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 There
are several web sites that provide facilities for you to upload
and display your photos (with a watermark). If a client wants
to buy your photos, it is an easy process. The web site takes
a commission, and pays the rest into your account. When the account
reaches a certain amount, typically $30 or $50, they transfer
the money to your account. So the more photos you upload, the
more likely it is that you will make sales.
Bear in mind that your photography does not have to be of
anything particularly exotic, nor even artistic. Many web sites
and magazines need stock photography of daily scenes, like trash
cans on a street, children playing, old people walking, people
crossing the street, traffic, rural views, seaside views, etc.
The demand is limitless.
Some other subjects you might consider:
- Summer Fun, Beach Scenes, Winter Fun
- Holidays, such as Christmas, Hannukah, 4th of July
- Real Estate
- City Scenes, Traffic, Highways, Parking Lots
- Schools and Univeristies and Graduation Ceremonies
- Vacation Places, such as Las Vegas, Campgrounds, Mountains,
Islands
- Love and Romance
- Business Images, Office Work, Corporate Images, Workplace
Photos
- Single Objects
- Art-Illustration
- Computers and Technology
- Abstract
- Backgrounds
- Conceptual
- Women, Men, Children
- Beauty and Fashion
- Sports, especially Golf, Football, etc.
- Weddings and Funerals
- Health, including Spa Treatments, Hospitals and Clinics
The list is endless. But with any photo you submit, make sure
there is a defined subject or point to the photo. People search
for photos by a subject keyword, so if you can't describe your
photo with one or two keywords, it's not going to sell, so don't
submit it.
All images uploaded by you are reviewed before being posted.
Be prepared for some rejections, as the owners of the site know
what sells and what doesn't. Do not be discouraged by rejections.
Yes, you can post your photos on public photo sites like Flickr,
but there you won't make any money.
Upload a few hundred popular photos and you could find you
have a nice recurring monthly income on your hands. You upload
a photo once, but it is potentially viewed daily and makes multiple
sales over a year. The more photos you upload, the more likely
it is that you will make sales.
Registration is free at the sites listed below.
Do not embed your own watermark, website name, or copyright
notice in your images. These sites protect your images with their
own watermark, which is applied when your image is accepted to
their site.
Images should be correctly exposed and in-focus. Images can
be submitted in digital form only; none of these sites accept
film or slides.
Never submit any sexually explicit material. Submissions must
not contain violence, x-rated content, or any illegal content
according to US law.
Submissions depicting a minor must be accompanied by a Model
Release that was signed by that minor's parent or legal guardian.
If you do not have a model release and your image is newsworthy
or culturally significant, sites will accept the image for editorial
use only - meaning that it will not be available for any commercial
use. Submissions that are generic family snapshots or other portraits
are not newsworthy and will not be accepted as editorial.
- Don't "frame" your work with a border of any kind.
- Don't send snapshots. Sites do not accept photos with heavy
shadows from the on-camera flash. Make sure your images have
a clear topic and focus.
- Don't send 10 pictures of your family pet.
- Don't send dark or muddy travel pictures.
- Don't send the same image with slight variations on the angle.
- Don't send the same image in color, black and white, sepia,
and blue tone.
- Don't send similar shots when only one is your favorite.
- Don't send flower pictures labeled "Flower" or
"Spring Scene". Sites only accept photos of flowers
that are labeled with the scientific or common name. Labeling
plants and animals with their scientific names will increase
your sales
- Don't send images that are quite common, such as sunsets,
flowers, nature, etc.
- Don't submit photos taken from inside an airplane or moving
automobile.
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 Big Stock Photo
How it works:
When people want to buy images, they have to buy "photo
credits" for a cost of US$1 to $2.50 per credit. The price
varies with the number of credits they buy. More credits means
a lower price per credit. The minimum purchase is 1 credit for
$2.50, but most people would buy 10 credits for $20.
You must read the Photographer Tutorial pages (there are only
3 pages) carefully and completely... there is a lot of legality
surrounding sale of photos and you must understand the rules,
as well as the quality requirements.
The most important points here are that the photos must be
YOUR photos, and high quality. Photos with recognizable faces
must have signed Model Releases. Photos CANNOT contain logos,
characters, advertisements, images or graphics that are copyrighted.
You are allowed to use Photoshop or another editing program to
(carefully) paint over such logos.
Photos must be at least 600 pixels high or wide - but bigger
photos sell better, the bigger the better, up to 5 Megs in data
size. Average photo dimension is 2400 pixels in height or width.
All images uploaded by you are reviewed before being posted.
Be prepared for some rejections, as the owners of the site know
what sells and what doesn't. Do not be discouraged by rejections.
Make 50 cents to $1.00 for regular downloads and up to $60.00
each for Special Licensing downloads. When your account reaches
US$35, they transfer the money to your PayPal account. If you
don't have a PayPal account, they will send you a cheque / check
if the amount is over US$50
Click
here for more information and to register. |
 Shutterstock
Pays less for individual photos than Big Stock Photo, but
because they use a subscription model, buyers tend to be larger
companies and purchase more photos. Shutterstock pays its submitters
per unique download. The current royalty rate per download is
25 cents (US currency) per unique image. Once you reach $500
in earnings, your commission goes up to 30 cents per download.
Shutterstock operates a "CD A Month Program" which
is a subscription service whereby subscribers receive monthly
backup CDs containing photos downloaded by them during the previous
30 days. If your photo is included on one of these CDs, you will
be paid an additional 5 cents per image per CD sold.
Shutterstock also sells clients an Enhanced License
which gives them the right to make broader use of your photos.
There are no limitations on the number of items an Enhanced License
subscriber can manufacture. For example, your photo might be
used on a T-shirt. Shutterstock pays you an additional $20 flat
fee for each Enhanced License sold; you do not get a royalty
on each T-shirt sold.
There is a minimum payout rate of $75 per accounting period.
Shutterstock requires that you upload a scanned image of your
passport or driver's licence to confirm your identity during
the initial registration process.
Photos with recognizable faces must have signed Model Releases.
Images must be at least 2.5 Megapixels. To calculate the number
of pixels in a photo, multiply the width in pixels by the height
in pixels.
Before you can upload photos, Shutterstock will review the
ID you uploaded. Generally this should be done within 48 hours
after you sign up, but occasionally it may take longer than that.
Newbies can only submit 10 photos after their ID is approved.
More than 7 photos must be accepted before you can upload any
more.
Click here
for more information and to register. |
 iStockphoto
Like the other sites listed above, iStockphoto checks each
photo you upload, and if accepted, posts it in their on-line
database for review.
You must provide a real postal address (for your royalty cheques)
and upload a scanned image of your photo ID (passport, driver's
licence, whatever).
iStock welcomes all experience levels of photographers and
non-photographers, but reserves the right to decline files in
its discretion, including reasons based on the following criteria:
- Poor focus
- Poor lighting
- Excessive noise, grain, and color distortion
- Compression artifacts
- Over filtering
- Poor isolation and cropping
- Dust and debris in scans
- Upsampling or resizing images upwards
- Poor composition
- Inappropriate title or description
- Copyright / Trademark infringement or risk
- Adult content unsuitable for iStock
- Profane or violent Images
Blurred, abstract images are not accepted. Motion blur
that demonstrates movement is accepted.
Soft focus images will be accepted if the image is high quality;
out of focus images will be rejected.
Over- or under-exposed images will not be accepted. Images
with harsh shadows will also be rejected. Use a tilt flash to
bounce the light off the ceiling or wall, or put wax paper over
the flash to reduce the harsh contrast of the shadows.
Don't over-edit your photos with Photoshop or any other graphic
program. Don't cut out or filter out the background.
Don't submit duplicates or almost identical images with slightly
different angles.
iStockphoto does accept artistic partial and full nudity stock
photography, reserving the right to decline files if the subject
and composition is considered pornographic, obscene, or otherwise
unsuitable to the iStockphoto collection.
iStockphoto only accepts image files 1600 x 1200 pixels or
larger. Any file smaller than 1600 x 1200 pixels will be rejected.
As a rule for image sizes, the bigger the better. iStockphoto
will not accept files that have been up-sampled / resized upwards,
(increasing the size / dpi to be larger than that of the original
file size). Only RGB, JPG files are accepted. TIF's, PNG's, PSD's
will be declined. CMYK images will also be declined.
iStockphoto encourages you to upload images in the following
categories:
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Everyone looks a little more handsome when a suit's involved. |
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One person is great, two, three, four… just gets better
and better. |
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Leave it to others to shoot the obvious. |
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Cycling, ping pong, soccer, skateboarding, kung-fu, bocci
ball, the list goes on. |
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The more rare, the better. |
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Vector and not rasterized. |
- Holiday & Seasonal Themes
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Christmas, Valentines, Easter: don’t wait until the last
minute. |
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Leave the jeans behind, unless they're couture... |
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Intriguing textures, effects, & treatments – not
for the amateur of style. |
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Preferably with someone holding the edible item. |
Click here
for more information and to register. |
