Stock photography requirements

Hi guys,

just out of curiosity, what are the camera requirements for the photography agencies you shoot for?

I'm not interested in micro-payment stock agencies as I don't appreciate the way they do business and what they are doing to photography (plus, they pretty much accept any camera).

thanks.
zen

Professional stock companies usually require 48MB TIFFS to be uploaded.

That's one of the reasons I chose microstock. If you're not interested in Microstock, that's your good right. But for me and a lot of other people, it works.

P.

peterdoomen wrote in post #2255504
Professional stock companies usually require 48MB TIFFS to be uploaded.

8 Megapixels shooting in raw will produce good 24MB TIFFs. If they want 48MB without interpolation, only the 1Ds Mark II and digital medium format would be acceptable. So those stock companies won't accept Nikon digital photographers?

I'm pretty sure the 5d can get away with stock pictures as well

Interpolation of images is certainly allowed/necessary with the bigger stock agencies. For example, Alamy's criteria are here (see section 5):

http://www.alamy.com …hy-technical-criteria.asp

---- Gavin

how much do stock companies pay?

Professional stock: high price per download - low download volumes (unless you are a top photographer)
Microstock: low price per download - high download volumes

So both can earn you a bit of money. For example, I earn anywhere between 8 and 40 dollars per day with my portfolio (still under 1000 images but growing).

P.

^ Could I please view your portfolio?

How do these agencies work? do they kinda lease your photos from you or buy them off you?

Sorry I am a newbie and a little confused.

My stock program works as follows:
- I upload photos with keywords
- The photos get reviewed by a pro
- Accepted photos come in my portfolio
- Buyers download the photo and I get an amount of money per download
- Since this stock program offers a flat fee to the buyers, they download a lot. So even if it's only small money per download, I earn a decent amount per day (between 8 and 40 $)
- At the end of the month, I get a message from PayPal that money has been added.
- I log into PayPal and withdraw the money to my account (which is costless if the amount is larger than 100$, that means every single month)
- I compare the money in my bank account with the price of those nice L's in Canons catalogue and decide to buy the new 50L.

OK, the last step is optional (though it's the real nice one). But that's roughly how it works.

Hope this helps.

PeteR.

Don't forget though that with microstock you only keep accruing cash while you're submitting new material. When a pic hits the website - every man and his dog downloads it, so you get paid, but then you'll never get paid for it again because every agency in the world will have it.

With the likes of Alamy you'll get paid a decent price for a download, then hopefully of course it will be downloaded by another client one day - then again, and again - repeat business.

Microstock = slave to shooting constantly. Old firm agencies = retirement fund.

Microstock is diluting the pool.

Alamy seems like a good deal. It's not Microstock and they accept images interpolated from a 30D. What do you think about it?

simatbirch wrote in post #2287512
Don't forget though that with microstock you only keep accruing cash while you're submitting new material. When a pic hits the website - every man and his dog downloads it, so you get paid, but then you'll never get paid for it again because every agency in the world will have it.

That's not true. Of course newer images are a bit more popular, but my top sellers are not new photos. Even if I don't upload photos for weeks, I get high download %.

P.

Who buys these images & for what use?
What is the image content/subject (More popular)?

Stock photos are bought mostly by graphics designers and editors who use them for all kinds of publications.

My most popular photos have to do with food. I've a few popular animal pictures too, but it really depends. Some do landscapes, houses (inside as well as outside), cars, people... Read my brochure for a few ideas.

P.