Photocase for photographers
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Photocase is a Berlin based photography agency for unique stock photography. We founded the platform in 2001 and our specialty is contemporary, natural, aesthetic-driven imagery, that is very different from traditional stock photos.
On the Photocase for Photographers page, you can learn about what kind of photos we are looking for, as well technical and legal requirements that you should keep in mind. From there you can find our Upload Tool, which you can use to upload photos quickly and easily.
General information about Photocase, our philosophy, our team and our clients can be found on The Photocase Idea page.
Providing a quality service for our photographers is incredibly important to us. If you have any questions, please feel free to write us at info@photocase.com or also by phone at +49 30 55572455.
Once you have used our upload tool to upload your photos, our review team will check your images.
We are pretty strict about what we accept, and only a small number of photos make the cut. This differentiates us from other stock photo agencies, as our curated collection means that customers do not need to click through hundreds of photos to find the right one for their project.
Photocase customers are always looking for natural, creative photos that are different from the stock photo clichés. You can find out more about what kind of photos we accept on the photo selection and desired images page.
When your photo makes our heart skip a beat, and meets the legal and technical requirements, you will be notified by email.
Once it has been approved, for your photo to land in our collection you need to give it a title, general image information and keywords.
We’re always on the lookout for contemporary, creative, aesthetically interesting images. For example, we love photos of people in various lifestyle situations, as well as conceptual images of daily themes that have a creative and clever twist. We also like series of photos, so customers have a better chance of finding the perfect photo.
Here are a few themes that our photo review team like to see:
Communicating with our photographers is very important to us! You can reach us by email at info@photocase.com, live chat or by phone +49 30 88764920.
You can upload photos using our hassle-free upload tool.
Please check the technical and legal requirements that your photos must meet before you can start uploading and selling!
If you are a photographer with a very high number of photos, or an agency wishing to sell photos via our platform, get in contact with us and we will organize a solution tailored to your needs.
The technical requirements for your photos are as follows:
Publishing photos on the internet means there are quite a few rules and legal requirements to be aware of. Some images just can not be published, as there are laws forbidding it. Other images require a model or property release, while some images can be uploaded and published without any additional permissions.
The legal Information for Photocase photographers page has more information about what you need to be aware of before publishing photos on Photocase.
We are not lawyers and we are not allowed to give legal advice.
Please note that the attached documents are mere suggestions and we are not liable for any errors.
For photos of recognizable persons and of things or places to which the copyright, trademark or house right applies, a written model or property release is required. You will need to upload the model or property release before publishing an accepted photo in the finalization process.
Please note that in addition to the release, you will also have to hand over and get a signature on a DSGVO-compliant privacy policy. For reasons of fairness you should explain the legal consequences to the model or the owner in detail. It is recommended to always have some forms ready and to get the necessary signatures at the beginning of a photo session.
Non-binding templates for model and property releases can be downloaded here:
If you upload images with a recognizable person you need this person to sign both a model release and a privacy policy, permitting you to sell the created images and to use the data from the model release. These signed documents are uploaded to Photocase only after an image has been accepted.
Download Model Release
If that recognizable person is not 18 years old yet, you need to use the model release for minors and to get a signature of the legal representative of the model. The legal representative needs to sign the privacy policy too.
Download Model Release for Minors
If the image displays a recognizable private house, apartment, garden or any other fenced property or if the photo has been shot from such a “fenced area” a property release is required. The same is true if the image shows a part of a corporate identity or a copyrighted item by a designer, an artist or a brand.
Download Property Release
Please take these legal matters serious and treat the models and property owners with fairness and respect. Their personality or property rights are just as important as your copyrights. No need to mention that breaches can lead to significant legal consequences.
Disclaimer: Photocase Addicts GmbH can not be made responsible for the content of these documents. The documents are subject to change and will be updated from time to time. By using these documents you release, discharge, and agree to hold harmless the Photocase Addicts GmbH, their heirs, legal representatives and assigns, and all persons acting under Photocase’s authority or those for whom he/she is acting, from any liability by virtue of any use of the attached release and/or privacy policy or any changes or alterations made thereto.
New photographers can only upload 10 photos per day to our photo review queue. Please send your very best photos first, so we can get a better idea of your work. Once we have accepted 10 of your photos, your upload limit will automagically increase to 100 photos per day.
The review process takes roughly 3 days. Sometimes it can take longer, and this depends on the number of photos in the queue. There are times we receive large numbers of photos at once, so we ask for a little patience.
The current situation of each of your photos can be reviewed in your Photocase account under manage photos.
When your photo makes our heart skip a beat, and meets the legal and technical requirements, we will inform you by email.
In order for your photo to be published on our site, you will have to finalize your photo by giving it a title, general information and keywords.
It is important that you only describe what is actually on the photo! Pretend you are describing the photo to someone who can not actually see the photo.
If your photo was rejected, that does not mean that we thought it was a bad photo. Usually a photo is rejected because we think it will not meet the expectations of our customers.
Our photo review team is quite strict and accepts around 10% of all photos that are uploaded. The reason is, our customers have high expectations for our curated collection, and that only the best photos make it, meaning customers need to spend less time sifting through hundreds of images before finding the right one.
Unfortunately, due to the huge amount of photos we receive every day, we will not provide specific reasons why a photo was rejected.
You can find more information about what kind of photos we are looking for on the photo selection and desired images page.
It’s very important that you add appropriate keywords and a strong title for your photos so that our customers can find what they are looking for more easily. It’s important that you only describe what’s actually visible on the photo. Imagine you’re describing a photo to someone who can’t actually see the photo.
1. Language
Here the language is set in which keywords are to be entered. Please do not use multilingual keywords, because all keywords are translated automatically (and well) and this will confuse the search.
2. Image Description
Every photo now needs a short and objective description of the image in one short sentence. The picture description will be taken into account in the search. Example: Man bites dog
3. Creative Title
Creative titles are optional and they are not being considered in the search, because they are wonderfully creative, but unfortunately also falsify the search results. Example: He just wants to play!
4. Keywords
Each image should have at least five keywords that list the main elements of the image in order of importance. Location information and image characteristics such as angle of view or image dimension do not belong here, but have their own fields. For example: man, dog, bite, fight, Spaniel - I don't mention the little flowers on the meadow where this happened or the car in the background, because customers who want flower or car images will definitely not choose this photo.
5. Place
Please indicate the location only where it makes sense, e.g. for travel or landscape photography or for sightseeing and architecture, street and urban. Example: For a portrait photo taken in Madrid, specifying the location would result in the picture being shown in search results for Madrid, which is annoying for customers and does not benefit artists.
6. Image Properties
Please be sure to specify these, because the filters are controlled by this information. The details for colour and format are already filled in automatically.
7. Model and Property Releases
For all accepted photos with recognizable persons, for interior shots etc. please upload the appropriate releases before the photo goes online. A release can be assigned to several pictures from a series. There is a template, which we provide without obligation.
8. Sensitive Topics
Many clients need photos for topics like religion, politics, medicine etc., but not every artist or model is up for that kind of usage. For all images depicting a recognizable person you can chose which Sensitive Topics the image can be used for. This permission can be given while editing each image, which definitely increases the chances of sale. This permission can also be granted for the whole portfolio in the artist settings.
We began many years ago as a platform for photographers and we have great respect for your work. It is important to us that we have a fair working relationship, so we offer a starting royalty rate of 20% of the net sale price of your photo. Over time you can increase this royalty up to 50%.
Photocase is not only the perfect platform to present your photos and to network, but also a great marketplace for you to sell your work.
The page Sales shows you which mages have been sold and how much you have earned.
Your current income can be accessed on the Payouts Page. Once you have earned €100 you can request a payout there.
We pay you using either Paypal, or if you have a bank account in Germany, Austria or Switzerland, we pay by bank transfer.
Due to tax regulations, you need to indicate whether you are a private person, a company or a small business. Note that once we have issued the payment we can not change it, so make sure you give us the correct information!
Depending on your bank, the money should arrive on your account within a few days.
You find your sold photos and current income on your Sales page.
Information about your sales can be found on the Sales page.
There are various factors that can affect the sale price of your photo. These factors include the license type, the size of the image, your Sharing-Level, what payment method the customer chose, the currency, whether or not the customer used a discount code, or if they purchased via credits or on demand.
We have more than 60,000 customers from all industries, including publishing houses, public broadcasting, government ministries, federations, unions as well as design and PR agencies.
You can see a small collection of some of our clients on the About Photocase page.
There is a huge range of possibilities. Our licence agreement state that photos for instance can be used for websites, presentations or brochures.
On the page How to use Photocase photos, you can see more examples of how Photocase photos can be used.
No, you are still the creator and owner of your photo.
You only grant Photocase the right to use the photo according to our licence agreement.
Detailed information can be found on the upload agreement page.
It is important to contact us if you believe someone is using one of your photos without the proper permission.
We have a special contact form for this purpose. Once you send us the information about the photo in question, we will examine the case and, if required, coordinate the relicensing of the photo.
Photocase started many years ago as a sharing platform for photographers and to this day some photographers have so-called Free Credits, with which photos of other artists can be downloaded free of charge, provided they take part in that scheme too. Excluded from this are all extended licenses.
You can deactivate this function in your settings. This means that other photographers can no longer download your photos for free with Free Credits, but also that you can no longer have access to Free Credits that you received earlier.
The sharing scheme ended in July 2019 and is no longer offered to new artists.
There are uses of images that not every artist or model feels comfortable with. We call these "sensitive topics" and you can decide whether your images can be used for them or not. Images that can be used for these controversial but important topics are not only an important contribution to the discussion, but also enjoy a high sales potential.
The sensitive topics are:
Politics
Political education as well as election and party advertising of democratic parties and organisations
Religion
Use by non-extremist churches and clerical organisations not only for religious topics
Medicine & Pharmaceuticals
Information about and advertising of medical and pharmaceutical services and products - no genetic engineering
Disease, Addiction & Death
Prevention and information on these difficult topics
Eroticism & Sexuality
Use for erotic topics - no pornography, prostitution, perversion
Crime & Criminality
Prevention and information about criminal or penal acts
In the photographer settings you can manage the sensitive topics for the entire portfolio, i.e. a default setting that is then applied to all previous and new uploads. For example, you could allow all your images to be used in a medical context. This saves a lot of work when finalising and we no longer have to ask for each image individually.
Of course, individual photos can also be given individual settings when finalising, for example if the person depicted does not want to appear in the religious context. In the tab "Approvals and rights" you can edit your portfolio individually.
Important: the sensitive topics refer exclusively to pictures with recognisable persons. This option is not available for images without people.
We keep seeing stolen images on websites, in social media and in print products. That's why we automatically have them crawled for copyright infringements and then offer them a Photocase-like fair post-licensing with the corresponding fee plus an extra licence. The crawl service costs us money and still a lot of work, but it pays for itself in a processing fee and the good feeling of not having to watch idly.
Legal Tracking
You can generate sales retrospectively (and also in the future) via "Legal Tracking". You can choose whether you work individually on an image basis or release the entire repertoire: individual photos have the option "Legal Tracking" in the editing mode, and in the account settings you can release and deactivate the entire portfolio for "Legal Tracking" with just one click.
Exclusivity
However, "Legal Tracking" only makes sense for those images that Photocase offers exclusively. This is the only way we can be sure that alleged image thieves have not licensed the content elsewhere. Images for which you use this Photocase service may not be offered commercially anywhere else. Of course, you can still display these images on your own website, enter them in competitions or show them in an exhibition.
What happens during legal tracking?
We search the internet with a crawler for the exclusive content. The files found are then compared with the customer database and the remaining copyright offenders are contacted and persuaded to post-license. Here, the basic licence plus the extra licence for the omission of the copyright information is always charged, to make it more profitable than a "normal" image sale, which usually only includes the basic licence. After payment, the amount is then credited to your account.
Exclusivity means that you distribute one or more images or the whole portfolio exclusively through Photocase and do not offer it commercially to any other agency or anywhere else.
Can I still display exclusive images on my website?
Yes, you can, as long as you do not offer them for sale there. You can also continue to show exclusive images in exhibitions and enter them in competitions.
What do I get out of exclusivity?
Exclusive content benefits from "Legal Tracking", in particular crawler searches for image theft. We search and detect copyright infringements, take the responsible parties to task and get them to post-license. Typically, in addition to the basic licence, the extra licence for use without quoting the author is also purchased, which makes it financially worthwhile.
Exclusive content and exclusive artist portfolios also receive a corresponding badge to further expose them.
How do I get out of the exclusivity?
The same way you got in: in the artist settings you can cancel the exclusivity with just one click. The exclusivity of individual images can be changed in edit mode. However, "Legal Tracking" will then be discontinued.
Of course! You are still the creator and owner of you photos, you can do whatever you like with them!
Your personal contact information can be changed on the manage account page.
You can delete an already published photo on the manage photos page.
Remember that anyone who purchased and downloaded your photo before you deleted it, still retains all their usage rights!
Please just send us a short email to info@photocase.com. You will receive a confirmation email once we have closed your account.
Once you close your account, we will also remove all of your photos. Remember that anyone who purchased and downloaded your photos before we closed your account still retains the license and rights to use your photos!