Stock Photo (Guideance needed)

Valls · Dec 19, 2016

Hello all!

First of all, thanks in advance for taking the time to read this and offer some tips!

I've been meaning to start uploading my photos to a stock website since last year, and it actually took me a while, since my equipment wasn't fit for the job back then, all I had was a Coolpix P500.. But since june I have bought a Nikon D5300, which has more than enough resolution for the job.

Now, I have a few images uploaded to Can Stock Photo and also have my website on squarespace (the website is in portuguese, though)...

I have noticed, tho, that my photos on canstock are not getting any views at all!
Do you guys have any tips on how to get more views and what kind of pics I should actually be shooting for getting any sells?

My website: www.thiagovalls.com (its in portuguese but I think you can navigate intuitivelly)
My canstock: http://www.canstockphoto.com/tvalls/?r=505688

Thanks again!
Warm regards,
Thiago Valls

robbins.photo · Dec 19, 2016

I guess if it were me I'd take a look at the pictures that get the most views and concentrate on that subject matter.

Never shot any stock myself, had a friend that tried it for a while - he told me in his experience the stuff that sold the best was pictures of people doing things in like an office environment. He also told me though that these were extremely tough to shoot and make any money on because you needed models, an appropriate set, releases, etc.

He did it for a while using people from some modeling website who wanted pictures for their portfolios, etc - exchange of services kind of thing. But when he figured up how much he was making vrs how much time he was spending he discovered his hourly wage was something like $0.03 per hour, and that was on a good week. So he gave it up.

But I guess if it were me I'd take a look at this website and see if you can figure out what gets the most views or better yet what sells the best, and concentrate on that if possible.

Valls · Dec 19, 2016

Thanks a lot, I will take a look at it and also consider how much money I can actually make before putting every effort on it!

vintagesnaps · Dec 19, 2016

It looks like that's a microstock site so usually the payment is extremely low. Look at Terms & Conditions. There are many sites that are referred to as 'photo rights grab' sites because they seem to just want to get site users' photos to resell and sublicense etc. etc. usually to the site's advantage or in a way that isn't beneficial to photographers. You have some nice bird photography, and I don't know if there might be better options for you.

KmH · Dec 19, 2016

The vast majority of stock photos that get used have people in them doing everyday things of displaying some kind of emotion.
Also, it is best if those people photos are composed so they can have advertising text inserted in the image frame.

But as mentioned, the return in pay is quite low from any microstock agency that only offers Royalty-Free (RF) licensing.
Consider that there are lots and lots of microstock outlets containing billions of stock photos and that an RF license generally allows up to 500,000 or so uses by the buyer of that photo you just got paid $0.20 for.

There is another type of use licensing: Rights-Managed (RM) licensing.
RM licensing pays way, way better, but getting your images accepted by a stock house that offers RM licensing is way tougher than getting photos accepted by a microstock agency.

Your avatar photo needs some editing, or a re-do.
The light quality and direction were poor. You have dark eye sockets (raccoon eyes) and it looks the the white balance is off (to cool, or has a bluish tint).

Valls · Dec 20, 2016

Thanks, Sharon, I will pay more attention to that.. I went for that "CanStock" website because I heard good things of it! But I should know better than that, I should have checked!

Thank you, Keith! I will probably just keep my wildlife photo as a Hobby for now.. My expectation was to get any (even if low) income from my hobby, but I'm thinking its not worthed like this..

Btw, my avatar was shot by a hired photographer in a big event I went to.. I didn't do it myself (nor the photo, nor the editing)... But thanks for the feedback on that! Might change it for the one I did by myself (feedback for this one?):