does anyone do stock photography full time?

babygodzilla

does anyone do stock photography full time? if so, where do you sell your images? can you give a ballpark range of what you earn? i'd like to know if this is a visible money maker.

if not, does anyone think doing stock photography full time is a good full time career?

rgphoto

marking.

I'd like to see what people say.

babygodzilla

i guess no one does? can anyone familiar with the subject of stock photog comment maybe?

hawkeye978

I've started to do a little microstock photography through Fotolia, Dreamtime, 123rf, and BigStockPhoto. I haven't been able to break into iStockPhoto or Shutterstock yet but still trying. It's difficult to get pictures approved and then you hope they are different enough that someone will actually buy. And then you make $1 if you are lucky.

What reading I've done and my own experience, microstock is hard. You need to put time and effort into researching what sells, coming up with new ideas, producing the pictures, and then getting them approved. The microstock companies scrutinize at the pixel level. I have learned that all shots pretty much have to be on a tripod and even then when you look 1:1 there may have been enough shake that it's unacceptable.

All I'm hoping for is to build up a large enough portfolio that I can maybe generate a few hundred $'s a year to support the habit. There are people who make a living at it but they are few and far between. Many photographers consider $20k a really good years earning from microstock.

I'm no expert by any stretch but do your research. Like most photographic work, nothing's easy.

catspaw

I know someone who does this quite well, full time, and very successful.

However, the first year was a wash -- it takes TIME to get your stock portfolio built up and going. istockphoto.com (owned now by Getty images) is a good place to go -- yes it IS micro stock and some folks might rant that you are destroying the industry ... but you know? that industry is quite healthy!! So, whatever. Not going to argue it here. I'm not into it, but I've seen a LOT of it and up close to know a good bit.

Feel free to PM me if you'd like to see some interesting lecture/links and any questions you have.

good luck!

colourbox

hawkeye978 wrote:

What reading I've done and my own experience, microstock is hard. You need to put time and effort into researching what sells, coming up with new ideas, producing the pictures, and then getting them approved. The microstock companies scrutinize at the pixel level. I have learned that all shots pretty much have to be on a tripod and even then when you look 1:1 there may have been enough shake that it's unacceptable.

Wow. If microstock is that selective, then I have to say, that description of the time and labor required to get into microstock sounds exactly like what it takes to get into stock...is the only difference that stock pays a lot more...?

catspaw

colourbox wrote:

Wow. If microstock is that selective, then I have to say, that description of the time and labor required to get into microstock sounds exactly like what it takes to get into stock...is the only difference that stock pays a lot more...?

I'd say that hawkeye978 is overexaggerating the work involved. I seems that it's either something you can do or cannot. As with ANY shooting, tripods are not 'required' unless the set up and circumstances (aka studio work, etc) require it.

ilbcnu

There was a thread awhile back-
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=97325
I sell stock or I should say my stock just sells as I haven't uploaded anything to them since last Oct. Per my recent stats on a very small portfolio of 182 images I average $22.00 month. English is my native language so keywording is quick for me, I don't set up shoots just for stock (I shoot stock as a sidebar to what I am already shooting) and I don't do alot of photoshop to the images. I started my portfolio with Dreamstime exclusive Oct 2007 just to see what it was all about.
My acceptance ratio varied May '09- Oct '09 from 40% to 100%. I just pulled a 100.00 check from last couple of months and all I have done is check to see what has sold.
Oh and I hardly ever use a tripod-probably should but usually don't.

rgphoto

ilbcnu wrote:

There was a thread awhile back-
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=97325
I sell stock or I should say my stock just sells as I haven't uploaded anything to them since last Oct. Per my recent stats on a very small portfolio of 182 images I average $22.00 month. English is my native language so keywording is quick for me, I don't set up shoots just for stock (I shoot stock as a sidebar to what I am already shooting) and I don't do alot of photoshop to the images. I started my portfolio with Dreamstime exclusive Oct 2007 just to see what it was all about.
My acceptance ratio varied May '09- Oct '09 from 40% to 100%. I just pulled a 100.00 check from last couple of months and all I have done is check to see what has sold.
Oh and I hardly ever use a tripod-probably should but usually don't.

When you keyword, do you go crazy and throw in upwards of 50 keywords per shot, or just throw in a couple.

ilbcnu

My stock company has a min. of 10 I believe and I do a few more if they come to mind. - If I am on the site and think of something else I may add it later but really don't go all out on them. I have found that people images sell well. In my port I can tell you what we were doing and I just happened to take a pic... welder is my husband working on our horse corrals and I had a new lens to try, concrete was us pouring deck around our pool, caribbean and dunes are us on vacation, farmer in field was husband in a field near house, oranges on white background was me learning to isolate and change backgrounds, real estate signs are mine as I am a agent, etc...as I said I don't go out of my way or spend alot of extra time on setting up the stock shoot .

rgphoto

ilbcnu wrote:

My stock company has a min. of 10 I believe and I do a few more if they come to mind. - If I am on the site and think of something else I may add it later but really don't go all out on them. I have found that people images sell well. In my port I can tell you what we were doing and I just happened to take a pic... welder is my husband working on our horse corrals and I had a new lens to try, concrete was us pouring deck around our pool, caribbean and dunes are us on vacation, farmer in field was husband in a field near house, oranges on white background was me learning to isolate and change backgrounds, real estate signs are mine as I am a agent, etc...as I said I don't go out of my way or spend alot of extra time on setting up the stock shoot .

Thanks, this was helpful.

catspaw

ilbcnu wrote:

My stock company has a min. of 10 I believe and I do a few more if they come to mind. - If I am on the site and think of something else I may add it later but really don't go all out on them. I have found that people images sell well. In my port I can tell you what we were doing and I just happened to take a pic... welder is my husband working on our horse corrals and I had a new lens to try, concrete was us pouring deck around our pool, caribbean and dunes are us on vacation, farmer in field was husband in a field near house, oranges on white background was me learning to isolate and change backgrounds, real estate signs are mine as I am a agent, etc...as I said I don't go out of my way or spend alot of extra time on setting up the stock shoot .

Well, is that full time? It doesn't seem like it, which is what the OP's question was.

ilbcnu

No, not full time at all. OP had another entry 3rd down I believe that asked for anyone familiar to comment...

poker

I'm on iStock but I haven't been active. If I devote myself to it I could imagine making "extra" money with it but I wouldn't trust micro-stock as being the core revenue.

Even when I look at the big sellers on iStock and do some guesstimates on how much they've made with their account, I don't imagine them living off of it. I'm guessing it can be good supplemental income.

If you can break in to the big time stock photo houses like Getty, then I can imagine you would live off of it. I went to free seminar once and the guy shared his experience. He travels all over the world and stages so many shots with the locals. They even sign model release forms although they can't read English.

orljustin

poker wrote:

I went to free seminar once and the guy shared his experience. He travels all over the world and stages so many shots with the locals. They even sign model release forms although they can't read English.

Those who can't do, teach.

poker

poker wrote:

Even when I look at the big sellers on iStock and do some guesstimates on how much they've made with their account, I don't imagine them living off of it. I'm guessing it can be good supplemental income.

I was just told that my comment is inaccurate and that people can live off micro stock income. I need to reevaluate my life

It's great to know.

poker

orljustin wrote:

Those who can't do, teach.

I'm not sure what you mean. Are you saying the guy is teaching a seminar cuz he isn't successful at stock photography? I'd give you his name but I'm really bad at remembering names. I recall that he had an amazing portfolio.

moilua

Try here
I have sold some photos through this stock photography site.
http://www.photographersdirect.com
They have a rating system for your photos, 10 being the best, on average my photos have been rated between 7-9. I have not been as active as I should be but I have made an average of $70- 200 on a few different photos.

Keywords are very important and trying to figure what would be the best photos to put up. They only charge a percentage when you sell a photo,
and you deal directly with the client to work out the prices. They also have a request page where you can view request made for specific type of photos. If you have s photo to fit something then you upload your photo and hope that they choose yours.
You can also set up ( at a cost ) a portfolio and links from there to your web site.

I like it as I know with the time and work that I put into my photos posted there, that it is rights managed where at least I have control of who gets my photos and how they use them. Not the same with micro-stock. I don't do royalty-free.

Anyway I just wanted to share! Best of luck to all of you who sell stock photos!
http://www.lahainaphotography.net/

orljustin

poker wrote:

I'm not sure what you mean. Are you saying the guy is teaching a seminar cuz he isn't successful at stock photography? I'd give you his name but I'm really bad at remembering names. I recall that he had an amazing portfolio.

I'm saying that people who aren't particularly successful, or aren't particularly successful anymore, or who have decided to not be as involved anymore, tend to turn to "teaching" and "seminars" to try and get some value from their past experiences.