There has never been a more exciting time to be a Shutterstock contributor. Here at Shutterstock we’re seeing demand for more creative content, we’re paying higher royalties on new products, and we’re talking with more contributors than ever before.

Recently, as part of our partnership with the World Photography Organization, members of our content team traveled to London for an inspiring series of workshops on being a successful stock photographer. The Shutterstock team led a series of seven workshops, discussing stock photography with over 250 emerging and established photographers. We fielded questions on model and property releases, the qualities of top-selling stock photos, keywords, idea generation, new content opportunities, and more.

Shutterstock also presented an award as part of the Sony World Photography Awards, as part of the selection committee for WPO’s Open Competition, which received 52,000 entries from all over the globe. The winning and commended images were featured in an exhibition at Somerset House, a beautiful and historical arts and cultural center in the center of London. Tobias Braeuning took home the award for an artistic – and seemingly impossible – split-second image of multiple colliding water droplets.

We feel very fortunate to be members of a creative community. London is just one destination of many and we’re very excited to be spending time with new and existing contributors across the globe. In the coming weeks and months, we’re going to be providing more informative and educational materials to you as part of our commitment to investing in your success. We can’t wait to share more thoughts and strategies on how to be a top-selling stock photographer. Read More

As the founder and CEO of Shutterstock, I am pleased to share that today we filed an S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, a formal document that describes our business and our plans to pursue an initial public offering, or IPO. We would love to be able to answer questions you may have or comment on topics covered in our S-1 filing however we are in what is called a “quiet period.”  During this time, SEC rules prohibit us from discussing or releasing certain information, including topics related to a potential offering. We appreciate your understanding that we will not be able to respond to related questions posted in the forums or elsewhere.

Our official press release can be found below. Thank you for being a member of the Shutterstock community and for letting us serve you.

Jon Oringer
Founder & CEO

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Shutterstock Files Registration Statement for Proposed Initial Public Offering

New York – May 14, 2012 – Shutterstock, Inc., a global marketplace for imagery, announced today that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed initial public offering of its common stock. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined.

The bookrunning managers of the proposed transaction will be Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank Securities and Jefferies. RBC Capital Markets, Stifel Nicolaus Weisel and William Blair will be acting as co-managers.

When available, a copy of the prospectus for the above offering can be obtained from Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Prospectus Department, at 180 Varick Street, 2^nd Floor, New York, NY 10014, and by phone at (866) 718-1649 or by emailing prospectus@morganstanley.com.

A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor may there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

Dear Contributors,

In the coming weeks, you may notice some changes to the search results on Shutterstock. We’d like to share some information with you about what to expect.

The Shutterstock search team has been hard at work improving the system that powers our search results. Our goal is to create a more robust and full-featured search system to support exciting new interfaces we are developing. Soon, we will begin testing the new search service with a small percentage of customers.

Here’s a short summary of how the search upgrade will affect contributors:

• This upgrade will fix a glitch that now causes some images to temporarily not appear in search results.
• There will be a slight delay for images to appear in the New sort order, but reliability will be greatly improved.
• During testing, different users may see different results for the same search.
• The order of images in search results may change. (However, the fundamental principles powering the New, Most Popular and Relevant sort orders are not changing.)

All you need to do is keep creating and uploading great content, and be mindful that some of the changes you’ll see in the Shutterstock search results are a result of this upgrade. We’re excited about our progress in search, and confident that our new system will help us create even better experiences for customers and contributors in the future.

Best Regards,

Scott Braut
VP of Content

About Our New Look

It’s an exciting day at Shutterstock! We’re thrilled to unveil our new logo and visual identity, the result of months of development and a sign of our commitment to creativity and innovation.

This video shows some of the potential built into our new logo.

What you probably noticed first, after our dramatic color change, is something special going on with the “O” in Shutterstock. We call it the Viewfinder, and it’s there to allow us to showcase our vast, constantly updating collection of amazing images and videos. The Viewfinder symbolizes the artistic empowerment of Shutterstock customers and contributors to express their unique perspective – whether they’re behind the lens or in front of the screen.

Shutterstock is almost 9 years old and the one constant in our history is evolution and reinvention. We like to keep what makes us great and improve upon what doesn’t. Over the last year, we have been challenging ourselves with the tough, thought-provoking questions that a good branding exercise is all about. Who are we? What do we value? And what do we really want to communicate? In the end, we wanted a visual identity that reflects those beliefs.

At the core of our company values is the belief in the democratization of design. Over the last two decades, there has been a dramatic shift in how people and businesses value and approach creative work. Today the power of design and creativity is recognized and appreciated from boardrooms to classrooms. Shutterstock was born out of that revolution.

Our new visual identity is just the beginning of exciting new things from our team, and we sure hope you like it! If you want to read more about our process and insights, I’ve shared some highlights after the jump.

Read More

Guess what?! Shutterstock was nominated for our first Webby Award for the Shutterstock for iPad app! The judges have selected their finalists, and now we need your help to take home the gold (aka the People’s Voice Award for best mobile app). Even if you don’t have an iPad, but just want to help your friends at Shutterstock, you can vote.Just go to: http://shutr.bz/sswebby and click on Shutterstock in the middle of the page. Voting ends April 26, but feel free to vote as many times as you can before then. We’re up against some pretty big names and need all the help we can get!

For those who want to know more about the Webby Awards, here’s the scoop:
The Webby’s are an annual awards initiative put on by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences to honor the best of the web across dozens of categories, including mobile apps, community, interactive advertising, video, and others. They have a host of influential members – from Matt Groening to David Bowie and Richard Branson, and it’s a pretty cool thing to be nominated. But, of course, it’s an even cooler thing to WIN, so go ahead, chime in and help Shutterstock take home a Webby!

Thanks for your help!

Meagan, Miles, Matt & the rest of your friends at Shutterstock

© Andrey Yurlov/Shutterstock

Sports photos and video clips, especially those that show the raw energy of the game, are popular with Shutterstock customers. Getting these shots requires skill and preparation, but the payoff can be worth it. Spring is a great time to visit your local field or court and start shooting sports.

Commercial use, model-released content of athletes and sport teams in action are in high demand. Pictures of athletes in action –kicking a soccer ball or shooting a basketball — are more commercially viable than images of athletes posing with sports equipment. Read More

When contributing footage to Shutterstock for commercial use, it’s important to respect our standards for intellectual property and identifiable people. Take special care with footage that shows trademarks, such as logos.

Since each frame of a clip is analyzed like a photo, one trademark visible for even a split second makes your clip unacceptable for commercial use. If the clip is newsworthy, you can submit as editorial. However, clips suitable for commercial use generally have better sales. That’s why it’s a great option to blur trademarks and identifiable faces using techniques that keep your clips usable and appealing. But where do you start?

We asked three expert Shutterstock Footage contributors to explain the techniques they used in popular clips that include blurring effects. Read More

It’s hard to believe more than a week has passed since SXSW came to an end. We’re all still reeling (and recovering) from all the excitement of the festival, and especially from Shutterstock’s Austin Translation campaign! Thank you to all who turned out to support us – especially during the torrential downpour we experienced the first few days – and to those who participated virtually through our Facebook page or Twitter. For those who missed it, keep reading for a full recap…

Read More

Once again this year, Shutterstock has earned high marks from stock artists in the Microstock Industry Survey. We appreciate this vote of confidence from our contributors. Thank you! We also think this affirms our commitment to treat artists fairly and with respect, and to work aggressively to drive sales.

For the survey question “Where do you generate the most income?,” Shutterstock was the most popular answer, named by 56% of the survey respondents.

Shutterstock has been the top answer to this question every year since 2008, but this is the highest percentage Shutterstock has ever claimed.

The independent survey gathered responses from 709 stock contributors. Thanks to Tyler Olsen at MicrostockGroup for his work on the survey every year. And especially, thanks to our contributors for your trust in Shutterstock. You can see the full survey results here.

© Aspen Photo/Shutterstock
A photo by Shutterstock contributor Ken Inness, who uses Sets to learn which kinds of images sell best.

Creating stock art can be a significant investment. The more information you have about how your images perform, the better decisions you can make about how to spend your time and money.

At Shutterstock, we believe in sharing more information with you to help you make those decisions. In the 6 months since we introduced the Shutterstock Catalog Manager, we’ve heard from many contributors who are using the tool to track the revenue they’re making off their shoots. It’s one of several tools to help you track how your images are performing on Shutterstock. Knowing what you’re getting out of your shoots can help you manage costs, and improve your return on investment (ROI). Read More