Inspiring

Answered

Demand for vintage photos on Stock?

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
October 27, 2022
7 replies
1352 views

I have hundreds of vintage photos primariliy in the form of 35mm and medium format glass slides. These were shot by my uncle in the 1950's and 60's. I am his assignee and hier so the rights are owned by me. I have documentation that will refelct my ownership of the rights.

Before I cull through and scan them does anyone know if there is there a market for these? Also, will there be a burdensome process to show I own the rights?

He was a fine photgrapher so some are really nice shots.

Thanks, John

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Correct answer Mat Hayward

You must meet the quality standards which is very difficult with scans. Recognizable people must be accompanied by signed model releases. If they are deceased, you must be able to verify they have been dead more than 75 years. I do not recommend uploading this type of content.

-Mat

J

John PDXAuthor

Inspiring

For anyone interested, I submitted the below photo Friday and it was accepted.

Jill_C

Community Expert

Congratulations! Did you have to do much editing? I guess that your experiment proves that vintage images are acceptable, even if they're not up to current technical standards.

Jill C., Forum Volunteer

J

John PDXAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks. I did the following:

Adjusted the exposure including setting the white and black points
Adjusted the white balance to make it less yellow
Smoothed some blotches in the sky
Increased the saturation to restore dull colors
Removed some dust spots
Blurred a license plate and the faces of both children.

I didn't apply any sharpening or noise reduction.

M

Mat HaywardCorrect answer

Inspiring

You must meet the quality standards which is very difficult with scans. Recognizable people must be accompanied by signed model releases. If they are deceased, you must be able to verify they have been dead more than 75 years. I do not recommend uploading this type of content.

-Mat

RALPH_L

Community Expert

You will not have to show proof that you are owner. By uploading you already acknowledge that you are owner. Your biggest problem is taht after scanning, the quality of the images will probably not meet the strict Adobe standards.

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

As I understand it, Adobe's contract requires that the account holder is the photographer. A rights holder cannot submit the work of others. Also... Adobe evaluate all photos according to specifications made for modern digital cameras and techniques; vintage work is not likely to pass. There are many great pictures Adobe won't take. For example a unique shot of an incredibly rare animal in the wild doing something of huge scientific importance; rejected if it isn't perfectly in focus...

J

John PDXAuthor

Inspiring

I'll probably give it a try with a couple of them. As Jill mentioned, there are other vitange photos already avaiable on Stock that clearly fall short of the standards applied to modern photos. If they reject them that's fine. Below is an example of something already on Stock from the same time period. Some of mine appear to be as good or better quality. The challege will be the medium format slides. It will take a backlit flatbed scanner to scan those. I'm not going to invest $500+ for this experiment.

Abambo

Community Expert

Check out this guy: https://youtu.be/6zXbSCuzFzQ

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

If the images are high quality and of any historic significance, Getty might be interested in them.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

Jill_C

Community Expert

If you search the existing Adobe Stock database using the word "vintage", or "vintage landscape" for instance, you will see some definitely old images, complete with the film scratches and dust marks. The progeny of those images is unknown; perhaps the original photographer is the one who uploaded them, though that seems unlikely. Certainly, any images with people in them would be impossible to get approved because you wouldn't be able to get signed model releases. Adobe's preferred property release doesn't seem to handle such a situation. On the other hand, since the copyright has now been transferred to you, maybe you can just upload them without providing a release. It might be worth the effort to find a few of the best and most saleable ones, scan them in and correct any issues in Lightroom or PS, then upload and see how it goes! You've got nothing to lose except a bit of your time.

Jill C., Forum Volunteer

Abambo

Community Expert

no chance to get them accepted here. but may be you should just go ahead an prove me wrong.

If you are new to stock, you should consider these resources: https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/tutorials.html
Please read the contributor user manual for more information on Adobe stock contributions: https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/user-guide.html
See here for rejection reasons: https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/reasons-for-content-rejection.html
and especially quality and technical issues: https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/quality-and-technical-issues.html

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer

J

John PDXAuthor

Inspiring

I'm not sure I could figure out how to scan the medium format glass slides anyway. They are housed in metal sleeves. The photos are neat though. This one shows some cars that are over 100 years old.

Jill_C

Community Expert

Google "how to scan medium format glass slides" for some guidance.

Jill C., Forum Volunteer

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