Should You Start Doing Stock Photography?

Every photographer has asked themselves if they should go into stock photography at some point. Whether you’re a professional, or just a hobbyist, stock photos can be a nice way to earn some extra cash. But, if you want to turn it into a full time gig which can pay off your bills, don’t hold your breath.

Read this article as a guide which will help you decide whether you’ll go into stock or not. We’ll cover earnings, how to start, which agencies and tools you can use, etc. So, let’s dig in.   

Does It Pay Off?

A small portion of stock photographers earns a lot of money by selling stock photos. Every agency you use to sell your images takes a percentage of your earnings, so you’ll earn more money on one site, and less on the other. What’s definitely true is that you should treat this as a side gig in the beginning, just until you jumpstart the sales.

Current market is crowded with photographers! Just on Shutterstock alone there are hundreds of millions of images, with more than 200,000 being added each day. So yes, the competition is fierce.

Additionally, free stock sites have become increasingly popular in the past few years, so many buyers turn to those options to save themselves a few bucks.

To actually start earning thousands of dollars per month, you’ll need to upload a lot of images, and stay dedicated to what you’re doing. Keep in mind that it will take time and resources to pull this off.

What is Macrostock or Microstock?

Microstock photography, or micropayment photography is the most popular segment of stock photography. The payments to the photographers aren’t based on royalties, but on a small commission they get each time their image is downloaded.

Besides making stock photos more affordable for businesses, microstock also opened the doors for new players, taking exclusivity out of the equation and providing the customers with a wider range of images.

Still there is a segmentation within microstock photography, and we can differentiate agencies which are more or less expensive. For example, Shutterstock would be one of the more affordable sites for the clients, but that means that the commission for the photographers is lower as well. On the other hand, there’s Offset, which is more expensive, but offers better commission rates.

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Benefits of Doing Stock Photography

While it might be hard to earn a living by selling stock photos, this industry definitely has its benefits. To start out, you don’t need to have a strong portfolio, you’ll build it over time, and that portfolio can help you get some more traditional photography jobs later.

You’ll be your own boss, meaning you control how much time you’d like to dedicate to this. Also, you’ll be the creative mind behind all shoots, and you’ll need to get creative in order to stand out from the competition.

Given that agencies usually have specific guidelines on what type of photos they accept in terms of quality - the overall quality of your photos will get better in time.

Although it won’t last forever, the passive income you can earn from stock photos can last for a long time, and it’s always good to get some extra cash.

Practical Advice for Beginners

Before you start shooting, editing and uploading you must stop and research the market. Check what kind of stock photos are selling currently, whether they’re drone shot, portraits, food, etc. List through magazines and pay attention to the layout of the images, the tone, color, and everything else. Additionally, you should always be ready for the holidays! Photos of couples sell more before Valentine's, and so on.

After you’ve done your research, start thinking like a potential buyer. Think about who is going to buy your photos, how will they use it, where will they use it. This will help you compose your shots better. If you’re looking to sell your photos to businesses, you should focus on office space, meetings, groups of people doing different activities together.

Take your time to research and write keywords for your photos. Use specific words to describe what’s happening in the image, but try to portray the emotional state of it as well. It’s important you do this the right way, since this is how buyers will find you. You should probably check out the competition, and see what they’re doing, that will give you a better idea on how to write keywords for your own images.

One thing that beginners usually overlook, is the fact that they should use everything at their disposal to make stock photos. Let’s say you have a friend or a relative who is a veterinarian. Not every photographer has that access, so you should use it to your advantage. Come to the office after hours and organize a photo shoot. Photographers who don’t have this type of access need to pull out a lot more resources to get the photos of veterinarians, and these might not be as usual as the photos of people working in coffee shops or walking down the street.

If you’re really looking to make a living with stock photography, you must upload regularly. You’ll have better chances of making a sale, as your images will be in the front pages of search results. On the other hand, trends change, and photos you upload now might not be appealing next year.

And last, but probably most important piece of advice - find your niche. While having a variety of subjects included in your portfolio is great, it’s even better to find one thing you’re good at and stick with it. Narrow your focus to a specific industry, or a specific photo layout to reach an audience that will stick with your images.

Which Tools to Use?

Besides the usual photography-related tools of your choice, there are some others which could benefit you as well, and we’ll mention a few here.

Stock Performer

Stock Performer is a software which helps photographers track their sales across all major agencies. It can help you analyze performance of your images, discover the bestsellers, and see what is currently trending in the world of stock purchasing. It’s a good tool for photographers who sell through multiple agencies, as it provides a centralized spot of sales data.

MicrostockGroup Keywording Tool

This is a free keywording tool that’s good for when you’re unsure how to properly do your own keywords, or you just don’t have any more ideas. You start off by searching a term, and it’ll give you a list of photos which have that keyword, then you choose those that are most similar to your image and you’ll get the full list of keywords your competitor used. 

Todayis20

If you’re selling stock on Getty or iStock - Todayis20 is a great analytics tool. Royalty statements from those websites are published on the 20th of each month, and they come in a form of a pretty scrambled TXT file. Todayis20 is completely free, and it allows you to upload those statements so it can turn it into nice, understandable charts, tables and graphs.

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Google Trends

Google Trends is an excellent tool that can help you plan out your next photoshoot. It’s mostly used by writers and SEO marketers, but it shows you what are the most popular Google search queries around the world. It can help you create a theme for your next project, but also give you some ideas for which keywords to use for those photos.

StockSubmitter

If you decide to upload your photos to multiple agencies (which you definitely should), you’ll need to make that process as quick as possible. StockSubmitter lets you enter all keywords, descriptions and other metadata, and uploads the photos to stock sites simultaneously. If some of your photos aren’t approved, you’ll get a notification. It’s a time saver for all those who are harnessing the power of having their photos on multiple websitesHUGE time saver.

qHero

qHero is a great tool for uploading images to iStock. It allows bulk editing and automatic metadata extraction. Additionally, they do have an AI-powered keywording tool. Unfortunately, tools like these are still in development, so you should be careful before confirming the upload with the AI-generated keywords. You might get some ideas from it, but it definitely isn’t something you should completely rely on for your photo keywording.