Stock Photography

parkinsonsniper

TPF Noob!
Joined
Jul 30, 2013
Messages
10
Reaction score
0
I liked the idea of having a photography forum on my smartphone. I'm into stock photography for a couple of years and I think we can share our experiences and sales trends under this thread

So...Are there any stock photographers here? :)
 
I do Getty stock and only have 77 images with them since Dec. 2011.
Only have made a dozen or so sales. Biggest payout was like $102 for month.

Generally most sales are low and have to accumulate to reach the minimum $50 payout.
Getty this year made a low blow to their contributers with the Google/Getty deal. Google can pay a one time fee of $30 for an image and have unlimited time and use for people using Google Docs. Even business can use the images created in Business documents promoting their business indefinitely.

With their move 2 years ago of cutting the photographer's commission from 30% to 20%.
And their High Quantity sales to portals and such means little to zilch for the photographer.

And most photographer's do not have the time or connections to market and promote their works to Businesses and Corporations. Would have loved to gotten in on stock at the beginning of the century but now just to late to make real money in stock. The older Getty contributers are still making monies per month on hundreds of images. But they have seen a drastic drop and cut in their earnings. And fewer still make enough to call it making a living.
.
 
Well being that you have been into stock photography for a couple of years, how have your sales been? More important, what kind of stock do you shoot, you know so others don't shoot the same thing, wouldn't want to over-saturate the worldwide market.:er:
 
We work together with my girlfriend. Sounds a little amateur-ish. But we really started from scratch and build our way step by step. We generally shoot beauty, makeup, diet, medical, spa. I also upload some travel and isolated object photos. I have 550 image online at dreamstime.com (I'm exclusive and admin at DT) and I make app. 150$ per month.

Well, people generally say that my model shots are pretty high quality and everyone tell me to go non-exclusive. So I tried to upload on other sites, like istock and fotolia...nothing sold during the 5 months trial. I made just 9$ in 5 months from istock and fotolia, in total. During same time, I made 60$ from DT. But people generally make more money on other agencies. I dunno what is the problem with my images :))
 
We work together with my girlfriend. Sounds a little amateur-ish. But we really started from scratch and build our way step by step. We generally shoot beauty, makeup, diet, medical, spa. I also upload some travel and isolated object photos. I have 550 image online at dreamstime.com (I'm exclusive and admin at DT) and I make app. 150$ per month.

Well, people generally say that my model shots are pretty high quality and everyone tell me to go non-exclusive. So I tried to upload on other sites, like istock and fotolia...nothing sold during the 5 months trial. I made just 9$ in 5 months from istock and fotolia, in total. During same time, I made 60$ from DT. But people generally make more money on other agencies. I dunno what is the problem with my images :))

Here is my portfolio address, in cas you want to check for more. And I'll always be happy to answer further questions :)
 
We work together with my girlfriend. Sounds a little amateur-ish. But we really started from scratch and build our way step by step. We generally shoot beauty, makeup, diet, medical, spa. I also upload some travel and isolated object photos. I have 550 image online at dreamstime.com (I'm exclusive and admin at DT) and I make app. 150$ per month.

Well, people generally say that my model shots are pretty high quality and everyone tell me to go non-exclusive. So I tried to upload on other sites, like istock and fotolia...nothing sold during the 5 months trial. I made just 9$ in 5 months from istock and fotolia, in total. During same time, I made 60$ from DT. But people generally make more money on other agencies. I dunno what is the problem with my images :))

http://www.dreamstime.com/parkinsonsniper_info

Here is my portfolio link, in case you want see more and I will always be happy to answer further questions :)
 
Stock photo sites mostly seem to think that you should spend a couple hundred bucks on models, then a bunch of hours in photoshop, and then make somewhere between $0 and $50 on the result.

Since there's an infinite number of people willing to make this bargain, the money-making aspects are... kind of slim.
 

Most reactions

Back
Top