Our new SmartFrame Images platform is redefining how publishers and content owners use images online. Here, we explain what makes the platform so revolutionary and show you how to get started.

SmartFrame Images is designed to make sourcing and using editorial photography simple, cost free, and more secure. It removes the usual barriers around licensing and usage limits, and provides publishers with a straightforward way to embed high-quality images at scale.

Over 40 million images – and millions more added every week

The library includes more than 40 million images across a broad range of categories, from news, sport, and entertainment to lifestyle, culture, science, and more.

New content is added constantly, so you always have access to the latest moments and stories as they unfold.

So, whether you’re publishing breaking news or evergreen content, the platform ensures you always have something relevant ready to embed on your site.

No licensing fees

One of the biggest differences between SmartFrame Images and other platforms is that SmartFrame Images has no license costs or subscriptions.

This is all thanks to in-image advertising, which creates a fair system for all. Image rights holders are compensated fairly and publishers can earn from this advertising.

It’s a different way of doing things, but it’s fair and far more sustainable than the traditional model.

No limits on embedding

There are no monthly credit caps or usage thresholds. Whether you want to embed 10 images or 10,000, it’s entirely up to you.

You can also use the same image across multiple pages without restriction, helping you create consistent storytelling across your site.

Live Image Feed

If you want to see what’s new the moment it arrives, the Live Image Feed shows you the latest additions in real time. It’s the quickest way to stay ahead of major events, breaking news, and fresh editorial content.

Integrated captions

Every image comes with built-in captions that stay attached wherever the image is embedded. This ensures audiences always have the context they need – who took the photo, what it shows, when it was captured, and so on.

You don’t need to manually add or maintain captions yourself. The details are always accurate and consistent across your site.

These appear over the image when the user hovers over it, but otherwise remain hidden, giving users the benefit of both viewing options.

Content Credentials

With synthetic images becoming harder to distinguish from real ones, provenance matters more than ever.

SmartFrame Images supports Content Credentials, which gives you and your readers a clear view of how each image has been captured and handled.

This helps build trust, especially in news, sport, and cultural reporting, where accuracy and authenticity are critical.

Official and exclusive images

The platform includes a growing range of official and exclusive sports photography from partners such as Manchester City FC, Everton FC, Brentford FC, Six Nations Rugby, and New Zealand Rugby. This gives publishers direct access to premium, rights-cleared content that isn’t available elsewhere.

Alongside sport, the library also features editorial photography from agencies including action press international, ZUMA Press, SIPA USA, Pro Sports Images, News Images, and Every Second Media.

Earn while you publish

Whenever in-image advertising is displayed, publishers receive a share of the revenue. This means you can use premium editorial photography at no cost and still benefit financially.

Ads are either contextual or sponsorship placements designed to complement the images they appear in. They are brand safe, shown only occasionally, and capped in frequency to keep the user experience smooth for your audience.

WordPress integration

The SmartFrame Images WordPress plugin makes embedding even easier. It installs in minutes and lets you browse, search, and add images directly from within WordPress.

As long as you have a SmartFrame account, you can publish images without leaving your CMS.

Security built in

SmartFrame Images also helps protect images from unauthorized copying and misuse.

Conventional JPEG images are easy to copy and use in a way that’s not authorized by their owner. SmartFrame uses multi-layered security to prevent downloads and unauthorized redistribution – all without disrupting the viewing experience.

So … what are you waiting for?

SmartFrame Images is available now – and you can browse the collection without registration.

Want to start embedding images? Just register for an account and we’ll get you set up. Register here.

Marketing Communications Director Matt recently celebrated six years at SmartFrame. We find out how he got into his role, what he considers essential to effective communication, and a little more about life at SmartFrame.

How did you get into marketing communications?

My background is in journalism, specifically the technical side of photography. I worked as a journalist for 13 years, starting as a sub-editor at a consumer photography magazine before progressing to Technical Editor and then Editor.

I had always been drawn to the creative side of photography, but over time the technical side became more interesting to me. I realized that understanding the fundamentals on a deeper level would be valuable, so I decided to study for a degree in photographic science.

Having already worked in the industry for a while, by the time I got to university, I was also able to secure a steady stream of freelance work, which I fit around my degree. After university, and in between a period of traveling, I combined what I was already doing with a more marketing-focused role at a photographic retailer. It was an easy fit, as the lines between the two weren’t particularly defined and I often found myself doing both. So my journey to where I am now makes a lot of sense.

What does your role look like?

I initially joined as a copywriter, before moving into a Head of Copy role, and finally into my current role, which I’ve held for the past two years.

We’re a small marketing team, which allows everyone to have a hand in various things at the same time. That keeps things interesting, but it also helps everyone to develop in ways that might ordinarily not be possible.

Aside from the production of much of our communications and collateral, a key part of my role is to ensure that everything adheres to our brand guidelines and tone. This covers everything from technical guides and  blog articles to press releases, newsletters, and job descriptions. 

In addition to the above, the marketing  team prepares many pieces of sales collateral, and these all need to be maintained. SmartFrame is constantly changing – much like the broader imaging, publishing and advertising landscapes – so keeping everything accurate and current is critical.

Having a photography background has also come in handy. I’m often found capturing headshots and documenting the various events we attend, and capturing other images we use for marketing. I’ve also recently started to create video case studies (below).

Good communication is clear communication. The best writing is simple. This doesn’t mean it can’t be thought-provoking or challenging. You want to keep the audience engaged and informed, perhaps throw in a little humor here and there when appropriate, but never lose track of the purpose of the communication itself.

Being ruthless with editing is also vital. I forget where I first read this advice – it’s a point that has been made by many writers – but it has always served me well. The best writers say a lot with few words.

From years of breaking down complex technical concepts, I’ve learned to constantly ask: how much knowledge can I assume of the reader? Which information is key? How should I structure and pace this article so that it lands effectively?

Occasionally you come across an author whose style or delivery just lands in a way other writing doesn’t. Whenever I notice this, I think about what specifically has made the impact.

But I’d say the most important thing as a communicator is to place yourself in the position of the audience. It’s easy to write from the perspective of what you feel needs to be said, but I find it more important to write from the perspective of what needs to be understood. 

What inspires you?

Great writing, regardless of subject. Like many people, I don’t read as much as I could or would like to. But being time-poor means you can graze on lots of shorter articles, essays, and blog posts, which tends to open you up to great writers you might otherwise overlook.

I also find it interesting to see how language has evolved by reading older books on style. A production editor I once worked with introduced me to The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, a classic American style guide first published in 1918. It’s amusing to see how forcefully certain rules that we’re fairly relaxed about today were once emphasized. Language evolves, of course, but it’s intriguing to see which rules have persisted and which have long been forgotten.

What advice would you give to someone else looking to get into marketing communications?

I suspect most people get into marketing communications as an extension of being a copywriter or more general marketer, so some kind of interest will usually be there already.

But a good place to start is to ask yourself why you want to get into marketing communications – that can help steer you toward the right role or company.

Some people see it as an outlet for their creativity, whether that’s through storytelling, wit, humor, or something else. Others may be drawn to the challenge of simplifying complex ideas.

Some people may be passionate about social media and thrive on seeing a marketing campaign or a piece of promoted content perform well. Personally, as my background is in technical writing, a company like SmartFrame feels like a very natural fit.

If you can identify what it is that draws you in, you’ll better understand where you’re most likely to thrive because you’ll naturally be more motivated to do a good job. Perhaps it sounds obvious, but I feel that finding something you genuinely enjoy is the key to a happy career.

How have you found working at SmartFrame?

It’s been a great journey so far! A lot happens in six years. We’ve moved offices a handful of times, navigated the pandemic, brought some exciting clients on board, and seen a huge transformation in the business in terms of its focus. Being here through it all makes me appreciate just how far we’ve come, and how much stronger we are today.

That said, while the company feels like a very different business to what it used to be, the core of it has remained the same. I put this down to the four co-founders still being with the company. They have ensured the cultural thread has remained while we’ve built out the team. Having a background at larger publishers, where turnover is high and brands are sold and acquired over the years, you appreciate the stability that a company like SmartFrame has.

How do you switch off when you’re not working?

Travel has always been a big passion of mine. I was lucky enough to do quite a bit of it when I was a journalist, and I’ve filled in a few gaps over the years through holidays. A few years before joining SmartFrame, I took a round-the-world trip that lasted just over three months, heading east through Europe, Asia, Australia, and the US before making it back to London. I also managed to see a bit more of Japan earlier in the year, which I only got to see very briefly in a work capacity before.

Travel is also when I tend to pick up my camera the most, photography being another passion. Outside of that, I trained briefly as a chef after leaving school and have collected hundreds of cookbooks. Not entirely unrelated, a trip around Margaret River in my early twenties sparked an interest in wine, which led to a WSET qualification, something I’d love to build on in the future.

Music is the other big one. Living in London makes it easy to go to gigs, and I try to get to at least a couple of festivals each year. That said, I also try to get out of the city whenever I can as there’s still so much of the countryside I haven’t seen. 

From building a telecoms business to pulling Portsmouth FC back from the brink, our Global Sports & Entertainment Director has built a career on instinct, grit, and backing the right people. Here, he shares his wisdom and learnings.

How did you get started?

On reflection, I’ve always been – and I don’t like to use this word too often – an entrepreneur.

With a lot of hard work, and the help of some great people, I built two relatively large independent companies – one in retail and the other in telecoms.

I exited both after many years, but from the 1980s to the late ’90s in retail, and the early 2000s to 2022 in telecoms, both were very successful in their own way.

I started the latter in Spain in the early 2000s. At the time, a lot of Brits were moving to Spain, and Telefónica wasn’t installing landlines at the new estates being built to accommodate the influx of new residents. So, my company, Telitec, which was already supplying cheap calls back to the UK, started installing wireless technology into these urbanizations and giving people internet access.

That doesn’t sound groundbreaking now, but back then it was huge. Early pre-3G wireless technology just wasn’t strong enough, and the ever-growing expat community was used to having the internet back in the UK. By then, it wasn’t just a nice thing to have – for many, it was a necessity.

The business was demand-led – so many expats but no infrastructure. No one was installing landlines. So we came in with an early wireless internet solution and plugged that gap. 

So how did this lead you to the world of sport?

The love and passion of my life has always been sport, specifically football. I’ll sit and watch anything that takes my fancy, but football is my real passion.

In 2012/2013, Portsmouth FC was in danger of disappearing. I had some experience helping clubs in Spain and the UK, and a Pompey-supporting friend of mine asked whether I – given my business background – would try and help, which I did.

The administrator, Trevor Birch – who’s now the CEO of the EFL, and someone I have so much respect for – helped guide us through a really difficult period.

But with the fans and high-net-worth individuals, we managed to take the club out of administration and save it from liquidation.

I agreed to stay on as CEO and during the next four years we turned the club around, returned it to profit, cleared all outstanding debts, achieved promotion, and became one of the only debt-free clubs in the league.

I was then introduced to Michael Eisner, the former Disney CEO and chairman. Knowing his background, I instinctively knew that he was the right person to take the club into the next stage of its journey if we wanted to compete in the Championship and beyond, and continue meeting the huge financial requirements at a then-decaying Fratton Park stadium.

I like to think that we became not just business associates but friends. To this day, I have so much respect for him, his family, and his former right-hand man, Andy Redman.

You then moved to Topps International, is that right?

Correct. Four years into Michael’s stewardship, Covid hit. Leading up to that, he had been speaking to me about a business he owned – Topps International.

As a whole, it wasn’t failing, but the international arm was. The US side was turning over and earning huge sums of money, but the international side was struggling. Turnover was minuscule, the brand hadn’t gained traction, and it was incurring substantial losses.

I went to Topps International specifically for Michael. We built an incredible team that turned that business around during my time as General Manager. It was a really exciting period, and I was privileged to work with some of the biggest football clubs in the world, UEFA, and the biggest leagues, sports, and entertainment brands in the world.

Helping to take the business from where it was to where it is now was probably the most rewarding and biggest achievement of my business career to date.

Michael Eisner once said you were one of the best businessmen he has known throughout his career. That’s quite a compliment!

Yes – coming from him, with all that he’s achieved in business and entertainment, it meant a huge amount. As I said, I have always respected Michael and his career, even before I met him, so to hear that from him is definitely the greatest business compliment I’ve had.

You joined SmartFrame earlier this year. What does your role involve on a day-to-day basis? And what are the biggest challenges?

My title is Head of Global Sports and Entertainment – and it’s a huge, overarching role.

It’s about bringing together sports clubs, entertainers, athletes, and organizations not just to protect their assets but to help them generate incremental revenue from those assets.

For many people, it takes time to wrap their heads around it; they are just so used to JPEGs. They’re used to how things have always worked. So it’s hard to get them to think differently.

The easiest way I can explain it is: “All we need is your content (images) – not only do we protect them, we monetize them for you.” No restrictions. No complicated terms. It’s that easy.

It sounds like your role is as much about education as it is execution.

Exactly.

A lot of my role is about helping clubs and entities understand that SmartFrame is very different from anything that currently exists.

It’s about making the unfamiliar familiar – and showing them just how easy and impactful SmartFrame will be for them. I honestly can’t see any downside. It truly is a win–win for clubs and leagues.

A big part of what I do is creating awareness. Sports clubs are used to a system that’s been around for years. So we’re essentially saying: “This is a new way. This is how we protect your images. This is how you can make money from them.” It’s a completely different approach to where we are now in that JPEGs have lost all value.

And honestly, most people are surprised. Their first question is almost always, “What’s the catch?” Because it just seems too good to be true!

What was the biggest lesson you learned during your time leading Portsmouth FC?

That success is always about the people and the team that you build.

Yes, you need a good product, but ultimately how well you commercialize that product comes down to the people involved. You’re only ever as good as the team around you.

It takes a different kind of person to commercialize an idea, a different specialist to build the product, someone with a different skill set to lead. To be the best you have to have the best that you can attract in each individual area of the business.

This is especially true in football. Each aspect of the club functions as an important independent strand that forms part of the whole: players, coaches (and specialists that exist within that area), operations, security, logistics, legal, matchday, hospitality, marketing, media, commercial – the list goes on!

People see football as a relatively simple business – just get the players on a pitch and play. But I can assure you that it’s not simple!

Most clubs now have goalkeeping coaches, set-piece specialists, strength and conditioning trainers, data analysts, recruitment analysts, and so on, all working to find those extra percentages in their unique part of the business.

That’s what gives clubs their edge. It’s those marginal gains – and it may only be very small percentage gains – that can be the difference between qualifying for Europe or not, relegation or promotion, ultimately defining whether you have what is deemed a successful or disappointing season.

People online love to play at being a football manager. Everyone thinks they know what they’d do. But when you’re inside a club, the same as running any business, you quickly learn that the best thing you can do is get the best person you can for a particular role, and then support, assist, and let them get on with what they do best.

Did your experience in telecoms shape that mindset?

Massively.

I am definitely not a techie, but I didn’t need to know how to build the infrastructure myself; we employed the best specialists we could to do that. I just needed to understand how it worked, what the market needed, and how to then deliver it commercially.

Tech people are brilliant, but they’ll often tell you what’s possible, not what’s viable. That’s where a commercial head is needed – balancing innovation with practicality, speed, and scalability.

Can you give an example of something that seems simple to fans but is far more complicated behind the scenes?

Wages and contracts are a great example.

Fans often ask, “Why didn’t the club just give that player what they wanted?” But it’s never just about one player.

Let’s say the top earner at club X is on £2,000 a week, and another player – maybe one with two years left – says, “I want to stay, but I’ll only sign if you give me £3,000 a week.” If you agree, you’ve now set a new benchmark.

Agents talk and players talk. Many agents represent more than one player at the same club. Suddenly, every other player wants a raise. You’ve raised the bar for one, but effectively for everyone, including future signings.

So while fans have the luxury of seeing one decision in isolation, when running a club you have to constantly think five steps ahead and consider the bigger picture.

If you could go back and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?

To have learned the venture capital and equity investment market.

I’ve always grown my own businesses organically. I come from a working-class background, so for many years of my life the idea of taking external investment never sat right with me.

I always wanted to own the whole thing. But what I’ve learned is that if you want to run a village, that’s fine. If you want to build a city, you need investment.

When I was offered investment in past ventures, I turned it down because I wanted to stay in control. But that mindset almost definitely slowed growth. If I’d accepted equity or investment funding earlier, on reflection I believe that I could have taken my businesses way beyond the size that they were, and much quicker. Sometimes, owning a smaller slice of something much bigger is better than owning 100% of something small.

I also think that it’s not just about the money; with the right investment group, the network and support it brings can be equally, if not more, important.

That’s what I’d tell my younger self: don’t be afraid of giving up a piece of the business to grow something much bigger.

Finally, outside of SmartFrame, how do you unwind?

Football is still a massive part of my life. I remain a director at Portsmouth, and if I’m not at one of our games, I’m watching my son-in-law play for West Bromwich Albion. He’s married to my daughter Abbie, and he’s like an adopted son to me.

I’ve been married for almost 40 years, and we’ve got a grown-up son and daughter. My son, James, is expecting his first child in November, and we already have three young grandchildren – all boys, aged seven, six, and two. Abbie also just got a new puppy, so it’s always busy at their place!

We still love Spain and love to travel generally – when I was at Topps, I was lucky enough to visit places like Japan, India, Brazil, and Australia. Those were always bucket-list destinations for me.

I’m not sure this qualifies as unwinding, but if you love what you do – and I always have – then I’m not big into the need for unwinding!

CCO Alan Capel discusses his beginnings as a freelance cartoonist, the way people value images today, and what commercial photographers should be thinking about.

How did you get into the imaging industry?

I did a completely unrelated degree – leisure studies – and quickly realized I didn’t want to work in that industry. I spent most of my time drawing doodles and cartoons, so I decided to make a go of being a freelance cartoonist.

I used to send these cartoons off to Private Eye to try and get them published. At the time, when the big newspapers used to pay £5 or £10 per cartoon, Private Eye paid £96. I used to get really nice notes from Ian Hislop saying “not this time” and so on. But then I got a message that just said “taken one” – and a cheque in the post. I had to buy Private Eye for weeks to finally find it, as I wasn’t told when it would be published. Years later, it was reprinted in the 25th anniversary edition, so I got paid again – which was nice!

I worked as a cartoonist for a year, and it was brilliant and I loved it, but it was ultimately very hard to make money. As a result of that, I got to understand how magazines and newspapers worked, and I realized I wanted to do something different but still in the creative world.

I saw an ad for a job as a picture researcher, and I had no idea what that was, but it sounded interesting from the description. That was with a company called Tony Stone Worldwide, which became Tony Stone Images. My job was to match images to a brief supplied by a customer and go off and find those actual physical images in the collection – and I loved it. 

That business ultimately became Getty Images. The people who started Getty identified photography as an area they wanted to build a business around, and Tony Stone Images was the best business they could have bought.

You’ve held several senior roles at the likes of Getty Images, Alamy, and now SmartFrame. Outside of the shift from analog to digital, what’s been the biggest change in that time?

The shift from analog to digital, while it brought lots of efficiencies – chiefly, serving the product digitally – also led to the problems we have with mass image theft, lack of control, and a driving down of the price of images as the number of good photographs increased phenomenally.

You’d have thought that with the move to digital, photographers and the picture industry as a whole would have made a lot of money because people could distribute and find images more quickly. But it didn’t necessarily mean people wanted to use more images – although I guess the internet allowed for deeper content repositories.

The other thing is that it’s quite an incestuous industry in that everyone seems to sell everyone else’s images. There are very few businesses that retain true exclusivity over the images they have. 

So, the pie that’s available can end up being sliced four or five times. That’s an interesting evolution – there aren’t many other industries that operate with that much collaboration across competitors.

Do you think people value images differently to how they used to?

People still value great photography. A fantastic picture still wows. It’s no coincidence that there are still those “pictures of the year” that come out in December and everyone’s fascinated by them. Sometimes it’s the moment that’s captured – and sometimes it’s just visually stunning. 

So I do think people still value imagery, but economic pressures, the sheer ubiquity of photography, and the squeeze on publishing and advertising have meant that over time, the cost to play in the market has come down. So at least in monetary terms, the value of images has eroded massively.

It wasn’t uncommon in the early days of Tony Stone Images for images to be sold, daily, for hundreds or thousands of pounds. Fast-forward to today, and photographers would be doing cartwheels if they managed to get three figures. That said, you could argue that the incremental unit price to view or use almost anything – music, videos, and so on – has gone down over time anyway. So there is a perception that photography has lost its “value” but it’s down to the advancement of technology, rather than people not valuing, for example, beautiful or evocative images.

Outside of AI, what do you think commercial photographers need to prepare for?

They should be looking at where and how revenue’s going to be generated in the future. 

In the stock and editorial press photography world, the current model just isn’t sustainable. If I was talking to someone thinking about becoming a photographer, I wouldn’t say “don’t do it” – it infuriates me when people in our world say that. That’s just going to kill photography. I’d say: embrace the art form, learn your craft, stay bang-up-to-date with technology, and be aware of AI and how you might want to use it or avoid it! 

If you want to pursue more authentic photography, you’ll need to figure out how to make money – possibly in four or five different ways.

SmartFrame offers a unique alternative to the conventional market. You can still create images the way you want, but we provide a platform to market them and present them to publishers — and we believe our approach will outperform the current model.

But you should look for all commercial outlets. Some photographers start off thinking it’s all about the “art” and being in a gallery, but then realize they don’t have to sell out and compromise their creativity or integrity. Instead, they can build a business licensing images at a high rate here and a lower rate there. 

Your photography might work beautifully as prints – so consider looking at limited edition runs with a gallery, if you think your work warrants it. Alternatively, find a print site that makes your work available affordably so people can have it on their walls, while also making sure you’ve got your bread-and-butter route through sites that are really good at licensing and marketing photography. Having all your eggs in one basket is too risky.

What does your role look like?

I wear a number of different hats and I have a few different teams reporting to me. I’ve got a team that deals directly with publishers to get new ones on board; a team that does the same for advertising and campaigns; and a content team that’s focused on the images we have and how they’re displayed on the upcoming SmartFrame Images platform (below).

We’ve identified a sweet spot with sports images. Not only are they extremely popular, but it was interesting for us to find that a lot of sports brands don’t own their own images and don’t know how to monetize them. We help them do that, and that’s another of our teams. 

The rest of my role is working with the senior leadership team to help lead the business, build the strategy, and make sure we’re heading in the right direction – and to respond quickly to whatever challenges come up.

How have you found working at SmartFrame?

It reminds me a lot of the early days of my career, both at Tony Stone Images and at Alamy. Tony Stone Images was pretty well established when I joined, but it was still relatively small. But I joined Alamy when it was really small; I was one of the first employees. And a lot of what I learned there, I’ve brought to SmartFrame.

There’s a collective will and spirit at SmartFrame that I see in bucketloads, and that’s one of the reasons I joined. I didn’t want to join a company doing the same thing I’d been doing for the last 30 years as I could have stayed where I was. I needed a new challenge – and this is definitely a challenge, because it’s breaking new ground. That makes the atmosphere really exciting. There was a warmth in the business that I felt before I joined, and that’s continued. It’s a solid team, there’s a lot of honesty, and there are some really smart people driving it forward.

What do you wish you knew at the start of your career?

Even when things haven’t worked out, I’ve learned something from them. That might sound like a cliché, but it’s better to go through something and learn from it than to know everything at the start. Maybe it sounds arrogant to say in answer to your question “there is nothing I wish I knew” – but part of the challenge is working out how to make things better and grow. If you always knew how to do everything, you’d just sail through and it would be very boring!

Is there something that we’re not talking about that we should be talking about?

While it’s not been totally overlooked, nobody’s really cracked the issue of copyright awareness. Every kid grows up knowing they can just steal images. There still isn’t a strong enough reason for the superpowers – be they economic or governmental – to do something about it. The government doesn’t do enough to enforce copyright protection, and a lot of the current conversation around AI is shining a light on that. People are talking about it, but it’s still never important enough.

How do you switch off when you’re not at SmartFrame?

I’ve got four kids – two little ones and two bigger ones! – so I spend a lot of time with them. We’ve got a house full of pets and a garden that needs looking after, so I’m often out there chasing chickens, dogs, cats, and horses, which is a bit mad!

I’m a huge Leicester City fan, so I go and watch them too. I’m also really into music, and I try to get to gigs and festivals when I can. But mainly, I spend time with my wife and kids. We live just on the edge of the Cotswolds, so there are lots of nice places nearby. I love a good dog walk and pub lunch!