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 when someone goes with a strategic way, he will get success. And I agree with Graeme Corpé.
After reading this post and all the comments, what I understood is.. One should improve the quality of photos and keep adding more & more photos to portfolio. This is the key to success.
So nice photo
So what’s happened since than? 🙂
You Go Brian!
Hi Jim! What type of photos do you upload??
No offence, but the subject matter for your photos isn’t great. You say you waited weeks to take that photo……… I can’t see the need for that photo. I’m not even a photographer, but you need to think about where this photo could potentially be used, nowhere really.
Slightly different, but from 50 pieces of my graphic design art work, I achieved over 140,000 downloads. Pieces I personally liked, didn’t fly, but some of my simplest pieces which I didn’t really like, took off with several each getting over 10,000 downloads. What you think consumers want, isn’t always the case.
You can maje great money off stock photos. But not pictures of footballs or stadiums. You have to use prifessional odels and a current theme
Re: Fred
For all the effort its not worth the time, the people examining and judging your photos are also contributors so the bias…
I cannot agree more with Fred. I have a number of images on Adobe Stock but lately the rejections are increasing so much it is’t funny, especially when one considers the amount of work one has to put in in order to get a chance of a sale. It doesn’t end with just taking the pic and post processing. One has to give the image a title and of course tags (keywords). This alone is a time consuming exercise.
My recent conflict with Adobe was not resolved. I pointed out to them in no uncertain terms, I object to individuals who have little or no idea judging my work. I mean, there NOT even pro photographers!
It transpired, the people who judge the photos are NOT employed by Adobe. Adobe made that very clear in their mail to me! These “judges” carry out this work on a volunteer basis, their renumeration is not cash but receive Adobe products.
What beats me is the images they reject are always accepted by Getty. Recently I have been receiving notification from Getty they have approved my images and within 24 hours they are on my portfolio.
I think this stock photography mode is greatly overrated. I just stick to Getty now in addition to my two platforms that are run by professionals for me.
* So far I haven’t sold 1 image on Adobe Stock
Don’t know if my comment was published. I have been trying for a short time to submit photos to Shutterstock and have 61 images accepted. However it has taken me days to get the photos and hours to submit as 39 were rejected. I donìt know if I am hitting the mark with keywords. I have had one download of 0.25 and have honestly begun to wonder if the time is worth it.
I am not in any way a professional and I use my little Canon IXUS. 16.1. I know how to click and thatìs about it. As I also paint I was wondering if it is worth it and that perhaps it would be better to use my time doing a painting. Any comments and experience from people like me who have an artistic flare but no experience or expertise with cameras and lighting etc.
I have read some of the articles that were intended to be helpful for contributors but they were all so technical couldn’t understand a thing! Thanks if anyone has any comments or advice.
This was the first page that showed up when I googled this. Thanks for the info. I was curious as to whether one could make decent money from stock photos. I do mostly wedding photography and it is seasonal so was looking into some options for earning money in the off season, but it sounds like there are better ways. Maybe a better option for someone interested in stock photography would be to create their own site rather than going through one of the existing networks.
The fog and the football photo is awesome but I think an American football on what I believe is the corner of a soccer field is a tough sell.
I’ve been doing stock photography on I-Stock, Shutterstock and Alamy for about 3 years. I average around $150-$200 a month. I have sold all types of pictures such as soldiers, stacks of tires, landscapes, animals, signs, vehicles, lots of odd objects and lots of people shots taken at parades, protests and events. I unusually use the people shots in the Editorial category that way I don’t have to worry about model releases. So you can make some money shooting stock. Unfortunally you will be spending more time in front of the computer doing keywords and writing descriptions than you do shooting pictures. It’s a trade off. To see some of the pictures I have shot for stock go to my web-site at JRLPhotography.net
Your photos is bad, like the photo of the fog, you have no talent.
Hi all,
I am into same page as many of you above. I did click photos for quite a while however the idea of getting into stock got in my mind in march 2018. I am not a total newbie when it comes to photography, i know what i am doing but i am a neonate when it comes to a stock contributor. That being said i went through various articles and started registering to various agencies..
after a month this is how my portfolio looks like.
https://www.shutterstock.com/g/drarindamghosh
I know its nothing.. so many get rejected and then i resubmit..
Total sales till date 16 on Shutterstock, 7 on iStock/getty, 2 on big stock and 1 on 123rf.
Fingers crossed. Hope my numbers increase with time.
Hi,
I have been publishing images and lately photos on 9 different stock photo websites. I started during 2009 with Bigstock. I currently have 493 approved images/photos on this site (approval rating 77.5%) and my lifetime earnings is US$ 240.01, not an amount I can say is enough to retire on.
Only one of the other 8 sites seems worth mentioning here. That I shutter stock. I (eventually got approved as a contributor in May 2017. I almost immediately started getting some sales (4 in the first month = UD$1-00) This continued to vary between 4 and 7 a month (for either 25c or $1-88 each) until December.
During January 2018 something changed (later more about this) and I sold 16 units. for $ 9-69, Feb $8-66, March $10-60, April $8-55, May $20-66 and June (with 2 days to go).
The question is what happened? WEel it is simple, one of my graphics was one of the units that contributed most of the early sales. I think it reached a point where the number sold made it go into some other priority and not almost 80% of the sales since January comes from this unit. To tell you the truth, it is not even one of my own favourites and was really simple to make.
The final conclusion I came to is that selling on stock photo websites is not really a commercially viable option. so why do it? Well, the feeling that I got, and I have really no creativity (like I am an engineer) and somebody is prepared to pay real money for something that you made, is probably the same that a druggy gets when shooting up. It was and still is an amazing feeling when I check my submission page and see that I had a sale!!!
Hope this gives you some insight into the millions that are up for grabs on stock photo sites.
Hi I’m Kathy and I’m new at this. My question is can you upload photos to more than one stock agency? Thanks
Hi there I have a dozen of my professional pictures and I want to make money from that I never think I can sell them online Becouse I only do wedding pictures and video’s but I want to make money a good price for my pictures are you can help me please
Hey Brian,
I am wondering how this went?
Do you think this could still be worth it in 2019?
Please be honest and thanks for your time
Mason