Why I have stopped selling images with 500px
Feb 6, 2020
Ole Henrik Skjelstad
Ole Henrik Skjelstad is a Norwegian math teacher and landscape photographer. He fell in love with photography in 2013 when he got a camera as a birthday present.
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I just received three emails from 500px this evening. I was informed that three of my images were sold.
In other words, I can expect a payment of $2.55. In all honesty, it feels like a mockery.
When 500px launched Marketplace in 2014 we photographers could receive a 70% commission if 500px was our sole licensing agent for a particular image. Back then it was actually possible to get a decent payment if you sold a few images.
Unfortunately, the bliss didn’t last. The Marketplace didn’t live up to its expectations and wasn’t profitable for the company. When 500px was acquired by Visual China Group, after been partly owned by VCG since 2015, the Chinese company took over image licensing. This further entailed that new licensing terms took effect and prices plummeted.
When I joined 500px back in 2013, photographers held the company in high regard. It was a photo-sharing platform for photographers made by photographers. The slogan seemed to be true and many of us put our trust in 500px. This is probably one of the reasons why so many of the big names in the photo community were active on the platform. Almost wherever you turned there were inspiring images from top artists. Both on the first page and in the Editors Choice section.
The majority of those who colored 500px back in the heydays have migrated to other platforms. Notably, Instagram has seen a huge influx of former 500px photographers. The first crack in the ship appeared in 2015, when the company launched a Chinese counterpart of the website, 500px.me, without notifying or consulting with the photographers first. Suddenly we had two profiles, one in English and one in Chinese. This caused an uproar and resulted in the first migration wave.
There have been plenty of other episodes, which gave the platform a somewhat shabby reputation. I will only mention that a few chosen photographers suddenly overnight saw a huge increase in their following numbers. This was mainly an attempt to lure successful Instagrammers to increase their activity on 500px. For the faithful, this was yet another stab in the back. A new migration wave ensued.
When I still held 500px in high regard and trusted the site with all my heart I faithfully uploaded high resolutions versions of my images for licensing. I was fully aware of that advertising agencies’ first priority in most cases isn’t landscape images. Nevertheless, I sold some images and was happy with the terms and the extra income.
Then things took a bad turn. Suddenly images which had yielded a decent commission were sold for less than $5. I promptly arrived at that licensing images at 500px wasn’t for me anymore. I left my old images, but high-resolution versions of new images remained on my hard drive. Admittedly, if I had been better at reading and scrutinizing new terms, I would have seen this coming.
Anyway, a platform which was made for photographers by photographers is now by many viewed as a platform for profit for the owners. These days I have put my trust in Flickr, and truly hope Dan MacAskill and team will have the resources to develop that site into a profitable and engaging platform.
When all this is said, I still enjoy uploading images to 500px. There still are plenty of very gifted photographers left whose work is inspiring. Not few to me new photographers have joined the platform and post stellar work. The community is encouraging and warm. Engagement is still decent. And I am confident that those working at the headquarters do their very best to maintain the site in such a manner that photographers can thrive and evolve. I owe much of my success to 500px. I am still grateful for that. At last: No, I am not fond of Instagram.
Ole Henrik Skjelstad
Ole Henrik Skjelstad is a Norwegian math teacher and landscape photographer. He fell in love with photography in 2013 when he got a camera as a birthday present.
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25 responses to “Why I have stopped selling images with 500px”
Exactly my opinion!
500px used to be a cool and useful website, but it is all gone now (and the same – I still enjoy uploading my images there).
But on the bright side – this is a chance for a new platform to arise. Hopefully not a social network but something like 500px used to be years ago!
Yes, that would have been awesome! It was such an amazing place when I joined. Hopefully there are some who have the energy and financial backing to launch a new site ala what 500px once were.
Being none of those groups, I can only hope :-D
Hey Ole, check this platform and give us your feedback please https://photocentra.com
Hey guys. We are just making a platform that should be the best. Check this out https://photocentra.com
I would love to hear your opinion and discuss the pros and cons. We would be happy to talk closely with photographers to meet their expectations. You can write your feedback there in the contact form (https://photocentra.com/contact.php) and I will contact you via email.
Nope. I turned off sales at 500px a couple years ago. Never got enough revenue to buy a dinner per month anyway. I haven’t yet removed my photos though, simply because I am lazy… :)
Love the image with a person in a casserole :) Super funny!
I removed all my images from licensing on 500px today. One of their partners (Getty Images) sold one of my photos from their site. Lowest sale price on GI was $50 for a low res version. 500px reported to me that the image sold and my commission was…hold your hat…$0.04. That’s right a four cent commission to me for my image that sold on GI for a minimum sales price of $50. I contacted 500px about the extremely low payout and all they said was that is what it was. Will no longer license any of my images with 500px.
Roger Lehmann Nothing but thieves!!
I did the same, now that you remember me, let me check if they finally removed them all
Roger Lehmann 0.08%???
Roger Lehmann I did the same for the same reason and I closed my account. It is just disrespectful.
This is why I wont do microstock. I put in a lot of work on my images, even if they’re not worth a full spread in some random magazine.
500px went down in abysses a long time ago in my opinion. it used to be really decent.
Is it because good photos are a dime a dozen?
Philip La Lumiere, does not explain the rate paid to me (4 cents) as a contributor vs what the photo actually sold for ($50.00 or more)!
Roger Lehmann the value of stock photography has plummeted due to an increase in market saturation
Philip La Lumiere you’re missing the issue. His particular photo sold for $50 or more and his commission was $.04. The complaints isn’t that the values of stock photos have dropped, which they have, but rather the payout to the photographer v. what the licensing & hosting agents are being paid.
It’s part of it though. They have so many photographers willing to submit photos of sufficient quality that they can get away with the low pay outs. If the photographer doesn’t like it, there’s a long line of others who will play ball. There’s such a saturation that the business doesn’t care if they make some photogs unhappy
Micro stock has contributed to the devaluation of photography across the board. Had some of my editorial stuff on this one place on their micro side, that I was supposed to be moved over to the editorial side so I could get the editorial rates. But after a couple of months that still hadn’t happened and no one could tell me why or give me any answers. Needless to say I moved on. But I was lazy and those image are still there. They have sold for editorial purposes over 50 times all over the world and I have made a whopping $16.
I felt exactly the same way after some sales in November and withdrew all my images from their marketplace. I understand it’s not all the fault of 500px but I don’t need a monthly insult to remind me of the collapse of stock photography.
Have a look at https://100asa.com a very new concept in photography web sites!
Yes, I also tried to stop them but was unable to do so with images they had already advertised for sale. A real RIP-off for photographers.
Hi! I just picked photography back up after around 15 years and was wondering which site you would recommend. I’m new to digital and don’t do social media. Thanks ?
Are there any sites like 500px where photos can be shared and commented on and sold without the site treating their users like shit? Is Flicker the only alternative?