With the increase in the size and popularity of the Adobe stock catalog, I have less, if any interaction with a human person at the agency, which I fully expect. A lot of the selection happens by algorithm/AI and/or a farm of editors I am guessing. In the past I would have conversations with a rep about which images were accepted, which were not, try to resolve quality issues, remove brand elements, and so on. But now, there’s nobody to get feedback from. To my surprise, I’m OK with it. If an image is rejected, I just move on. Less time wasted, more results.
The more images I license, the quicker my images are processed for inclusion into the catalog, and the more likely they are to be accepted. This makes sense given most of the selection process is probably done by algorithm. They pay more attention to you if you are profitable. Hopefully that continues.
I am withholding my climbing photography from the catalog for now. I think it is too specific for general stock licensing. The releasing and brand erasure is problematic. It will just be ingested into an AI engine to create crap climbing content and I don’t need to be a part of that, I value this work too much. Finally, I am working on a book, so I’d like it to be fresh.
So far I have not seen images pop up on third party print fulfillment sites. That was a huge problem at Aurora, because images I was offering as limited-edition fine art prints that would be available somewhere else at a fraction of the cost (and who knows what quality). Once it’s on those sites, its impossible to get them removed. But there is nothing to really stop it from happening. It’s one of the risks of stock licensing.
Adobe has a third party API that allows resellers to “sell” images on their own platforms. It’s unclear what the exact terms are, if there are pricing subscriptions, and so on. I have occasionally seen my images appear on third party sites for licensing. There should be some residuals from this, but these kinds of stock residuals is always what kills my involvement in agency stock licensing. Eventually the value of popular images is diluted too much. We will see.
Georgia Aquarium, Atlanta, GAHerb and vegetable basket, South CarolinaCumulus Clouds, North CarolinaFence Line, South DakotaCity of Rocks State Park, NMSan Francisco, CA
