To begin this article let me list several popular Stock Photo Agencies:
www.dreamstime.com
www.fotolia.com
www.bigstockphoto.com
www.istockphoto.com
www.shutterstock.com
One often neglected aspect of photography has been Stock Photography. See that poster with an attractive looking girl next door? Or that magazine article with a young successfull business executive? Or see a photo of two people shaking hands? The basic idea is that the marketing teams, who design these ads, don’t have the time or money to take photos of these ideas but instead purchase these photos in bulk, and quite cheaply I might add, from Stock Photography websites.
There are dozens of Stock Photography websites on the internet that cater photos that often convey an emotion, depict a setting, or of just good looking people in everyday environments. Unlike normal photography, Stock Photography has a lot more restrictions that may limit an artists’ creative ability. Photos really have to be thought out carefully and questions that a photographer would need to ask are:
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Who would need to use this image?
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What would the person needing to use this image want to try to convey? Then emphasize it.
Also the photos that you take have to be technically perfect or they will be rejected. One of my top reasons for rejection based on image noise and grain. Although I personally sometimes cannot notice the noise, Stock Photography Agencies are very peculiar about the images that they sell (for good reason as these photos may be used for commercial advertisements).
The way it works is you sign up to one of the Stock Photo Agencies and businesses will than be able to purchase some of your work for $0.50, $1, $5, etc. and a percentage of that money goes into your account. At first this money may not seem like much but it adds up when multiple businesses decide to purchase your image. Soon you will have a steady pay cheque (hopefully) based on the photos that have just been sitting on your hard drive and otherwise collecting digital dust.
Hey Spencer…I am wondering if you have tried any of the stock agencies, or marketing sites such as photoshelter.com or digitalrailroad.net ? And what your success (or lack of) has been? I have had a digitalrailroad.net account since the first of the year, but have yet to sell a single photo. But then, maybe its ’cause I’m not that good. My little home on digitalrailroad.net is: digitalrailroad.net/rburbank
Comment by Randy Burbank — May 6, 2008 @ 7:52 am