How to Upload Images to I Stock
How to Submit Your Photography to Stock Photo Platforms
And make money every bit a issue
I retrieve the day I began my journey in stock photography. I had been a lensman for well-nigh 10 years, for fun with the occasional model shoot. Only on Feb 24, 2006, I had an thought and put something similar "Make Coin Online with Photography" into whatever search engine I was using.
Up popped a few sites with promises of "Earn Money with Photos on Your Computer," or some such. I thought, why non, and registered on 3 or four of them. I had an idea what stock photography was every bit I had researched it in my film days but decided it was besides much work. These new sites said all I had to practise was upload my images and wait for the coin to roll in. I uploaded a few dozen pictures I thought were decent on all the sites.
The same solar day, I sold this image for $.xx. I thought that was pretty comical, so I went on to other things. The next mean solar day, I sold a few dollars' worth. Past the end of the first month, I had made $11 and thought it might deserve a footling more than effort.
And then I started shooting things for stock and uploading those to the sites along with one-time images from my difficult bulldoze. Past the end of that first year, I was making over $100 a month and began devoting some actual time to stock photography. Fourteen years and over 100K subsequently, I'one thousand still going stiff with stock photography. Maybe you can as well. Information technology's far from my only revenue stream, but it's not peanuts either.
A Few Words of Warning
If you lot are interested in making money from stock photography, I can testify yous the ropes and give y'all a few tips. But get-go some warnings, caveats, and disclaimers. First, the best time to go into this industry was in 2006. Information technology was young; the demand was high and the supply was minor. Now, on Shutterstock, ane of the best sites, photographers upload over i.5 million images a calendar week. That's what you are competing with. Be prepared to fail.
Second, don't practice what I did and look to get what I got. Partly because you lot're late to the party. But generally considering there is then much more content out there. I shoot mostly food, architecture, and travel, with a smattering of other stuff. My best-selling prototype is this i.
You could shoot the same paradigm, merely you won't brand what I fabricated off of it, then don't bother. You lot practice you lot. The big coin today is in lifestyle photography featuring models. Another big market is vector graphics. I won't go into that, considering my knowledge is express, merely if you are a graphic artist, you should bank check that out.
The biggest growth industry right now is in video. These are very short, normally silent clips. The kind you come across on every website. I don't shoot video. I don't want to learn the software required to process information technology. But you practice you.
A discussion of warning. Most, but not all, of the sites I work with, are micro-stock agencies. Their model is high volume at inexpensive or subscription prices. From those specific agencies, I make anywhere from $.xx to $xxx an epitome depending on the license. But I sell dozens, sometimes hundreds every day. In other markets, my return per epitome is much higher, just sales aren't every bit frequently. I recommend a mix of different agency models to maximize your income.
Many former schoolhouse photographers volition requite you lot a hard time at "selling yourself cheap." Determine at present if you care what they call up. I don't. Many of them accept since come over to the dark side. Equally I like to tell them, in one case I finish and upload an epitome, selling it in one case for $one,000 and selling it ane,000 times for one dollar each is exactly the same corporeality of coin.
The final caveat and then nosotros'll get to the skilful stuff. This isn't easy or fast. Prepare to work at it daily. It may only exist a few minutes a day. I spend about an hour a solar day keeping things going when I'grand non out shooting. Much of that time is getting images ready to upload.
I get emails daily from new photographers who accept been at it for a month or ii and have a couple of dozen poorly shot images with worse metadata wanting to know where the money is. It'due south way down the route, that's where it is. Come back when you take a thousand images and we'll talk. A thousand good images.
So, let's get started with your stock portfolio. First, let'south talk nigh…
What to Shoot
Go back to the beginning and that promise of making coin from images sitting around on your hard drive. You tin can practise that. You won't brand much money, and nearly of them will get rejected, which volition lead to frustration. Then, let's leave those lone for now. Later, when you know what you're doing, come back and look through those and run into if they are worth uploading.
Every bit with any other manufacture, you need to practise your enquiry. What is stock photography? Simply put, information technology's 90% of the images you come across on websites and in print. It'southward cheaper for them to buy an image than rent a photographer.
And then first, await through magazines. Pay attention to those ads you see on websites. Scan through online publications. Wait at billboards and graphic ads everywhere you go. They are well-nigh all stock images. Some of them are mine. Some could exist yours. So pay attention. Lifestyle images are what to shoot at present. The trouble is, you need people to make those piece of work. And there are more legal complications you'll need to learn, like model releases. For me, it'due south not worth the endeavor. I would propose starting without the added overhead.
At that place is a famous stock lensman I used to see around the agencies a lot. He sold more images past far than anyone else. He had studios in 2 countries and flew effectually the world taking stock images. He had a staff of people working for him. Assistants and processors and all sorts of back up staff.
But did he make any money? I don't know, simply he's not doing much stock work anymore.
And so, keep looking through magazines and other ads. Look at how the images are lit. Pay attention to the content, merely besides to the composition. Notice the empty space above or to the side of the main prototype. They call this copy infinite. Call up it. Think of all the things that are beingness photographed and which types of things y'all have admission to.
No matter where you live in the world, there are things to shoot. Think quality. Remember quantity. Think uniqueness. Never believe you have nix to shoot. I could shoot a hundred things in the room I am sitting in right at present. If you are some sort of specialist with admission to things most people don't take, shoot that.
How to Shoot
This isn't a photography tutorial. If you lot don't know how to take a decent photograph, get learn that, then come dorsum. You might think that the quality requirements for a $.25 paradigm would be low. You would be wrong. The requirements on these agencies are some of the well-nigh stringent I take always encountered. You lot must know how to take a technically correct, well lit, and perfectly shot image before y'all can become whatsoever farther.
By how to shoot, I mean composition and thinking through your workflow. You also want to maximize your efforts. For everything you shoot, y'all should get at least 2, sometimes many more images.
Don't Spam. You want to get several versions of the same image. Not dozens. Not hundreds. Don't shoot the same apple from each of its 360 degrees. The agencies pout upon it and it volition get you kicked out.
Just don't just shoot one epitome and washed. Minimally, where it makes sense, shoot ane vertical and 1 horizontal. Have ane in tight and one leaving a lot of space for re-create. Shoot fresh angles and backgrounds. Shoot at least i zoomed style out, and then you have room to crop information technology in unique ways in post-processing. You demand to shoot quality, but within that, quantity will win the day.
Pro Tip: Y'all never know what will sell. I shot thirty homes in the same neighborhood. One of them outsold the rest put together. I don't know why. I have shot dozens of plates of fried craven. The ane above is my all-time bestseller. I don't become why it sold more than the rest. You lot won't either. Shoot everything.
Here is an example of why to shoot everything. This is a prowl send I photographed in Aruba years ago. I uploaded it and it has sold a few copies from time to fourth dimension. Then one 24-hour interval, I was all of a sudden getting dozens of sales. What happened? Well, it turned out the ship was quarantined due to an outbreak of measles.
Here is a copy of it on the BBC news site. I only happened to exist one of the few stock photographers with this image available at the fourth dimension of the outbreak. Shoot everything.
Some other example. This ane of not knowing what people will buy. At the fourth dimension of this commodity, there is a worldwide outbreak of Coronavirus. Back when it first started, I looked at the few medical-related images I had on stock sites and added relevant keywords to them.
As far every bit I know, I haven't sold whatsoever of them. Only what I take sold hundreds of copies of is this image of a well-stocked pantry. Social isolation and food hoarding made this an overnight bestseller.
Where to Submit
Google information technology. There are dozens, mayhap hundreds of sites out there. And hither's the grim news. To brainstorm with, you will non make much money off any of them. So which ones do you spend your time on? A few of them? All of them? The correct answer is a bit of both.
First, once again, do your research. Ane of the best sources of data is a forum chosen, Microstock Group. You tin can spend some time there later, but now, I want to signal out the poll results on the right side. This lists most of the Micro-stock agencies out there and their earnings rating based on forum users. Await at all of them!
So, where practise you submit? Obviously, you want to try the top ones. That'due south where the money is. That'south also where the most contest is and more stringent standards. So yous also want to attempt some of the middle tier sites. Pick a few and endeavor them. Everyone gets different results. The top two on their list are also my top two. But their number 3 is way downwards the listing for me. A lot of it volition be what you shoot, some of information technology will be blind luck.
Whichever ones you endeavour, you demand to give them your work and some time. Work with them for at least iii months before you lot determine which ones to stick with. And then try more. A few months or years down the road, come dorsum and attempt the sometime ones again. The market is continually changing. The only abiding is yous take to be consistent in quality and quantity. I have uploaded to the same half-dozen sites since day one. Dozens of others take come up and gone.
I thing to keep in mind before you try to upload everything everywhere. Most every site has a minimum payout. This is usually in the $30 to $100 range. Until you sell that much, you don't get your coin. I have dollars scattered hither and at that place on dozens of sites that I will never run across. Off-white? No, but information technology's the reality. Live with it.
So the TL;DR reply is definitely to try Shutterstock and Adobe. Shutterstock has been my number i since my 2d month back in 2006. But Adobe has been trying a lot of interesting marketing techniques and partnered up with some big channels. So for the last six months, they have tied or exceeded Shutterstock for me.
Before you submit to whatever of them, while you are building your portfolio, y'all guessed it, do some research. Spend fourth dimension on each site. Read every document they take on what to do and how to practice it. There is no one size fits all. Join their forums if they take i and read what members have to say.
How to Set up Your Images
If yous have been a photographer for any length of time, you already know that taking the shot is only half the work. Almost every epitome requires at to the lowest degree minimal processing, and that is no less truthful for stock. Don't remember, since the price per image is low, you can become away without processing. That would be a fault.
But every bit this is not a tutorial about photography, I volition non teach you how to process. If you lot don't know that already, you lot need to acquire it before you lot think about becoming a stock photographer. Just I will requite you some tips and suggestions on processing specifically for stock.
One thing to keep in mind is that people shopping on these sites will look at thumbnails. Hundreds, even thousands of thumbnails. That means yours needs to stand out. So keep them bright and colorful. Push the whites near to the point of bravado out and raise saturation and vibrancy a touch. But don't overdo information technology. Those thumbnails still have to look expert when they open information technology up to full screen earlier they purchase.
Another topic in processing is cropping. You want to do most of this in-photographic camera, but if you don't accept multiple versions, hopefully, you followed my advice to take one wide shot. Yous tin can crop that 1 vertical, horizontal and square depending on the subject. Exist certain and accept at to the lowest degree 1 version with enough of space above or to one side. Over again, process unlike versions to maximize your investment, but don't spam.
Metadata
The other role of processing, and maybe the most important part, is the metadata. You should already be familiar with the concept. Yous likely already enter your copyright data into everything you shoot. Also, depending on the software you use to shop, sort and retrieve your images, you may already use keywords or tags.
If non, yous demand to be. There are 3 components of metadata critical to your success. The image should have a descriptive title and a explanation that takes the description a bit farther. Don't get cute with these two fields. They should tell the buyer simply, still completely, what is in the prototype. Don't assume they will know only because they are looking at it.
The third piece is the keywords. There are a wide variety of opinions about keywords. Some people recommend a few critical tags in each image. Some say yous should endeavour for the maximum number, usually fifty. I recommend somewhere in the middle. First, enter the main keywords that describe what is in the image. Then add more to describe the mood, major colors, and other conceptual words that are relevant.
Remember, most buyers volition use keywords to search for their images. You desire yours to come up if it would fit what they are looking for. You don't desire it to come up if it's not relevant. Using ruby as a keyword merely because there is something red in the image is a mistake. Think of how you would practice a search if you were looking for your image. What would you type in? Those are your keywords. A major problem is that you never know how they found your prototype, merely that they did. Or didn't.
How to Upload Your Images
Again, each site is dissimilar on how to upload, only there are two main variations. Using a spider web-based uploader and using FTP software. If yous are non familiar with FTP, information technology is an erstwhile protocol going dorsum to the early days of the internet, before the World Broad Web. It stands for File Transfer Protocol and many, simply non all sites use it. It is best for a larger number of files, only you will have to discover, download and larn to utilise the software for your particular operating organization. You volition too demand to research the site to acquire their detail attributes and protocols.
In the beginning, information technology would be easier to utilise the web interface. They are all very easy to utilise. Almost all sites have one and they vary in the number of images y'all can upload at 1 time. Find the upload link on the site you lot are interested in, and they will requite y'all stride-by-pace instructions, just they are like to whatsoever file uploading site y'all have ever used. They volition as well tell you of any size restrictions, both in minimum and maximum size. Finally, each image must contain the three pieces of metadata described in the last department. Here is the one on BigStockPhoto, also endemic past Shutterstock.
What's Next
I final piece of business you will need to have care of is to supply the site with the information they require to pay yous. Y'all want to go paid, right? Some sites require nothing at all, some desire a copy of a government ID, plus whatsoever tax withholding data required where you alive.
They will too need a manner to pay you. Well-nigh all sites employ Paypal, so that is the best option. Some also use other paysites like Moneybookers. Very few will upshot a cheque and there is normally a filibuster and a fee, even if they practise.
After that, the only thing is to echo the procedure. Every day. You demand to shoot, process and upload consistently if you want to brand money in stock photography. And you will need patience. This is, equally they say, a marathon, non a sprint. It takes persistence and hard piece of work, simply in the end, it can go a lucrative revenue stream.
Source: https://bettermarketing.pub/how-to-submit-your-photography-to-stock-photo-platforms-aa80b65e1612
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