highlights this month on the blog:

• Conclusion to Uploading to the Free Download Sites as an Experiment

• Earning Stock Income from Commissioned Work, a Case Study with my Top-10 Best-sellers

• Interview with Captain Tono Balaguer, Food Photographer & Fisherman

• Artificial Intelligence – Recreating 3 of my Best-Sellers using Leonardo.Ai

Meeting up with two Stock Wizards!

Ruben Ramos, Book Cover Artist

Super cool that Ruben contacted me early this month to grab a beer in Lisbon and I wasn’t going to pass this opportunity.

If you recall, Ruben was interviewed at the blog back in November 2022 and since, he’s been (almost literally) on fire…and is now an Arcangel Elite Contributor, with all its perks! Here is a link to his AC port.

Most importantly, since he’s for a while also gone all in with Arcangel producing superb work he’s reporting more sales on his Instagram account. The fact that Ruben works on cruise ships as a pianist gives him plenty of new scenery and fresh faces to shoot pretty regularly.

The chat was super productive as we shared some tips and tricks to improve our book covers, including various shoot ideas. Ruben is concerned at my high rejection rates (as am I) and encouraged me to slow down and focus more on the details while post-processing. Among many, one idea he mentioned was to turn some images from day to night using photoshop LUTs, with the one below accepted! Worthy advices!

Dmitry Rukhlenko, Travel Photographer

Super busy social month for me and towards the end of September I had the pleasure to meet up with Dmitry Rukhlenko, a veteran travel microstocker since 2007.

Dmitry is now based permanently in Lisbon having escaped the social and political madness of the past two years in his home country of Belarus.

Highly recommend you to check out his impressive Shutterstock port here which includes just under 20,000 images and almost 4,000 clips (including many drone shots). Also check out his website and Instagram.

We discussed at length the “good old days” of microstock of which I only benefited from the tail-end and how we see the future of the industry, as well as tagging tips to get on the first page results so buyers can see our images more regularly. I don’t want to spoil you with all details as Dmitry has kindly agreed to be interviewed for the blog in October – watch this space!

We’re also planning some photo/drone shoots together and it’s great to have someone to bounce ideas around. Dmitry is truly a veteran in this business and I’m learning a lot from him.

Stock Industry News

Getty launches a Commercially Safe Generative AI Offering

I must applaud the ingenuity of Getty’s legal team this month as they announced that they launched “Commercially Safe Generative AI Offering, a new tool that pairs the company’s best-in-class creative content with the latest AI technology for a commercially safe generative AI tool”.

Here’s their press release on the launch:

NEW YORK, Sept. 25, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Getty Images (NYSE: GETY), a preeminent global visual content creator and marketplace, today announced the launch of Generative AI by Getty Images, a new tool that pairs the company’s best-in-class creative content with the latest AI technology for a commercially safe generative AI tool.

Generative AI by Getty Images is trained on the state-of-the-art Edify model architecture, which is part of NVIDIA Picasso, a foundry for generative AI models for visual design. The tool is trained solely from Getty Images’ vast creative library, including exclusive premium content, with full indemnification for commercial use. Sitting alongside the company’s broader, industry-leading services, Generative AI by Getty Images works seamlessly with the company’s expansive library of authentic and compelling visuals and Custom Content solutions, allowing customers to elevate their entire end-to-end creative process to find the right visual content for any need.

“We’re excited to launch a tool that harnesses the power of generative AI to address our customers’ commercial needs while respecting the intellectual property of creators,” said Craig Peters, CEO at Getty Images. “We’ve worked hard to develop a responsible tool that gives customers confidence in visuals produced by generative AI for commercial purposes.”

Customers creating and downloading visuals through the tool will receive Getty Images’ standard royalty-free license, which includes representations and warranties, uncapped indemnification, and the right to perpetual, worldwide, nonexclusive use in all media. Content generated through the tool will not be added into existing Getty Images and iStock content libraries for others to license. Further, contributors will be compensated for any inclusion of their content in the training set.

“We’ve listened to customers about the swift growth of generative AI – and have heard both excitement and hesitation – and tried to be intentional around how we developed our own tool,” said Grant Farhall, Chief Product Officer at Getty Images. “We’ve created a service that allows brands and marketers to safely embrace AI and stretch their creative possibilities, while compensating creators for inclusion of their visuals in the underlying training sets.”

Generative AI by Getty Images can now be enabled on GettyImages.com. Customers can also choose to integrate the service into their existing workflows and applications through an available API.

Customers will soon be able to customize Generative AI by Getty Images with proprietary data to produce images with their unique brand style and language. This and other service advancements will be added later this year. Learn more about Generative AI by Getty Images, how to get access, and Getty Images’ stance on responsible AI practices: https://www.gettyimages.com/ai/generation/about

Source

Interesting discussion on these developments over at the MSG Forum.

All sounds impressive, but will iStock / Getty contributors ever be compensated?

No word on how/when/if they will compensate the real artist for the trained Ai models, unlike Adobe Stock and Shutterstock which are paying artists for the usage.

Also no word on if contributors may be able to opt-out of this scheme altogether. As soon as I have more details will report on here and subsequent posts.

Canstock is shutting down

Predictably, the smaller stock operators are feeling the pinch and to no one’s surprise, Canstock is pulling the plug after close to 20 years in operation. At least they went out with dignity unlike *ahem EyeEm*, here’s their press release:

Unfortunately, due to a changing business landscape, Can Stock Photo will cease operations on October 1, 2023.

After nearly 20 years in business we have been forced to make this very difficult decision and would like to thank our many thousands of talented contributors and customers for making it possible. The industry has changed significantly over this time, with CanStock launched in 2004 during the early mass adoption of digital cameras, and before ‘social media’ was even a phrase. Today of course everyone has a capable digital camera in their pocket, and the advent of AI means amazing images can be created for free from programs with just a few keywords. Decreased business and increasing costs has made it no longer possible to keep operating, to our great disappointment.

We should be expecting many more agencies to shut down in the coming months/years as they feel the headwinds coming increased costs, decreased sales and of course Ai developments (if they cannot keep up).

Now onto my monthly earnings…

Detailed Earnings Breakdown

Image Earnings (US$)

Agency	Number of Images in port (images added Sept)	Net Revenue for Sept	Avg Return Per Download
Alamy	15,581 (73)	42	4
Arcangel (RM-exclusive)	3,152 (128)	0	0
Adobe Stock	4,323 (94)	65	0.67
DepositPhotos	8,778 (68)	16	0.66
Dreamstime	8,750 (80)	13	0.42
Freekpik	925 (0)	10	0.07
Fine Art America	373 (0)	0	0
iStock (August 2023)	8,602 (41)	95	0.49
Robert Harding (Q2 2023 monthly average) – RM/RF exclusive	468 (3)	5	Negligible
Shutterstock Editorial	947 (0)	0	0
Shutterstock	11,892 (39)	156	0.55
Photo4Me	390 (1)	0	0
SignElements	1,402 (2)	2	N/A
Vecteezy	579 (4)	1	N/A
Wirestock	1,960 (0)	13	N/A
Total		418

Clip Earnings

Agency	Number of clips in port (added Sept)	Net Revenue for Sept	Avg Return Per Download
Adobe Stock	974 (20)	16	4
Pond5	2,397 (46)	35	17
iStock (Aug 2023)	748 (35)	17	4
Shutterstock	1,774 (22)	20	3
Total		88

Net Total: $506

Thoughts on the month

September is traditionally one of the stronger months of the year. Despite this, $506 is really for me not even worth getting out of bed. I’ve compared the past Septembers since I’ve begun reporting my earnings in 2019 and this is worst so far…even worse than at the height of the pandemic, weird.

Let’s now break down for the individual agencies.

Shutterstock

Not a great month at SS at just $176. Just one decent image sale to speak of of the usual drone-airport concept earning me $39.

In terms of clips, just one of some tuk-tuks in Lisbon dating back from 2018 sold for $12.68. Long time to wait! Rest of clips were maximum $4 so won’t bother talking about them.

Alamy

Terrible month at Alamy at just $42 after a few good months. Just two sales to report:

Adobe Stock

Bad month at Adobe Stock at just $81. Low-priced sales all-round. One clip sale to report of my drone going underneath a bridge arch which earned me $8. Looked riskier than it was.

Pond5

In September I was super social and even met the Pond5 bear while he was out gardening. I gave him a little dance…

In return, he danced back and gifted me two clip sales earning me $35. More please!

iStock

Earnings are looking up at iStock, finally for a combined $114 net.

No huge individual sales but for some reason this one (which was shot in 2016) sold regularly:

As for clips, it’s bittersweet that my drone clips are selling regularly there but the prices are super super pathetic with the highest being just $8.64.

Arcangel

No sales to report in Sept, but the show must go on.

Encouraging words from Nash

Nash Mascaro, Arcangel Sales Director kindly commented on my August 2023 earnings report which I’m reposting here. as it’s great advice for all who are going down the book cover path:

“For those that are with Arcangel and have access to all of the weekly briefing challenges, editors choice videos, free tutorials, trends information, guideline videos etc. I would suggest the following:

1. Grab a pen and paper and list down all of the weekly challenges that you see, then compare your uploads to see how many you may have responded to with a good set of uploads, then compare the quality of the uploads to the covers that you see in the market.
2. Watch the editors choice videos and list all of the genres we covered (there are lot) and look at what you have uploaded over the last few months that are similar to the images we talked about. Then, compare the quality to the covers/posters we showed you.
3. Make sure you watch the tips and tricks videos that we put out, my latest one had around 35 points to help you understand the market a little better.
4. Be consistent about researching covers and that will show you what clients are buying. There is no mystery when it comes to what publishers buy all around the world. You just need to look on the book publishing websites / book stores that break down genres, again comparing your work to ensure the quality is equal.
5. Provide work that is highly likely to sell based on everything you see above. The quality must be high as expectations from clients are high, the relevance to their needs is down to you when shooting/editing etc. Colours should be on trend, framing should be consistent and small errors should be eradicated.

That will give you a really good indication of where you’re at as a contributor and what you might need to do to be more effective.

I often see on this blog that people talk about lack of sales or lack of understanding around the market and this is understandable. Not everyone can be a top seller of which there are a good number. But if you’re not selling at all or very very rarely, I would refer you back to all of the information we put out.

The path to consistent sales isn’t easy in a library that holds the most talented contributors in the industry. Your competition is fierce and you are up against professionals who are consistent and have figured out what they need to do be relevant and stay relevant. You’re also up against other libraries.

Clients from all over the world are on our site daily (including weekends) so the buyers are there, the need is there but and it’s a big but, you need to provide the highest quality of work on a consistent basis to achieve the desired result.

Know the market, Know your skill level. Amend appropriately.

If you are submitting work that you think might (possibly) work, you need to do more research. We give our contributors more information than any other library but the responsibility is down to the contributor. We have the attention of the buyers, we promote work through traditional marketing means aswell as bespoke services via Picture research and through our Account Managers and much more. We sell a lot of work around the world and we’ve been doing this for twenty years so we know the market.

Guys, it really does come down to you. We can’t promise that a designer will see your work and want it for their project, we can’t make a designer choose your image over another one they downloaded from us. All we can is provide the best service to our International publishing community and try to give contributors the most transparent information we possibly can to help you produce relevant, high-quality, saleable work.

The consistency of uploads, the quality of your work and the saleability and relevance of your shoots is all down to you.

Guys, it’s always interesting to pop into this blog and read the comments. I hope that over the last few months some of you will have developed a better understanding of how the industry works and what our clients need.

It is very competitive and this market will not be for everyone who reads the blog. It’s a tough old game but get all the components right and it is a much more valuable one than any other library discussed.

Best of luck to you all and take care.

Nash”

128 accepted images

Despite no sales, I can be super proud of myself as 128 accepted is quite a strong effort even if it’s exactly my monthly average for the year. Just a year ago I would never have been able to have as many images accepted – in fact, Sept 2022 I got just 36 through.

However, my acceptance rates remains stubbornly low hovering around 30-35% and I’m desperately trying to get those numbers up. I’m therefore focused on uploading only Quality, Quality, Quality and focusing more on details while post-processing, as Nash has advised.

I’ve put together a short reel with 20 of my favourite covers of the month out of the 128 – hope you enjoy!

@brutallyhonestbookcovers

Out of the 128 accepted images in September here are my 20 favourite #bookcover

♬ Arrival of the Birds (From “The Crimson Wing Mystery of the Flamingos”) – The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra

New Segment, “Hey, that’s my Pic + How much it earned” – 5 pics

The new “Hey, that’s my pic!” segment has been upgraded to also include how much it earned and where it was placed. Warning: might make for depressing reading…

On that “happy” note, I must leave you. Will be back soon with three interviews lined up!

P.s. October is when you’ll see me on YT talking about my earnings

As one of my goals for the year, I’m finally going live in October and will discuss my earnings on YT (along with on here as usual). Should be fun!

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About Alex

I’m an eccentric guy, currently based in Lisbon, Portugal, on a quest to visit all corners of the world and capture stock images & footage. I’ve devoted eight years to making it as a travel photographer / videographer and freelance writer. I hope to inspire others by showing an unique insight into a fascinating business model.

Most recently I’ve gone all in on submitting book cover images to Arcangel Images. Oh and also recently purchased a DJI Mavic 2s drone and taking full advantage and perhaps a Mavic 3 soon.

I’m proud to have written a book about my adventures which includes tips on making it as a stock travel photographer – Brutally Honest Guide to Microstock Photography