Our Stock Works

Hi There

I’ve been working on a long term project called Our Stock Works for several months now, and we are nearing the launch of the site. It would be good if you could offer any feedback, and let us know what you think. We aren’t live yet, but there is a holding page showing several screenshots of the site in action.

It’s a stock photography website, which differentiates itself by offering a large 50% commission to photographers, and several new uploading features such as a ‘Fast Track’ CD/DVD service and FTP access.

We’re also looking for contributing photographers at present. So please enter your address on the holding page or get in touch if you would like to contribute to the site and earn from your talent! Designers can also enter their details to use our services when the site goes live.

Address: http://www.ourstockworks.com

Thanks

#375207

So what would be so special about that? There are like a hundred stock-photo sites online (e.g. photocase.com), and I don't think those features you mention will impress very much.

Its good looking though.

Besides isn't that spam?

#375210

Hi Neal

I'm more than aware of the number of stock photography sites out there. Many are small-timers, and don't have a large collection of images. Many are huge, and can't offer a personal service. We are aiming for a middle ground with Our Stock Works, offering a price range of around £15-£30 per photo.

Very few websites offer the same commission for photography - often you can earn only a few cents for a download of one of your images. We are able to offer a real way to earn from your images without necessarily needing to be a professional.

And no, it's not spam. I'm looking for people's input and feedback on the screenshots of the design, and the general concept. Thankyou for yours!

#375213

We are aiming for a middle ground with Our Stock Works, offering a price range of around £15-£30 per photo.

That sounds kind of expensive to me.

Very few websites offer the same commission for photography - often you can earn only a few cents for a download of one of your images. We are able to offer a real way to earn from your images without necessarily needing to be a professional.

More important for me: How are you verifing that the photo is unique? That the photographer is a real person and how do you (if necessary) verify that it is model-released?

And no, it's not spam. I'm looking for people's input and feedback on the screenshots of the design, and the general concept.

#375221

It's not expensive at all. Often designers pay up to £400+ for an image to be used in a marketing campaign. We are selling for a very reasonable price.

Commission does depend on the licence model to an extent. We are selling the downloaded file - rights remain with the photographer, and they retain ownership over the image. For this agreement, 50% is an excellent rate.

I'm not entirely sure by what you mean as 'unique'. Obviously we can check for duplicates on the site and won't allow that. But it's up to the photographer to ensure they have the correct permission and rights to upload an image. We are acting as an agency selling images on behalf of the photographer. When uploading or submitting an image, the photographer must verify they hold a model or property release for an image if appropriate. We pass the responsibility for this onto them - it's their requirement to hold one for an image with a visible face or property which can be linked back to it's owner.

Thanks for your interest

#375227

actually 15-30 pounds a photo is cheap have you checked the prices on getty images, this sounds like a good site, all i can say is the best thing you can do is not only sell single stock images but sets/cd's of images my old design company never brought single images but brought collections like nature, modern architecture and so on.

#375230

That is definitely something we'll be considering a few months down the line, once we've seen what the initial response is like. What sort of pricing would you think is appropriate for image CD's?

#375234

the collections would have to cost less then if you brought each image individually, usually how much you save is dependent on the seller, and the demand of the images, also resolution, quantity, quality are important factors check out some stock image sites and just try and be competitive.

#375243

Sounds good. I've put a full-size screenshot of the site up at:

http://www.ourstockworks.com/ss.png

If anyone would like to comment on the full sized design, that'd be great. Sorry for not being able to offer a real design at the minute!

#375247

count me in as a photographer.. check my site for some pics..

#375262

I'm always a fan of your designs . My only suggestion would be to add more information under each photo, or make the two icons smaller (I'm talking about where the thumbnails are, halfway down and a third of the way across).

Looks nice!

-NC

#375319

Thanks NC - Much appreciated. Know what you mean, and understand what you're saying. Any ideas what extra information you would like to see?

#375323

What's a lightbox? Perhaps you should make that more clear...

Hmm, perhaps implement some kind of tagging structure? Those seem to be all the rage nowadays...you could list in a small white/gray font three or four (perhaps user-submitted) terms describing the image. Or maybe some EXIF data, as I know you've already got code for extracting EXIF data from photos and putting it on a web page (Can you say SimplePhotos )!

-NC

#375770

Looks great! The only thing for me is the clash of brand identities... when i see the grey, black, orange and white text with that exact font, the first thing that jumps to mind is Orange (mobile phone network)! But then again it's probably not a major issue here. Good luck

#375818

I know what you mean CDi - However we're not really in the same area so hopefully it shouldn't be a problem. Orange and black work incredibly well together as a colour palette.

Nightcrawler - You're right, we're looking into using short help snippets and explanations around the site to help people get used to some of the terms often associated with stock photography. We have a tagging system in place already with 15 tags associated with each image, these being cross-referenced and searchable. It might well be worth using these on search pages in some way, I'll look into it.

Thanks for the comments to far!

#375820

the site design looks beautiful, I've been getting into photography lately so I might sign up. On a random note, CDI your signature is slightly annoying since when you click any white space near the pic your sight comes up. Why don't you just link the pic?

#375873

We've just finished an overhaul of the holding page (http://www.ourstockworks.com) taking into account your suggestions - there are some new screenshots, and more details about what the site has in store. Any comments would be appreciated.

For those generally interested in the progress of the site, there is a news update here:

http://ppleyard.org.uk/archives/2006/04/28...rks-update.html

Thanks to all those who have offered advice and contributed their photography so far!

#384321

The form fields look kind of "bulky," or just overlarge and awkward. Other than that, great progress .

-NC

#384409

See what you're saying NC. I guess the idea behind having them large was to ensure that they are a prominent part of the page where people can register their interest.

#384600

Also, I would suggest different font styling (for the For Photographers, etc.) because right now, it just looks kind of... MS-Wordish?

And for that cool image-previewing feature, I notice how on the bottom it says "Image 1 of 6." [Edit: Nevermind, I just noticed how one can navigate between images, but perhaps you should also have small arrows on the bottom where it says what image it is? I never would have known about the side navigation...]

Perhaps orange text when filling in the form fields?

Still, quite nice .

-NC

#384642

a light box is basically a box that has a light and you put your pictures on it to see it... like at the doctors office where they put xrays on a light box. the javascript he is using is called "lightbox" that shows the images. the naviagation and images are from the javascript.

i think its ok, tags should just be a one-line text field that are delimited by commas... i dont like the first one (for photographers) but i like the black+orange of the for designers one.

#386550

i typically am not a fan of royalty free sites, photographers are always getting ripped off....but where can i find a bit more info, image size, subject matter requirements, scanning, etc etc and how to sign up

#386867

If you visit the holding page: www.ourstockworks.com and enter your email address as a photographer we will give you a username and password to access the site. You'll be able to browse around, look at our FAQ's for the information you mentioned and get a feel for what is on offer.

#386892

The site looks amazing. I entered my email on the holding page, and I anxiously await a chance to get a look at this site.

#387182

very attractive site

just one thing though .....

you may wish to change the flags on your map of the uk - you seem to have annexed Ireland :confused:

i'm not overly-political but it does cause some offense

good luck with your venture though [the site ..... not the annexation ]

#406701