commercial photographer in Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 <p>I've seen a lot of postings on the net about shuterstock, and even seen someone recently post a refferal link here. What do you all think of this company? I've done nature pictures for years, and sold them on my own as house and office wall hangings, but most recently I've been thinking about getting into stock. I'm signed up with Photographers Direct but haven't sold anything yet. I'm new there so I guess it takes time.<br> What do you all think of Shutterstock. Is 25 cents a download really worth the time? I know if I refer others I get 3 cents off each of their downloads, but I'm interested in selling my images, not their company. Is 25 cents a download a good starting price, or should I just start selling them on my own?</p> <p> </p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Laur Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 <p>If your time has any value to you at all, you could mowed a neighbor's front lawn for $10 in the time it took you to write that question, and made the same money you'd make in selling 40 images at $0.25 each. <br /><br />I'm not being snarky here, just trying to provide some perspective. If your work is really outstanding, then you should be able to get more for it. If it's essentially average, then it will be lost among literally millions of stock images, and even if priced higher... just statistically unlikely to sell. </p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enlightened-images Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 <p>Since Photo.net won't let me post a link to my own site, even though highly appropriate to this thread, all I can say is that I wrote an article awhile back about the microstock earning potential for photographers that is called "How many for How Much". It seems to remain relevant given the value & time considerations.</p> <p>If you want to read it, you can go to my weblog and use the search bar for "How Many for How Much" or if you go to my web site, cut and paste the following URL after the ".com" in my domain, "/views/2006/06/03/how-many-for-how-much.htm"</p> <p>Time is money, and a lot of time spent chasing a little money is not really good math unless you don't care about the money.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hjoseph7 Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 <p>"if I refer others I get 3 cents off each of their downloads, but I'm interested in selling my images, not their company."<br> <br> <br> Sounds like another one of those MLM marketing schemes to me, but what do I know.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the lone ranger Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 <p>Rates that low are not worth the time. Your camera depreciates almost that much in value everytime you click the shutter. Comparatively if you market your own work hopefully you would recognize that 25 cents is not worth the time spent responding to such a request.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
commercial photographer in Posted February 4, 2009 Author Share Posted February 4, 2009 <p>Thanks everyone, I think I'm just going to focus on selling my images to consumers instead of stock for now.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamphoto Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 <p>Depends what you consider good for a per-image rate of return. I believe traditional stock shooters were content with $1/image/year. Shutterstock does double that for me, and you aren't limited to just that agency.<br /><br />Be warned, nature photos are not a strong seller. Travel is okay, but of course these days you are competing with the people who actually live in these far-flung exotic places and can pop round the corner for their local Buddhist temple or waterfall.<br> <br />They nearly always want lifestyle and business photos, so model and studio/location work is probably the most lucrative but at the same time incurs the greatest outlay in time and money. Food works too.<br> <br />Vectors also do particularly well, so if you have a talent for Illustrator, there's potential there.<br> <br />There are people making a living from it, but for most it represents a modest second income or a way to buy a new lens or flash. Technical precision in composition, exposure, noise, white balance is required, so in a perverse way it's quite good training in discipline. Rejection is frequent, especially in over-represented areas.<br> <br />If you already work in an area of photography that is producing this kind of image (and client objection notwithstanding) I know of several submitters who use out-takes, test shots and different angles and lighting for microstock. But as Gary said, the time taken to create, process, catalogue and upload should be considered - I similarly learned that I can make more in one afternoon at a wedding than in a year on some microstock agencies, but on the other hand, once the image is in the wild, it's a passive income (until someone uploads something newer, similar, better!)</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ed_gerken Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 Great advice, Adam! -Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now