ShutterStock
Encyclopedia
Shutterstock is a microstock photography
website
which maintains a library of royalty-free stock images available by subscription. Visitors can browse the entire image library for free, and can license and download images online through a variety of subscription offers.
Shutterstock adds to its library each day as photographers and illustrators from around the world submit their work. The new photos, vectors
, and illustrations undergo a selection process based on quality, aesthetics, artistry, and originality before the accepted images are added to the library.
As of April 2011, Shutterstock had more than 15 million royalty-free images and 275,000 royalty-free video available to subscribers, taken by more than 250,000 photographers, illustrators, and videographers.
On September 23, 2009, Shutterstock announced that it had purchased rival site Bigstock, effectively entering the credit-based stock image marketplace.
Shutterstock sells stock photos, stock vector graphics
made in programs like Adobe Illustrator
or Macromedia Freehand
, and stock raster
illustrations created in 3d graphics programs or bitmap editors like Adobe Photoshop
.
Subscribers may purchase either a 25-A-Day subscription and download up to 25 images per day (750 per month) in monthly increments, or purchase an On Demand subscription and choose a set amount of downloads to be used any time over a year. Subscribers may continue to use the pictures even after their membership has expired. However, a subscriber can not stockpile, download, or otherwise store Images not used within six (6) months of the expiration of the subscription for a personal, commercial or a clients project under which you downloaded the Image. If the subscriber fails to use an Image within such six (6) month period, they lose all rights to use that Image. As of February 2009, the fee for a 25-A-Day subscription began at $249 per month.
Once approved, submitters can begin uploading their work through the website. They supply keywords, categorize the images, and submit them to the "inspection queue," where each and every image is examined to ensure that it meets the standards of quality, usefulness and copyright and trademark laws. Each time an image is downloaded, the photographer receives a flat rate of 25c (with a tiered set of raises as the submitter reaches lifetime earnings of $500, $3,000, and $10,000, respectively).
and Betacam
. Today, Shutterstock Footage contains over 150,000 royalty-free video clips.
. Oringer uploaded 30,000 of his own stock photos on to a subscription site he developed called Shutterstock, forming the basis of the company. From December 2005 to early 2010, Adam Riggs
was president and CFO of Shutterstock. Thilo Semmelbauer
took over as President in early 2010. Jon Oringer
continues to run the company as Founder & CEO.
Shutterstock's image library of over 11 million images is searchable in a variety of languages including French
, Spanish
, German
, Japanese
, Italian
, Chinese
, Portuguese
, Dutch
, and Russian
.
Microstock photography
Microstock photography, also known as micropayment photography, is a part of the stock photography industry. What defines a company as a microstock photography company is that they source their images almost exclusively via the Internet, do so from a wider range of photographers than the...
website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
which maintains a library of royalty-free stock images available by subscription. Visitors can browse the entire image library for free, and can license and download images online through a variety of subscription offers.
Shutterstock adds to its library each day as photographers and illustrators from around the world submit their work. The new photos, vectors
Vector Graphic
Vector Graphic is an early microcomputer from the mid 1970's. It is from the pre-IBM PC era as along with the NorthStar Horizon, IMSAI, and MITS Altair.It is based on the S-100 bus using the Z80 microprocessor...
, and illustrations undergo a selection process based on quality, aesthetics, artistry, and originality before the accepted images are added to the library.
As of April 2011, Shutterstock had more than 15 million royalty-free images and 275,000 royalty-free video available to subscribers, taken by more than 250,000 photographers, illustrators, and videographers.
On September 23, 2009, Shutterstock announced that it had purchased rival site Bigstock, effectively entering the credit-based stock image marketplace.
Subscribers
Vector graphics
Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon, which are all based on mathematical expressions, to represent images in computer graphics...
made in programs like Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Adobe Systems. Illustrator is similar in scope, intended market, and functionality to its competitors, CorelDraw, Xara Designer Pro and Macromedia FreeHand....
or Macromedia Freehand
Macromedia FreeHand
Macromedia FreeHand is a computer application for creating two-dimensional vector graphics that are oriented primarily to professional illustration, desktop publishing and content creation for the Web. FreeHand is similar in scope, intended market, and functionality to Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw...
, and stock raster
Raster graphics
In computer graphics, a raster graphics image, or bitmap, is a data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of pixels, or points of color, viewable via a monitor, paper, or other display medium...
illustrations created in 3d graphics programs or bitmap editors like Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems Incorporated.Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS. Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop...
.
Subscribers may purchase either a 25-A-Day subscription and download up to 25 images per day (750 per month) in monthly increments, or purchase an On Demand subscription and choose a set amount of downloads to be used any time over a year. Subscribers may continue to use the pictures even after their membership has expired. However, a subscriber can not stockpile, download, or otherwise store Images not used within six (6) months of the expiration of the subscription for a personal, commercial or a clients project under which you downloaded the Image. If the subscriber fails to use an Image within such six (6) month period, they lose all rights to use that Image. As of February 2009, the fee for a 25-A-Day subscription began at $249 per month.
Submitters
Contributing photographers must apply before they are eligible to upload their images. The applicants must submit 10 pictures that are screened for quality and suitability. At least 7 pictures must be approved for the contributor account to become active.Once approved, submitters can begin uploading their work through the website. They supply keywords, categorize the images, and submit them to the "inspection queue," where each and every image is examined to ensure that it meets the standards of quality, usefulness and copyright and trademark laws. Each time an image is downloaded, the photographer receives a flat rate of 25c (with a tiered set of raises as the submitter reaches lifetime earnings of $500, $3,000, and $10,000, respectively).
Footage
In April 2006, Shutterstock began offering royalty-free stock footage on their website. Shutterstock Footage operates similarly to their image library, offering video clips by subscription or on a per-clip basis. Shutterstock footage is available in a variety of formats, including DVCAM, HDCAMHDCAM
HDCAM, introduced in 1997, is an High-definition video digital recording videocassette version of Digital Betacam, using an 8-bit DCT compressed 3:1:1 recording, in 1080i-compatible downsampled resolution of 1440×1080, and adding 24p and 23.976 PsF modes to later models...
and Betacam
Betacam
Betacam is family of half-inch professional videocassette products developed by Sony in 1982. In colloquial use, "Betacam" singly is often used to refer to a Betacam camcorder, a Betacam tape, a Betacam video recorder or the format itself....
. Today, Shutterstock Footage contains over 150,000 royalty-free video clips.
History
Shutterstock was founded in 2003 by Jon OringerJon Oringer
Jon Oringer is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of the popular microstock photography site Shutterstock. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Math and Computer Science from Stony Brook University, and completed his Master's degree in Computer Science at Columbia University.Oringer pioneered...
. Oringer uploaded 30,000 of his own stock photos on to a subscription site he developed called Shutterstock, forming the basis of the company. From December 2005 to early 2010, Adam Riggs
Adam Riggs (executive)
Adam Riggs is an American finance and ecommerce/new media executive and entrepreneur.Shutterstock is the world's largest online subscription-based microstock photography site, and is based in Manhattan. Adam has been involved in every phase of Shutterstock's growth since he joined the company in...
was president and CFO of Shutterstock. Thilo Semmelbauer
Thilo Semmelbauer
Thilo Semmelbauer is President of Shutterstock, a subscription-based microstock photography website located in Manhattan. Before assuming his current position, he was Executive Vice President of TheLadders.com...
took over as President in early 2010. Jon Oringer
Jon Oringer
Jon Oringer is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of the popular microstock photography site Shutterstock. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Math and Computer Science from Stony Brook University, and completed his Master's degree in Computer Science at Columbia University.Oringer pioneered...
continues to run the company as Founder & CEO.
Shutterstock's image library of over 11 million images is searchable in a variety of languages including French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
.