Earnings on photo stocks: how to earn, how much and is it really possible for a beginner to earn money ?! Photo stocks and earnings on the service What you need to make money on stock photography.

When a photographer begins to think about increasing the income from his photography, then his eyes will certainly be fixed in the direction of stock photography. In my opinion, all photographers go through the stage of considering photo stocks as an additional or main income and trying to make money on them. The popularity of photo stocks among beginners is extremely high due to their attractive business model.

What attracts beginners to photostocks and photobanks?!

First of all, with its supposedly passive income model. It would seem, upload photos to the stock and sit, count the money. But is it?!

It has long been noticed that for successful earnings on a photo stock, you just need a huge portfolio of very high-quality photos, about several thousand. And all those successful income stories that you have already read before you got to my photoblog are silent about one essential fact: photos must be of commercial value.

Here it is highly desirable to understand what photo stocks are. There are two options for understanding its essence: selling your photos and someone else's business. Ask yourself a reasonable question: If any photo stock is a successful business of its owner, then what approach will this businessman follow?! Of course, he will sell what another business buys.

From here we can draw a simple and obvious conclusion: photo stocks need those photos that are in demand by some business. And so it can be argued that photo stocks simply do not need all your photos of cats, flowers, surrounding landscapes and girlfriend Lyudka. These photos have no commercial value, and it is not photo stocks that determine the demand for them, but a certain business and its customers. The better you understand this, the easier it will be for you to start working with stocks.

Welcome to the real world, Neo.

How much can you earn from photo stocks?

I'm afraid I will disappoint you, but the amount of your earnings is unlikely to be large. Most likely, it will be several tens of dollars per year. And this phenomenon has its own explanation.

What is your income from photo stocks? Of course, from the number of photographs sold. Relatively speaking, each photo costs a few cents (0.20 - 0.33 cents) and now, imagine the number of photos that you need to sell to earn a conditional one hundred dollars. This is approximately 500 photographs.

It would seem not so much, but these are 500 photographs in the face of fierce competition and an endlessly falling demand for them. Look at the following photo:

How many times have you seen pictures like this on websites?! Yes, they are everywhere. Please note that the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet is using foreign persons on its sites with might and main, and this can mean several things:

Higher quality photos of foreign photographers
More top models
Photo stock clients have their own requirements and it is pointless to catch a wave of success with "our" faces

By the way, this photo has absolute commercial value. It will sell well as it can be used to illustrate almost any business. Ask yourself a simple question: Will I be able to take photos of this quality and content?! By the way, regarding the content, photostock inspectors may have questions about your photos. I have heard that some topics, like the photo of the call center above, are already so full of the same type of photos that the inspectors simply do not let such photos go for sale.

So. The first thing you should evaluate if you want to make money on a stock photo is the commercial component of your photos and the quality of their performance, relative to what is already on sale on the photo stock. Believe me, the more honest you are with yourself, the more time and effort you will save yourself.

And now, the funniest part. If you can ensure stock quality for your photos, then you'll already be a pretty professional photographer whose schedule will be full months offline. And it will be easier for you to make money offline than waiting for someone to buy a couple of your stock photos.

Is it really possible to make money on photo stocks?

Now, I would like to tell you a little about the subscription system that exists on photo stocks, and how it will interfere with your earning. One way or another, all photo stocks offer a subscription, under which you can purchase a limited or unlimited number of photos for a certain amount per month or year. It would seem that it's okay, but look at the screenshots of photostock subscriptions:

All you have to do is divide the cost of a subscription by the number of photos in that subscription and then calculate your 30-50%. You will receive the amount that you can earn by selling one photo by subscription. Impressive?

What does this mean for a beginner?!

This means that the crowd of subscribers will buy photos at a big discount and you will earn less money from these sales. Of course, all those customers who buy photos in bulk will use subscriptions, because it costs them less. As I said, photo stocks are a business, and business is primarily interested in money, not your photos. I don't think you should expect any action from photo stocks aimed at increasing the direct income of photographers. There are many photographers, and photo stocks have less and less money.

I remember the epic threads on the stock photography forums when stock photography introduced this system. I understand and sympathize with stock photographers, but then the howl was up to the sky.

In addition, we should not forget that there are already photographers on photo stocks who have made a name for themselves and you will have to compete with them. For example: one of the most famous stock photographers, Dane Yuriy Arkus. On the Internet you can find his interview, a list of the photographic equipment used and the amount of his earnings. He uses professional models, he has several assistants, there is Hasselblad and yes, he is a millionaire and your competitor. Do you have everything that Arkus has and others like him? I doubt.

What conclusions can be drawn? I guess the following:

Photostock policy is not aimed at generating income for photographers
High competition from well-known and promoted photographers
Competitors already have more opportunities, both financially and technically
Prices for photographs are shifting in the direction of their reduction

Of course, you can object to me, they say, there are photographers who earn on stocks and earn quite a lot. Sure, but there aren't that many of these photographers, and most stock photographers do more than they actually do.

And therefore, when I read another success story about how an aspiring photographer managed to earn a lot of money by uploading a hundred photos to a photo stock, I tend to strongly doubt its veracity. There is only one way to be successful at stock photography, if you treat it like a full-time job. Hard and boring work.

Stock photography and where to start?!

Oh, it's quite easy. It is enough to take several hundred photos of a commercial theme, choose a description and keywords for them, and upload them to a photo stock. After that, it is sad to observe very weak or absent sales at all.

Let me share one interesting observation. A photographer, posting his photos on a photo stock, does not earn money here and now. He is simply lending money to his own business, looking forward to future success that may not be.

Before you start working with stocks, please take a piece of paper with a pen, sit down and start writing down all your potential expenses. It is necessary to take into account not only the cash costs for paying for the same models, but also the time losses for the search for these models. Add in equipment depreciation, electricity, the cost of photo retouching, and the cost of administering it all.

As a result, you will get a certain amount, which will mean how much you will credit your expected income from the photo stock. My friend, having done similar calculations, came to the conclusion that it is more profitable for him to photograph for documents. I can't say he was wrong.

And if after all, I have not convinced you of the futility of this lesson, then go for it. I sincerely hope you succeed.

*** Everything that is written refers to the microstock model. This is when one photo is sold many times, but for mere pennies.

I cite in the article the best photo stocks for making money for beginners and instructions on how to make money on photos on the Internet. Now we are all photographers a little, we like to take beautiful photos and post them on Instagram, Vkontakte, Facebook. But few of us think about the fact that now emotional photos are in trend, and not staged photographs taken by non-professionals. There is a big commercial demand for amateur photos!

Start posting your photos not only on social networks, but also in photo banks (photo stocks) and EARN! The most successful photos can be downloaded from photo stocks more than 10,000 times. For each download you will receive from $0.2! In total it is $2000 and only for ONE (!) photo.

So, where and how to sell photos on the Internet, how to make money on photos?

Need a reflex camera with interchangeable lens. Digital compact cameras (greater than 6 megapixels) or phone with a good camera are also suitable, but it is important to follow the rules of proper shooting and processing.

Need fast internet. Since high-quality photos are large, you will need unlimited high-speed Internet. Plus, the photo will need to be uploaded to several photobanks.

You need to register in several photobanks. The highest earnings are at Shutterstock, but you need to pass an exam. Getting into Dreamstime, Fotolia, Depositphotos is easier, but the earnings are lower. With a Royalty Free license, you can sell the same pictures in different photo stocks. I recommend these MOST PROFITABLE, well-known and popular photobanks for making money for beginners:

It is better to know English, but you can use Google translator. By the way, thanks to the work with photobanks, the vocabulary will be replenished.

Other helpful articles:

2. Registration in photobanks.

How to sell stock photos? To get started, you need to register.

I recommend that you carefully enter your registration data.(in English), because registration in a photobank is actually signing an agreement electronically for the sale of your photos (as well as videos and vector images).

Identification will be required, as photo banks will pay you money. For identification, you will need to send a scan of your passport, international passport or driver's license. In Shutterstock, identification is required upon registration, in other photo banks - upon the first payment of money. Shutterstock requires a scan of your passport.

3. How to pass the exam on Shutterstock and other photo banks?

You must only take the exam at Shutterstock and Depositphotos. I recommend that you take the selection of exam photos seriously. It is better to take new pictures of good quality with an interesting plot. It is almost impossible to pass the exam with a poor quality photo. For the Shutterstock exam, you need to select 10 best photos, while Depositphotos - 5.

Exam at Shutterstock ( shutterstock) .

You will need to upload your top 10 photos(either vector images or 3D graphics) are better than different topics, with different ideas and plots. It is important that the picture has sufficient lighting, good exposure and focus.

If 7 of your pictures are approved - you passed the exam and now you can upload your photos to the site in unlimited quantities for sale. Approved 7 works will be available for sale the next day.

If more than 4 shots do not pass the approval, the exam is failed. The re-examination is only possible after a month.

An illustrator with a good background in vector or 3D graphics programs will find it easier to pass the exam than a photographer who submits their own vector images.

The main reasons for failing the exam.

Noise, artifacts - poor image quality.

Most often, the reason is the high sensitivity of the matrix and strong file compression. To avoid this, it is better to take pictures at the minimum camera sensitivity (ISO). It is important that the image is correctly exposed so that you do not have to increase the brightness (as you increase the brightness, noise and artifacts appear). Please note that some cameras automatically add sharpening, this also leads to increased artifacts.

Conclusion: you need to set the minimum value of sharpness (Sharpen) in your camera. Or shoot in RAW, and during the conversion you will need to remove the sharpness to zero. It will be necessary to increase the sharpness only at the end of photo processing, and then selectively (for example, for a blue sky you cannot add sharpness, but it is desirable to add it for eyes and eyelashes). If the camera is not very good, then you can reduce noise and artifacts by reducing the image to 4 MPx.

The photo has no commercial value.

When choosing a subject, consider whether the photo can be used for commercial purposes. Plus, you should not send the same type of similar photos, pets or trees from different angles for the exam. Focus on the most popular photos on photobanks - these are the pictures that buyers need. Take original and creative photos.

Wrong keywords.

For each picture, you will need to pick up 7-50 keywords (keywords). But for the exam just do not need to write too many keywords. The ten most important ones are enough - words for the main objects in the picture and their description. If the photo is accepted, then add more keywords up to 50 to increase sales.

No Model Release (model release).

If there are people in the photo and their faces are visible, then there must be permission from these people. This release is called "Model Release". There is nothing complicated in its design and the document does not oblige to anything, the photo bank does not check it, but simply wants to protect itself from possible claims. Download the Model Release form from the photo bank, enter the name of the photographer in block letters (photographer name) and the name (names) of the people in the photo (model name), fill in all the data (address, phone number) of the model and photographer, indicate the date (shoot date), put a signature (signature) plus the signature (witness) of the witness (any of your acquaintances). Scan or take a photo and upload in JPG format. If there are children in the photo, permission from their parents is required.

IMPORTANT! You will receive the biggest earnings from the sale of your photos on the Shutterstock PHOTOBANK. I recommend trying and still pass the exam and get on this stock photo! After all, you will receive 50-70% of earnings from photobanks from Shutterstock!

If you did not pass the exam the first time, know that this happens to many. Try again!

ADVICE. Photo editing is best done in Adobe Photoshop. In it you can make color correction, improve exposure, make a white background, remove shadows, and you can also assign keywords and names to your pictures (File -> File Info). To reduce the noise level, use the separately installed Imagenomic Noiseware Professional plug-in in Adobe Photoshop.

4. Requirements for uploading a photo.

Register and upload your photos. Each of the photobanks has several options for downloading. Detailed descriptions are on their websites. When uploading a photo, you must indicate in English:

Photo title (Title, Image name)- specify a few words;
Photo description (Description)- specify a few words;
Keywords for photos (Keywords)- specify up to fifty keywords;
Photo category (Categories)– select a category from the list.

Keywords (keywords) is the most important parameter. Your sales will depend on the correctness of filling it out, because buyers look for photos mainly by keywords. The more keywords you enter, the more likely your photo will be found and bought.

To select keywords, you need to answer the following questions:

What is shown in the photo?
Who is in the photo?
Where, when, how, what?

After uploading the photos, they will be checked by photobank inspectors. The check takes from several hours, but can last several days. If the photo is approved, it will become available for sale and you will be notified by e-mail. If the inspector finds flaws, such as artifacts, noise, or does not see commercial value in the photo, you will receive a letter with the reasons for refusal. You can send the photo again, correcting the shortcomings.

5. How much can you earn on photo stocks?

When buying a photo, customers use keywords and sort photos by popularity, size, vertical or horizontal orientation, etc. The client pays the photo bank, and the authors receive an average of 50% of the cost of each photo download ($0.25 - $2.50) .

If a client buys a photo for commercial use (calendars, mouse pads, posters, postcards, etc.), then you will be deducted many times more for one photo.

For each image, several smaller sizes are generated at a lower cost. Thus, your earnings depend on the size of the image chosen by the client.

The most successful and popular pictures are downloaded (sold) from 5 to 15 thousand times. Plus, people continue to download (buy) them, which brings excellent earnings to their owner.

If you want to make serious money on photo stocks, then you need to upload about 200 photos per month to each of the photo stocks you will work with, about 10 photos per day. You will upload the same photos to all photo stocks. This way you will increase the number of photos in your portfolio. In the first year, you will earn up to $100 per month. In the second year, when there are several thousand photos in your portfolio, your income will be $400-600 per month and more.

You will start earning passive income. Your photos will start working for you.

6. How to get money from photo stocks?

Photobanks start payouts from $50, and some from $100. You can get your money in the following ways:

Payment system Moneybookers.
Payment system WebMoney.
PayPal payment system.
Name bank check.

In my opinion, the most convenient ways to receive money are WebMoney and the English money transfer system Moneybookers (Moneybookers). The fact is that the PayPal payment system does not work with the CIS countries.

7. Review of photobanks for earnings.

Now there are several dozens of photostocks (photobanks, microbanks) in the world. They take pictures from photographers and sell them online to their clients. But not all photo stocks are successful, so it is better to focus on the 3-5 most popular and most profitable ones.

Shutterstock is the undisputed world leader among microstock photo agencies. On it, photographers, videographers, illustrators, receive the highest profit due to the large number of clients. Pass the exam, provide a scan of your passport for personal identification and work with this photo bank. As a newbie, you will earn $0.25 per download. But all photos are sold here quickly, as the site focuses more on new photos. The amount of payouts will increase with the amount of your earnings (You will receive $0.33 per download when you earn $500). You can receive your money when the amount of earnings reaches $100.

When people have financial problems, they consider any options that allow them to earn additional income. If you are interested in photography, you can make good money on the Internet. For this, there are special services on the network - Photobanks how to make money on pictures, we will figure it out in this article.

Features of earnings

Photobanks are special resources where photographers can sell their work. Users who need high-quality images buy photos, and the author receives a certain amount from each sale. It should be noted that business on photobanks can bring good profit.

Where to begin?

Find a suitable photobank, register and upload your best works;
Choose titles and suitable keywords for them;
Agency employees check the pictures for several days;
If the images pass the test, they are put up for sale.

The most popular photobanks offer to pass an exam. If they pass the test, the author will be able to earn decent money. With a competent approach, such work can become your main source of income.

How much can you earn?

To get a decent income on photobanks, at first, you need to devote a lot of time to this. The most important thing for beginners is to fill out a portfolio. It should contain many high-quality interesting works. It is advisable to upload fresh pictures every day. Before putting up a photo for sale, you need to process them in a graphic editor. And this also takes a lot of time.

At first, earnings will be ridiculous, but over time, everything will work out. Beginners are often interested in how much you can earn on photobanks? From one image, you get a commission of 20-30%. At first glance it may seem that this is very small. But after all, each picture is sold many times, thanks to which you can get about $ 20 daily. It is easy to calculate how much they earn on photobanks per month. It's at least $400.

To earn $100 a day, you need to upload at least 1,000 photos to your portfolio. Professional photographers who have several tens of thousands of works in their portfolio receive more than $20,000 per month.

In addition to making money on photobanks, you can start making custom photobooks. This type of activity will bring a good additional income.

If you want to make good money, you need to take high resolution pictures. You should not upload photos from your phone to popular Russian photo banks to earn money. To work, you need to buy a camera with a good resolution.

Most requested topics:

Cars;
Business;
Sport;
Items;
People;
Tourism.

Before you start working, you must first decide on the subject, as well as carefully analyze the demand in this segment.

How to choose a photobank?

It is advisable to work with foreign photobanks, since our people are not used to paying money for images yet. Of course, there are such clients, but they are very few. But in Europe and America, photographs are bought daily in huge quantities.

In addition, foreign users pay good money for pictures. For one jump, you can be paid 3-5 dollars. But they can be downloaded an unlimited number of times.

The most popular photobanks

Shutterstock. He is the leader in terms of profitability and the number of images sold. To get access to the job, you need to pass an entrance exam. If you fail it, you can only be allowed to retake it after a month. But at the same time, you can retake as many times as you see fit. Such photobanks for beginners will become a reliable foundation in future professional activities;
Istockphoto. This is a service with an entrance exam, which imposes too high requirements on the work. If you want to work with this photo bank, you should not upload low-quality pictures there;
Fotolia. This is a less popular resource. There are no exams on it, but here you will not be able to get a good income. Information about downloads is sent to your email, so a small stable income will be provided;

When you upload your artwork, don't forget to include keyword phrases as these are what buyers are searching for relevant images.

What do you need to work?

First of all, in order to make money on photobanks, you need a good camera. Another important tool is a PC, as well as a certain set of programs. You need to provide constant access to the Internet in order to upload photos at any time. In addition, you will have to work with an image editor. You also need to learn how to make vector drawings.

Persons who have reached the age of 18 can participate in photo selling systems. This is especially true for foreign resources. To register, you will need a scan of your passport or driver's license. If you want to work with foreign resources, you need to know English, you can use a dictionary.

Who buys copyrighted works?

For example, you have your own Internet project and you need unique images for it. Hiring a photographer for these purposes is too expensive, so the owners of web resources prefer to buy photos in a photo bank. Thanks to this, the number of sold images is constantly growing. Liked photos are bought not only by web designers. Some users decorate their homes with them.

Snapshot Requirements

Any photobank of pictures puts forward certain requirements for photographs. Basically, they are almost all the same:

The image must be copyrighted;
The size must be at least 4 MP;
Photo format JPG only;
Photographs should not contain recognizable logos, persons or objects;
Don't forget to fill out the information form - description, keywords, etc.

You should also talk separately about the quality of photos. They are bought for the design of websites, printing of advertising posters, the production of souvenirs and other things. The higher the quality, the more often your work will be downloaded. Remove all unnecessary noise, and fine-tune the colors and sharpness. Images with distorted colors, double outline and other defects are not allowed to be sold.

Do not forget also that the photo should be interesting. Therefore, this process should be approached creatively. Try to beat each image and it will definitely bring you a good profit.

Passive earnings on photo stocks range from $600 per month if there are more than 1000 works in the portfolio. Photos posted on several resources. To advance, you need to get acquainted with popular methods, trends, study pictures of popular stockers.

Features of making money on photobanks

Microstocks are international intermediary catalogs with photos, vector graphics, 3D models, videos, music files. Illustrations and images are in demand among advertising agencies, journalists, designers and individuals.

Making money on photo stocks has its pros and cons.

The essence of the work is as follows: take a photo, upload it, come up with a relevant name and description, pick up keywords, after checking, receive income as it is realized. In the process of preparing images, it is important to follow the rules of shooting and processing.

You will need equipment, preferably a SLR camera with an interchangeable lens. At first, you can use any digital camera from 6 megapixels. Unlimited high speed internet required. In addition, the photographer must be proficient in Photoshop, the artist must be proficient in Corel Draw and Adobe Illustrator.

How to make money on photobanks? Step-by-step instruction

The choice of topics for photos, images. To do this, it is recommended to study stock reports, track customer requests and popular keywords. You can focus on topics in which no one works. At the same time, it is important to remember that visitors purchase images for business and are guided by the commercial value of the product. Topics are always popular: business, professions, family, relationships, travel, sports, holidays.
Registration in photobanks. To generate income, you need to work with 5-6 portals at least.

Popular photo stocks for making money are Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Fotolia, Depositphotos. It is worth paying attention to BigStockPhoto, Crestock, Lori, Istockphoto, CanStockPhoto.

During the registration process, the user actually enters into an agreement with the resource for the right to sell photos, images, videos. Therefore, personal data must be entered correctly and in English. For identification, you must send a scan of your passport, the second document.

Select 5-10 best photos that will be evaluated. Based on the assessment, the censors approve or disapprove of the registration. Photos must meet the following requirements:

respect for copyright (unique photos without logos);
allowed format;
the absence of unforeseen blurs, noise, glare;
high-quality lighting without overexposure and unnecessary shadows;
it is forbidden to increase the size of the image with loss of quality;
Images with people require Model Release.

Many photographers start with simple images of products and merchandise against a solid background.

Passing the exam. The exam system is operated by Shutterstock and Depositphotos. Data photo stocks beneficial for beginners, as they allow you to get the most income. For the exam, 5-10 best photos, images with a variety of topics, ideas, plots are selected. Rules for lighting, focusing, exposure must be observed.

After approval, the photographer receives permission to upload photos in any quantity. If the test fails, it can be retaken in a month. Illustrators who create vector images have an easier time qualifying.

Portfolio preparation. The basis for constant earnings is a portfolio of 100-200 images. It must be constantly updated, adding 5-10 photos daily.

The main reasons for failing an exam

Insufficient image quality, the presence of noise, artifacts. To avoid this, it is recommended to reduce the sensitivity of the camera to a minimum, follow the addition of sharpness and brightness.
Lack of commercial value of the image. It is worth focusing on popular photos, striving for originality, and applying a creative approach.
Wrong keywords. To sell each image, you will need up to 50 keywords, about 7 words are enough for the exam.
No Model Release. Permission is issued on a special form from the website of the photo bank.

Photographers get up to 70% of their earnings thanks to Shutterstock, so you must definitely pass the exam, if it doesn’t work out, retake it many times.

How to post photos for sale?

Resources offer several ways to upload photos. The description for the images is filled in in English, as the main buyers from abroad:

Title, Image name - name of several words;
Description - a description of several words;
Keywords - keywords (up to 50) are the most important thing to increase sales. To determine the "keywords" it is necessary to answer the questions: What and who is shown in the photo, what, where, when and how is it shown?
Categories – photo category.

Verification takes from a couple of hours to several days. After approval, the photo goes on sale, the photographer receives a notification by e-mail. If flaws are found in the work, the user is sent a letter with the reasons for refusal. After correcting the defects, you can place the image again.

How much can you earn on photobanks?

The average income from one high-quality photo per download is from 0.14 to 0.7 $. For popular shots, some photographers get up to $1,000 for high volume sales, or up to $2.50 for a single download. The most popular photos are sold up to 15,000 times. Photobanks take a commission from 30 to 70% of the cost of the image.

The most profitable is the sale of images for commercial purposes, for example, the production of posters, calendars, postcards, mouse pads. To increase revenue, users create several smaller snapshot sizes. Sales peak in the first 6 months after the image is placed.

Stokers achieve an increase in monthly earnings from $100 to $600 by daily replenishment of the portfolio on several resources. In two years, you can bring the number of sold photos to several thousand.

Funds are withdrawn using bank checks, WebMoney, Moneybookers, PayPal.

Conclusion

Beginning photographers should try themselves on simple resources without exams, for example, Dreamtime or Fotolia . To understand how to make money on photostocks, you need to study popular techniques, visualization trends, photobank reports, and in-demand works. After accumulating a portfolio, move on to Shutterstock and other serious platforms.

In the future, a photographer or illustrator can develop a site to sell their work without intermediaries.

Read also: Instagram copyright 12 ratings, average: 4,67 out of 5)

Everyone dreamed of getting paid for doing what they liked to do. Happy are the people who achieve this goal. In this article I will talk about what photobanks and photostocks are and how to make money on the vocation of a photographer. Before I begin, I warn you that this job is not for everyone, as you will have to sell the right to use your photo, and there is no guarantee of a large income. In addition, photo stocks do not always need your creative ideas - alas, high ideas invested in photography are not always in demand. This work is rather for people who know how to catch a beautiful angle and choose or compose a composition.

Photo stocks (sometimes also referred to as photo banks) are photo databases where the author sells his photographs, vector drawings, illustrations and videos. One photo can be sold an unlimited number of times. Such resources are good because there will always be buyers: every company periodically needs to use some images (for example, for advertising brochures) without the risk of copyright infringement: buying a photo, a person acquires the right to use it.

How to make money on photo stocks? Take good photos! The better the quality of the pictures, the more of them and the more diverse they are, the more chances you have to sell them. Unique photographs will always be in demand. Some photo stocks refuse the possibility of posting pictures on the site if they are too banal, that is, there are already too many similar products on the service. On the contrary, if you are selling a photograph that is hard to find, even those who like to take everything from free access will have to spend money and purchase it.

8 best photo stocks

We list the most famous and proven ones, where hundreds of photographers have already found work.

Before I begin, I want to outline the information common to all photo stocks. If the photo shows a close-up of a person who is clearly posing, he is considered a model and you will need to download a Model Release - the consent of the model to sell these pictures. Some photo stocks require a Property Release - the same contract for real estate.

Pictures never appear on photo stocks automatically, they first go through a thorough moderation.

All photo stocks have approximately the same file acceptability criteria: there should not be pornographic content (erotica is usually allowed), it should be a snapshot of another photo, the semantic part of the image should occupy most of it, there should be no noticeable noise when approaching, and the like.

You can only work from the age of 18.

Photostock Shutterstock

This resource is the most famous foreign representative. It sells videos, photos and vector illustrations. In order to work there, you need to go through the standard registration procedure, you will also need to indicate your address and provide a scan of a foreign passport or an international passport.

There is an exam on the resource: you must provide 10 photos on a given topic. The examiner must like 7 of them or you won't be able to work.

The profit received depends on which of the certificates the photo was purchased with. There are two types of certificates, 25-A-Day and On Demand. If it was purchased with the first certificate, you will receive between $0.25 and $0.38 per download. If according to the second - from 0.81 to 2.85. This variation is explained by the fact that, firstly, you can download in different resolutions (and the cost of downloading depends on the resolution), and secondly, on Shutterstock, the amount you receive for one purchase depends on how much you have already earned on this resource. The more money you earn, the more you get per download! The minimum withdrawal amount is $35. The service can be found at.

Adobe Stock photo stock

In order to work here, you will need to go through the standard registration procedure, as well as send a screenshot of an identity document.

The minimum withdrawal amount is $50. They say that sales here are uneven - they don’t buy anything for a week, and sales are very active for another week. By myself I will say that it is rarely sold but aptly, deductions to the authors are large. More details in . Deductions to the author goes in the amount of 33% of the cost.

Photostock Photogenica

Russian photostock. The registration procedure is normal, a scan of the passport is needed. The advantage is that the site is completely in Russian. To start cooperation, you need to send 10 papers for the exam. Works can be sent as 400px previews or links to stocks. You will receive a response by e-mail about passing the exam.

The registration procedure is standard, the application with images is considered within 30 days. Unfortunately, the percentage received from the sale is very small: the author starts with a 15% royalty for a photo and 20% for a video. Payouts are made to a Payoneer card or account. In the pluses of the site, I will attribute the fact that this was the largest stock in its time. The disadvantages include a very tricky interface for uploading and placing files.

Dreamtime

Registration procedure is standard. According to a study by PDN magazine, this resource pays the highest royalties in the entire photo sales industry. The average profit on Dreamstime is from $0.68 to $3, but "bonuses" (for example, acquiring the status of a unique author) allow you to earn up to $40 per post. You need to be aware that only the best earn such amounts.

The uploaded image is not immediately accepted by the resource. She is being tested. Based on its results, either the product will appear on your account, or a notification will be sent to the mail indicating the reason for the refusal to publish and advice on correcting the shortcomings. If you can fix the shortcomings mentioned, it is possible to download the files again.

If the pictures for sale are accepted and the files appear on the site, they are awarded the first level. Depending on the image's quality, size, composition, and subject, the file will sell better or worse than similar images. After a photo has a certain number of sales, it will automatically level up, allowing it to sell at a higher price.

The main disadvantage of the system is a large minimum amount for withdrawal - $100. Currently, funds are being withdrawn to PayPal, Skrill and Payoneer.

123RF

The registration procedure is standard - enter your login, password, e-mail and upload photos. In general, the site is no different from others. Collaborates with Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and other large companies.

Lori.ru

Russian photobank. Earnings from 45 to 3600 rubles on photos and from 180 to 4500 rubles on video. If the product is included in the "exclusive collection of Lori", that is, it is not sold in other photo banks (this must be confirmed by writing to Lori's e-mail), the author will be able to earn from 75 to 3600 rubles on photographs and from 300 to 4500 on video.

Attention: the site has a non-standard (and very strange) procedure for registering authors: after creating an account, you will have to download and print two copies of the contract, sign them and, together with a copy of your passport, send one of the copies of the contract by mail to Lori's office in Moscow. Until you do this, you will not be able to sell pictures.

How much do you earn from photo stocks

It just depends on your photography ability. Good products will always be bought. If you look for reviews of work on photobanks, you can find a variety of entries. There are small articles from people who earn a lot, up to $ 1000 a month (but these are unique cases).

Many of the personal experience notes are from frustrated people who didn't make much headway on photo stocks (however, by that they meant $500 a year, which isn't so bad for a fairly passive income). One of these people wrote a good phrase: “Many people will tell you that they have a friend who earns $1,000 a month from photo stocks. Most likely, they are talking about the same acquaintance, because it is not interesting to talk about the one who left the photo stocks with nothing. Indeed, it is difficult to obtain objective information, because reviews are written by those who got rich in this profession and those who simply blog and share information. And many people did not succeed, and they just left silently, without talking about their experience. But the main thing is that you now know that it is possible to reach heights in this field, but it all depends on you.

Look for really unique themes and unique angles, and keep your competition to a minimum.
If you're willing to go for it, let me buy the rights to the photo - it's a good income.
Try to upload as much as possible to the services. More shots - more chances that something will be bought from you.
Properly arrange tags, and put as many tags as possible.
Read help on photo stocks! This will save moderators time and nerves, and may also suggest how to earn more.
Many photo banks offer increased payouts for photo exclusivity. Exclusive photos are those that are sold only on a specific resource and nowhere else! If you are interested in this, you need to write to the e-mail of the photo stock in order to indicate the special status of the photo. If you work on several photo stocks, it will be up to the situation to decide whether it is more profitable to make the photo exclusive or sell it in several places at once.
Watch out for unusual angles.
Seize the moment. For example, if you or your friends have created a culinary masterpiece, it would be nice to photograph it beautifully.
Periodically arrange a photo evening and make beautiful compositions, even from improvised means.
Carry a camera with you to be able to capture something unusual.
Think about what images and what you might need. Remember what photos you see in advertising brochures.

If you need free photos for a website or business cards, then here.