sell your photos

[ajo43]

Has anyone ever sold your photos to one of these stock sites?

http://www.shutterstock.com

http://www.istockphoto.com

Seems to be about US$0.2 per photo that you would get.

[MHD]

per good photo or any photo?

Look! Here is a photo of my toe...

So thats $2000USD per 10,000 shots uploaded...

Not worth it

[ajo43]

I'm sure your toe is worth big $$$$ but the deal is that you upload your photos. Provide it meets their criteria (not offensive, good resolution, model releases where applicable, no copyrite issues etc) they put it on their website.

Whenever someone downloads your photo you get US$0.20.

Companies who want to buy your photo pay a fee to the website.

[MHD]

I see... Any joining fee?

I might have a few of my crappier one's to throw up...

Is it like google ads where you only get paid if you get an account over $100??

Have any of your shots been downloaded?

[ajo43]

I couldn't see a joining fee but yes it is like google. You only get paid over US$75.

Take a look at the top 50 photos purchased for an idea of what sells. Nothing spectacular there but good solid stock



http://submit.shutterstock.com/top100.mhtml

[MHD]

Hmm... Actually looks good....
I read the rules and regs pretty thoghroughly and couldnt see a catch...

[leek]

I've bought stock photos from istockphoto on a couple of occasions... Due to their business model, the price per photo is very cheap compared to other sources of stock photos... They work on a credit system from the buyers side, higher resolution photos costing slightly more credits than lower res...

[Killakoala]

It might be a good place to 'offload' your less than perfect shots, you know, the ones that are not keepers but are still good in their own rights.

[pippin88]

I'm going to give this a go.

I figure it can't hurt, as my images arn't really doing anything at the moment and they don't require exclusivity.

[ajo43]

I might give it a go as well. Lets report back if anyone hits $75

[Matt. K]

You guys are going to be awfully miffed when you see one of your pictures plastered all over the world advertising Nike shoes and pulling in millions of dollars worth of sales and you only got 2 cents for it. Explain that to the boys down at the pub! If you wanna sell your picsdown then get them printed poster size and go flog them at the markets. At least you'll get $20 each for them and you'll get to learn what the market wants. But best of all you won't get ripped off.

[pippin88]

You guys are going to be awfully miffed when you see one of your pictures plastered all over the world advertising Nike shoes and pulling in millions of dollars worth of sales and you only got 2 cents for it. Explain that to the boys down at the pub! If you wanna sell your picsdown then get them printed poster size and go flog them at the markets. At least you'll get $20 each for them and you'll get to learn what the market wants. But best of all you won't get ripped off.

After I began uploading pictures I started tossing this up. Sure I wouldn't mind small companies etc using them, but it would be pretty, well, crushing to see a situation like you describe. Haven't decided whether to use this place or not yet. I'd never put my best images on, and the ones I have are reasonably generic, so it's less of a thing.

[mudder]

G'day,
I remember seeing a discussion thread somewhere about this and found this link below that raised some interesting views etc...

I'm not that interested in doing it and, to be honest, primarily as I doubt if any of mine would sell, but some of the images I see here are worthy of great framed prints that I would expect would sell, I spose it gets down to exposure (excuse the pun)... Maybe for the sort of shots that you're genuinely not interested in keeping otherwise, the interesting ones that you may never wish to do anything with... The top sellers seem to be nothing that I would keep if I'd taken them...

Dunno if it's of any help, but found this thread to be interesting and enlghtening too...

http://www.photosig.com/go/forums/read?id=219188

Cheers,
Mudder

[pippin88]

As a favour, could you guys have a glance through a gallery of the photos I've uploaded and give me an opinion if any are better than 'stock' photo quality.

http://www.pixspot.com/thumbnails.php?album=164

[BBJ]

Yeh ok i have seen these as well, and yeh well 20cents is bugger all i think.
I sold some more photos tonite i have an order to go to Adelaide next week of a motorbike rider i have pics of and well maybe i am selling to cheap.
2 pics i will make $28 on them after printing so yeh maybe it pays to have a look around and see what market you can break into maybe, who knows i was aproached yesterday while at the airport to take photos of this blokes new plane with him posing for some of the shots and is a managing director of an insurance company.
I guess right place at right time.

[Onyx]

I wonder how many hopefuls sign up, upload and have their images used for all sorts of commercial purposes but fail to reach the required threshold for a payout. In essense, the stock house is reaping the financial benefits from the hard labour of photographers and wannabe photogs worldwide.

Just reading the link from Mudder - the stock agency issue aside, I'm glad I frequent this civilised forum instead of that one! Even though this forum has experienced an explosive growth in members and number of posts, it remains a pleasant experience to trawl thru the threads.

[pippin88]

That's a serious concern of mine Onyx, not only on my part (as in me making the threshold) but the fact that is how these places reap in a lot of cash.

EDIT: After having a proper think about it, I've withdrawn all my photos, and don't think I'll follow this path before looking at other ways to flog my work for a better deal.

[redline]

try http://pro.corbis.com/ they have a much better set-up with image usuage rights and higher prices as well.

[ajo43]

I'm going to put some of my very average shots on and just see what happens. I don't even care if I don't get any money from it I'm more interested in seeing if someone wants to pay for my work.

I know that the website is profiting from my efforts but my efforts are not major ones and I won't put any of my keepers on.

Even if I earned US$75 this would make me that little bit closer to a 70-200.

I don't have the time to sell my photos properly. I'm just an amateur with another job so what these sites offer is a (small) chance to make some money with little additional effort. To be honest, if one of my crappy pics made a highway billboard I'd be quite chuffed, even if I only got 20c for it.

[MHD]

I think that is the attitude to take...

Boy they are bloody slow at reviewing them...

[MHD]

sorry to drag this one up from the deep past...
But how are people doing?

[rokkstar]

Yeah, I would be interested to see how people are going.

It wouldnt be a bad idea then to make a site that sells stock photogrpahy and is controlled by us, the D70 users.
There seems to be a need for decent shots everywhere.
Why dont we all get together, host a site, contribute to it, sell the shots, and get some money?
A percentage goes towards server fees etc?

Dunno, just an idea I had walking around my mind.

[ajo43]

I've only uploaded a few of my most average shots and haven't earned a cent yet. I'm not really surprised because I keep all my 'keepers' to myself.

[MHD]

I've uploaded a few... None of my real keepers...

have gone for walk arounds and some times I see something that suits the genre and shoot and upload it...
Up to 7.07USD so far with these images
http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery.mhtml?id=3356