Alamy Reviews 313

TL;DR: the quality of the image I downloaded is not nearly as good as could be expected based on the information provided.

Alamy delivers images as "compressed downloads" (e.g. 1 MB) - this is not specified further before sale. The website states that one can decompress the image to full size (e.g. 25 MB) using software such as Photoshop.

Only after the sale one finds out that Alamy only offers .jpeg-files for download. The problem is that jpeg-compression is a one-way process: whatever information gets lost during compression can never be retrieved. Opening in Photoshop does not retrieve any more information. Alamy sells a 1 MB image as a 25 MB image.

In short: I find the information on image properties and file size (hence quality) to be bordering on misleading.

As I photographer, I started with Dreamstime, added ShutterStock that recently committed suicide.

Kept only Dreamstime, Adobe Stock, and tried Alamy for editorials.

8 pictures sold, they collected $224, and paid 38$ ROFL. One day, I wanna do nothing, and collect money.

Alamy still paid more per picture than others. If someone steals your pics, as happened to me once...no pic stock company will do anything anyway.

If you wanna be a successful "phototographer", you have to shoot lots of popular crap that is in demand/easy to sell.

You will be rewarded for quantity of crap - sadly, that is where we got in last 40 years ever since every kid can buy camera, and is great "photographer".

For some unknown reason, people love to only destroy the nature instead of be mesmerised by its beauty.

AVOID, DON'T USE THESE PEOPLE FOR YOUR BUSINESS.

They will contact your clients whom you have licensed an Alamy photo for and accuse them of theft of the images and demand an exorbitant amount of money from them without even being reasonable or simply asking for the licence proof.

Customers end up calling non stop in a panic and accusing you of theft of images when in reality it's all licenced.

They use heavy handed tactics from the outset and will rattle any customer you have regardless of whether the image is licenced.

These people will cause you serious problems, avoid this company at all costs if you care about your business.

I ordered what I thought was the actual product for 49.99 sterling only to discover it was for a photo.... It was an order for medicine. I'm disgusted by this practice, now they will not answer my emails.
Do not use them.
Janne Kerr

Using WW2 reenactment photos, than greyscaling them and advertising them as "German combat unit in Normandy 1944". Getting an absolute 1 star for advertising wannabe's as the real deal.

As a photographer who has used Alamy since 2017 I am absolutely disgusted by this company now. The prices paid through their website show a total lack of respect for photographers and their work. For example a few days ago three images sold for 5 CENTS each. One of those alone cost me $300 in hiring a helicopter to take the shot. I have now had six photographs sold for a few cents. I will NOT be putting any more photos on Alamy.
I was told by them the reason for the low cost was because they were sold by a third party. In April I cancelled the agreement to sell via third parties - yet a few days ago I find that on their website that they have me still listed as selling via third party.
Not the same company I started using five years ago.

Very misleading when it comes to usage rights....would not ever use again!!!! (if there was no star option I would click this.)

Alamy rely on inexperienced user making slipping up so they can cash in with VERY aggressive legal tactics!

If you have a camera just take you own images and don’t bother with Alamy!...if you need stock images go elsewhere and really make sure you fully understand what licence is being sold if it expires etc...one wrong move there won’t be a warning just VERY aggressive legal tactics!!!

Hello everyone, I was robbed, don't buy here, I paid for an image 69.99 and I couldn't use it, because the licenses are very limited and expensive compared to other sites.
I found another site that sells you $5 per image with unlimited lifetime licenses. You can use it anywhere. Run before you lose your money.

I ordered one of their products on 10/12/21.
Payment taken and order confirmed and received no confirmation and product, 1 month later....Nothing
Then after 2 Emails i received an email on 10/1/22 from
Fazil in the finance team assuring me my refund is being actioned. Now after 2 more emails no refund and no reply. I'm so glad i done an initial small purchase as i did have intentions of placing much bigger orders.
I've give up now and hope other customers learn by my example. Waste of time and money 😎

I love the monthly Fresh picks collections. It's my new go-to when I'm looking for inspiration.

Yet again, I am very concerned about the copyright practices of this company.

They are selling images of 19th Century paintings that I own the original of (by my ancestor). I own these paintings, yet they are on the Alamy website emblazoned with the Alamy logo, as if they own them! The same with museum paintings. The artist may have passed away over 70 years ago and the painting itself may be out of copyright, but the photographic image itself must have been taken more recently and distributed for monetary gain without permission of the owner of the painting. I am sure most photographers and contributors are decent, honest folk, but there is a minority of contributors who are submitting images that they have no right to submit as their own work. They know who they are.

Images of historic paintings such as these may well be in the public domain, but should be "All rights reserved" i.e. used for non-commercial research and private study use only. Not for commercial gain by unscrupulous people. It is not right that someone is anonymously making money in a dubious manner from my family heirloom.

Really poor customer service - they treat their paying customers very poorly and are quick to set their legal dept on you for any mistake or mishap. I will not be using them ever again.

Stay away, lots of better stock photo sites out there.

I run a website for a charity for the elderly in our local area that was built over 4 years ago, and I get a demand letter that I pay for copyright infringement on a single image. The charity gets no funding and relies on their charity shop and donations with the help of volunteers. When we pay the fee that means some of our elderly customers will have to go without. We have already had to close our computer help due to lack of donations due to covid. So they hire a company to chase copyright claims at every instance of the image on the web hoping they pay the settlement.

Further to my 21st. Oct review, I see that a common complaint with Alamy is slow payment. These people cannot have read their conditions, which clearly state that payment will only be made when there's over $50 due. Under that you'll wait forever. I've been with Alamy about 20 years, during which payment has been made on the dot every month without fail - unless of course I had less than $50 in the kitty, when I'd have to wait until the next month.
I believe criticisms of their QC go back to the fact that they do not edit for content. Apart from banned subjects like glamour, they'll take ANYTHING. This was unprecedented and frankly crazy, because they've been inundated with rubbish. To keep this tsunami of unsaleable stuff under control, they've over reacted on QC, which sometimes has had me tearing my hair out in frustration.
When Alamy entered what was a new industry they had to invent new rules, so mistakes were made. Those of us already in the game persevered, because we could make a lot of money. Unfortunately, stock photography, like coal mining, is now history. Prices are daft - this month my sales stand at $42 for 7 images, some only selling for cents!! It's easy to blame Alamy, which certainly has its faults, but other agencies tell a similar tale. This is the market - effectively dead.

I started researching stock agencies a few months ago. I retired on royalties 9 years ago, after 40 years making a good living. I've travelled the world in the past 9 years and amassed 108,000 images. I settled on trying Alamy as they seemed the least objectionable out of a pretty disgusting slew of really objectionable agencies. The Alamy (new) contract is embarrassingly bad, and the reviews are bad, and the policies are bad, but they're the best? Seems that way and that's sad. I submitted the initial batch and was accepted, then submitted a few as a test, and all was well. I then submitted a huge batch and all were declined because ONE had some cropping error that, to this day, I cannot grasp the meaning of. File size was fine; everything was fine. The image looks perfectly fine every way I can possibly test it. Just this obscure cropping error. In any case, as I said, they dumped that entire gargantuan batch and suggest that if I correct this error, whatever it is, I should resubmit all. Of course if they find a bad one for some technical reason, they could quite easily cull that ONE and check and approve the other thousands. But this apparently is too easy and logical. Their customer service was fine -- they answered questions. Their forum was a horror, rife with the usual trolls and trouble-makers, wanna-be bad boys, wanna-be big boys, you name it. But they did answer direct questions through email. The commissions are beyond ludicrous speed an insult. Had I sold my images for the past forty plus years at Alamy's commissions, I wouldn't even have made a living, let alone been able to retire comfortably. Yes, the industry is what it is now -- Just too many cameras in the world. The agencies now are getting junk, and that's the way it will be forever onward. I wanted to work with Alamy, but they couldn't give me a single thing I wanted. They won't take smaller images -- well, guess what. Millions of buyers are perfectly happy with smaller images because they're going online. The disappointments went on and on and on until I simply deleted my account -- which, by the way, they say will take a staggering 45 days! So if you gave Alamy an exclusive, it's out of action for 45 days. Did you give them 43,000 exclusives? I'm sorry for you. Too many people claiming they never got paid, or only got paid "eventually". Too many people spending ALL their time chasing infringements that slipped through Alamy's swiss cheese contract. This was my first foray into stock, and my last.

I had a website that was built for the previous owner 11-12 years ago and I get a demand letter that I pay for copyright infringement on a single image. Of course I don't have the info from the image and the web developer that made my site is long gone so I don't know what account or email the image is registered under. But they probably know there is a good chance someone isn't going to have that info 10+ years later so they hire a company to spray and pray copyright claims at every instance of the image on the web hoping they pay the settlement.

I emailed them twice but didn't even respond. They have family related images which I want to download and I don't think that I should have to pay the fee

Alamy are doing pretty well in a difficult market. It seems most of the complaints on here are by people who don't really understand what it means to be a professional photographer, and/or contribute to a stock library.

Great site for contributors with the best earnings in the market! The only problem is that to get a sale is extremely difficult!