EyeEm Alternatives & Reviews

The inclusion of cameras on practically every phone and mobile device in existence has essentially transformed society into a world of aspiring photographers, but that hasn't dampened the professional demand for high=quality photographs. As the digital marketplace becomes increasingly more crowded, the need for content is ever growing, and just because someone knows how to point their camera phone doesn't mean they know how to craft a meaningful or in demand shot. EyeEm is both a community of photographers and a sort of open air market, helping connect photographers with clients and serving as a commercial middleman between the two. It also provides the encouragement and training photographers need to better improve their craft, increase their visibility, and better market their most promising photos.

Positioning yourself in the market used to be a laborious task, requiring photographers to build, maintain, and curate online portfolio sites. That's without even taking into account the complicated affair of drawing visitors to your site. Registering with EyeEm is like getting access to a free bazaar storefront. There's no cost to setup your EyeEm account or upload photos, and some of the biggest businesses around scour the EyeEm marketplace daily in search of promising new talent. These include companies like Apple, Spotify, and Canon with deep budgets and a constant demand for new photographic materials. EyeEm has also partnered with some of the biggest photographic agencies in the world, including Getty, to better connect agents with artists. Those looking to increase their prominence can find an innovative and thoughtful alternative to traditional sales through the advent of Missions. These are contests hosted by individuals and businesses. They'll assign criteria for the type of photographs they're looking for, and everyone on the EyeEm service is free to submit. These Missions award prizes to the top respondents in their field. If you're looking to sell your pictures directly, you can set your own prices, and you'll always receive half of the profits from your sales. Photographers always get to retain the copyright on their works, and the ability to sell photos to multiple clients can help talented photographers keep a steady income flow in their bank account.

EyeEm's mission is as much about education as it is about commerce. After all, they want to curate the best photographs available. The app utilizes proprietary computer vision technology to sort through your camera roll and help you identify the most visually arresting and lucrative photos for upload. Security features ensure that your personal works will always be protected. They also maintain a robust online community of over 20 million members. Tags allow you to better distribute your pictures in the community, and commenting functions help photographers keep in touch and share comments, compliments, and criticism. EyeEm further supports their education efforts with regular articles and a digital periodical designed to help photographers grow in their craft.

Within two weeks of signing into an Eyeem account I was left frustrated by their lack of customer service and faulty facilities on the website. Having twice downloading images only the original 4 I used to sign up with appeared. Then with facial recognition and release form issues I hit another brick wall. The image in question was created using someone wearing a mask at a Carnival. I was instructed that to delete images I had to click on the three dots on the right hand side of my pictures. These do not exist. Not a pleasant experience if you are trying to sell your images, perhaps for a social image sharing site it might suffice but a commercial site NO.