Now and then I have that argument about "Is Stock Photography" dead?
What I can tell, not at all. At least not for the agencies. Some of them thrive, other, not so well, observing how they increase their pie or ask for new fees.
With a few exceptions, it would be hard to make Stock Photography a profession, at least if selling your photos via the usual big players on the market.
Lately, AI makes that situation even worse.
Here is an example from Adobe Stock, where I am uploading some of my photographs for licensing.
A few months ago Adobe Stock decided to accept AI generative content. Since then, I see a few key changes:
The approval period increased from a few days up to 4 weeks.
The rejection rate increased.
- Their database will soon have more AI generated stuff than original works, diminishing the quality provided
- Many valued contributors are complaining not only of those delays but also to the fact there are "players", or let's use the word "abusers" who cheat and hide the fact the uploaded stuff is AI generated.
I guess they will get some good payment checks before getting busted.
Does that sound familiar to you? ;)
Check here, in this screenshot from the home page of my account, those yellow and blue ribbons:
Some screenshots from their support forum.
Long story short, my humble opinion is Adobe made a mistake by allowing AI generated content.
I hope I am wrong and the future will show.
My personal perspective is that Stock Photography is turning more and more into a side hustle, mainly for enthusiasts with plenty of free time, who have no other idea what to do.
Buy my stock photos at Alamy: https://www.alamy.com/portfolio/112427.html
Buy my 1/1 exclusive NFTs on OpenSea: https://opensea.io/LightCaptured
Buy my stock photos at Adobe Stock: https://stock.adobe.com/contributor/206416265/lightcaptured
Copyright: LightCaptured
All the photographs, digital art and text in my posts, unless specified otherwise, are my own property and created by me.
If you wish to use any of my works, please drop me a line!
Have a great day!
The divider I use in my posts I have created in Adobe Express.