So you sell your photos

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Name
Graham
Edit My Images
Yes
So who do you sell your photos too ?
I`m curious as to who buys them, are they all professional or starter business`s or is it all manner of people that buy them, ie Joe bloggs.
What do they look for in a photos, for example, there is one on here that takes huge amounts of photos of Mountains and makes a living from some of them, I`m not knocking him, his photos are very nice and he spends his time preparing to visit these places in the Mountains and waits patiently for the right time to take the photos or will normally only take a photo of water if it is nearly 100% ripple free.
As I said, I`m just curious...
 
The majority of my sales are all through Getty Images. From there I would say at least 95% of the sales have been to businesses abroad (France, Germany, Spain, US, Canada, Russia being common sales)with virtually none in the UK.
As to what sells it seems to be things like Scottish mountains, snow, mist etc with nothing being anything extraordinarily. Just like you, I find it mysterious why certain photos sell and I can only assume many find the Scottish landscape unique.
 
I license images through Alamy. I'm absolutely not recommending them for many reasons, and wouldn't recommend stock at all if you want to make money. It's pocket-money for me and I do quite well compared to most with a similar number of images. Anything and everything sells on any subject, from the bizarre to great shots of wildlife & people. I'm not sure how I could make any more money from photography these days without spending more money, having more ability to travel, and having more confidence.
 
The majority of my sales are all through Getty Images. From there I would say at least 95% of the sales have been to businesses abroad (France, Germany, Spain, US, Canada, Russia being common sales)with virtually none in the UK.
As to what sells it seems to be things like Scottish mountains, snow, mist etc with nothing being anything extraordinarily. Just like you, I find it mysterious why certain photos sell and I can only assume many find the Scottish landscape unique.
Thanks for the insight, I can understand the Scottish scenery shots selling as they are kinda nice.
Strange as you say, hardly any sales to UK business`s.
 
I license images through Alamy. I'm absolutely not recommending them for many reasons, and wouldn't recommend stock at all if you want to make money. It's pocket-money for me and I do quite well compared to most with a similar number of images. Anything and everything sells on any subject, from the bizarre to great shots of wildlife & people. I'm not sure how I could make any more money from photography these days without spending more money, having more ability to travel, and having more confidence.
Thanks for your input.
Just a simple question as it`s been mentioned but I didn`t in the main thread... How much does a photo sell for, do you put a price on it, do they make an offer on it or is it a price fixed by the website ie in your case Alamy?
 
I have few hundred now on Shutterstock, the price they pay varies base rate just 25 cents (I know) but have sold several at $1.88 and 2 videos for $7.
It adds up, just rather too slowly but you might have the photos already anyway.
What sells is not so much pretty views of castles or something, so much as good clear shots of more everyday objects someone suddenly wants to illustrate.
You start to get an idea of what's worth uploading. Think about current trends for example I uploaded shots of car charging points as I saw them and all have sold I think someone is making an online guide with photos because people like to see what they might be heading for (to charge)
You can probably make more from online print sales or something but it's all extra work
 
Thanks for your input.
Just a simple question as it`s been mentioned but I didn`t in the main thread... How much does a photo sell for, do you put a price on it, do they make an offer on it or is it a price fixed by the website ie in your case Alamy?

They go for anything from $1 (it's all done in US$) up to around $200. I read the occasional report of higher fees but it's extremely rare, and to be fair it's also rare to see one as low as $1. The price is negotiated by the sales staff at Alamy. They do have a fixed price for differing uses, but customers only pay that on rare occasions. Regular customers have bulk discount deals, some being quite unbelievable. We do get sales at the higher end still so it's not all bad. I'd love to say more but I'm already on a watch-list for telling the truth, so I'll leave it there. :)
 
I sell through Alamy - and I would say images that feature a landmark sell better than out and out landscapes. It's mainly small to medium sizes that buy them - and from all over the world. Some get a good price (three figures) and some barely scrape a tenner.

_DSC5516 3x2 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr

This for instance has made me into four figures all in over the years.

This hasn't made a single penny.

_DSC0815 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr
 
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Another who uses Alamy. All my images are licensed as editorial, most feature people and are Alamy exclusive for the maximum 50% commission. Have only been with them since 2017, have 2734 images in my port. Most recent uploads are COVID-19 related, and with more in the pipeline. Obviously anything travel related has taken a dive. Sales revenues are continually dropping as the big agencies compete with each other. Sales of $100 plus still drop in. UK Newspaper scheme sales can be plentiful, but often for a pittance, but all add up. My sales have been increasing each year, last month was my best, but the future is uncertain in these challenging times. Good captioning and tagging is as important, if not more, than good topical images. AP purchased Alamy, but is still run independently.
 
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Looking at the current prices, it is laughable. The Field used to pay me a MINIMUM of £100 for a single use, that was back in the late 80s and early 90s. I sold a picture of a convertible F50 to The Sunday Times, late 90s perhaps? That was a single sale for £11,000, it was a full page, to illustrate a competition, from the same shoot Top Gear calendar used it for the cover and another varied shot inside, July I think was - that was a £5000 fee. That photoshoot over the years must have earned me £50,000.

Now you understand why people were getting cross about photographers allowing use 'for a credit', or absolute peanut payment..... photography has become so devalued through this as to be almost worthless (the figures above prove the point). Whatever price you put on something, that becomes its value.

Luckily, the few clients I still have are paying much better than stock. I had a friend who moved out toFrance to live, he ran a stock photography business, shooting stock and selling it himself, he was earning around £150,000 a year in the 90s - the money is still there, but instead of it being earned by the creator, it is now the corporate 'Getty' and 'Alamy' and 'Corel' (Remember them?) of this world who get the money for other peoples' creativity. It is how it is and it was our own faults for allowing it to happen.
 
I have a few images on various stock photography websites. Strangely it seems to be the more mundane ones that get purchased more regularly.

I have a photo of some grass, yes just a close up photo of some common garden grass, it has been sold over 800 times.

I also have a photo of a local marching band which has been sold over 600 times, I have that same photo on a site that lets people order all sorts of odd ball things and this photo has been used for everything from mugs, t-shirts, postcards, and even bizarrely a Christmas card once. :ROFLMAO:
 
Least scarey pic I ahve seen of this........ I stopped in the camp site below it on way to spain.. drove over it on way back..... a lot scarier than the pic shows :)

I love driving over it. Little did I know this was the most lucrative stop I ever had on a motorway. Timed the shot to be traffic free.

God I want to get back over there.
 
Thanks to all that commented, it`s very interesting who buys what and what they buy.
And it`s interesting about the price that a photo can get.
 
I sell through Alamy - and I would say images that feature a landmark sell better than out and out landscapes. It's mainly small to medium sizes that buy them - and from all over the world. Some get a good price (three figures) and some barely scrape a tenner.


This hasn't made a single penny.

_DSC0815 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr

I'm a newbie to stock photography and I have learnt very quickly that you may have a really great shot (like yours), but that doesn't mean they will sell. Indeed, my most basic of shots are my best sellers. As an example, this shot has sold 5 times for me. As you can see, it's not exactly award-winning, is it?

stock.jpg



Just beware of Shutterstock. A few days ago, they dropped a massive bombshell with a new earnings structure. Basically it could result in your earnings being halved and you could earn as little as $0.10 per image. Details here: https://www.shutterstock.com/blog/contributor-earnings-update . To say it's gone down like a lead balloon is the understatement of the century. It was due to come into place today, but at the time of writing this, it hasn't. Because of the massive backlash, they may have dropped it.
 
Photos with space for text are often popular for various reasons, also portrait and square sell disproportionately well.
The Shutterstock news is a bombshell, I have a fair few on Dreamstime too where you get a bit more but less sales overall so have rather neglected that site, might put more there now.
 
I have 7 photos on Shutterstock from last year when Sheffield United won promotion. So far they have amassed $2.88.. I only put them on in the off chance.
 
I have 7 photos on Shutterstock from last year when Sheffield United won promotion. So far they have amassed $2.88.. I only put them on in the off chance.

But you can bet your bottom dollar that the library earned many times that figure.
 
Reports suggest the new system is giving more sales with a higher price than feared as it's based on % of the purchase plan of buyer - if they buy as a one off or a deal to choose say any 50 a year you will get more than previously, some major buyers pay for 100s in advance and get very low rates that's when the $0.10 comes into play
 
I have a few images on various stock photography websites. Strangely it seems to be the more mundane ones that get purchased more regularly.

I have a photo of some grass, yes just a close up photo of some common garden grass, it has been sold over 800 times.

I also have a photo of a local marching band which has been sold over 600 times, I have that same photo on a site that lets people order all sorts of odd ball things and this photo has been used for everything from mugs, t-shirts, postcards, and even bizarrely a Christmas card once. :ROFLMAO:

I always thought that you had to have the permission of people in photos for stock sites though? Am I wrong?
 
I always thought that you had to have the permission of people in photos for stock sites though? Am I wrong?
You can upload a scene with people or recognisable buildings and objects as 'editorial' on some agencies - not all though AdobeStock don't allow it but apparently are starting to let well established contributors do it.
If anything in your photo is a recognisable designed object - even say a handwritten sign it will likely have to be editorial.
Most street scenes are just going to be editorial anyway because full of copyright pitfalls
An editorial image can't have anything altered, for example you can't blur out faces or number plates even though that might seem sensible.

If a photo is a candid portrait you'd be pushing it to call it editorial though could be OK if they almost accidentally were in a scene.
You can imagine difficulties if a photo ended up being used in an advert with people who weren't released, consequently allowed uses for editorial shots are restricted at least officially.
An editorial image would be expected to sell less often than a full commercial with model release but the price you get per download isn't necessarily much different.
 
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