Making Money Selling Stock Photographs
De BISAWiki
What are stock photographs? In short, they are libraries of photographs of many different things. From events to models to items and even abstract images. These images are pooled together, categorised and made easy to search by descriptions. Then website designers, graphic designers, magazines and other people who need a photograph for whatever purpose can visit the library, find a suitable photograph, pay the relevant license for their purpose and use the picture.
It is much easier this way than heading out to take your own pictures all of the time and this is where you can come in - because each sale results in a commission payment to the photographer.
Where to sell photographs? There are many libraries about and there is no reason for you not to sign up to every one that you can find. Some libraries do pay extra for stock photographs that are exclusive to them, but that does not mean the entire sequence has to be exclusive. As long as they are noticeably different you should be able to submit some of the sequence to different libraries.
Search for Stock Photographs and other suitable terms and browse through the collections of the sites that you find. Are they offering a quality that you can match, or better? Some libraries have very tight quality control and the slightest imperfection will disqualify the picture, whilst others are less controlling and will accept almost anything.
Is any photograph fair game? Sorry, but there are limits and we are not just excluding adult material. If you take a picture that includes someone that is recognisable from the photograph, even if they are not famous, then you must get their written permission to sell the photograph, in the form of a model release. This makes crowd shots very difficult - you need to find an angle that excludes all faces!
Likewise certain items, logos and recognisable features are not allowed as they are subject to copyright. You need to check with the terms and conditions of the site you are using for any stipulations and other criteria before uploading photographs.
What types of photos are required? As for the content of the photograph, anything different and well photographed can be useful to the libraries. But, some buyers, and these are those that will pay the most, might want very high resolution photographs for printing work. Some sites therefore demand at least 4mp photographs.
Does it work? Take the photographs, upload them and sit back waiting for the commissions. Better still, head out and take some more high quality photographs. If you can take quality photographs and upload enough, then there will be a demand. You really can be making money selling stock photographs.
Sell your photos at Stockphotographic - Authors earn 90% - the highest on the net
