Thinking it time you started selling your images as stock photography? Stock photography is huge and everybody looks to be doing it, unfortunately though, most photographers are going about it the wrong way.
The very first thing you must do is decide where you want to end up ...
Are you wanting a fulltime business? Do you dream about throwing in the day job and becoming a fulltime photographer? Or do you just want a little extra cash from your hobby? Perhaps you'd be content to get a new lens once a year from your profits?
If you want the first option, you are looking at joining a very competitive industry and that is going to take major time, effort and you're going to have to invest real money to make it happen.
For stock photography you want to assess every element of your photography the standard of your work, the commercial potential of the subjects you shoot, how many images you have on file and how often you add to them. Quality, Content & Volume to achieve success in stock photography you need to have each of those aspects totally covered.
If you happen to feel you may need to work on any of those areas, I'd counsel you take your time to work on them first. Take a short course to improve your photography technique, buy some stock photography books to find more commercial subjects, and then shoot constantly to build your volume.
Stock is competitive and guaranteed to suck the joy right from your photography if you attempt to start selling your photos before you are at a level where you can make it work.
If you are not out for a major life-change though, you actually have a few more options.
Plenty of amateur photographers place their images with the cheap royalty free libraries and hope to make a bit of extra change every year but I really believe this is about the worst of your options.
A number of these stock photo sites are selling photos for a greenback or less each, royalty free, so the photographers gets a few pennies for the sale, and the purchaser gets free usage of the image, for evermore. This doesn't worry lots of amateurs, but it has a huge impact on the industry. If that does not concern you, it probably should.
If circumstances change and you decide one day to sell your pictures seriously, each $1 sale you make is going to make it that much tougher for you to make a living. And to rub salt into the wound, you won't be able to sell and of those pictures to top-end buyers, because you'll have no idea where they've been printed before or where they'd turn up next.
Often you'll find a much better option for the hobbyist is to use your picturespictures as content rather than product, and publish them on your own easy photography websites promoting associated products. For most photographers this will lead on to far better returns without giving your pictures away for peanuts, and if you one day make a decision to get serious about selling your photos, they are still exclusively yours to sell.
The very first thing you must do is decide where you want to end up ...
Are you wanting a fulltime business? Do you dream about throwing in the day job and becoming a fulltime photographer? Or do you just want a little extra cash from your hobby? Perhaps you'd be content to get a new lens once a year from your profits?
If you want the first option, you are looking at joining a very competitive industry and that is going to take major time, effort and you're going to have to invest real money to make it happen.
For stock photography you want to assess every element of your photography the standard of your work, the commercial potential of the subjects you shoot, how many images you have on file and how often you add to them. Quality, Content & Volume to achieve success in stock photography you need to have each of those aspects totally covered.
If you happen to feel you may need to work on any of those areas, I'd counsel you take your time to work on them first. Take a short course to improve your photography technique, buy some stock photography books to find more commercial subjects, and then shoot constantly to build your volume.
Stock is competitive and guaranteed to suck the joy right from your photography if you attempt to start selling your photos before you are at a level where you can make it work.
If you are not out for a major life-change though, you actually have a few more options.
Plenty of amateur photographers place their images with the cheap royalty free libraries and hope to make a bit of extra change every year but I really believe this is about the worst of your options.
A number of these stock photo sites are selling photos for a greenback or less each, royalty free, so the photographers gets a few pennies for the sale, and the purchaser gets free usage of the image, for evermore. This doesn't worry lots of amateurs, but it has a huge impact on the industry. If that does not concern you, it probably should.
If circumstances change and you decide one day to sell your pictures seriously, each $1 sale you make is going to make it that much tougher for you to make a living. And to rub salt into the wound, you won't be able to sell and of those pictures to top-end buyers, because you'll have no idea where they've been printed before or where they'd turn up next.
Often you'll find a much better option for the hobbyist is to use your picturespictures as content rather than product, and publish them on your own easy photography websites promoting associated products. For most photographers this will lead on to far better returns without giving your pictures away for peanuts, and if you one day make a decision to get serious about selling your photos, they are still exclusively yours to sell.
About the Author:
Brad Stephens contributes digital stock photographyto the GlobalEye library and publishes instant affiliatephotograph web sites in his spare time
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