Flickr may be about to head in to the realms of being a training ground for aspiring professional photographers, with the news that Getty Images is going to be scouring the site for the best images to sell.

Flickr is a brilliant resource, allowing amateur, and aspiring professional, photographers to be able to share their images online, for either friends and family, or everyone on the Web. It’s also great for bloggers, and website-owners, who can use Flickr images on their domains under the Creative Commons license.

But up until now, every element of the deal has been free, and money has played no part. That is set to change though, after the Yahoo!-owned Flickr entered in to an agreement with Getty Images, the world’s largest distributor of pictures and video.

According to Webware, the deal means that Getty will now be able to contact Flickr members directly, and offer them the chance to share one or more of their images in a special Flickr-branded Getty collection. Both companies are also encouraging photographers to post their content on iStockphoto, a Getty-owned site which markets photos for relatively low rates.

Flickr owners lucky enough to be chosen for inclusion in the Getty collection will have to sign a Getty Images contributor contract, which will ensure that they are the true owner, and details the rates charged if the image gets bought by anyone.

Although these details are currently under wraps, it’s thought that they will be in the same region as Getty pays photographers contracted to the company. According to The New York Times, this averages about $500 to $600 for rights managed images, and $250 for non-exclusive use of images. The photographer will then be paid a cut of between 20% and 40% depending on the use indicated.

Jonathan Klein, co-founder and chief executive of Getty Images said:

We believe that Flickr will be an important addition to the mix that we have. Because the imagery is not shot for commercial services, there is more authenticity. Advertisers are looking for authenticity.

The programme is set to be rolled out over the next few months, with all Flickr contributors eligible to participate. While Yahoo! will not be part of the transaction, with Getty dealing directly with the photographer, it is thought that the two companies have a separate revenue agreement.

This seems great for photographers on Flickr, and could provide amateurs with a great opportunity to earn some money, and get their work widely distributed in to the bargain. My only concern is that the more Flickr users who get snapped up by professional agencies, the less there will be for bloggers such as me to use. But with the sheer amount of images uploaded to Flickr every day, I’m not too worried at this point.

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Entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 2:59 pm under Internet, Opinion.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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