Microstock vs. Premium Stock: Two Diverging Paths for Photographers

An aerial view of cyclists over the Soca River, Slovenia, an example of the premium photography in Amazing Aerial’s collection.. © Amazing Aerial Agency / Paul Prescott

By Rebecca Duras

For many photographers and videographers, the first way they start earning money from their craft is through a microstock agency such as Getty Images. These agencies are the most well-known, but there is another option for stock photography—premium stock. Although both involve stock photography that is then sold to clients, there are major differences between these two business models.

The History of Microstock and Premium Stock

Although microstock agencies now dominate the market and public consciousness of the photography industry, they are a relatively recent invention. Paul Prescott, founder and CEO of Amazing Aerial Agency and a professional photographer for over 20 years, states that when he was starting out, there was only premium photography.

“If you wanted to buy a photo you needed to go through a certain agency that had transparencies from the photoshoot,” he says, describing his time working in advertising in London. “You would pay a lot of money for one photo.” 

However, everything changed in the early 2000s as increasing internet accessibility and the advent of digital photography allowed companies such as Shutterstock to develop.

“With digital photography people started shooting a lot more…people started uploading to these platforms, and of course they could scale this to millions of people around the world,”

Paul says.

“It was all digital so that means that somebody would just download a digital file, that means that the costs were not so high to produce all this and deliver it.” 

This led to the microstock model that has dominated the photography world for the past twenty years. Microstock is characterized by low pricing and easy accessibility to large collections of photos.

The Main Differences Between Microstock and Premium Stock

However, microstock became a victim of its own success. “What happened over time and what’s happening now is an oversaturation of photos,” Paul explains, adding that not all of the work featured by microstock agencies is very good.

This created a demand for premium photography, which led to the founding of agencies such as Offset by Shutterstock (and Amazing Aerial Agency) dedicated to this type of work. Premium agencies provide more exclusive photos, which benefits high-end production companies, businesses, and publications.

“Bigger magazines and brands wanted to differentiate themselves from microstock photography,”

Paul says.

The growth of premium stock also saved time for photo buyers, who previously would spend countless time sifting through the vast offerings of varying quality that microstock agencies had.

“The biggest pain for photo buyers is to find a photo,”

Paul Prescott explains, adding that premium agencies minimize that pain by curating photo galleries and providing premium service to buyers.

The added prestige of premium stock meant that agencies could charge a higher price, compared to microstock, which only costs a few cents per photo to download. In turn, photographers receive higher payouts compared to microstock. 

The timing came at the right time for photographers, as earnings from microstock have been steadily declining. Michele Rinaldi, an experienced photographer and Amazing Aerial’s community manager, says,

“Years ago working in the stock industry was quite remunerative, and personally I was not even aware of the difference between microstock and premium stock. A few years ago the major stock companies made some changes with the sharing and the game changed.”

After years of declining revenue, he left microstock, and is noticing that many other photographers are doing the same. “Now I’m only sharing my work with Amazing Aerial and within the premium environment. The percentage shared with the photographers is fair,” he says.

However, many photographers still exclusively work in microstock.

“When photographers want to go into the stock market the only thing that they know is microstock. They don’t know about the premium agencies,”

Paul Prescott says. 

The Knock-On Effect of Low Prices 

The low prices in microstock are more than just finances. They can have serious effects on a photographer’s career, preventing them from developing creatively and even affecting their mental health.

Paul emphasizes the amount of work involved in uploading to microstock. Photographers must take many photos, edit them, upload them, add metadata, and hope for approval after uploading.

“And after one or two months they open up their stats dashboard and see, ‘oh, you’ve earned five dollars this month and you got 10 cents per photo,’ and they look at that and say, ‘I don’t think I’m going to continue this,’”

he says, explaining the dilemma many photographers face.

Paul knows because he spent 16 years as a microstock photographer himself.

“I had about 30,000 photos and videos that I produced, so it was all about quantity, because I needed to create quantity since you would only create a few cents for your photos. When I switched to premium, we could concentrate on the quality because we could get paid properly,”

he says. While he credits microstock and agencies such as Shutterstock with helping him learn a lot and support himself for over a decade of his photography career, he believes that the oversaturation of the market has created a need for premium.

As a community manager that works closely with many photographers, Michele notices a distinct trend among photographers coming to Amazing Aerial from careers in microstock.

“Me and many other photographers coming from the stock business as individual contributors are very demoralized,”

he says. After that, premium stock provides an important change.

“From the photographer’s side, selling a photo at $500 or even more is a matter of respect to their work, and obviously a big reputational achievement.”

The pricing of a photo is important because it also shows how much a work is valued.

“The main point is that photo buyers understand that to take a great photo it takes a lot of time,”

Paul says, explaining that photographers have to travel and often spend a lot of money on building their portfolio.

“Premium is about how the photo is treated, how the photographer is treated and the time saved for photo buyers.”  

 

Michele has also noticed a difference between the relationships he has with clients in premium stock and in microstock, and emphasizes that valuing photography properly is beneficial for photo buyers as well.

“Clients know that if they want high quality content they can go fetch them from these agencies providing outstanding quality and quick selections,”

he says.

The Pricing Trap

When it comes to microstock, the focus on low prices can set both photographers and agencies that focus on microstock back. Paul Prescott calls this “the pricing trap.” In a field where low prices matter, the only way to attract more clients seems to be lowering prices. This traps both photographers and agencies into a continuous cycle of lowering prices without creating space to focus on improving quality. 

The pricing trap is more and more harmful to photographers, as agencies look to new tactics in their race to the bottom. For example, microstock agencies make deals with prospective clients that allow them to download large packages of photos for a low price. While the agency gets a decent cut of the royalties, the remaining royalties are divided between countless photographers and result in very low payouts.

“It’s common that agencies do some great deals for themselves but at the end of the day, it doesn’t really add any value to photographers,”

Paul says, explaining that Amazing Aerial as a premium agency avoids these kinds of deals. 

Instead of getting caught in the pricing trap, creatives and agencies should focus on improving their skills and building lasting relationships with clients that value their work. Amazing Aerial has found its way out of this pricing trap by only working with premium agencies.

“What is special with Amazing Aerial is that we have a premium distribution network, meaning that we only distribute to agencies that will offer premium pricing,”

he says. 

While microstock has its advantages, especially for new photographers looking to learn more about the business, ultimately, the higher pricing and focus on quality of premium stock offers better opportunities for photographers to advance. For Paul and many of Amazing Aerial’s team members, this photographer-centered approach is ultimately what led them to premium stock.

“I’m [always] talking about photographers, photographers, photographers, because there’s no content without photographers,”

Paul says simply. For many photographers, this is the path that helps them to advance to new places in their careers.