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DPChallenge Forums >> Tips, Tricks, and Q&A >> Is shutter Stock a waste of time?
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 01/08/2005 02:41:49 PM · #1
I know this has been brought up before, but I have 15 photos on shutterstock and I have made one dollar in two months. I can sell the same photo's for $25 an 8x10. I feel it is not worth my time to upload, and further more give away photos I take. I have $2000 invested in my camera and lenses, and lots of time.

Does anyone else feel this way?

Travis


01/08/2005 02:42:57 PM · #2
Lots of people feel that way. Look at any of the threads on stock photography.
 01/08/2005 02:46:36 PM · #3
Originally posted by Travis99:
I know this has been brought up before, but I have 15 photos on shutterstock and I have made one dollar in two months. I can sell the same photo's for $25 an 8x10. I feel it is not worth my time to upload, and further more give away photos I take. I have $2000 invested in my camera and lenses, and lots of time.

Does anyone else feel this way?

Travis


In a year I have made back what I paid for my camera and have made enough to invest in more lenses and lighting, without much effort. I've never shot a stock photo.
 01/08/2005 02:50:50 PM · #4
I know this has been brought up before, but I have 15 photos on shutterstock and I have made one dollar in two months. I can sell the same photo's for $25 an 8x10. I feel it is not worth my time to upload, and further more give away photos I take. I have $2000 invested in my camera and lenses, and lots of time.

You can do both. If someone wants one of your prints i doubt if they will join shutterstock for 129 dollars to download 1 of your pics.
 01/08/2005 02:51:22 PM · #5
For a interesting view on Stock Photography you may want to check out Stock Artists Alliance.org
 01/08/2005 02:54:02 PM · #6
I don't know much about stock sites. But I have images shutterstock and I have been making money everyday from 30 images there. If they are not on a stock site I would probably be deleting them in the future. That's the reason why I don't see it as a waste of time. There are some images that I would not upload to stock sites and I hope to sell these images for more than 20c a pop.
I didn't invest in a camera because I wanted to make money. Making money didn't even occur to me, to be honest. I bought the camera & extras because I wanted to enjoy photography.
 01/08/2005 02:57:31 PM · #7
For the people that can afford a dSLR 20cents is nothing, but those that still uses point and shooters 20 cents might be a lot. I agree that those with higher megapixel cameras should pursue higher payments, but I still have a 3 megapixel and most of the higher payments places won't accept images from my camera :(

I think of it almost like collecting aluminium cans. Most cities will exchange them for 3-5 cents each but most of us don't recycle them rather dump them in the garbage. I have thousands of images I've taken in the last couple years and why not make something off of them rather then leave them on a cd-r or harddrive.
 01/08/2005 03:19:10 PM · #8
Originally posted by faidoi:
For the people that can afford a dSLR 20cents is nothing, but those that still uses point and shooters 20 cents might be a lot. I agree that those with higher megapixel cameras should pursue higher payments, but I still have a 3 megapixel and most of the higher payments places won't accept images from my camera :(

I think of it almost like collecting aluminium cans. Most cities will exchange them for 3-5 cents each but most of us don't recycle them rather dump them in the garbage. I have thousands of images I've taken in the last couple years and why not make something off of them rather then leave them on a cd-r or harddrive.


20cents is alot to me because I have a Dslr
 01/08/2005 03:39:57 PM · #9
I do find shutterstock a bit exploitive because of the ultra-low payouts. But I'm also a member there, so I guess I'm contradicting myself =)
The way I see it is, if there's images sitting there doing nothing on my hard drive, I might as well try to turn it into cash. It's not costing me anything in terms of time or money.
And like Aznym (xion), I bought my camera to enjoy photography strictly as a hobby. So any kind of money that I earn in photography is just icing on the cake.
 01/08/2005 05:28:33 PM · #10
I'm going to answer in a different manner. You have your nice camera, and more than likely you bought it for personal enjoyment. But it is also a tool that you can use to earn money with. Instead of just uploading the pictures you can't use yourself and try to get someone to buy them, why not take a certain percentage of time and just use it to shoot stock shots. Say 10%. Or one day out of the week would be even better. If you start concentrating on what a good stock shot is, why designers would want to buy it and things like that, you will start to get more downloads and soon you will have enough money to buy more equipment with. You will also be building up your stock portfolio so you will be able to move on to the sites that pay more. Everyone wins. You get an education and introduction to the wonderful world of stock, designers get good pictures at a resonable price, Jon gets a little profit.
My answer is, you get what you put into it. Good luck everyone.
 01/08/2005 06:16:00 PM · #11
care to share how you achieved this?

Originally posted by cbeller:
In a year I have made back what I paid for my camera and have made enough to invest in more lenses and lighting, without much effort. I've never shot a stock photo.

 01/08/2005 06:41:17 PM · #12
The shots I feel I can sell as prints I put on DPC Prints. For the others I decide whether the quality and content is right for stock and then upload a chosen few to a stock site.

For the few I have uploaded to stock sites I have had a few downloads.
01/08/2005 06:42:26 PM · #13
Originally posted by soup:
care to share how you achieved this?

Originally posted by cbeller:
In a year I have made back what I paid for my camera and have made enough to invest in more lenses and lighting, without much effort. I've never shot a stock photo.


I would also be very interested...

So far on shutterstock I've made about 12 dollars in a month with 60 pictures uploaded... This isnt very good but its not bad either imo. Most of the shots I submit would just be sitting on my laptop otherwise waiting to be deleted. My goal is to get up to 500 images accepted and imo that would be giving me at least a dollar a day which isnt bad at all.
 01/08/2005 06:50:10 PM · #14
Originally posted by pcody:
I'm going to answer in a different manner. You have your nice camera, and more than likely you bought it for personal enjoyment. But it is also a tool that you can use to earn money with. Instead of just uploading the pictures you can't use yourself and try to get someone to buy them, why not take a certain percentage of time and just use it to shoot stock shots. Say 10%. Or one day out of the week would be even better. If you start concentrating on what a good stock shot is, why designers would want to buy it and things like that, you will start to get more downloads and soon you will have enough money to buy more equipment with. You will also be building up your stock portfolio so you will be able to move on to the sites that pay more. Everyone wins. You get an education and introduction to the wonderful world of stock, designers get good pictures at a resonable price, Jon gets a little profit.
My answer is, you get what you put into it. Good luck everyone.

dead-on, pat! and, in case anyone is really wondering about what types of images sell..., i'd suggest you buy a good book about stock photography. one of the best that i've seen is lee frost's photos that sell

there are a lot of professional photographers who shoot stock as a means to fund their retirements; as long as the content is current (and some images are ageless), they sell year after year after year. the key is knowing what to shoot, being able to shoot it, and then committing to doing it.

however, just because you've shot a ton of stuff doesn't mean that it is going to sell...you may get lucky with some shots here and there, but, by and large, if you are going to make money in stock photography, you have to be shooting with a purpose...
 01/08/2005 08:07:32 PM · #15
I too have made 30+ dollars in 2 months, but I would not upload any more shots to them, it is an insult to me I think. .20cents what was I thinking! My pride is worth more. Plus how do I sell my shots now to 'real buyers' at 'real prices'
I am done uploading there.
I am at
pinupinoo
even though is new I feel more valued, and I havent made a dime yet : )
 01/08/2005 10:14:11 PM · #16
Originally posted by nico_blue:
Originally posted by soup:
care to share how you achieved this?

Originally posted by cbeller:
In a year I have made back what I paid for my camera and have made enough to invest in more lenses and lighting, without much effort. I've never shot a stock photo.


I would also be very interested...

So far on shutterstock I've made about 12 dollars in a month with 60 pictures uploaded... This isnt very good but its not bad either imo. Most of the shots I submit would just be sitting on my laptop otherwise waiting to be deleted. My goal is to get up to 500 images accepted and imo that would be giving me at least a dollar a day which isnt bad at all.


Shot a wedding over the summer (plus to that I just traded time for with another photog), did a few portraits, did a senior shoot and now have 3 weddings booked so far for this year with the 50% deposits in. That's paid off my original purchase, plus a little. The only advertising I've done so far, is listing a link to my website on two wedding sites and word of mouth. I'm just now getting ready to start more advertising.
 01/08/2005 11:35:12 PM · #17
Stock photography is brutal... There is so much competition in this field, the only ones that will make any "real" money from it are the big sites that offer 10's of thousand of images, uploaded by 100's or 1000's of photographers.

The photographers themselves and smaller sites won't be able to make a living from it, in my experience anyway. But luckily, for most of us, the money isn't why we shoot pictures. :)
 01/08/2005 11:51:42 PM · #18
I uploaded a photo of my daughter riding a horse two days ago. It was in my cleanout file (no recognizable face) file. Just for fun I PSed it a bit and downloaded it. It now is in top 10 on weekly download list for Shtterstock. Funny who will buy what.

Message edited by author 2005-01-08 23:52:19.
 01/09/2005 12:09:18 AM · #19
Originally posted by vtruan:
I uploaded a photo of my daughter riding a horse two days ago. It was in my cleanout file (no recognizable face) file. Just for fun I PSed it a bit and downloaded it. It now is in top 10 on weekly download list for Shtterstock. Funny who will buy what.


Thats funny because I was just looking at that image lol

I have been on shutterstock for a week and only have 6 images up and have made $3.80 with one of my images being one of the highest downloads this week. It costs nothing to do it, and takes two seconds of your day. If you are not making money than maybe you should try something else. Its what ever is best for you and your style of photography.
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