“Unleash Your Creativity” (the “Design Contest”) with the first-ever design contest co-sponsored by Fotolia and Quark (the “Sponsors”). Combining the imagination of Fotolia images and the creative power of Quark XPress 7 software, you – the designer – have the opportunity to promote your passion for design, creative skill, and even win $5000 in cash and prizes – and build your portfolio – by designing the next generation of Fotolia advertisements.

Unleash your creative genius, free your mind from focus groups, market research, red tape and corporate egos. Take your skills to the next level and create an advertisement that will impress your peers and inspire the stock photography industry.

What does the next generation of Fotolia Web and magazine advertising look like? Capture our essence and you can win $5000 in cash and prizes – and have your work featured both online and in print publications worldwide as Fotolia’s new advertising campaign!

Here’s how to enter

Simply use Fotolia images and Quark XPress 7 software to create a magazine ad in A4 size at 300 DPI and a banner ad at 120×600 pixels in JPEG or PDF format and submit both files to Fotolia before May 9, 2008 12:01 AM EST. All entrants must agree to and comply with “Contest Rules and Regulations” as outlined below. Make sure to include your Fotolia login name and contact info.

We encourage all entrants to review the Fotolia website to understand who we are as company but we give complete creative control over to you.

Prizes

Grand Prize: The winning designer will receive an approximate retail value (“ARV”) of $5000 (USD) in cash and prizes. In addition the winning design will be used in Fotolia’s global advertising campaigns.

Important Dates to Remember

Entrants may submit designs from March 14, 2008 to May 9, 2008 12:00 AM EST.

The Winner will be announced May 20, 2008 at the How Design Conference in Boston, MA (The HOW Conference is a leading industry event focused entirely around professional graphic designers.

Click here to see the Contest Rules and Regulations

Copyright : Stelian Ion / 123RF

Free! Free! Free! 123RoyaltyFree present it World of Free Images. These images are free for you to download and won’t be counted towards your credit download nor would it affect your subscription download quota for the day.

You may download and use the web resolution images under a Free Image Licensing Agreement (limited to 10,000 copies usage) from 123RF.

Mostphotos – the democratic stock agency – challenges major stock agencies with an entirely new and innovative concept. The Swedish based picture agency Mostphotos is taking advantage of the digital revolution in photography. By combining amateur as well as professional material, the company is investing in an unconventional model from which both the image buyer and the photographer benefit. The agency’s website offers free membership and is run and administered by the photographers themselves.

All photographers, professional as well as true amateurs can, without any fees, offer their pictures for sale worldwide and always receive up to 70% commission. The photo-selling web site is called the democratic stock agency by its users, as everybody is welcome to upload their images for sale as long as Mostphotos‘ simple rules are being followed.

Buyers have access to an exclusive and extensive collection of royalty free and editorial images. The images can be used freely in all media at a tenth of the cost at major stock agencies.

At 25 euros per image and with straightforward and easy-to-use features for both sellers and buyers, Mostphotos has all the right features to become one of the most successful stock agencies in the world.

Selling images and photos

There are many advantages to uploading pictures for sale at Mostphotos compared to selling them on your own commercial web site.

At Mostphotos:

- You benefit from advice and tips about what kind of photos sell through the Photographers’ Forum and the upcoming Photo Guide.
- You may sell you royalty free images with us AND at any other site – it’s perfectly fine with us!
- You decide how much you want to charge for each picture.
- You get the advantages of secure payments and can be certain of getting paid before the image is released, regardless of where in the world your buyer is located.
- You have unlimited storage and free back up.
- You have access to a fast and user-friendly upload function (batch, multi upload and FTP) with automatic retrieval of your tags and IPTC (the metadata embedded in your image file) as well as an easy-to-use drag-and-drop-function to help you sort your images!
- You become a part of a terrific community of colleagues and friends that can help you improve and become a better photographer.
In exchange we split the price on your royalty free images 50/50.
- By selling your pictures as “Exclusive” you can even earn a 70% commission. – We have marketing strategies in place and a marketing budget geared toward corporate image buyers.

We encourage the costumer to add the byline:

“mostphotos/photographer’s MP nickname” when publishing images, thus making it easy for anyone who sees your pictures to access your personal portfolio at Mostphotos.

Straightforward and easy-to-use

It is easy to sell photos at Mostphotos.
The membership is free and comes with a number of straightforward features, making it easy for you to sell you photos around the globe. The intuitive search function ranks the result according to image appeal. The highest rated images, with the most views and comments end up at the top of the search while the less appealing images come further back. This self-regulating system allows buyers to easily find the best images.

Quality

Mostphotos’s members are anything from true amateurs to professional photographers — all with a digital camera and an interested in photography. We do not reject any images as long as they abide by the site’s ethical rules. The only technical requirement is that the images are high resolution — at least 4 mega pixels.

Two image categories

–Royalty Free
As Royalty Free, an image is offered for sale at a fixed price to an unlimited number of buyers that are free to use the image according to the rules stipulated in the contract of sales, regardless of the edition or the media.

–Exclusive
As exclusive, an image is only offered for sale once. As soon as the transaction is completed, the exclusive image will no longer be offered for sale and will be removed from the website. Images offered for sale as exclusive cannot be offered for sale elsewhere or through other means of distribution.
The photographer always retains the copyright of his or her work regardless of under which type of image category the images are being offered for sale.

Safe and secure payments for both sellers and buyers

Mostphotos guarantees that all transactions are secure. These are handled by MyPay AB who also verifies all credit cards. All communication between Mostphotos, MyPay AB and the consumer is protected by a sophisticated encryption preventing unauthorized data access. Purchases are easily made using any of the leading credit cards. The photographers receive their commission either by direct deposit to their bank account or through Paypal/Moneybookers — regardless of where in the world the buyer is located.

  

Statistics

Submitting Photos

Payment

What is a warning?

A warning puts you on notice that a large percentage of your images contain flaws. The most common problem is noise in the images. Be sure to check your work at 100%. Here are some more common reasons people get warnings: 1) Submitting more than one of the same image 2) Keyword spamming (using the same keywords for unlike images) 3) Frequent miscategorization 4) Large numbers of out-of-focus or noisy photos in a batch 5) Submitting an image that has already been rejected without leaving a note for the reviewer as to why it was resubmitted 6) Multiple combinations of images with problems (i.e. poor framing, focus, keywording, etc. all in the same batch) 7) Upsizing of images more than 5% Large batches (over 50) with all poor quality shots (this includes unrotated images, snapshots, noise, etc.) Please see the Submitter Guidelines for additional detail on this.

Editorial Stock

General

Model Releases

Shutterstock is the largest subscription-based stock photo agency in the world. Shutterstock outstanding collection of premium, royalty-free images grows every day, with photographs, illustrations, and vectors you won’t find any where else. Sign up for a cost-effective subscription plan and download 25 images every day (that’s 750 each month!) with no hidden costs.

What are the requirements of an uploaded photo/illustration?

In response to both customer and photographer demands Fotolia has released two new licenses. The first license is called the eXtra Small standard license corresponding with the XS abbreviation. The license is designed for blogs and web applications (thumbnails and small images on websites). The license will start at just 1 credit for a 300*400 pixel image. At the opposite end of the license scale, Fotolia has introduced an XXXL standard license, offering extremely large images. This license is available starting at 7 credits for 4800*6400 pixel images (30.7 MP) perfect for large printing projects.

With the introduction of these two new licenses Fotolia adjusted it price structure.

Payment to Contributors

Exclusive / non-exclusive

Only a file may be exclusive with Fotolia not the artist.

A contributor may choose to sell files with Fotolia on an exclusive or non-exclusive basis. When a contributor chooses to sell a file exclusively through Fotolia, the minimum commission earned is 50% of the sales price. The contributor may earn additional commission depending on the contributors rank.

When a contributor chooses to sell an image non-exclusively through Fotolia, the minimum commission earned is 33% of the sales price. The contributor may earn additional commission depending on the contributors rank.

The tables below outline the license, resolution, commission, and price range a contributor may sell his images based on the contributors rank and exclusivity.

Licenses & pricing

During the indexation process, a contributor selects an appropriate license and sets the price or base price for that license within the price range of the contributors rank and exclusivity. The selling price for the Standard Royalty Free License is calculated on the resolution of the image. The contributor may set up to 2 prices:

• Standard Royalty Free Base Price = XS
• Extended Royalty Free Price = X

Royalty Free Licenses	Icons	Price	Output Resolution	Condition
XS Standard		XS	≥ 0.12 MP	Resolution ≥ 3,7
S Standard		2* XS	≥ 0.48 MP	Resolution ≥ 3,7
M Standard		3* XS	≥ 1.9 MP	Resolution ≥ 3,7
L Standard		4* XS	≥ 3.7 MP	Resolution ≥ 3.7
XL Standard		5* XS	≥ 7.8 MP	Resolution ≥ 7.8
XXL Standard		6* XS	≥ 15 MP	Resolution ≥ 15
XXXL Standard		7* XS	≥ 30 MP	Resolution ≥ 30
Vectors		7* XS	Any resolution	vector
Extended		X	Original Size	Resolution ≥ 3,7

A contributor may set their price according to their rank, price range and image exclusivity

Contributor ranking

On Fotolia, a contributor’s rank is determined by the total number of files sold. The higher the rank the more files that contributor has sold. There are 8 levels that represent the contributors rank and the number of photos sold. The table below outlines each level and its corresponding symbol.

Number of Files Downloaded	Symbol	Level
Less than 100		White
Between 100 and 1000		Bronze
Between 1000 and 5000		Silver
Between 5000 and 10000		Gold
Between 10000 and 50000		Emerald
Between 50000 and 100000		Sapphire
Between 100000 and 500000		Rubis
Above 500000		Diamond

Exclusive

			Maximum Sales Price
Contributor Ranking		Contributor Commission %	XS Standard	S Standard	M Standard	L Standard	XL Standard	XXL Standard	XXXL Standard	Vectors	Extended
White		50	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	7	20
Bronze		52	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	14	50
Silver		54	3	6	9	12	15	18	21	21	100
Gold		56	4	8	12	16	20	24	28	28	150
Emerald		58	5	10	15	20	25	30	35	35	200
Sapphire		60	6	12	18	24	30	36	42	42	200
Rubis		62	7	14	21	28	35	42	49	49	200
Diamond		64	10	20	30	40	50	60	70	70	200

Non exclusive

			Maximum Sales Price
Contributor Ranking[ ? ]		Contributor Commission %	XS Standard	S Standard	M Standard	L Standard	XL Standard	XXL Standard	XXXL Standard	Vector	Extended
White		33	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	7	20
Bronze		35	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	7	50
Silver		37	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	7	100
Gold		39	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	7	150
Emerald		41	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	14	200
Sapphire		43	3	6	9	12	15	18	21	21	200
Rubis		45	4	8	12	16	20	24	28	28	200
Diamond		47	5	10	15	20	25	30	35	35	200

Shutterstock Footage is a new resource for stock video footage – and a dynamic channel for videographers to sell their material. All you need is a digital camera, and a computer. It’s that simple!

Stock footage is film or video content generally between five and 60 seconds in length. The subject can be almost anything: a car driving by, fireworks exploding, or a glass of wine being poured. Shutterstock is interested in any content that might be of use to a stock footage buyer.

Stock footage is used for a variety of purposes including movies and film, T.V. advertisements, news broadcasts, educational videos, websites, business presentations, and more.

Each time one of your clips is purchased, you receive a 30% commission on the sale. Stock clips are typically priced at $10 to $50 per clip. You can upload your footage to our ftp server at ftp://submit.shutterstock.com. Once you have uploaded your film clips, please visit the Submitted Footage page to assign a description, keywords and categories to your film clips – this makes them easily searchable in our database.

After you have added this information, the clips will go through a review process. Each video submitted will be evaluated to make sure that it complies with all our guidelines. Once your clip has been approved, it will appear on our website, ready for download! For a more detailed description of the uploading process, please see our Uploading Tutorial page.

For more information about submitting footage, please visit our Footage Submitters’ Guidelines.

Headquartered in the heart of New York City, Fotolia is the first global online social marketplace for creative digital stock images, where photographers and designers of all levels can store, share and monetize their photographs and illustrations.

Fotolia offers the largest image bank of free and affordable royalty free photos and illustrations perfect for any medium, web or print.

Photographers and designers constantly update Fotolia with thousands of new photos and illustrations each day, while photographers and designers receive commission from each photo sold and revenue from advertising on the free section.

Above all Fotolia is a huge community of creative people who enjoy sharing, learning, and expressing themselves through forums and blog.

Fotolia provides a compromise between photographers and buyers, by protecting a photographer’s intellectual property rights and providing high commissions, while legally lowering the price barrier so that everyone may enjoy/afford these beautiful images.

Fotolia challenges the traditional closed agency model by offering to everyone hobbyist or professional the opportunity to monetize their talents, whatever their fame, status, or size of portfolio.

Fotolia is able to offer individuals and professionals (advertising agencies, press, small business, graphic artists, designers) a large image collection – 3,181,377 stock images online (february 2008) – for free or as little as $1.

Technical Guidelines

• Minimum of 1600 x 1200 pixels for web use
• 2272 x 1704 pixels or greater for print use
• We prefer files with atleast 2000 x 3000 pixels
• Do not interpolate or upsize your images!
• All files should be 8 bit RGB Jpeg files with minimal compression
• Try to shoot in RAW format and then covert to Jpeg before submission to Fotolia.
• Little to no sharpening
• Images with sRGB color profiles are preferred

Stock photography consists of existing photographs that can be licensed for specific uses. Publishers, advertising agencies, graphic artists, and others use stock photography to fulfill the needs of their creative assignments.

A customer who uses stock photography instead of hiring a photographer can save time and money. Stock images can be presented in searchable online databases, purchased online, and delivered via download.

In the 2000s the microstock photography industry, led by IStockPhoto and later Dreamstime, Shutterstock and BigStockPhoto, Fotolia, 123RoyaltyFree, Stockxpert, LuckyOliver emerged as a rapidly growing market. Using the Internet as their sole distribution method, and recruiting mainly amateur and hobbyist photographers from around the globe, these companies are able to offer stock libraries of good quality for very low prices.

Each microstock company uses a different pricing and payment scheme. Photographers can upload the same pictures on multiple sites or, with some agencies, become an exclusive supplier and receive an increased commission.

There is no fee to post photos on a microstock site. However, microstock companies do not accept everyone or all photographs. Each employs a team of reviewers who check every picture submitted for technical quality, as well as artistic and commercial merit. Photographers add keywords that help potential buyers filter and find pictures of interest.

The mindset of microstock supporters is that quantity will prevail and photographers will end up making as much from many small sales as they would from a few large sales on a traditional stock photography site.

Royalty-free

“Free” in this context means “free of royalties (paying each time you use an image)”. It does not mean the image is free to use without purchasing a license or that the image is in the public domain.

• Pay a one-time fee to use the image multiple times for multiple purposes (with limits).
• No time limit on when the buyer can use an image.
• No one can have exclusive rights of a Royalty-free image (the photographer can sell the image as many times as he wants).
• A Royalty-free image usually has a limit to how many times the buyer can reproduce it. For example, a license might allow the buyer to print 500,000 brochures with the purchased image.