Do any of you shoot stock for a living?

I don't want to do it for a living, but I would like to sell some of my images there.

Does anyone here have experience going from the beginning % to the 45% for exclusive?

How do these giants decide how many images they want from you, and how does their system purge old images that are not selling?

After you have sold "x" amount of images do you get a live person to deal / negotiate with eventually?

Any guidance would be appreciated.

If you have a negative comment about my selling my photos with a stock agency--save it.

Thanks in advance,

George

This can be an emotional hot topic for many people - especially full time photographers. Let me do my best to be objective, but I'm admittedly biased.

I believe IStock will happily accept anyone willing to sell unlimited rights to their images for just a few dollars a piece. It seems like IStock has turned into a nice way for the hobbyist to make some extra cash on the side. But, I have a feeling most aren't getting business licenses or paying business property taxes on the photography equipment as the law requires because it would eat up their little bit of profit. Not to mention, by selling your images might keep you from qualify for camera equipment coverage through your home insurance.

These are all things to consider. Frankly, I think most people could make more money with a part time side job if money is the real motivator. I recognize that having an image sold is often more of a motivator then the actual money which I think is how they attract as many people as they do.

There are a couple of high volume shooter who do make decent money from micro stock, and those couple names often come up in this type of a discussion, but really, they are the rare exception. Do know, once you sell an image as micro stock, it can never be marketed in any kind of elusive or rights managed model.

Firstly what made you go with istock if you do not understand how their sales work, Have you tried submitting to a normal agency rather than a micro agency?
With the agencies that i have dealt with (non micro) you submit images say 500 and they tell you what images that they want which could be anything from 50-300 depending on what they think will sell
A micro stock agency try to sell bulk images at a small profit rather than the other way around
I have no problem with people trying to sell their images however i personally feel that the micro stock agencies have bought the stock images market to its knees

Dave

Dave,

How about naming a few of these agencies?

There are a lot of natural history stock agencies around although they seem to be getting swallowed up at the moment, Getty and Corbis are the 2 biggies,HNPA,NaturePL, Well you only have to google, Its now getting very difficult to get accepted into a good agency as the market is flooded, There is Alamy as well as an online agency that actually pays 70% to the photographer which is very good in this day and age, However just go in and type fox and see how difficult it is to get one sold, Matadata or keywording is very important

Dave

Hi, George!

Congrats on getting the acceptance process completed! Now, hopefully you can stare earning a bit of money!

The questions you are asking are good ones; unfortunately, you are asking them in the wrong place. There is, here on NatureScapes, a "Business Topics" forum, which may be a more appropriate place to ask these questions than here on the "Photography Topics" forum. Even so, I do not think that many of the NatureScapes regulars are familiar with selling microstock.

I am not involved with iStockPhoto, so I don't know the answers to any of your questions. But I do know of some resources that may be helpful.

But there is another place you can go to have your questions answered accurately by established iStockPhoto contributors. It is a forum dedicated to selling microstock:
http://www.microstockgroup.com/forum/

Better yet, within their site is a forum specifically for iStockPhoto:
http://www.microstockgroup.com/istockphoto-com/'

Hopefully you find the people there to be helpful and informative.

Tom

Tom and all, thanks for the replies. Yes, I should have posted in biz topics--sorry.

First, for clarification, I know it is no big honor to be accepted to a micro stock agency---in fact, I can't believe some of the crappy images that are sold there.

I do understand the rights issues, and I intentionally sent them some of my images that I dont think I can sell elsewhere--just as a test.

I will look at the links you provided. That is why I asked the question in the first place.

My goal is not to make a living as a pro photographers, and the business insurance is a non-starter. In fact, I self insure everything I own--including my cars (with the obvious exception of liability coverage).

Thanks to all that replied. I will proceed with the appropriate caution.

George

i wouldn't bother with it, stock is dead

I totally agree and for years have seen dwindling returns but its difficult to tell somebody who wants to sell their images, I guess it costs nothing to try but do not expect to earn very much, certainly until you have a large portfolio with various agencies

Dave

When I started with a stock agency (not microstock), I assumed it would have limited returns but also would be limited effort. The latter hasn't turned out to be true. For my agency, there is a hierarchy of keywords, which I suspect is the case with most agencies. From Lightroom my keywords will import into the base keyword field, but the critical keyword fields need to be manually entered. And strategically entered as there are a limited number of characters allowed in each keyword field. Therefore, most images require individual attention to make them unique to searches. Add the volume of images required to make a difference in stock and you are talking about a lot of time invested at the computer when you could be out shooting. If I wasn't pursuing photography as a profession I wouldn't bother. You are better off spending your limited time targeting the magazines you care about and submitting images to them. Or working on a fine art print business.

Thanks again. I spend many hours on airplanes and doing the keywording would not be a big deal, but again, I am not looking to make a living in photography.

When one says you need a large portfolio with many agencies to make money, just how many images would a serious stock shooter have out for sale in microstock cyberspace? 1000 ? More?

Thanks.

George

I sell some images with I stock and I am exclusive with them. I just shoot wildlife and nature and they don't sell to well on there. The big sales I think come from studio shots, people in different situations, signs etc. I just don't shoot that kind of stuff. I had heard there are a few people on there that have 800,000 plus photos with them and they do real well. You never get to deal with a live person or negotiate price. You can download as many as you want as long as they are up to their standards. They never purge images that don't sell. They like bright images that pop. Any nature images I take on cloudy days usually gets rejected saying the lighting could be improved. You can never communicate with the people that review your images. Some days I wish I could because I don't think some of them know what their talking about. I think they get used to seeing all those studio shots with perfect lighting and can't judge nature shots to well. Good luck with them.