a noobs guide to stock photo...

[kent andersen]

I have no clue how many members of Potn that are regulary selling photo on the different stock agencies. I enjoy taking pictures, and have a growing stock of pictures stored on my harddrive. And decided (afther getting a huge suprice bill from tax government) to start selling pictures online.

Afther searching around on the forum I found out that there is no gathering of threads about stock photo. To find a thread worth reading is also not so easy. I know that it is just to google it and get alot, but it would be great to have more about stock photo here to. I guess that all cind of question about stock photo is interesting for lots of members here, so I decided to try to gather together those posts that can be found here... When I run into any good threads here or elsewhere online I will post them in this thread.

1. Here are some of the typical: "microstock is ruining the industry" vs "microstock made me rich and famous" threads:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=729755&highlight=stock+photo+white+background
discussion for and against (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=729755&highlight=stock+photo+white+background)
stock photo agency (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=734933&highlight=fotolia) even some discussion about what cind of photo to take...
one old one (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=274180&highlight=stock+photo+white+background)
even older (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=73933&highlight=stock+photo+white+background)

One about getty: getty (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=801578&highlight=getty)

about istock: Istock (http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2008/02/27/stock-photo-agencies/)
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=526591&highlight=Alamy

about alamy: whoo hoo alamy (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=559642&highlight=fotolia) one of the longest and probably best threads I have found here about stock photo so far...

2. Some threads about the legal part of stock photos:

logos in stock (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=850436&highlight=stock+photo)
for editorial (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=835459&highlight=getty)
model release (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=798102&highlight=stock+model+release)

3. Some external resourses worth looking into:

one big list of different stock agencies: http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2008/02/27/stock-photo-agencies/
and a view on the developement from different agencies: microstock group poll results (http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php?action=pollsresults)

4. Threads about shooting stock photo:

getting shots accepted (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=669376&highlight=fotolia)
wine stock (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=282944&highlight=stock+photo+white+background)
gadget girl (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=845054&highlight=stock+photo)

5. Other online alternatives:

Another alternative to stock photo would be to search out a photo host, that at the same time offer a paypal system to the costumer. That means you put the price on it, but the hoster offer an online busines system for you. That seems like an interesting alternative for an amateur compared to stock photo. But, to do it you have to pay for the service, with 150 dollar a year or a percentage of each photo solled. Basicly it is the same thing, but you get more controll of youre own pictures. On my side, I will first let my experience grow with the help of traditional stock agencies, and when I have an understanding of the market, I will take a look on these again.

smugmug (http://www.smugmug.com/photos/best-photo-sharing/)
zenfolio (http://www.zenfolio.com/)

[kent andersen]

Ok, I am new to stock photography, and will continue on this thread to write down my experience doing it.

The arguments from my side to post my picture on stock is that I can't afford to buy any new gear at the moment. And i don't have time to spend working any more than I do right now. Well, I have lots of pictures on my hard disk, and its growing. So, why not give it a try to sell it on a stock photo agency. If I don't sell anything, I have at least tried. My goal is anyhow, to afford to buy new gear, starting with some Kenko tubes.

I have read lots and lots on internet, mostly on microstock group, a forum for stock photography. And I think I am about to get a clue on it.

The first thing I was considering was on what price level I would like to sell my pictures. On micro stock, I would sell more in quantity but on others I would sell less but for a much better price. So, the debate goes somehow like this. The microstocker says; I am selling more, getting lots of money due to that hundreds of people buy for little money every day. The "normal" stock photographer say: I sell less, but when I sell i get 3-500 euro (and by giving photos away for 0.20 those microstocker is ruining for all the others).

I am not feeling comfortable of selling my pictures for 0,20, even if I sell 50 or 100 of them. At least untill I get a bether grasp on how this market is working I will stay on those places that gives more money. How I look on this in a year is another matter.

Afther searching around I decided to post my pictures on Getty and a German stock photo page (bildmaschine). By doing that I hope to get more experience before I start posting in other places. My goal is to get several hundred good photos uploaded before the summer. And then have a steady grow of pictures for stock photo each month. At the moment I am searching through every old photo to find pictures that could be suited for stock photo.

So far, I have only 5 pictures on Getty, and 77 pictures on Bildmaschine. On Getty I am restricted becouse I am only having access through their Flickr agreement. And I can't post any more pictures before the 20th of april. Another disadvantage is that it takes one month before the picture has been tagged by them. So, afther I have posted it (and given Getty 2 years monopoly on that shot) one month will go before its even able to be found by their search maschine. I will be uploading more pictures there, and also open a normal Getty account. But if this is going to bring any result at all is probably gonna take a year to find out.

On Bildmaschine I have so far gained some experience. Bildmaschine is actually selling my pictures for a good price 15-350 euro, and I get 50%. But this page is not having a good review, they are not selling so much. The good thing is that I can delete my pictures any time i want (and tag them as I like), but also have the same pictures posted on any other stock agency. If I ever sell anything here I will tell you. But there is a tool on this page, that are helping me alot to gain knowledge about this market, and that is that I can see how many visitors that have watched my pictures. So far, somewhere around 400 have watched my pictures, and only 5 of my pictures have no visitors. So, I am gaining some experience on what cind of pictures that customers are liking. I think 400 visitors are a great number afther only 2 weeks. At least it is a sign that the agency is alive. But I haven't solled anything.

One of the first thing that strucked me was that I had to find out about all the legal part of doing stock photo. Since this photos are going to be used publicly and in marketing purpose there is lots of legal things to think about. You can't just take a shot of someone and sell it. Property and model release are new things to think about. So, becouse of that I am only taking pictures of nature, physical objects and my family, and I am lucky to have two doughters that loves to stand smiling and acting in front of my camera. With these cind of pictures I am safe...

The quality demand from Stock photo is also helping me to improve my photo skills. It has to be perfectly sharp at 100%, it needs to have perfect exposure and have a quality that fills the demand for printing. And it also needs to be without any visible sign of post-prosesing at 100%, so it has to be done right in the camera (and then only improved at the computer). I am also starting to build up more photos with white background, wich is not so easy becouse white is almost never white (and I don't have flash, strobe or other material to help me). That leads to more time for PP, to paint background real white aftherwards.

Also the motive that sell in Stock Photo is a new challenge. Sunsets and flowers are not selling. Well, it could, but there is millions of good shots with those motives, so to stick out with such a photo means to be extremly creative. (And should I take a nobel peace price worthy photo of a flower, well, then it want be posted as a stock photo). So, due to the different shoting style needed for stock photo, I am entering a new learning curve. In my search for good motives, I am now looking for things that could sell just as much as i am looking for beauty.

[skywalkerbeth]

Interesting thread...

[kona77]

Thanks for the info.

[eamo]

interesting thread alright - i'd be interested in following how things pan out for you.

Eamo

[tgr141291]

I've been wondering about stock photos as a source on income for a while - but as you say been put off by the legal side of model releases etc.

Would it be possible for you to post some examples of the photos you've been selling and the prices and which sites they have been sold at.

Many thanks,

Tom

[kent andersen]

As I wroted in my post, I haven't solled anything yet. I just wanted to share with the forum my experiences as a noob. At the moment I take one step at the time, and try to learn how this market is working. I really doubt that I will sell much on bildmaschine, but what I get from there is experience on what people are interested in. If I ever sell anything I will tell.

This picture is by the way the picture with most klikcs on bildmaschine:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2722/4125208733_c7d88b27c2_b.jpg

I have no idea why, probably becouse it is difficult to see what it is from a tumbnail... :). On Bildmaschine the price starts at 10 euro, for a picture intended to be used on a private web page. For a business homepage the price starts at 60 euro. For an unlimited use on catalogs etc, the price is 150 euro. For Editorial use, the price is between 60 and 300 euro, depending on the size of the newspaper. There is also a possibility to make youre own price list. I don't think there is many agents that have that possibility. So it looks like this stock photo agent is a good starting point for me.

This is one of the pictures on Getty:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/4170469096_79e32b25d6_b.jpg

[confusedxx]

Hey Kent,

A couple more months have passed now. Have you achieved your goals in Stock photography? Have you sold anything? How many photos do you now have available? Which additional stock sites are you using?

[PhotosGuy]

Stock photography, which of the Big Three (Getty, Corbis, Alamy) and why? (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=364266)

What sells mostly at stock sites? (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=550262)

Who sells stock photographs? (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=54045)

Getty is now the WalMart of stock imaging: Getty/Flickr interesting discussion (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=782021)

Thoughts of a Bohemian » Blog Archive » This ain’t Wal Mart (http://blog.melchersystem.com/2009/11/06/this-aint-wal-mart)

Getty Images vs. Aamy
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1169878

[kent andersen]

Hey Kent,

A couple more months have passed now. Have you achieved your goals in Stock photography? Have you sold anything? How many photos do you now have available? Which additional stock sites are you using?

I am still only on Getty and Bildmaschine. Haven't solled anything. The main reason is that I have not enough pictures out there for sale and I am still learning this game.

I have been far to busy with other things to be able to do much uploading and those pictures that could have been good to upload are not suited due to model relase. If anything happen worth writing I will post it here.

[johngalt_ny]

Interesting Thread.

Keep talking please people.

[kent andersen]

I haven't spent much time getting this going. Therefore I haven't posted anything more here. But today (afther two month of not watching my getty account), I found out that I had actually solled something. Huurrray!!!

The idea was basicly to get some money out of my hobby. To my big suprice I have actually managed to sell two pictures on Getty. Not much money, but more than I would have got if I kept them on my harddrive.

I have only managed to get 12 pictures on Getty, and have got 160 $ so far. So, I am not disapointed. For me stock photo is a way to get some money out of my Hoby. And those money will quicly end up in more gear. My intention is not to get bread on my table. The hours spent on each picture is really not worth the time spended. But I never shot those pictures to earn money, but becouse I love to take pictures. So, I really doubt that anyone could get a living out of stock photo (at least not in the western part of the world). Then a more traditional way of taking pictures is definently giving more money. But for people like me, that have good pictures on their hard drive, stock photo is definently a good way to get something out of it.

One big thing that I have got from trying out stock pictures is that I have learned new skills in photography. I did tried out making "real" stock photo like pictures, but they all failed. Afther some shots, I ended up thinking... is this realy a way of taking pictures that I like? hm.. not realy. So, I quited that way of taking pictures, and went back into the adventure cind of shooting. But, I do learned alot in the proses.

I also tried to be reckognized on iStock, but failed there to. Even though I posted the pictures already approved by Getty (and even solled through them), they didn't found my skills good enough for them. So, what did I learn by that? That, there is still alot more to learn about exposure and composing the picture. And, part of having success in this branch, is to have some luck.

Bildmaschine, wich was a good way for me to see what people actually like, seems like an almost dead page. That is also the comments on other forums about that agency. But, still, there is people looking at the pictures, and I will let the pictures lay there. By watching the interest that others show for my pictures I learn more about the market.

[kent andersen]

I am starting to like Getty... There is not much to earn here. But I have managed to get 22 pictures on my Getty account. Wich is not easy. And I have an average sell of 40 euro each month so far. I gues that is good compared to the few picture I have posted.

Every picture needs to be perfect even at 100% view. The motive has to be great even when the picture is a thumbnail... becouse the costumer look through hundreds of picture in a thumnailsize. So, there has to be something in the picture that makes the viewer interested, and also something more into the picture when the costumer looks closer to the picture. The picture needs to grow and tease the viewer to stay longer at it.

So, to post pictures for Stock, is definently something that are very demanding. On the other side, wich pictures that ends up being accepted are not always logical. I have still not managed to catch the logic from Getty. I have now posted some 250 pictures for approval, and 28 pictures has been accepted (but only 22 is for sale so far).

Here is my Getty pictures (http://www.gettyimages.at/Search/Search.aspx?assettype=image&family=creative&artist=sola+deo+gloria)

Compare those to the pictures on my flickr account and you get a good picture on the challenge it is to get pictures approved.

Here is two of the pictures that I have solled:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4045/5155211876_5dd8aecce5_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/41388512@N05/5155211876/)
kent andersen75 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/41388512@N05/5155211876/) by andersen_kent (http://www.flickr.com/people/41388512@N05/), on Flickr

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4118/4935960058_db6079d71b_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/41388512@N05/4935960058/)
linnea kveldsol (http://www.flickr.com/photos/41388512@N05/4935960058/) by andersen_kent (http://www.flickr.com/people/41388512@N05/), on Flickr

[traveltrousers]

How are things now that you have 277 pictures on Getty?

[GadgetRick]

Keeping an eye on this thread as well...

[ChunkyDA]

alamy (http://www.alamy.com/) seems to be another good stock photo site.

[JerryA]

Tagged Thanks

[kent andersen]

Things are going fine... well, it could have been better. Selling pictures on stock market is not a Gold mine.

I was thinking about writing more in this thread but honestly I have forgotten about it.

The story so far is that since may things have gone better. Still there is not so much money made so far. A total amount of 1000 euro so far. If I was intending to earn a living out of it, it would have been a terrible business. But, the good thing in my eyes is that I can justify spending money on gear... :). For a man that is more than good enough excuse for spending hours filling in Model release, editing, naming the pictures and using lots of time searching around for more great ideas.

I have around 300 pictures up for sale on Getty right now, and have given up any effort to put up pictures on any other stock agency. I did try to get access to Istock but I got a no 4 times. So, stock agencies are starting to be realy hard to get access to these days. From my friends at Getty, I hear that Getty is giving them the most money for the effort, so I guess I should be ok. I have also been posting some pictures on photocase, but have deleted all my pictures there afther Getty sudenly started to invite alot of my pictures. I solled one picture on photocase. That gave me 1 euro... :). But I think photocase could be a good place to post if Getty starts to dry out again. I also have an alamy account, but haven't started to upload anything yet. I am staying at Getty at the moment.

Last month was a terrible month, I got 10 euro afther tax. Wich is very depresive. In September I had around 130 pictures key worded on Getty, wich means that they are completely search able in their system. And still it was my worst month so far. My best month so far gave me 230 euro afther tax.

The road to get pictures picked and prepared for sale is looooong in Getty. Between april 2010 and september 2011, I have managed to get 130 pictures in to Getty. But from september untill november this year, I have grown with 170 more pictures. So, now I am waiting for the next sale report from Getty, wich will come this friday.

So, the question is, is it worth the effort?

I am not sure. I have spent hours and hours taking pictures and editing them. And even hours just to prepare the pictures for Getty. Getting model release filled, is also realy time consuming.

For my developement as a photographer it has been a gain. Some part of it I start to hate, like taking of clothes with branding before shooting pictures of my kids. Others part of it is realy helpful, just to make the thought, will this picture sell? Is this picture tellling something? Would I be willing to buy this picture? All this has been helpful for my creativity. When I watch my own stream and compare them to others, I do see that I am about to create my own style and workflow.

[GadgetRick]

Honestly, it sounds like an awful lot of work to make a little amount of money. Seems like you have to be a stock photography machine to make any worthwhile money.

[kent andersen]

That is true... stock photo is not the place to earn money, not eaven low incomee money. And if you are gifted enough to make money, you will with no doubt be able to make more money doing other cind of photography.

But as a place to storage youre pictures and still make some pocket money, it is working.
As long as I am making pictures anyway, the time I count is what it takes to upload them and to get model releases. But off course how much money I will have pro hour is something I will be able to tell in two years. Each picture could sell lots of times, but realistic is that only 6-10 percent of my picture will be selling.

So, no, stock photo is not a gold mine. But as a way ju justify spending way to much time on a hobby, and spending money on it, it is a great thing for me. If I quit posting for Getty, the pictures will still bring some money for the next years to come.