Micropayment / Microstock Photography: Selling stock in 2008

Hi guys, I just was wondering if anyone else on PictureSocial sold their work on microstock sites, such as iStockphoto.com? I have been doing it on the side for the last 2 years to supplement my income. I am a full time graphic designer by trade, so that takes up 40 hours a week...the rest of the week I try and squeeze in a few hours for my stock photo portfolios.

Man, all I can say is that I wish I knew about this whole stock game sooner. I just got accepted to alamy.com as well, and I hear that the sales yield much higher payments, although they sell a little slower than with sites like iStock.

If anyone is interested in seeing some more examples of the types of images that I sell, or how you can get started yourself, I set up a little informative website: http://www.freewebs.com/micropaymentphotography

Tags: business, micropayment, microstock, photography, photos, selling, stock

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Permalink Reply by arenacreative.com on March 10, 2008 at 2:03pm

BIG, as in resolution wise? I know they take as low as 4 or 5 megapixels. This is pretty much the standard on the microstock sites right now. If you need help understanding any rejection reasons, let me know what they are - I might be able to help you out. I've had hundred rejected ;) I'm a seasoned pro. I am also a photo reviewer on one of the stock sites.

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Permalink Reply by arenacreative.com on March 10, 2008 at 4:24pm

I haven't submitted to Photoshelter, but I know many of my friends have. I believe that what you submit to Photoshelter, you cannot submit to other micro sites. That's why I stick to the ones that allow the RF license. If you're interested in sites where you can set your own price for your photos, featurepics is also a great agency. I usually hit a few payouts a year there, but since I set my images to $10 and under, it takes a bit longer to hit them.

Alamy is the only site I submit to that I actually have to upconvert my images to 48M pixel resolution. It's not actually a 48mb image, more like a 3-5mb jpeg once it's saved.

If you're looking to get started at some agencies that will yield you some really good sales, yet aren't that difficult to get into, I would personally recommend bigstockphoto, fotolia, and dreamstime. Shutterstock and iStock are a lot harder to get into, but I recommend starting out with these three smaller agencies first, just to get your feet wet.

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Permalink Reply by arenacreative.com on March 10, 2008 at 7:18pm

Maybe I am not remembering correctly why I didn't sign up for photoshelter - maybe there was something about having to pay for a plan in order to sell your work there...I don't pay anywhere to sell my stuff. If I can't sell it for free, they're not getting it.

I can understand your frustration with your first submissions to Dreamstime. You have to realize that this stock stuff...it's all just a game. Sometimes you just get a reviewer on a bad day. Show me an example of what you submitted, and what was rejected - and I'll give you my professional opinion/critique. I am a reviewer on one of the sites, but I don't have the time to do it much. I have reviewed thousands of photos, though - stock photos from fellow photographers and illustrators. Maybe I can help?

I love your bug shots, Andy! It looks like you might do a lot of high-ISO shots. Were the Dreamstime rejections for noise? If so, you might be able to clean it up in post-processing. One thing about stock which is kind of stupid...the images have to look flawless even at 100% zoom. Even though most noise won't show up in a print, you can't have any at 100%. Dreamstime is pretty strict about this. Try starting with Fotolia and Bigstock first, and then move on to Dreamstime.

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Permalink Reply by arenacreative.com on March 10, 2008 at 4:33pm

Are you kidding Yurick? Your photos look highly stock-related! Just make sure you find similar images, and get ideas from the types of keywords they used. That helped me a lot, in learning how to describe them. Good keywording is highly related to getting sales in this stock game.

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Permalink Reply by Todd Whetstine on March 10, 2008 at 6:30pm

Hey GM thanks for the tips, I've been interested in trying it for a while now. I take mostly landscape and wildlife photos, do those type photos make any money?

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Permalink Reply by arenacreative.com on March 10, 2008 at 7:06pm

Definitely, I mean landscapes are so well covered - but if you're specific enough about what location you've shot in the keywords, you will sometimes get more sales. I have beach/shoreline shots that sell occasionally. Wildlife shots will sell a bit better, I think. Any shots that are outstandingly composed will generally sell.

Photos that are more like prints...they don't seem to sell as well on micro sites. The simpler the subject, the better. When you're shooting - you have to think Nature, Medical, Business, People ( I know people shots sell the best, as long as you have Model Releases you can sell these. I haven't had a chance to sell many people shots just yet ).

Graphics and illustrations also sell like hotcakes, if you have photoshop or illustrator experience you will have a huge advantage. Most of my best sellers aren't even real photos - they're stuff I've managed to whip up in graphics programs.

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Permalink Reply by Diane Phillips on March 12, 2008 at 12:03pm

GM, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. I will come back to read again. Right now I am very busy with finals and midterms ( working on two degrees at once), so I haven't had time to even upload photos to picturesocial. This coming week is Spring break, and it is on my high priority list. I would love your constructive criticism then, as well as my other "friends's" input.

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Permalink Reply by arenacreative.com on March 12, 2008 at 12:05pm

Sure thing, let me know if you have any questions.

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Permalink Reply by arenacreative.com on March 14, 2008 at 6:03am

Hey Todd! (What kind of name is that, anyway...HA my name too)

Yeah, those will sell. Prints don't seem to sell as well, but they do sometimes sell. Landscapes and wildlife are pretty well covered subjects. Whatever you upload, make sure its the best of your best. Any great photo will sell. Even not so great ones, amazingly - macros seem to do very well. I had a closeup of some ice cream sell for and $80 Extended license once.

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Permalink Reply by arenacreative.com on March 12, 2008 at 12:07pm

That's pretty crazy! Cool concept. Technically, though this would get kicked right off the bat - jagged lines and pixelization. I'm not sure what resoulution you were working at. Usually when I'm doing a photo montage, I start with at least a 12" x 12" @300dpi canvas.

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Permalink Reply by Kari Quaas on March 12, 2008 at 12:20pm

Hey GM,

Regarding copyright, do you any/all of your images for other purposes at the same time you're using them for stock?

Thanks for these excellent tips. My goal is to get going on this stuff next month or in May. We're in the middle of a kitchen remodel so dedicated time for photography is taking a back seat.

Kari

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Permalink Reply by arenacreative.com on March 12, 2008 at 12:39pm

Hey Kari,

You can add copyright info if you want the the IPTC / Exif data in the jpeg, but pretty much every website adds their watermark to the image, for the website view. You can't add your own watermark to the images, though - designers wouldn't want to buy stock images that weren't totally clean.

If someone decides to buy your image for $5 and sell it on t shirts, there is no stopping them. It happens too, but almost always they get caught and prosecuted in some way or another. I've never had any problems with that. I've had honest buyers - people that will buy the image for $50-100 to have an extended license that will allow them to make many reproductions.