Have you been tempted to acquire images from one of the mammoth stock agencies? If you've dealt with Getty Images, for example, you probably know they have aspirations of becoming the biggest of the world’s image suppliers. How big is Getty? 70 million images. Getty would like to become the Charles Schwab & Co. of the Internet. Presently, Getty is at $24 a share with a market value of $863 million. The company has moved out and bought EyeWire.com, Art.com, Online USA, and The Image Bank.

But big does not always mean best. When you compare Getty to the supply of photos and the services offered by freelance photographers around the world, how does Getty stack up?

Here’s the Seven "S’s" Test

SIZE: There are 345 million images available from freelance photographers through the Internet. Getty, with its 70 million images, falls short by 285,000,000.

SALES: Photographers with Getty Images receive only 40% of sales; freelancers receive 100%.

SPEED: The bureaucracy of a large corporation means delivery can often be unacceptably slow. Editorial as well as planning decisions handcuff the administration. Many times photobuyers must pay extra for timely delivery. In contrast, freelancers can make decisions on your photo need and deliver with immediacy – a benefit for all photobuyers.

In the world of the Web, monolithic companies with their convoluted hierarchical structures will lose ground to the streamlined directness offered by small one-person companies using the Internet as their delivery method.

SELECTION: Getty can respond to photo requests only with photos that are in its database. And for reasons of cost-efficiency, Getty stores only photos that have promise of cross-subject use that will give Getty a return on its investment in the photo. This translates to an emphasis on generic, broad-use photos. However, as the Web is becoming ever more efficient, photobuyers are able to request highly specific images. Freelancers are in a better position than a large agency like Getty, to respond to non-generic requests and with next day service, even if it means walking outdoors to shoot a particular wildflower blossom in the snow, or stage a surfing party at dawn in Maui .

SCANNING: Getty must follow protocol in its scanning process, to scan their entire collection (a very small percentage of its 70 million images are scanned thus far, and the entire process won’t be completed until well into 2015, by which time thousands of the images will be obsolete.) Freelancers, on the other hand, don't need to scan an image until they’re ready to make a sale. Freelancers don’t need to invest in industrial strength scanners. They can rely on a competent service bureau downtown. Or they can send the film directly to you for in-house scanning.

STORAGE: In-house storage of millions of images, a' la Getty, has its limitations and hazards. The Web is becoming a dynamic storage substitute. Freelancers are able to roll with the development of the outsourcing capabilities of the World Wide Web, which has the capacity to outrace any in-house storage of text/images.

SEARCH: Photo Researchers are learning that the Web offers more volume and variety. Why search 70 million files when you can search 345 million, lightning quick through the Internet?

The Web is making progress in leaps and bounds. Photobuying confidence in e-commerce is gaining momentum. Along in this marketing revolution comes the revelation that the small business person can show the monolithic corporate entity how to survive in the new economy. We will soon have a case (remember the fable?) of the elephant being helped by the mouse.

We hope you enjoy reading PhotoRESEARCHER Newsletter. By keeping up-to-date through our newsletter and the PhotoSource Web site (www.photosource.com), you’ll be on top of new developments in stock photo acquisition as we move into the next century.

Rohn Engh, veteran stock photographer and publisher of “PhotoRESEARCHER Newsletter,” has provided on-line targeted information for photobuyers, photo researchers and editors for two decades. No other newsletter brings photobuyers such up-to-the minute, practical information from an experienced picture professional intimately familiar with both sides of the stock photo desk. For more info: http://www.photosource.com/photobuyer/.