If you love photography, or if you like to draw and create images with Photoshop or Illustrator, then you could make money by selling your photos. In the past, only professionals and people with direct contact with customers were able to sell photos and images; nowadays, however, with the help of the internet and, specifically, through microstock and macrostock agencies, almost everyone can sell their photos and images; the only requirement is that they meet the specific quality standards of stock photography agencies.
Steps
Step 1. Make sure you own the copyright for each image you copy, modify or sell
Step 2. Select the stock photo agencies you want to sell your photos to
Step 3. Once you have selected the agency, create your account
Generally, registration with these agencies is free.
Step 4. Before uploading your photos, check the specific quality requirements
Dreamstime, for example, requires a size of at least 3 Mega Pixels. In addition, photographs of well-defined commercial subjects, easily marketable creative compositions and a good technical level in terms of color, definition and light are generally preferred. Basically, Dreamstime favors the generic essence of an image. This means that some photos rejected by Dreamstime may instead be accepted by other agencies.
Step 5. Register on different agencies
In fact, there is a good chance that your photos will be rejected by the first agency; therefore register, as well as on Dreamstime, also on other agencies such as, for example, freedigitalphotos.net, shutterstock, or fotolia.com.
Step 6. Once accepted, your photos are ready to be sold
Step 7. Since there are thousands of images for sale on the internet, it is advisable to advertise your photos
For example, you can publish photos rejected by agencies on morguefile.com, allowing them to be used for free. This is a bit like distributing samples of a product for free, before selling it. Furthermore, it could also be used to promote your image as a photographer; for example, you can create your own profile on morguefile.com, by inserting a link to your photos for sale.
Advice
- Before registering on the stock photo agency websites, always check the "Terms and Conditions" and FAQ sections.
- If you want to earn more, choose the agencies that pay the most for individual photos, such as Getty Images, Corbis, photo.com, and alamy.com. However, these may require photographs with stricter minimum quality requirements, and therefore, unless you are a professional, the chances of your photos being rejected may be higher.
Warnings
- Make sure you have the copyright, or permission for commercial use, of the images you upload to stock photo agency websites to avoid copyright infringement. There are different levels of copyright: some only allow copying and distribution, but not sale and commercial use; if it says "some rights reserved", it is your duty to check what is allowed and what is not. It may be useful to visit the Creative Commons site, which is one of the best sources available on copyright matters; here the differences between the different levels of copyright and use rights are explained.
- Some agencies, such as Dreamstime, offer a bonus if the photos are granted exclusively (i.e. not published at other agencies). Before selecting this option, check the exclusivity conditions in the "Terms and Conditions" section.
