Selling your Photos: Adventures In Microstock

Pop Quiz: Okay, so what do all websites, brochures and ads have in common? Answer: they all have images, often photo images. And where do all these photo images come from? Answer: Some dude named “Rudy”. Just kidding. His real name is “Earl”.

But if you don’t buy the Earl scenario as plausible, you’ll probably buy into this one: Many of the images used in marketing, advertising, and web stuff in general are purchased from Stock or Microstock companies, who sell, that’s right, sell the photographs.

The difference between Stock and Microstock agencies are substantial: Traditional stock photo companies offer a relatively high-quality product, generally with a price tag that ‘s commensurate with the product. In other words, it’s pricey. But if you are a major ad agency or company that’s driving some major branding initiative, it makes sense to shell out a few more dollars to get exclusive rights to a given image (for obvious reasons).

On the other hand, most companies are not all that interested in global branding or driving huge mega-marketing campaigns. And most companies have relatively modest budgets for this type of stuff. In fact, now that every single person on the planet has his or her very own website, the size of the market for photographic images is bigger than ever.

And what a coincidence. Everyone also has a digital camera. And that means that it’s really, really easy and inexpensive to get high-quality images into computers without the hassles (or expense) of scanners or service bureaus, etc. So, we have this perfect storm, where there is an increased market for a product, and at the same time, a huge increase in the availability of the stuff that the market consumes, in this case, photographic images. Go figure.

Which brings us to the one question that a lot of people ask, these days: “Can I sell my photographs”? The simple answer is this: “Yes”. The longer (and more boring) answer is that pursing stock photography as a field of endeavor is like many other things; the more you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it.

When a photographer, even an amateur, wants to get started with MicroStock (we’ll refer to it as “MicroStock” because the payments are small, the volume tends to be small, etc.,) he or she would start an account with one of the stock agencies that accepts new photographers.

Generally, a new member has to pass a modest test, primarily to demonstrate that they know not to submit images with corporate logos, and to ensure that any image that contains a person’s face also has a model release form. The form is generally uploaded, just like the photo. Upon passing the test (it’s taken online), the photographer then submits (via the Internet) a whole bunch of his or her best images for review. The agency will look at the images, and decide whether they measure up. Some of the criteria they use to judge the quality of an image are subjective; others are objective. Example: a given photo may contain “noise”, and be rejected for that reason alone. Or, a photo may be rejected simply because there may not be much of a market for that particular subject.

Some photographers are rejected, and given the speech about how to try again some day; others are allowed in, and encouraged to begin uploading a whole bunch of photos. Important point: just because someone is approved as a photographer doesn’t mean that all subsequent images submitted are automatically approved. In fact, each image that’s uploaded has to go through the same level of scrutiny; the process takes anywhere from a day to a week. One has to sit and wait for the email indicating whether the images have been voted off the island, or not.

If images are accepted, then they are displayed for other people, who wish to actually pay money to, get this, buy them. These people typically search for images based on keywords, like “child”, “boy”, “happy”, etc., which is good news, since the photographer has taken a lot of time and care to “keyword” every single one of his images, prior to the uploading part. And that’s how users get their images in front of eyeballs.

In fact, many people think that the art of keywording is every bit as important as the art of photography.

When a buyer selects an image, he or she clicks the mouse a few times, and downloads a high-resolution file, generally the full-sized JPEG image that the digital camera produced. The photographer gets paid, but only after selling a sufficient number of images; after all, the agencies don’t want to pay photographers for each separate photo.

So, that’s the basic version. The answer, for most people (even amateur photographers), is “yes”. You can sell your photos, provided you are willing to take the time to learn the rules of the game, and even more time in coming up with some really high-quality images that others might find useful (for a variety of reasons).

Generally, the people that do well in MicroStock are those that have above average technical skills, and a high level of comfort with a camera. Those that do even better are those who really, truly understand how to tell a story with a photographic image, and understand WHICH stories happen to be in demand, at any given time, by any given group. If you remember only one thing from this article, let it be that.

Please note that there are a large number of MicroStock vendors and companies with whom you may choose to align yourself. There ARE differences, but they are generally minor. I am occasionally asked which on is “best”. My answer is this: I dunno. But I do know which vendor I’ve had the best luck with:

It’s Shutterstock. Hands down. You might start there, if you are so inclined.