Niche Stock Idea: Video/Still same subjects

[Michael Halberstadt]

(with my apologies to the The Smiths - Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before ...)

 

I may have gotten a bit too snarky with somebody looking for gaps in the library in another discussion, but one idea that seems to have real promise is offering stills and limited video snippets as well of the exact same subject shot/filmed within minutes of another. In another stock photo niche I deal with that was a request (and it's broad enough I'm comfortable throwing out to the general public.)

 

For this to work however a couple of things would need to happen. Alamy would need to relax the rules for video contribution, and also have a way to link the stills with the videos. Stock photography and video that matches one another in placement, subject matter and look would seem to be more valuable than the sum of its parts.

 

As an example:

 

 

and a video of the same scene here:

 

You could imagine this kind of combo being useful where print and TV ads are both required. Or tradeshows, or webpages that use both video and static images etc. etc. 

 

I think it's best we try and find better paying niches as the market for the basic stock photo staples have seemed to collapse with supply far outweighing demand.

 

Just an idea! 

[Brian Yarvin]

This is a great idea!

[Michael Halberstadt]

One just has to remember that video sometimes includes audio... often I put the audio to mute when saving as you can here my shutter clicking in the background.

You can also strip the audio in post as I did. I'd like to at least be able to make professional quality audio where possible and have that as an option. In the case of my example in original post, even the best microphone with "dead cat" would still have problems with the wind gusts.

[Michael Halberstadt]

This is a great idea!

Thanks Brian! That idea was a request from another stock photo biz client I'm involved with. And it made so much sense after he said it.

[Stephen Rees]

I suggested this years ago but I don't think Alamy are serious about video, or they would have the same huge diverse collection that they have for stills.  With 4k video and maybe 8k video on its way, buyers might be happy extracting stills from video clips for most purposes in the future.