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07/18/2010 09:51:53 AM · #1
Hey everyone,

Really shy about posting here, spent the past week reading through a majority of your posts and there is some interesting stuff here, seen some impressive work! Ive recently been made redundant from my job at a production company and like everyone else i am really suffering to find a job, which after a while of thinking/researching/planning/pursuading i have decided to go freelance. My old job was an editor but another part of my job was to collect photos for the company on specfic shoots we went on for publications, dvd menus, cd artwork etc. I have always thought about uploading my work to sites but never really had the time, now im unemployed i can commit to this 7 days a week. Seeing your statistics people are posting , i feel i could make this work and earn some money from it - obviously the results wont be instant but eventually i might possibally be able to earn some money from it.

I am really lucky to of kept my photography gear when i left the company (i paid for most of it anyway haha) , my main body is Nikon D3 and i use my old Nikon D100 as an offbody, which from what i read is more than capable of providing the correct quality shots for stock.

I have a few questions i would like to ask, if you dont mind asking, would be a huge help!

First, If i commit to this and working 5-7 days a week doing it, uploading as much as i can, what sort of income might i expect. Would i be able to provide myself with an income to support the bills at the end of the month?

Second, work i upload to stock sites, if i choose to sell them personally as prints. E.g in galleries, is this allowed? (Probally find this answer in the stock sites themselves, but thought i would ask :) )

I hope i havent rambled and wrote a load of rubbish (usually tend too haha)

Thanks for reading,
- Aden
07/18/2010 10:28:05 AM · #2
Hi Aden and welcome to the madhouse!

Re stock...there clearly is $$ to be made and many agree that sheer volume of quality images is critical, along with keyording. First, what are you shooting with? Alamy, a macrostock site, has a list of suitable cameras that you should read before even thinking of submitting there. I haven't yet tried to get on with Corbis or Getty, but wouldn't be surprised if they had a similar list.

Each site tends to different so best to check them out and read carefully their list of criteria. Hope this helps!
07/18/2010 10:33:48 AM · #3
I don't have much experience selling stock photos myself, but from what I gather, it takes a long time to get to the point where you are making a respectable amount of money on a regular basis. If you continually submit for a year or two, you might be able to get there. If you are thinking of using stock photography as a way to support yourself, I don't think it is a good idea, especially since you are starting from scratch. I think you will be disappointed with the earnings. If you had been submitting for a significant amount of time, and wanted to jump in at that point, I would have given a different answer.

Hope that helps.
07/18/2010 11:30:46 AM · #4
Hey guys

Thanks for the reply!

@Snaffles - Im shooting with Nikon D3 currently i only have my 70-200 f2.8 HSM APO, and 15mm F2.8 Fisheye. This week im hoping to pick myself up a 50mm f1.4 (Been after it for a long time) i did work on a few other lenses before but the company i worked for owned them so they took them away. Oh also i have EX150 studio kit which the company kindly gave me. I have been looking at Alamy but from what i read its quite hard to get accepted?

@Jeger - Aye i did wonder that, it wont be my sole source of income but if it could be then it would be a huge bonus. Local to me there is a fair few galleries and i have spoke to the owners and they said i could hire the place out for the weekend, maybe longer.

I have also been working for 5 years in the media industry so i have a few contacts.

07/18/2010 11:58:03 AM · #5
Yes, Alamy can be tough to get in to; they are absolute sticklers for technical perfection. The best thing to do is go to their site www.alamy.com and on the home page is a link for photographers. Click there and just start reading. Pay very, very careful attention to their list of 24 reasons to reject a photo. And if just one image out of a lineup of say 10 has a flaw in it, then QC will reject the whole lineup, even if the other 9 were perfectly fine. I had this happen recently, so I deleted the offending image (which I thought was a little dicey, frankly, but took the risk) and re-submitted the rest. They passed QC.

Your camera and glass should be more than fine, though. My D90 and humble lineup of lenses (18-200mm, 50mm f1.8 and a Sigma 10-20mm) are more than capable of capturing a good enough image. I have a link to the images I have up on Alamy on my page. Click on my username, and then look for the link to Alamy at the top of my page.

BTW I do echo jeger in terms of $$. Though some people definitely seem able to make their living shooting stock, for most of us it is definitely a sideline. But some big sales have been made.
07/18/2010 12:11:30 PM · #6
I'm curious about his second question. What types of rights do you and the website retain?
07/18/2010 12:16:04 PM · #7
Originally posted by SEG:

I'm curious about his second question. What types of rights do you and the website retain?


It seems to vary for each site which is why I didn't even try to address that issue! Really is best to just thoroughly read up on all that sort of thing with each individual site.
07/18/2010 12:18:37 PM · #8
Originally posted by snaffles:

Originally posted by SEG:

I'm curious about his second question. What types of rights do you and the website retain?


It seems to vary for each site which is why I didn't even try to address that issue! Really is best to just thoroughly read up on all that sort of thing with each individual site.


How is Alamay on this topic?
07/18/2010 12:20:21 PM · #9
Again, best to just read up on it rather than me trying to wade through it! Alamy's site is easy to navigate and they explain everything very thoroughly.
07/18/2010 05:47:57 PM · #10
Thanks for the advice and help matey.

Ill read through all the sites more closely. Checked out Alamy's help topics, pretty usefull stuff in there.
07/18/2010 07:43:52 PM · #11
Originally posted by adenphoto:

Thanks for the advice and help matey.

Ill read through all the sites more closely. Checked out Alamy's help topics, pretty usefull stuff in there.


You're more than welcome and yes, Alamy may be sticklers for perfection in the technical sense - but they also play very fair and are very thorough in describing what they want and expect. Good luck on your stock photography quest, keep us up to date!
07/19/2010 02:35:14 PM · #12
Aden, I wish you good luck! It will be difficult generate enough income for making it your main income. Depending on the quality, topic and volume of your images, it probably will take quite a few month or a year (or longer) before you can have this as a single income.

You are the copyright owner of your images. As long as you don't sell the copyright or upload an image excursive, I don't think that any of the microstock site prohibit you from selling the same image as a print. To know for sure you have to read trough the terms of use and contributor agreements.
07/20/2010 08:55:21 AM · #13
Thanks for the good luck :)

I shall keep you all updated, you will find me as a new poster around here :)

Few things to do this week, few people to meet but this weekend ill be starting shooting. Got an event to go to over the weekend with some pretty unique shots so cant wait for that.
07/20/2010 10:04:41 PM · #14
It's important to realize what is hypothetically possible vs what the average person experiences as well. While I haven't jumped into the pond myself yet, I have been reading about it on and off for the past year. Most people seem to be very guarded about actual earnings, so it's been difficult to gauge. Most importantly though, is that you need to develop a large portfolio of images online before you can expect much to happen. This is true of any agency. So, if you already have a ton of shots that will possibly sell, then you're well off. If you're just now starting to shoot, it might be more difficult before you start getting sales to pile up. The biggest thing I've been wondering about, and looking into, as well, is what types of subject matter are selling and how to direct my shooting towards that, so I pay attention to magazines with lots of ads and see what they're trying to sell, and I'll occasionally check out what photos are selling well on the various stock agencies.
And lastly, for what it's worth...This guy makes a hell of a living off stock.
07/21/2010 12:15:48 AM · #15
Originally posted by spiritualspatula:

The biggest thing I've been wondering about, and looking into, as well, is what types of subject matter are selling and how to direct my shooting towards that, so I pay attention to magazines with lots of ads and see what they're trying to sell, and I'll occasionally check out what photos are selling well on the various stock agencies.

Most of the sites have some kind of search tool to see what's being downloaded and searched-for ... here is a screenshot showing display options for search and download stats at Shutterstock.



FWIW, I average $5-12/month with my somewhat off-beat and relatively puny 200-image gallery at Shutterstock ...
07/21/2010 12:57:11 AM · #16
Originally posted by GeneralE:

Originally posted by spiritualspatula:

The biggest thing I've been wondering about, and looking into, as well, is what types of subject matter are selling and how to direct my shooting towards that, so I pay attention to magazines with lots of ads and see what they're trying to sell, and I'll occasionally check out what photos are selling well on the various stock agencies.

Most of the sites have some kind of search tool to see what's being downloaded and searched-for ... here is a screenshot showing display options for search and download stats at Shutterstock.



FWIW, I average $5-12/month with my somewhat off-beat and relatively puny 200-image gallery at Shutterstock ...


Yeah, that's exactly what I was talking about that I do.
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