Not so long ago i wrote post What is stock photography, and how can i use it in my project, if you are looking for stock photography as a buyer. But is there still possibility to earn money selling stock?
Well yes, there is. How much you can earn is a huge topic to discuss, as it depends a lot of your skills, gear that you use and most important how much time you can put into it. It is not just picking a subject and snap some random shoots, upload and done. It needs much more than only that.
As a mother with 3 children ( curently my youngest one is only 3 months old) i really dont have lot of time for that but i decided to give it a try. So i will try to tell you what i learned and my beginner mistakes so you can avoid them.
But, first of all here is a list of stock agencies where i am selling my stock photos and videos:
Now lets start with the mistakes.
1. Snapping random photos
Taking your camera with you where ever you go and snapping some random photos is good way to improve your skills in photography, but very bed idea if you actually want to be able to sell those photos. Of course if you are able to do so, do it, but before you take a shoot, think about how someone can use that photo. Think about putting a concept into it. Try to find angle for a shoot that is not commonly used. You can take a photo of your cat,for example, just a random shoot and upload on stock sites. But will it sell? What your photo has to tell to buyer. I am a cat... With stock photography you newer know if it is going to sell, but if you put a bit of effort to try to catch some concept photo with your cat as a subject the chances of selling are much higher. For example, try shooting your photo from low angle when eating cat food. Maybe you can sell it as a photo for packaging of a cat food. As a meter of a fact, try to record short video as well of your cat waiting for food to be putted in its pot. Maybe it will sell for some tv comercial.
This was not a very good example as there are a lot of cat photos and it will be hard to sell it but i think you got my point.
2. Not doing research of what is selling
If you really want to sell your photo, you need to make some research of what is in demand. Im not telling you to stop uploading what you already have, but instead to find some time to create photos that agencies actually need. For example if you check shutterstock short list, most probably you will be able to find some interested subject that you can produce.
Try to think about seasonal images, holidays that are coming, big events all over the news ( good exapmle Brexit) and try to present that concept in your images.
3. Not retouching or overdoing it
If you are extremely good photographer and you have proper lighting well maybe you can avoid retouching. But every professional photographer is editing his photos before giving it to a client and that is what stock agencies expect as well. If you think that your photo is perfect just like that, than upload it like that. But almost all the time you will see that there is some noise, or background is too busy, or your subject just dont stand out. Also maybe the colors are not so well captured and it need some color correction. Maybe one part of image is over exposed and other is to dark? Even that can be fixed in post processing. Try to take best that you can from your photo and give it a life. But please, dont go to far.
4. Bed keywording
The most important thing in stock photography and a harder part is keywording. If you do not insert proper keywords your photo will be hard or even impossible to find in search engines. There are some tools that can help you with it like keyword.io.
Try to use as much keywords that are actually presenting your photo. Include time of the day when photo was taken. If it was outdoors or indoors. Is it isolated object or there is some action in it. Can this photo be used in concept and which one? is there people inside, is it landscape, object... Include what kind of shoot was that, portrait, close up, macro... all dose keywords can be applied for all photos and it help your photo to be found. But most important thing is to describe what actually that photo contain.Put your most important keywords first.
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