Sign up for my newsletter |  Getting Started in Stock This is a question we all ask ourselves,having spent hundreds (thousands) of dollars on our hobby! I asked myself that question over 3 years ago,and decided the answer was to sell my images. After a slow start,I have increased my income to a run rate of more than $12,000 a year and I share the steps,the trials and tribulations in my new eBook –Getting Started in Stock. If you want to read more of my writing style and get a feel for the information in the book,here is an earlier post on how to how to make money from your photographs. Just keep in mind that the book contains a lot more information (and it is obviously much more up to date.) Buy this new eBook directly from my site through a simple and secure shopping cart and get immediate access to the information you need to make money from your photographs! I’m keeping up with my resolution to take and post new images every week!  Good shot This first one was a real joy to produce. I saw a video on PhotographyTalk forum which showed how to get a shot of wine flowing from a bottle. His example was one where the wine appeared to shoot straight up out of the bottle,but I thought I would try something a bit harder –make the wine go into a glass! The idea is that you string the bottle of wine up on a frame in front of a white background. You light the background with flash guns so that it is completely washed out and that provides illumination for the wine. Place a large plastic box under the bottle and stand the wine glass on a frame on the top of the box. I then carefully focused on the bottle and glass and set up my remote control. The next step is tricky –remove the stopper and put your thumb in place. Let the bottle hang vertically upside down. Hold the remote control and then remove your thumb. The wine pours out and hopefully goes into the glass while you set off as many shots as you can before the bottle empties. You can then pour the wine back in the bottle and start again! I then took three images that I was happy with –one of the wine in the glass with a flow going straight down. One with a good flow of wine,and a third of the bottle with some nice patterns in the neck. I blended in Photoshop and used Puppet warp to bend the flow a bit to get the final result. This has sold a few times already.  New use for chocolates The next two are more routine shots –the first being a new use for a chocolate box. I saw something like this in Good Housekeeping and thought it would be a good shot to have online. I wish I had washed out the inner tray –in the original you can still see the specks of chocolate! Image three for this week is a macro shot of the inside of a flash drive. I happened to see it when I was setting up one of the earlier shots and decided to give it the macro treatment.  USB Flash Drive Last week I started with a New Year resolution to post once a week with some example stock images taken that week. I did this partly to keep the pressure on myself to take more images and I also hope it will be helpful to give you some ideas. This is the second week,but first an update on some images uploaded last week. I took as set of images of an Apple Macbook (no logos),but was surprised that all of them were rejected by Shutterstock for trademark issues,including this one.  USB Symbol Nothing about Apple on this one –you would be hard pressed to say that this was an Apple computer. I am coming to the conclusion that the little USB symbol may be the issue. I plan to rework a few of these with the logo removed in Photoshop,but if anyone knows if this logo is trademarked,please let me know.{Edit} I removed the USB logo from the plug and it was accepted by Shutterstock last night.  Valentine Icon First new image of the week was actually an illustration done completely in Photoshop. My plan was to create a master template and then add new icons relatively easily,but this one was rejected by Shutterstock for “Too many images online!”It was accepted at other sites so I will see how it sells before spending more time on it.  Game of dominoes I then found an old box (probably 40 years old) of wooden dominoes. I thought they would make some great images of the game itself,and so took a range of shots both of the game as well as myself holding the next piece ready for play. A bit of money in a few shots added a gambling theme. Then I thought about the economic crisis in Europe with the various countries tottering over debt and problems in the banking sector. Perhaps these dominoes standing on top of banknotes would give some idea of the problems and the risks of a chain reaction if one of the domino’s is pushed over. I tried various lighting arrangements –straight light from two umbrella mounted flashes to give a nice even light,and then this one which has one open flash gun to provide some side light and shadows to represent more of a dramatic take on the image. One trademark warning that I discovered after the fact. I had some UK pound notes that I used behind the Euro note (I only had one of those!). I later found out that images of British pounds are not acceptable at most stock sites! Amazing what you learn as I thought I had checked on this before proceeding,but obviously not in the right places. Again,if anyone knows more about this trademark/copyright issue,please let me know in the comments.{Edit} Shutterstock completed its review and rejected the few images where the British pound was the main focus of the image,but accepted others where the note was playing a “supporting role!”Interesting to know. More stock images next week.  Dominoes showing financial crisis As I mentioned in the annual review,I did think about committing to a stock photo a day target for 2012,but decided against it –too much of a commitment! Instead,I will post,at least once a week,images that I have uploaded in the past seven days. I’m not saying that all these will be great sellers,but it will perhaps give you some ideas of what to shoot. I often find other photos to be a source of inspiration –not to copy,mind you –just to trigger another thought or direction. This week I went down to Colonial Williamsburg for a couple of days to see the old town in its xmas finery.  Williamsburg Sunrise It isn’t 100% clear if the photos taken in Williamsburg are copyrighted or not. I asked at the information center without much success. On uploading,I found that Shutterstock was happy with editorial restrictions,Dreamstime requested that I upload again as RF,CanStock just accepted as RF. As this great resource on releases explains,it is the responsibility of the user of the image to use the photo appropriately,not the photographer or agency. This first image was taken at sunrise down the main street towards the Capitol. An HDR shot from 7 shots taken 1 stop apart and processed in Nik HDR Efex Pro. The next day I decided that the bright sunlight was a good opportunity for a trip to Washington DC to get some shots of the Christmas tree in front of the Capitol. Great plan,but…When I arrived,there was scaffolding and a protective cover around the base of the dome on the Capitol. Not great for a stock shot. So I took some images around the Supreme Court with this one of the backlit flag in front of the shadowed dome of the Capitol nicely avoiding the scaffolding.  Flag in front of Capitol  Capitol from Supreme Court Then I took a few shots around the columns of the Supreme Court with this one of the Capitol itself framed by the marble columns. This shot is a hand held HDR taken from 3 images two stops apart to get some detail in the shadowed side of the columns but not blowing out the sky. Around sunset on New Year’s Eve is a pretty quiet time in DC!  Thor.... Next up is a studio shot. I took a number of close up and macro shots of this old well used hammer hitting a nail,but thought an action shot would be useful in my portfolio. It has sold once since I uploaded it! Finally,shot number 5 is one I took today. My wife got an Apple Macbook for Christmas and so the clean shiny device seemed like a perfect subject for a few shots. I used one flash in an umbrella as the main light and a second flash with a blue filter onto the keyboard to give it a techy feel. I removed the logo from this isolated image and I included a path in that file as well as I think that sometimes helps sales. I have uploaded them all as normal RF –will wait and see if this full shot needs to be editorial or not.  Silver laptop lit with blue tint More next week. I’ve just published my December stock photo earnings results,and thought it would be helpful to review the year –how I did,what changed,lessons learned and thoughts for 2012. First,a graph of earnings per site through 2011:  Annual earnings in 2011 The December results showed the growth in earnings,but in a nutshell,I went from total earnings in Dec 2010 of $429 to $1188 in Dec 2011. Month to month growth over the year of 176%! What did I do to achieve that growth? The first change was in the number of sites that I upload to. In December 2010,I uploaded to 18 sites (although some of them were relatively new to me and I didn’t have my full portfolio on-line.) I now have my images on 26 sites,and have most of my images on all of those sites. I’m still behind on iStock,because of the 20 images a week limit,but the majority of my sites have over 1500 images for sale. I found Lightburner to be a great help in streamlining the uploads,although that site is a bit inconsistent at times,and I still find myself doing FTPs to sites that have somehow failed to get the new images. As this graph makes clear,Shutterstock is far and away my best earner,although iStock,with approximately half the number of images,is also strong. The Photo+ program on iStock has definitely helped me in 2011. As I’ve mentioned before, iSignStock is a good site (for me at least) with earnings of $300 in the year. I only started with them in March and probably didn’t have all my images online before the summer. The next thing I focused on during 2011 was the number of images I have for sale.  Growth in images for sale I’ve started trying to add at least 100 images a month to the stock sites –either because I have traveled somewhere and found some interesting landscape or travel images,or I have taken still life,food or macro shots. I have not expanded into the use of professional models yet,although I do OK with self portraits in various guises! The graph shows the growth in three typical sites –CanStock,which accepts most images,Shutterstock,which is reasonably strict,and iStock with its strict policies and restricted uploads. Shutterstock went from around 1300 to 2016,iStock from 700 to 1206 during the year. I focused even harder in December on this,adding 150 images to the Shutterstock portfolio alone. The third strand in growth was probably quality. We all like to take good quality images,and I am probably learning,all the time,what makes a good stock photo. I started tracking earnings per image per month late in the year to try to understand if I was gaining earnings simply because I was adding new files,or was I making more,or less,per image. Earnings per photo per month was discussed last month,but here are the final 2011 numbers:  2011 Earnings per Image  Growth in earnings per image As you can see,the earnings on each image have grown during the year. I am sure that is partly to do with images becoming more visible in the search engines,but the stock agencies are cutting back on commissions,not growing them,and so a growth in the earnings per image is a pretty positive sign for me personally. Thoughts for 2012? I haven’t mentioned my “Getting Started in Stock Photography”eBook for some time,but this has continued to sell during the year. I don’t count those earnings in my monthly summaries (I don’t count Zazzle either although I get calendar sales reasonably regularly on that site as well as postcards and note cards of Washington DC). Over the past 9 months or so,I’ve sold about 80 copies of my eBook,and people I have been in touch with (it is nice to hear from readers,by the way!) have been unanimously happy with their purchase. I’m thinking of writing a new book in 2012,but we will have to wait and see. I beat the $10K mark in overall earnings in 2011,so my target for 2012 needs to be a stretch –I would really like to get to $20K,but that would be probably outside my capabilities,and so I will set $18K as my target for earnings in 2012! Happy New Year and Good Shooting! The December results are pretty good,and also quite consistent from month to month. Although December obviously has two major holidays,and work tends to slow down in many offices,the final sales of $1188 are better than I expected. Shutterstock came in really well with a couple of Enhanced Licenses on Friday (of the coastline of St John),to give total earnings of $507 for the month –a record for that site. The previous high had been $451 back in October. iStock was pretty good,with solid sales most days to come in at $235 –a record for that agency as well. A couple of video sales from Pond5 early in the month helped as well,with the other sites coming in much as expected. iSignStock was a bit behind this month,delivering $36,but this is much better than Zoonar,which was zero for the second month. I’m beginning to think my sales on this site in the Fall were just an aberration,and not a sign of an active stock agency! Of the new stock sites (reviewed last month),Photodune is by far the best,with earnings of $20. AllYouCanStock is an even newer one,and this came up with one sale for $7.50,with Scanstockphoto giving me $3.90! Here are the normal graphs:
 Earnings during 2010 and 2011  Earnings per site  Files per site December 2011 I’ve been doing some analysis of my portfolio to try to work out if the earnings have risen because of the number of images online,or if other factors are coming into play. The answers are fascinating! Although there is a lot of doom and gloom in the stock industry,with the common view that earnings are falling faster than you can put images online,the key point from my analysis is that the earnings per image is actually increasing through 2011 on both Shutterstock and iStockPhoto. Of course,every photographer’s portfolio is different. I’m not sure that I can explain the Shutterstock results,although I am confident that the growth in earnings from iStock comes from their Photo+ program where you can choose images for both higher search results and a higher earning per download. Underpinning this could be several factors –my images are getting better,they are more appropriate for Extended Licensing,there is some traction from people seeing my overall portfolio –who knows! Here are the background graphs:
 Growth in on-line files in 2011 During the year I have continued to add images on a pretty regular basis. This graph shows three stock agencies –CanStock,which generally accepts most of my images,Shutterstock,which is a bit more choosy,and IStock,which restricts me to 20 images per week. Each of the sites is showing that steady regular growth. As other posts have shown, my earnings continue to grow as well. I then went back and worked out,quarter by quarter in 2011,how much I earned on the main sites,and how many images were,on average,online. The method slightly overcounts the average number of images as I make a note of the online photos at the end of each month. This would have the effect of under-estimating the earnings per image a little. I did this for the top 10 sites and then lumped the rest together. Earnings from this “Others”group adds up to less than $100 per month on average. I also removed stock video sales from Pond 5 as those earnings are variable from month to month and nothing to do with the number of photos I have available for sale. The end result is this table of earnings per image per month:  As you can see,a steady growth in both Shutterstock and iStock,not much movement in the other main sites although iSignStock is picking up nicely and Veer is very variable –great some months and then next to nothing the next. The “Others”are a bit variable as I have been joining more sites as the year progressed and so the average number of images is pretty difficult to calculate.  Earnings Per Image per Month in 2011 The take away message –Quality counts,Quantity makes a difference,but the industry still has some life in it! A question that I am often asked is how you can find out where your images are being used online. I use the Google Images search to do that –and here are the steps: 1. Although Google Image Search works with any size of image,it takes quite a time to upload the full size JPEG to their server for the search. It is much quicker if you make smaller copies (800 pixels wide and lower JPEG quality) of the images you want to find. It is easy to export a series of images to a temporary folder from Lightroom,setting the new dimensions and JPEG quality as you export.
2. Open www.Google.com in your browser. The images below are from a Chrome browser –other browsers may behave differently. Google now has a drop down menu on the left –select “Images”
 Google Image Search 3. Open a File Explorer and drag your reduced size image into the search box area. The search box will expand as you drag over the page.  Drag image to search box 4. Google Image Search will return with a set of sites with images that match the uploaded file. Please note –it may take a bit of time from when the image is sold,to when it appears in this search,depending on how often Google indexes the distant site and also how quickly they use the image. Some buyers (especially with subscription plans) will buy an image with a plan to maybe use it in the future –not necessarily that minute!  List of sites using the image 5. An example of one site using the image I uploaded as a test:  Example use of image Another pretty good month –even though the Thanksgiving holiday in the US depressed sales in the final week (especially on iStock). Overall sales again beat the $1000 barrier to come in at $1068. Not as good as last month’s $1300,but there were not at many big ticket sales. Veer was $31 instead of [...] As you progress with your portfolio and your efficiency in managing large numbers of images improves,it is natural to look at other stock sites to increase your revenue. There are many,many online sites out there,so how do you decide which one to try? This post is an update on the various sites [...] | |
