Online photography platform Kandid.ly expands outreach

Since its public launch in August, local photography platform Kandid.ly has been expanding its outreach to cities outside of Cincinnati, recently adding Austin, Denver, Columbus and Detroit.
 
The company, which received the award for best up and coming web tech company at Cincinnati Innovates in late August, aims to streamline the process of connecting photographers with customers.
 
"We actually see an opportunity to change the way moments are meant to be captured," says Kandid.ly founder Sam Ulu. "Folks are going to start realizing that they have a large quantity of photos, but no quality—like selfies, all the grainy photos you take at events where you wish you would have been in it."
 
In an effort to maintain a variety of pricing, quality and availability options, Kandid.ly categorizes photographers into three groups: weekenders, part-timers and full-timers. Users can search for photographers by zip code, which provides portfolios and other details.
 
"We've made it easier for you to actually compare multiple photographers, their work and their pricing all in one place," Ulu says. "Today, it's very challenging to find photographers and then compare their work. You have to open multiple tabs and websites, and even with those multiple websites, it'd be challenging to figure out what each package has and compare them."
 
To make money, Kandid.ly takes commissions, depending on the photographer's skill level.
 
"That commission can go from anywhere between 5-15 percent," Ulu says. "It's kind of like tiers."
 
More established photographers provide Kandid.ly with lower commissions. In addition, for security, Kandid.ly requires photographers to undergo background checks through local startup myrepp.
 
Ulu hopes that Kandid.ly will bring new people interested in photography to use the platform.
 
"We're providing services that might bring folks who love photography, but never really considered doing it as business because of the amount of work it takes."