Premium Image

Many guests at the CEPIC Congress are working on a collection of more Premium images as a strategy to differentiate themselves from the enormous collections created largely by amateur contributors.

To accomplish so, they're tightening up the editing process and pulling out photographs with the highest "quality" and production values. The argument is that there are still buyers prepared to pay more for higher-quality, one-of-a-kind photographs with top-notch models and excellent production qualities.

And it appears that this tactic is working to some extent. Some businesses may demonstrate that their revenues are at least stable and not dropping. Revenue from "Premium" Image is actually increasing, according to a few agencies and production businesses.

However, there is little doubt that the number of clients ready to pay such rates is declining across the sector. Furthermore, the average price paid is lower than it was a few years ago.

Some photographers claim to pay top models as much as $100 per hour and utilize many models in a single image. They also cover the costs of venues, props, and production helpers. They can also demonstrate that at least some of the generated photographs have been licensed several times. These manufacturers, however, are uncommon.

Most photographers find it difficult to justify the high out-of-pocket production costs required to produce "better" photographs based on the money earned by premium images.

Who Determines What Qualifies as Premium?

The editor who assembles the collection generally defines premium. The photographs that have been accepted are those that the editor considers are excellent examples of the sort of image that buyers will wish to purchase. In many circumstances, the editor may make that decision based on years of expertise. Hopefully, the editor can connect with picture creators to help them understand what they should be doing, what is in demand, and what didn't work in a certain collection of photographs provided by the photographer.

Unfortunately, most editors are so busy dealing with a large number of submissions that they don't have time to provide much more than generic recommendations to the great majority of picture providers. They may be able to provide particular advice to a select of their greatest producers on occasion.

It's Time To Make A Change-

Many agencies with Premium collections, it seems to me, might consider revamping their Premium image collections to only feature photographs that have sold at least once, and charging a little higher fee for images that have never sold. If a few photographs have sold a lot of times, a greater fee for using them could be imposed.

Customers may benefit from this by learning which photographs have been in high demand by other buyers. It might help premium image designers by revealing what people are actually purchasing. The producers might then concentrate their efforts on creating more of the broad sort of subject matter that clients have expressed an interest in. It might also help the agencies since fresh photographs that sell will earn them more money.