Advice for amateur photographer looking to sell images?

January 6, 2009 10:24 AM

What are some good forums, websites and/or strategies for a photographer interested in making money off a collection of thousands of pretty good images?

I've been shooting digital for years all over the world, mostly for myself and the very occasional paying gig that comes along. Now I find myself sitting on thousands of decent shots, with many good and even excellent ones in there.

How--with a minimum of time and effort, some decent equipment (EOS 20D) and a passable knowledge of Photoshop and things internet-related--can I start making money off of these? I'd like someone else to handle the sales and marketing end, which says stock to me. But I know pro stock photography is going through an upheaval now.

I'm currently bundling up 500 shots for Lonely Planet Images to consider, and I've considered Photoshelter. I've even considered framing some and trying to sell them locally. Any other avenues?

Or, honestly, should I just enjoy my shots for the memories and the occasional wall hanging?

posted by El Curioso to sports, hobbies, & recreation (6 comments total)

When my sister started taking pictures, my dad helped her put some of them on Shutterstock. Might be worth a looksee.
posted by Industrial PhD at 11:39 AM on January 6

I buy images from istockphoto and there seem to be a lot of sellers there, though I've never tried to sell any images myself.
posted by peter_meta_kbd at 11:43 AM on January 6

You might look into the microstock agencies like iStockPhoto, Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Fotolia, StockXpert, BigStockPhoto, etc.

If you do so, be aware that you'll have a lot or work ahead of you in terms of keywording your pictures, making sure that any image noise is under control, and retouching out trademarks and logos.

You'll need signed model releases for any pictures which have identifiable people in them.

Plus, each site has it's own procedure when it comes to uploading your images and getting them online. These procedures tend to change with time. Each site does have a forum section where you can get a lot of information from fellow contributors.

If you're interested in pursuing this, a good starting point would be to visit each site and do a search for images which are like your own, just to get an idea of what's out there on the market at this point.

I have around 500 photographs with the agencies I've listed above, and I made myself a rule early on that I'd only work on my submissions while my primary imaging workstation was running batch jobs on other real world assigned work. That's the only was I can justify the time spent in preparing and submitting images.

My income from my microstock earnings is in the low four figures annually. I look at this income like interest on a savings account, but with zero principal in dollars.

My best selling microstock image is pretty literally a snapshot of an antique drawing slate on a white background. I'd guess that 90% of all of my microstock income comes from this very routine certainly nothing special photograph.
posted by imjustsaying at 1:53 PM on January 6

You should be reading Photopreneur.
posted by cda at 8:16 AM on January 7

I would highly recommend staying away from microstock sites.

Unfortunately, most of the proper stock agencies get eaten up by Getty, so your best bet is to get onto Alamy. I know a photographer who had several thousand photos on there, and he makes a heck of a lot of money, certainly a lot more than a low four figure amount. Just make sure you keyword your images properly.
posted by Magnakai at 11:52 AM on January 7

I would highly recommend staying away from microstock sites.

Why is that?
posted by gottabefunky at 9:58 AM on January 13