In my recent February 2024 earnings and news report I briefly touched upon how OpenAi’s Sora is revolutionising the footage industry. This is merely one further step in the AI’s advances that will literally make some of our work as stock creatives redudant in the near future.

As AI technology continues to advance, it’s understandable for us stock photographers and videographers to feel somewhat concerned about its potential disruptions to our revenue streams. We can just keep doing the same old and hope that it just “blows over” (which it won’t) or we may adopt strategies to protect our livelihoods.

Here are five such strategies that you may wish to start adopting right away – let’s get started!

Strategy 1 – Focus on Unique and Creative Work

As Andrea Piacquadio, a Super Microstocker, who licenses on average 750,000 images a year, mentioned when I asked him about AI in a recent interview here on the blog:

“If everyone will have easy access to these tools and really create all the images they want, the power of the image will decline further. Because something has value the more it manages to be unique at least not very repeatable. What is easily repeatable loses quickly value.“

I agree 100% with Andrea – if it’s very easy to create and anybody with an internet connection can do it then it has very little value regardless how great it may look. So, we need to focus on creating work that is unique, difficult to create/replicate and future-proof.

This is all easier said than done. Rather than creating generic stock photos or videos, let’s focus on capturing scenes, subjects, and perspectives that are distinctive and offer something different from what AI-generated content can produce. This may include mastering advanced lighting setups.

Or incorporating complex compositions that a query-based search may struggle to transform into a meangingful “image”. At the moment at least my images of hands/fingers are safe as AI really struggles to replicate such concepts (for the time-being).

Or taking to the skies and capturing some aerials featuring complex landscapes that are not easy to replicate.

Perhaps you’re an expert at shooting portraits and capturing “real” emotions…these still offer value as there’s a soul behind those eyes and not empty souless pixels.

I’ve tried to re-create the above using Leonardo.Ai and capturing metadata provided by Phototag.Ai:

“A portrait of an elderly Portuguese man in his 80s wearing a classic flat cap and a collared shirt under a jacket. He appears contemplative, gazing upward with a slight squint, as light illuminates one side of his weathered face, accentuating his life experiences and wisdom”

Disclaimer

I’m by no means a trained AI-engineer and don’t know all the technical nuances to creating the best inputs, be it in Dalle2, Midjourney (which produces the best results I’ve been advised), Leonardo, etc, such as adding you have to add more specifics – how it is shot (light, scene, close up or not), etc. So I’m doing my best here, perhaps you can find a better result than my original image of the portrait of the man.

Anyway, let’s move into the next tip.

Strategy 2a – Focus on creating strong editorials

I’m personally not too worried about advances in AI because I know that the majority of my portfolio consist of editorials (about 75%). Editorial organisations and photographers/videographers should adhere to ethical guidelines and professional standards that govern the creation and use of visual content, including stock photos/videos. These standards promote integrity, accuracy, and respect for the subjects depicted in editorial photos and videos.

Now, it’s not only unethical but it’s also illegal to try to pass off AI images as “real” for news purposes even though some bad actors out there are doing their best, such as the following:

Most worrying are fake news / deep-fakes which spread like wildfire and can distort and confuse public opinion on serious issues. Did she really say that?

Omgpic.twitter.com/pQPtTOhxld

— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) October 23, 2023

Here’s another example of how AI can be used to further State-propaganda.

How to spot Fake News

Kate Middleton’s Mother’s Day portrait fiasco

Most recently in March 2024, the web blew up with stories about Kate Middleton’s two-month disappearence followed by a bizarre family photo with obvious photoshop errors. Good news is that the general public is getting better at spotting these sorts of manipulations and calling them out!

I can probably write a dissertation on the above related to fake news, etc so I must reign myself in.

Practical considerations

Now back to practicalities, under normal circumstances, if you’re also producing editorial work your work should still be picked up for years to come considering such work has value to tell a story about a certain place and time. These range from old-fashioned editorials, which can be as simple as street scenes with unreleased people/property to more complex and time-sensitive subjects as protests. For instance, I expect the following to keep selling for years as re-creating these using AI (for commercial-illustrative purposes) will just produce sub-par results.

In addition, the following….the “real” has much more impact than an AI-created, plus it’s focused on a specific time and place bringing it more cultural relevance to the emotion.

Therefore, if you don’t shoot editorials it may be something that you can start doing right away which will future-proof your portfolio. Just don’t expect huge sales from editorials as they tend to sell for less, on average, than commerical images. But on the flip side, they are super easy to capture and require less post-processing.

Strategy 2a – Focus on creating strong travel shots

I’m a travel photographer and love a good cityscape shot, which is licensed commercially (ensuring all logos/writing are cloned out). These will be very difficult to replicate using AI because although the AI (at least today) does an OK job at capturing a landmark, it does a piss poor job at capturing the surrounding landscape.

Let’s illustrate with one of my images and how it turns out using Leonardo. I’ve chosen the view atop Milan’s Duomo cathedral (a lesser known view than most but worthy to illustrate the point that AI has a loooong ways to go to catch up for these types of shots).

Strategy 3 – Diversify your revenue streams

Again, I’m fortunate that I have so many editorials, but suppose that you’re a still life food photographer like Captain Tono Balaguer, who prior to becoming a full-time Angler, was a food photographer, creating beautiful colourful plates such as the below (love Mexican food, one of my fav)

Now, this is the type of work that is MOST prone to being made redudant by AI. Think about it, how much would it cost to purchase all those products, cook/prepare and the lighting setup! WIth AI, you can create a similar “image” with a simple query text.

One example, I’ve taken the above image and put it again through PhotoTag.Ai which gave me its metadata and inputed that into Leonardo.Ai (with the remaining free credits that I have leftover)…and voila, this is what I got!

The result speaks for itself…

Build a personal brand

So, perhaps if you’ve specialized during the past 10-15 years in a type of photography/videography is that most prone to AI advances (I’ve mentioned food, but can also be other still life, illustrations/vectors, interiors/architecture and generic lifestyle/business), you’d be wise to think about diversifying…perhaps this means working directly with clients on commissioned works. As well as offering workshops, consulting services, etc.

By building a reputation for quality and authenticity, you can differentiate yourself from AI-generated content and attract clients who value your unique perspective and artistic vision.

Strategy 2 – Protect yourself legally

Regulators are playing catch up on this new technology but have made strides, particularly in the European Union with the EU AI Act which came into force in January 2024.

More specifically, AI-generated photo/video content would likely fall under the yellow “Limited Risk” category (same as the usage of Chat-GPT), thus needing to comply with transparency requirements, including:

• Disclosing that the content was generated by AI;
• Designing the model to prevent it from generating illegal content; and
• Publishing summaries of copyrighted data used for training.

Practical considerations

It’s all still up in the air when and how the laws will be enforced in practice in the EU and elsewhere. In the meantime, we can as creatives familiarize ourselves on how to deal with situations in which AI-generated content infringes upon our intellectual property rights. Difficult of course to even spot copyright infrigements but we can take certain practical steps to protect our work incluing:

• Monitoring and enforcement of our copyright: Regularly monitor the internet for unauthorized use of your content. Utilize online tools and services that can help track instances of infringement and unauthorized distribution. When you identify instances of infringement, take prompt action to enforce your rights, whether through cease-and-desist notices, DMCA takedown requests, or pursuing legal action if necessary. You may also consider contacting third-party services such as Pixsy that fight image theft and other infrigements.

Strategy 1 – If you can’t beat them, join them!

The last and perhaps best remedy to fight the AI dvances is the classic “If you can’t beat them, join them!”

In other words, you may consider honing your skills to become the best damn Midjourney/Dalle2/Leonardo AI input-engineer out there! In fact, I know many stock contributors out there nowadays (won’t name any names or link to ports) who are making good money by creating AI-generated content and uploading to Adobe Stock and Wirestock, etc.

Here are some useful resources:

Conclusion

Whether you love or hate Ai, it’s irrelevant. The fact is that the technology is making huge leaps on a daily basis to potentially disrupt our revenues as stock producers. Hopefully I’ve given you a few tips to get ready and prepare yourself.

Further resources, including an excellent video by Nicole Glass:

Comment below on how you feel about the AI threat, are you worried and if so what are you doing about it within your own business?

Also follow the discussion over the MSG Forum:

https://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/future-proofing-creativity-5-strategies-for-stock-photographers-videographers/msg600136/?topicseen#new

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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.

I’ve gone all in on submitting book cover images to Arcangel Images. Oh and was also flying a DJI Mavic 2s drone regularly (although it crashed into Botafogo Bay on NYE – here is the story), which I’m likely upgrading to a Mini 3 Pro and eventually an Air3 in 2024.

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