A unique take on unsplash, is it good for photographers? Spoiler, no.
Unsplash is a website for photographers (now owned by getty) that offers a large collection of high-quality, royalty-free photos that can be used by photographers for their creative projects.
Many photographers find Unsplash to be a useful resource for finding inspiring images and reference photos, as well as for sharing their own work with a wider audience. Primarily, its used by content creators to illustrate their articles though. With vast amount of plugins for websites to harvest those images.
Is it good for creators?
The short answer is no. For many years I have taken somewhat professional pictures of photography relating to cryptocurrency, and given them away for free, it hasn’t enhanced my career, nor harmed it, its just been really more about an ego boost seeing my images on thousands of articles every week.
Do you get credited for your photography work?
Short answer is no. Probably 0.1% of articles written ever directly credit me, its actually just turned out to be a waste of time from a financial point of view. As it hasn’t enhanced my career, nor has it helped my pocket.
Should I use unsplash to enhance my career?
Definetley not! They have all of these plus programs, for assignments, and this and that, but its all a total waste of time as the specs are so tight.
The issue I take is that people say unsplash can help enhance your career. This is plain wrong.
When I speak to other people in the industry, we often laugh at what a waste of time unsplash is. The most funny thing is, people will take your photos, and then upload them to sites like shutterstock and charge a fee for them.
Unsplash concept is flawed for making money
I stopped a while ago uploading, as it just wasn’t worth the time. The internet freeloads, which is fine. I never intended to make anything and just wanted to put my spin on crypto into the narrative with some quality images.
The issue I take is that people say unsplash can help enhance your career. This is plain wrong. You will just get taken advantage of. My advice is that you just upload directly yourself to a site like shutterstock if you want to make a few cents.
Unsplash is the best to post if you don’t expect reward or accreditation
Unsplash has a lot of work to do until its a viable means of income for a photography. But, if you just want to give away your work for free without worrying about getting monetary reward, then its a fantastic place to post.
In summary
Unsplash is good and bad at the same time. Its by far the best site to post to, easy system, fluid approval, immediate exposure. But, it is not there as a tool to enhance your career, or make money from. This may change in the fututre, as they seem to be using the getty investment to build on that, but for now, just use it as a site to dump photos you don’t care about.
NOTE: All of this perspective is from dealing with 50+ million views and featuring on 10s of thousands of webistes. I feel that my perspective given the viewership does hold some value in this discussion. I hope it helps you make your decisions.
