Alamy, Flickr/Getty ?

SAINTRON

All,

I've got a bunch of stuff I'd like to upload to the these sites per chance to earn a few bob. Forgive me if I've missed a similar thread but can anyone offer me some advice on this?

Many thanks in advance....;)

pete4130

It depends on so much. How good you are, what your shooting, the time of year (Haloween, Xmas, Easter for example) and how appealable your images might be (to companies, what their aiming for, what their market is). It seems like an easy way to make a quick buck.

The most important thing you have to think of is how many THOUSANDS of people may already be making a living from this successfully, knowing and seeing the market niches and supplying those demands well before you even take a photo and think its going to be a walk in the park. I'm not trying to discourage at all. If you think you have the means to make aliving from stock photography and it works for you its great. I've been shooting photos for about 12 years and know my personal work and interests lie so far away from stock photography I'd struggle to make a living, barely make a cent and I know what I'm doing, how to shoot something, how to make it appealing.

I don't know your background in photography. I'd take a guess at 15 or so posts you might be relatively new to photography and its probably naive to think you could earn a decent living from stock photography.

Like I said, I don't want to discourage you from trying but you have to think how many other people are trying the same thing and ask yourself if you have what it takes to stand out above the rest to get your images sold? I personally LOVE my own work, without sounding self praising but I know it is so far removed from commercial/stock I'd be kidding myself thinking I"d make money from it.

SAINTRON

Many thanks for your honest insight Pete.

I've been shooting digital for 8 years or so to satisfy myself mostly, and have often wondered about stock photography but my day job got in the way. The day job is gone now unfortunately and whilst I know I'd be deluded in thinking I could make a living from this, I was thinking my 'stock' would be better off in someone elses where it might 'sell'.

I suppose I'm just curious as to the dynamics of it all and how Getty/Alamy fit into this.

Super Sydney shots by the way.

DaireQuinlan

flickr-wise at the very least, you can upload and enable a setting that allows Getty too request to license your images. They also have a group into which IIRC you can add images and explicitly request to be added to the Getty pool of licensable images. From the sounds of things it's a bit of a mugs game though. If I was browsing flickr looking for stock I'd probably hoover up all the CC/commercial use allowed/no attribution images long before it'd occur to me to pay for anything ...

pete4130

Thanks Saintron.

If you've got the time and can see what is sellable then there is money to be made. It sounds lie you've got the experience and knowledge too. Maybe I'm naive and think its a handful (so to speak) that make money form stock photography. I remember reading a few years ago on an Irish forum (I think?) about a guy posting some quite generic Xmas holiday photos of some holly & berry around Xmas and making a few hundred € and thinking it must be easy.

If I wasn't so lazy I'd try have something for everything coming up and hope to make a few bucks each year. There is deffo no harm having a load of shots uploaded for the generic times of year and then try fit gaps.

As for how the companies work I'm totally clueless!?

Now you've got me thinking about images I could submit for stock photography...I just have to get commercially attractive???!?!?!

Sabre Man

Does anyone have any experience with istockphoto.com?

I took a look at similar photos to one I was considering uploading, and while the market is crowded, there still seems to be opportunities if you're good. What I like about istockphoto.com is that you can look for pictures and see how many times they've been downloaded (ie. bought), which is handy for figuring out what sells and what doesn't.

SAINTRON

Sabre Man wrote: »

What I like about istockphoto.com is that you can look for pictures and see how many times they've been downloaded (ie. bought), which is handy for figuring out what sells and what doesn't.

Yeah, seems a good site. Generic in terms of appearance but the 'download count' and 'flame' are informative and give a good insight to whats 'moving'. Thx

CabanSail

I recall attending a talk, a few years ago, by a guy who made his living from Stock Photography. It may seem like an easy earner but it wasn't. He said that to get a small income, not one you could live on but some pin money, you would need a portfolio of about 10,000 saleable images in a library. His stock was a lot more than that and IIRC it stood about 30,000 images, but after many years of doing it he had refined it to things that sell and he also had clients which knew him and he would get direct commissions.
The other issue was quality. A lot of the commercial work which earned the best money was still shot on medium format film as it could be scanned at a higher resolution than full frame sensors will provide. He used both film and digital. It also seems that time management was crucial as you need time to shoot, time to process, time to manage the business, time to manage the library. The income had to cover his travel too. For all that his hourly income was quite low, as the hours were quite long.

Sabre Man

There was an interesting article on this in Digital Camera 109 (March 2011), including an interview with a guy who did this for a living.

mawk

I tried this recently. Its hard. Turns out that almost nothing I like to shoot has any commercial value.
So I tried going about it methodically. I made a white isolation background and shot all sorts of stuff. Then I shot textures, landscapes, macro..

90% of images rejected. Some for good reason some for not, objectively.

I wouldn't start with istockphoto, they make you pass tests just sign up and failing means having to wait ages to try again. Try dreamstime to start off.

My top tips:
keyword in ps not on the sites
Learn to use an ftp to save a lot of uploading time and bandwidth

ttcomet

Have a look at Yuri Arcurs site and blog, he is (according to him) the worlds biggest stock photographer. Ever since I looked through his portfolio I have been noticing his images in lots of adverts and on websites.

Also try the microstock group blog and forums for some good information. Try read their articles on key wording pictures, it is reported to make a large difference to your sales.

A recent (2010) graph from them of pics v's income, just to give you an idea on what to expect.
"On Average, microstock artists are earning $10.28/image/year or a monthly RPI of $0.87"