I have always been interested in stock photography. I've submitted photos to stock only a few times since I began in 2011, but I've recently gained more interest and am about to do a huge upload of about 1,000 stock-worthy images. But most photographers wonder how much you can really expect to earn from selling stock photography.
In general, stock photos earn approximately 25-45 cents per image, per month. This obviously depends on many factors, including how many agencies you upload to, your skill in keywording, and the uniqueness of the images.
My Personal Experience
A couple months ago, I tried to upload about 8 stock photos to all the different stock photo agencies: istockphoto, Adobe Stock, shutterstock, bigstock, canstock, etc. I was going to write a blogpost explaining which stock photo agency was best to sell with, but my experience changed the nature of the article.
The real question is how much money a photographer can earn by selling with istockphoto or another stock photo agency. I became interested in stock photography in 2011 when I heard from an istock exclusive photographer that she was earning about $1 per month, per photo. I thought that was pretty good, since it could bring in $1,000 per month if I uploaded a portfolio of 1,000 images. However, times have changed.
For me, however, that was not the case. I sold about 8-10 photos on many agencies for two or three months. Guess how many sales I made? ONE! Yes, one lonely sale. Certainly not worth the effort to pursue any further.
I know what you're thinking… “Wow, your pictures must have been pretty bad!” I'll let you be the judge of that. I included a few of them on this page. I specifically took these pictures because I was told that food photography and sports photography were two hot areas for stock photography.
I am not saying that it is impossible to earn money with stock photography. There are many photographers who shoot exclusively stock and earn a decent living doing it; however, I am beginning to doubt whether it could be a viable career for someone just starting out with stock photography. Older contributors to stock agencies such as istockphoto receive a larger percentage of the sale, and their photos rank higher in search rankings because of their downloads.
My point in writing this article is actually somewhat of a warning to other photographers who are interested in starting out in stock photography. Maybe you'll hit it big, but you will most likely be able to earn more money with photography by shooting weddings or advertising. As for me, my journey into stock photography was over before it ever started.
I think a lot of the websites base your rank in photo search based on your portfolio sales so its going to take some time to build a reputation. A lot of the expected gain comes at the end of the curve once you build a library and a name.
Thanks for a good post, first I would like to point out you cant make any statistic by uploading only 8 pictures, some stocksites will not even take you serious and put you in their search engine with that small portfolio, sorry to say. I am also new to stock photography I have 95 pictures, it took me arround 50 pic. to be avalible in Bigstocks search engine, Depositphoto, 123rf and Fotolia I got sales after uploading 20 pic. or so. but you have to “Feed The Beat” means you have to continuarly uploading pic. otherwise you will loose your search ranking with your whole portfolio, I am now selling 2-3 pic. a week with my tiny portfolio I am uploading to 5 stock sites. I am in the stock business not for the money, but for the chanlenge the requierments to get your pic. approved are high, when I started I had an acception rate at 50% and now I am up on 95% on most sites, stock photography is in my opinion the best way for a newbee to improve, because you have messureable result, instead of uploading to photo sites where everybody is telling how awesome your work is, even you know it cant be true, with stock photography you know people like your picture when they find their credit card and pay for your pic. Just my opinion on stock photography. I dont really earn money, but it push me to perform my best.
I have been a professional stock photographer for a number of years. One thing you need to remember is that it’s a numbers game. The more images, providing they have the quality and content, the more you will sell. I’m with 10 agencies, with approximately 15,000 images on each. I found sales proved dramatically at around the 3,000 image mark, less than that was quite painful! I do know photographers with 1,000/2,000 image portfolios that make money – but not a living!
Would you mind listing the ten agencies? I’m with iPhoto but am considering Shutterstock and a few others. Any to stay away from?
You will make more money collecting alumium cans . They have destroyed stock photography nickel and dime outfit.
Excellent article, great comments!
30 thousand? how long time it take to shoot so much photos? Would you send me your portfolio?
Bit late to the comment secton
which website give very good earning from stock photography please reply whose experience of earning
None really …..Alamy might work or istock..you would be better off learning a few chords on your guitar set up in a local coffee shop with a tip jar. sorry guys its the truth.
I think to make money in selling stock photos, you’ve got to be willing to cover the niche markets for some of the off businesses. For example, I work in data recovery and I blog relentlessly about my work to build up my customer base. So I go through a lot of stock images blogging both on my site and others. Finding stock photos for the niche is actually quite difficult, as very few stock photos cater to data recovery. Dollarphotoclub.com was the only one, and they closed today. I’ve noticed that many of the few good data recover niche stock photos can be found on dozens of websites because it’s all that’s available, but still better than homemade images.
Look for what no one else is doing. If you’re just taking pictures of nice scenery, you’re competing with every other amateur photographer out there and never going to make a sale. Take a picture of an open hard drive or a guy working on a hard drive, and you’ll have a sale quick. Keep it business oriented.
Yes you will make sale of .25cents maybe .50cents
I started with stock photos 2 months ago, selling on shutterstock. Today i have 26 photos in my porfolio, made 34 sells what makes me to have now 10.13 dollars there. I sell mostly photos from lapland (finland, norway) , but from all the 34 sells, is just one picture that was sold 26 times. Without this one picture would not have this amount of sells
Any link to share that photo with us?
Cectpahere at yahoo.com
I’m totally new. I see all of you discussing selling on several sites. It means you are not “exclusive ” to iStock for example and fees you receive are the lowest tier ? Would you guys recommend selling on several sites?
Congrats on those of you who managed to garner even 1 sale!
Yes I’ll like to see your portfolio too! I’m new. Are you doing this full time?? Thank you.
Cectpahere at yahoo.com
JUNE 5, 2016REPLY Fiona
Yes I’ll like to see your portfolio too! I’m new. Are you doing this full time?? Thank you.
Cectpahere at yahoo.com
I really enjoyed this article! And so many wonderful comments. Keep up the dialog because we all inspire each other!
How do you ensure your photos won’t be stolen, whether it is on your own blog or when you submit to an online stock agency? Do you get the opportunity to put a watermark on your photos with the agencies. I find photos with watermarks aren’t as beautiful though? Thank-you guys!
It’ll always be the case of the contributor receiving the morsels and the agencies getting the lions share, unless;
Here’s the biggest problem with selling quality photos using the stock image agencies, you are one. One person that’s all you are. The agency has a team of business partners that all communicate together. First they start with an enticing offer to the contributor to get the ball rolling, then the leverage begins. Once your photos are in the site you become competitive with each one another. The agency doesn’t care who the winner, between 5 or 100 artist, is fore they always win once the sale takes place. Now, if the contributors all communicated, like the ruling partnership of the agency, then money’s shift from a dominant agency to a dominant contributor-ship. Imagine if all the highest quality contributors started dictating 35% more money for their work, where else would the agency go. They can’t get their money from lower quality work, the customer won’t tolerate it. So, the customers go to another agency, no, when I suggested that all the highest quality contributors increase their prices, I meant, all. There must be over 300k solid performers out there. In order to create change in this industry, we must communicate as one without weakness. Communicate as one without weakness.
I am a photographer myself and have had questions on whether or not I wanted to supply stock photos. This answers some of my questions. Thank you for sharing you experiences.
I’m a little confused by this article by Jim Harmer.
I’m have been a professional photographer for years and I am now starting to do well in stock photography.
Jim Harmers’ portfolio is terrific. The three photos at the top of this page that didn’t do well in stock sites are at best, dull and of no commercial interest.
I am at a loss to understand why they were uploaded.
Perhaps he meant to press ‘ delete’ instead !
To you budding stock photographers out there , some advice.
Have a look on the stock sites, find the most downloaded pictures.
Try to see it from the point of view of the buyer. Why did they want that one ?
Why could it be useful to them ?
Think about the pictures you see in magazines, in articles. Have you ever seen a picture of a rugby ball photographed in flat, dull light ? Why would they want it ?
Simple answer is they wouldn’t.
On the other hand and as a for instance, companies that produce seed catalogues for flowering plants want pictures of perfect flowers. Not with star filters or with sepia effects. They want them to look like they are in a wonderful cottage garden with the sun shining, on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Just look at the most downloaded pictures.
You might be pleasently surprised at what sells.
Don’t be put off by this article. Upload as many pictures as you can , it’s a numbers game.
I hope this helps.
Graeme
Most big pro photographers will not even bother with the miro stock . In the old days stock photography was your retirement but the digital world destroyed a beautiful thing.
@Graeme Corpé : yes, one would be really stunned by what is selling. My best selling picture till 2013 (not in a stock but an oldschool agent) was a horrible and talentless color slide (yes, fujifilm!) taken in 2003. But for many customers, it was then the only available of this kind. I know many photographers who could tell the same, and I suppose that all photographers will. But with no doubt for 1 sell of such a “witch”, one can see selling 1000’s of pretty colored (and uberised) pictures… The point, for me, is the difference between an informative picture or an illustrative one.
I think this has got to be highly dependent on what is needed in stock photography at any given moment. There are certainly segments of stock that are much more needed than others and certain times of the year garner more need than others…for example a football field prior to super bowl advertising or a woman in a cubicle answering a telephone for “customer service” images.
As someone who buys stock on a regular basis for my web management work, stock images are highly dependent on what content I am promoting and what company I am marketing for.
If you can tap into that thought process of what kinds of images businesses need and what images the stock companies recommend you submit, you may do better than this example.
I’ve been doing pretty well with IStock. I make about $75.00 a month on a pretty regular basis. I have about 4500 pictures on their site.