
What type of stock photographs sell well?
Probably the best way to get a good idea of what kind of stock images sell is simply to look for images that have been used around you. Images in magazines and brochures, images in displays and advertisements, images in text books and on websites.
Which stock photography pays the most?
1. Alamy. With over 60 million images, Alamy is the largest stock photo website, but they also pay well too. Photographers earn 50% of every sale, and aren't restricted to selling exclusively with Alamy.
Can you make good money selling stock photos?
In general, stock photos earn approximately 25-45 cents per image, per month. This obviously depends on many factors, including how many agencies you upload to, your skill in keywording, and the uniqueness of the images.
What images sell best on Shutterstock?
Stock Photo Secrets Shop Most Downloaded Photos in 2018#1 – Business Meeting in Open Plan Office. ... #2 – Office Table with Four People Hands Working. ... #3 – Happy Mother and Baby Laying on a Meadow. ... #4 – Businesswoman Holding a Plant Crop. ... #5 – Wood Board Texture. ... #6 – Businesspeople Smiling in Open Plan Office.More items...
How much do Shutterstock pay for photos?
Shutterstock pays you 25 to 38 cents every time one of your images is downloaded, based on your earnings tier. The on demand plan lets customers purchase an image pack under the standard or enhanced license. These images must be downloaded within a year of the purchase date.
What stock photos are in demand?
Images that have strong leading lines will continue to be in demand for stock photography. Photos that capture relaxing scenes like beaches, snow-capped trees and fields of flowers will be the most popular.
What does 500px pay for photos?
There's no cost to submit your photos for Licensing through 500px, but you will take something home from each sale. In fact, you'll earn 60% of your net sales if you license your photos exclusively through 500px—this means that they aren't available for sale anywhere else.
How much should I sell my photos for?
The cost of selling image rights should depend on your level of work, labor, resources, photography experience, marketing, and terms of use. In general, you can get anywhere between $20 to $50.
What is stock photography?
Stock photography is a business that supports businesses. The most successful photographers are the ones who create socially-relevant art that has high commercial value. They succeed because they understand markets and the needs of buyers. In the end, stock photography is a form of marketing.
Why is it rare to find a commercially licensed photo of a crowd?
It's rare to find a commercially-licensable photo of a crowd because the photographer would need a model release for each person in the image. I got lucky. No one in this photo is recognizable thanks to some magical combination of shallow focus and where the crowd was looking. On top of that, the image is generic and it appears in articles about baseball, football and soccer.
Why are visual solutions salable worldwide?
Visual solutions like these are salable worldwide because the concepts are universal. Technical factors like composition, exposure and focus are prerequisites, but they are not the key selling point.
Should stock photo agencies invest in AI?
Stock photo agencies should consider investing in AI to improve their search engine algorithms. At heart, this means mapping photos to concepts.
Can stock photographers sell their photos?
June 22, 2019. photography. Professional stock photographers don't reveal their trade secrets very often. That's because photography is a dog-eat-dog business with a low barrier to entry. Anyone with a half-decent digital camera (or smartphone) can sell photos online. But, only a fraction of those millions of photographers make a living this way ...
Is a stock photo buyer in the market for art?
Even if an image's artistic merit could be reduced to some objective score, the typical stock photo buyer isn't in the market for art: He or she is trying to drive business value .
Can forest images be used as background?
Forest industries and environmental organizations may have use for this kind of images, and it may work well as a background image too. It can have many different types of usage. I think so maybe that’s why it’s selling so well.
Is the original image from 2014 sold?
This is another old image from 2014. The original image never sold, but after I removed all logos and trademarks in Photoshop and uploaded it for commercial usage, it started to make money.
Is the Milky Way a separate photo?
The Milky Way is a separate photo and has been added in post-processing. If you go on Stock Photography forums to ask opinions of doing these kinds of images sell, the answer would be something like it to be a beautiful image but it may be too artistic and would probably do better on Print-On-Demand sites.
Why are stock photography websites so popular?
Stock photography websites are perfect because they take off the workload from you. You can make money just by sharing your portfolio.
How important is stock photography?
First, they sell your work for you. Once you upload the photos, all you have to do is sit back and watch your profits grow.
What is istock photo?
iStock photo is Getty Images’ microstock branch. It’s a great place to sell stock photos if you are just starting because it’s a well-known site.
How much royalty does iStock pay?
The royalty payment starts at 15% per download. It can increase to 45%, depending on your photos’ popularity. If a customer purchases an image using their subscription credits, you only receive the 15%. If you are into exclusivity, iStock photo will give you between 22-45%.
What is Adobe stock?
Fotolia (now Adobe Stock) is another microstock photography website . It represents over 57 million images. Adobe repurchased this site in 2014, integrating it into its creative cloud service. Here, you can receive royalties of between 20 and 46%.
What is Etsy for photography?
Etsy is the biggest marketplace on the internet for handmade products. For photography, the items you can sell can be physical prints or digital downloads. Most of the products are unique, and a lot are one-off items that the creators won’t make again.
How many images does Shutterstock have?
Shutterstock houses 184 million images and 91 million videos. They have been enjoying steady growth in sales since its founding in 2003. In 2017, people downloaded 172,000,000 images from their website.
How much does a stock photo make?
A good stock photo earns around 24-45 cents per month which doesn’t seem like a lot of money. But, bear in mind that this is per image and if you have a lot of good photos for sale it can be quite lucrative.
What is a stock photography website?
A stock photography website is a platform where you can sell stock photos online. As a photographer, you simply upload your photos and let your chosen platform sell them for you.
What is Adobe Stock?
Adobe Stock was formerly known as Fotolia. This is a microstock photo website that hosts more than 57 million images online. Adobe acquired Fotolia back in 2014 to integrate the site with their new (at the time) creative cloud service.
Why upload photos to stock photo site?
It’s tempting to upload many types of photos to a stock photo site to improve your chances of a sale. But, if you focus on a particular topic that interests you it can be beneficial for your career. It’s easier to get noticed if you’re the go to person for a specific type of image and this is how you get repeat business.
Why do advertisers take pictures with the highest resolution?
When you take photos as the highest resolution and upload them to a stock photo site you increase the chances of securing a sale.
How to maximize chances of getting photos sold?
If you want to maximize your chances of getting some photos sold check out what ’s selling. The trending section of any stock photo site should give you plenty of inspiration to take marketable photos.
How long does it take to get paid for Adobe stock?
One of the best things about this site is that your commissions are paid immediately. This is unlike many other sites where you have to meet a predetermined cashout threshold or wait 30 days. Around four million users buy images at Adobe Stock regularly, so it’s a great place to sell your stock photos.
How many royalty free photos are there on Shutterstock?
Shutterstock is another popular name in the world of stock photography. It offers an impressive 270 million royalty-free images to its clients.
How many royalty free images are there on Depositphotos?
At the moment Depositphotos is the home of over 100 million high-quality royalty-free images which are divided into the following categories: Photos, Illustrations, Vector Art, Backgrounds, Editorial & News images. It also includes the option of uploading and selling HD videos.
What is istock photography?
iStock is another popular name in the stock photography industry. As such, it can provide a good platform for displaying your images (and of course a better chance of selling).
How many images are there on Yay Images?
Yay Images provides over 12 million stock images, vectors, and videos, sourced directly from 18,000 photographers from over 145+ countries. It offers text space search, in-browser editor, celebrity images and more.
How many assets does Getty Images have?
Getty Images is undoubtedly a beast on the contemporary stock photography market, with an astonishing number of assets in its gallery: more than 200 million. It’s also one of the oldest stock sites, operating since 1995.
What is Cavan Images?
Cavan Images is a great new entry on the market and it supports the idea that every good story begins with a strong image.
How much do contributors make on stock market?
The contributors are allowed to set their own prices and earn 70% of each sale (which is honestly quite a lot, keeping in mind that commissions on most other stock sites vary from 15% to 50%).
What companies are stock photo websites?
The following companies are our partners in Stock Photo Websites: Getty Images, Shutterstock, iStock, and Adobe Stock.
What is stock photography?
Modern stock photography generally aims to convey a specific feeling, rather than simply depicting various subjects or brands.
What is AP image?
AP Images is the stock photo branch of the Associated Press. As such, it should come as no surprise that they offer some of the best editorial stock footage. They also include creative photos, as well as vector images, and illustrations for commercial use. Though their website may not be as flashy as other stock photo sites, they nevertheless lay everything out in a very structured, easy-to-navigate fashion which makes them stand out against the vast majority of competitors.
What is TONL stock photo?
TONL is an American stock photo website that focuses on accurate depictions of people of color in stock media. While not a hard rule across the board, many stock photos— especially those of a corporate nature—show groups of people from diverse ethnic backgrounds standing around office spaces in stilted, artificial poses to showcase the general concept of “diversity.”
What does size matter in stock photo?
When it comes to stock photo libraries, size matters. The more images a website has, the more likely you are to find the right one for your needs.
What is Death to Stock?
Death to Stock is, per their own words, “an artist-owned co-op” whose mission is the elimination of “cheesy” stock images from the internet at large. While the mission statement itself is a bit extreme—and almost certainly tongue-in-cheek—they do stand by it, as they aim to deliver over 50 brand-new images every month, closely tailored to match each of their clients’ taste.
When were stock photos first used?
Ever since the first stock photo library was established in the 1920s —and likely before then—people have been using pictures as a way to communicate what their business is about to the general public.
What does a stock image represent?
These images should represent an accurate and empowered depiction of people in various stages of life.
Why are portraits so popular?
Portrait images are always popular on stock, especially when they represent trending communities, occupations, and lifestyles. An example of this is during the coronavirus crisis, where we saw a rise in searches for powerful portraiture of nurses and first responders battling the crisis on the frontlines. Other ideas that relate to this include grocery store workers and delivery personnel. Consider creating portraits of people that tell the uniqueness of their individual story.
Why upload multiple images into a collection?
Rather than upload one image, consider uploading a set of images into a collection to tell the full story of that shoot. This allows customers on stock to purchase multiple images out of a single shoot, telling a more cohesive story on their marketing channels. Collections of images should include various perspectives including vertical and horizontal orientation, plus closeups and wide shots with more white space for text.
What does "family" mean in photography?
It means depicting families of various ages and living circumstances. There is no one kind of mother, no one kind of friend, no one kind of family. Create images that showcase the diversity of ages in all stages of life. Represent all ages in your images. Image by Focus and Blur.
Is Shutterstock stock?
It’s not stock, it’s Shutterstock.
Can you shoot houses for stock?
If you have access to properties , buildings, churches, and homes that you can shoot, this gives you a unique opportunity to capture incredible images for stock. The only caveat? You need to make sure you can get a property release signed.
Is it worse to use fake images or over-edited images?
It’s as the saying goes, less is more. For photography, over-edited images and inserting fake elements to your images limit their use for customers. There’s nothing worse than finding an image you love on a stock marketplace, only to see an intrusive filter on top of the image that the customer can’t remove.

How Can You Earn Money from Photographs?
Stock Photography Websites
- Stock photography sites are significant in two ways. First, theysell your workfor you. Once you upload the photos, all you have to do is sit back and watch your profits grow. But apart from helping you sell photos online, stock photo agencies also provide information on current trends. In other words, they give you ideas and hints on what images ha...
Alternatives to Stock Photography Platforms
- You don’t need to rely on stock agencies to sell your photos. There are tons of other options out there that you can try as well. The sites on our list greatly vary in the services they offer. So feel free to go through them and figure out which one works best for you.
Conclusion
- Stock photography websites are perfect because they take off the workload from you. You can make money just by sharing your portfolio. You can try all the websites we mentioned in this article. Most of them are non-exclusive. That means you can add the same image to different platforms and widen your audience. Non-stock websites will make you more money per image b…