Selling Stock Photography

Stock photography is simply photography that can be used in a variety of ways. It's usually shot on "spec", meaning the photographer is not on an assignment when they take the stock pictures. Instead, the photographer takes pictures of subjects and concepts they choose.

Stock photography is commonly used by graphic designers to create advertisements, websites, brochures and other creative for their company's promotions. There are many other uses as well though. Sometimes stock photography is used in magazine or newspaper articles, sometimes it's used by tourist centers in towns or cities, and sometimes it's used in software applications. These are just a few examples of ways stock photos might be used however, and is not all encompassing.

There are different types of stock photography, and it's important for both buyers and photographers to know the differences.

1. Royalty Free Stock Photography - Royalty free means that a stock photo can be paid for once, but used multiple times. There are usually limitations however, depending on where you've purchased a royalty free photograph. Some stock providers will allow you to create products for resell using their royalty free photographs, while most will not. Others might allow you to do so at lower volumes - less than 100,000 for example - and some will allow you to pay higher prices for larger volume projects.

It's very important for buyers to know that "Royalty Free" means they'll pay no royalties on usage of the stock photos. This phrase does not mean the photos are now fully owned and copyrighted by them, and it does not mean the photos can be distributed freely by them.

Stock photos are always owned in full - and fully copyrighted - by the photographer. When buyers obtain stock photos, they are only getting a license to use those photos. They're not getting full ownership rights... even if they've purchased "Royalty Free" pictures.

2. Micro Stock Photography - This is a new part of the stock photography industry, and generally it falls into the Royalty Free Stock Photography area. The main difference however, is that through Micro Stock Photography sites, clients can license images for as little as one or two dollars. Regular royalty free stock photos tend to be licensed for $20, $30, even $100 or more.

3. Rights Managed (RM) Stock Photography - This type of stock photography is the most expensive, but it's also usually the most creative and unique. Rights Managed stock photography also tends to be of much higher quality, and it's more exclusive than Royalty Free photos.

With Royalty Free Stock Photography, thousands of clients could be using the same picture in their advertising or other promotional collateral. Rights Managed Stock Photography is more controlled - allowing a limited number of people to use a particular photograph at any given time. Clients pay much higher fees for Rights Managed photography, and they're subjected to many more restrictions as well. They pay royalties, or ongoing fees, based on how they'll use the stock photos they've selected.

Now that we've covered the basics of Stock Photography, we'll delve deeper into a variety of stock photography issues. Some of the sections will be written towards photographers who might like to get into creating photos for stock usage, and some will be written towards clients who might like to start using stock photos.

Many new photographers like the idea of making money from their pictures, and micro stock photography agencies tend to be the ones they look at closest, because as dicussed in previous articles, they're easier to get started with.

A common beginner question though, is: "Can I really make a living taking pictures?". And the short answer is: Yes.

There's more to it than that though. Like any career or business, a lot of time, effort and study must be invested in order to get maximum returns. And the stock photography market is no different.

Having talent and skill to begin with helps of course, but almost anyone can learn the important aspects of creating great pictures, and thus almost anyone can make money in the royalty free micro stock photography industry. You must be willing to put in a lot of time and work though.

First: You must of course learn some basics of photography. These basics include composition, subject matter, focusing techniques, white balance and so on.

Second: You must be willing to take pictures often. Those photographers who make the most money tend to have the largest portfolios. It's not all about quantity of course - quality is needed too - but generally the more photos you have in your stock photography portfolio, the more money you're likely to make.

And more photos means taking tons of pictures, consistently. Not every picture you take will be of high enough quality to be accepted into your stock photography portfolio. So just going out and taking 100 pictures in one day won't do the trick. In fact, if you just go out and take 100 pictures, then upload all of those to a micro stock photography agency, you may risk having your account suspended or cancelled all together.

Only the best, most experienced photographers can take 100 pictures and have most of them be of high enough quality to submit. Even then though, I doubt there are any who have 100% success rates. Beginner photographers will likely find that only 5%-10% of the pictures they take are good enough for the stock photography portfolio. Some may be able to submit as much as 50% of the shots they take. How many useable pictures you get from one day's shooting will depend on a variety of things.

So, start shooting and keep shooting. The more pictures you're able to get accepted into your stock portfolio, the faster you'll be able to make some money.

How much will you actually make? This varies quite widely too. Some photographers are able to make $100 or more each month with just a handful of excellent stock quality photos. Others however, are barely able to make $100 a month with several hundred photos in their stock photography portfolio.

One thing is for certain though: Those photographers who make honest and consistent efforts to improve their photography, and increase their stock photography portfolio, continue to grow their income month after month. Some photographers who have worked consistently for a couple of years report $4000-$6000 per month from their stock photography portfolios.

So it may seem slow in the beginning, but with time and effort good photographers can make excellent full time incomes from their photography.

Many new stock photographers often wonder if they should join just one online stock photography website, or many. Some sites actually offer an incentive to be exclusive with them. In other words, they'll offer you more money per download, more promotion of your pictures, and other benefits if you agree to sell your pictures to their site only. The problem with this, is that you lock yourself into working with just one company. And sometimes, you're not even allowed to sell your pictures on your own website if you have an exclusive agreement with a stock photography agency.

It can also be a problem when you're new, because you don't have enough high-quality pictures to make a steady livable income from just one site. My recommendation is to sell your photos through as many stock photography agencies as you can. This maximizes the exposure your pictures get, and increases the chances of the pictures selling more regularly. So you don't normally have to worry about each site having the same customers.

In fact, many stock photography sites have different customer bases. One for instance, seems to have primarily customers from the United States. Another sells mostly to European countries. While yet a third seems to sell mostly to web-based clients, and others may sell primarily to print-based clients. So you can maximize your earnings and profits from your stock photo portfolio simply by adding your pictures to as many stock photo sites as you can. Here is a list of my personal favorites:

Shutter stock - For some photographers, this site is the best earner for them. It's a subscription only offer, and photographers get paid a set amount each time one of their photos is downloaded. As you earn more money with SS, your payment per download increases. Shutter Stock pays photographer earnings once each month, if they're at or above the minimum payment amount. Payments are available via PayPal, Moneybookers, and Paper checks.

Dreamstime - This is an excellent photography site which is growing very fast. It offers customers the ability to pay per download, or buy a subscription. Photographers are paid varying amounts based on the type of download and how large the photo resolution is. Dreamstime allows you to request your earnings anytime they're at $100 or more. Payments are available via PayPal, and paper checks.

Fotolia - This site has primarily been a per download model only, and photographers were paid a percentage of the price customers paid for the download. Recently Fotolia has also added a subscription offer for high volume photo buyers. This site has a strong European buyer base. Fotolia allows photographers to request their earnings once they've reached $50 or more, and they too offer a variety of online and standard payment methods.

Big stock - Big stock seems to attract more web-based stock photo buyers, and they pay photographers a percentage of each sale made for their photos. Earnings vary based on the size of the photo that's downloaded, and payment can be requested anytime your earnings are at least $30 or higher.

IStock - IStock is one of the largest and most popular stock photo agencies online. They sell stock photos on a per download basis, and recently added a subscription option as well. They are the most difficult to submit photos to unfortunately, because they limit the number of submissions you can add each week, and they do not allow you to upload all of your submissions at once. So the submission process is a bit tedious, time consuming, and frustrating. IStock allows you to request payment once your balance is at least $100.

There are several other good stock photo agencies online, but these tend to be much slower earners for most photographers. 123RF, Lucky Oliver, and StockXPert are three of the most popular of those smaller agencies.

Each of these agencies have slight differences in the terms of service they offer customers, and the types of rights they'll make available for sale. Some allow you to opt into or out of certain types of rights and payment systems too. For example, some stock photographers do not like selling their photos through a subscription based model, because they earn less per download. And some of the agencies allow photographers to opt out of selling via that method. Other photographers feel that any sale is a good thing, and they've often learned that the subscription sales model works well because customers tend to download frequently, so they feel the volume of sales make up for the lower payouts.

What you choose to do with your own stock photography business is completely up to you of course. So be sure to read the terms and agreements at each agency, then make your own decision as to which ones you'd like to sell your own photos through.