Stock Photography. Is it even worth it?

Jaysmark

Jaysmark

Senior Member
I am new to stock photography and spent most of this weekend applying or submitting to about a dozen websites. I guess I will have answers in a few days. I'm curious to see if you guys have a lot of experience and will share yours stories? Anybody cashing royalty checks monthly? The process seems tedious and i'm just wondering if it will pay off if I grind my portfolio on to these sites. Thanks.
 
Jaysmark

Jaysmark

Senior Member
Alright, maybe I didn't word that correctly and it made me sound lazy. That was not what I meant. I just would like to know If am using my free time wisely. I have about one full day off and work 60 hour weeks. I value every single hour and really don't know anything about stock photography. That's all I was saying. Not very nice olegeiser. I work hard in every facet of my life and am not looking for a handout.
 
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rocketman122

Senior Member
Hows your photography skill. Theres a lot of crap for stock photo. If you can bring quality then i think you can have success. If you stabd out more than the average then yes. Otherwise let the mediocre fight over the pennies
 
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Elliot87

Senior Member
Jaysmark said:
Alright, maybe I didn't word that correctly and it made me sound lazy. That was not what I meant. I just would like to know If am using my free time wisely. I have about one full day off and work 60 hour weeks. I value every single hour and really don't know anything about stock photography. That's all I was saying. Not very nice olegeiser. I work hard in every facet of my life and am not looking for a handout.
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I might be wrong but I don't think he was questioning your character or work ethic. I think he was just making the point that you're likely to get paid less from stock photography than someone on benefits would get. In other words it's probably not worth your time.

Personally I have no idea if it's worthwhile and it is something I've been thinking about too.
 
Jaysmark

Jaysmark

Senior Member
Maybe I did take that wrong. Its literally because I know nothing about stock photography. Well I guess it cant hurt to put some effort into it and see what happens. If anything I guess a few sales would look good on a resume.
 
SkvLTD

SkvLTD

Senior Member
Basically if you can shoot the quantity of QUALITY of editorial level and style shots on regular basis to actually make a nice penny off of stock website, you'd be easily making triple digits solely from photography in the first place.

We had an older thread here with a detailed breakdown of earnings, but once you have at least 1000 solid and active shots uploaded to these websites.
 
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Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
i must admit that this is something I have thought about some too I shoot so much every week just for me and a few of them are actually pretty decent. I might try for a little while and see if it amounts to anything. Right now the only thing I do with most of my work is post it on Facebook and here.

Now which site is a good place to start?
 
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rexy

New member
I know someone that makes about $1,000 a month from their stock photography. Can't remember how many images she said she had submitted to different stock sites but she did say she didn't have that many. To me it seemed like an awful lot. What didn't impress me was that her house was full and I mean full of props that she's used over the years. If she purchases some new props some of them can take a very long time before she breaks even on their cost. By props I mean anything from table cloths to skeletons to a turtle. I came across another fellow that shoots mainly agriculture scenes. I'm not sure how well he gets paid but I know one of his photos was used on a book cover. Not sure it paid very well but it sounds good.
 
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RocketCowboy

Senior Member
From what I've heard, most "successful" photographers with stock photography are using it as a secondary source ... i.e. they already got paid for a wedding session, and while shooting the wedding they submitted some of the images to stock sites. They do spell that practice out in their wedding photography contracts, and the stock images do not contain people (no model release needed), but for capturing details of the wedding event itself it seems like a potential 2nd use for some of those images.

I don't think I would want to focus primarily on stock photography for paying the bills, but as a supplemental income from a shoot that was already funded, maybe so.
 
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Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
I have thought about stock photography since I shoot all the time just for fun but not sure who or where. What are some of the stock photography sites that might be good to start with? Anyone have any experience with any of them?

For me it would just be a NAS fund.
 
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RocketCowboy

Senior Member
Don Kuykendall said:
I have thought about stock photography since I shoot all the time just for fun but not sure who or where. What are some of the stock photography sites that might be good to start with? Anyone have any experience with any of them?
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The main ones I'm aware of are Getty Images, Adobe Stock, and Shutterstock. I haven't tried my hand with any of them, but they have name recognition with me.
 
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elis12

New member
Jaysmark said:
I am new to stock Special Event Photography and spent most of this weekend applying or submitting to about a dozen websites. I guess I will have answers in a few days. I'm curious to see if you guys have a lot of experience and will share yours stories? Anybody cashing royalty checks monthly? The process seems tedious and i'm just wondering if it will pay off if I grind my portfolio on to these sites. Thanks.
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Hello,
You can share some of your pics ?
 
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VicVideopIC

Senior Member
I have been doing it stock video for about 4 years.
I spend very little time on it these days, but it pays the rent (in London), the bills and part of the booze (I like a few drinks...).
I have done a bit of stock photography as well in the past.
This is a tongue in cheek video I made about the earning possibility in stock photography:
https://youtu.be/VRulE4nXqFg
 
Robin W

Robin W

Senior Member
I think I am like Don, I take a lot of pictures and mostly put them on Facebook and here (on Nikonites). I would like to share them and see if I ever end up seeing them again and if I made a few pennies with it great. So if someone was to try some stock photography for fun, what sites would those of you who have done stock photography recommend?
 
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