In Denmark, once a person gets a job – any job really, life starts falling into place. The problem really is, to GET that job, but that is a conversation for another day 
I thought I would share a tip with those of you who enjoy photography (and are not professional photographers), and can make some money with it. Do you ever wonder where blogs, small publications and magazines (online and off) and small businesses buy their pictures from? They most often than not, buy from a stock photo website. These websites work like an agency: they connect photographers who want to sell their photos with people who want to buy them. There are many levels ($) of stock photography websites and the main difference between them are the quality and exclusivity of the pictures. It makes sense that if you are able to get a perfect shot of Madonna, that you are in the high end of this business.
How does it work? They change slightly, but basically it works like this:
- Open an account
- Sign up as a photographer
- Upload images
- Wait for the approval of your images
- Add titles and descriptions for the images
- Get a commission for each picture that is downloaded
You can sell all sorts of photos: feet, beach, flag, people, animals, children, garden – ANYTHING really.
Here is my list of stock photography agencies:
- Dreamstime – this is the one I use when I purchase pictures for my businesses. The banner on this blog is made by 3 pictures from that website.
- Fotolia
- Shutterstock
- Istockphoto
- Picturesque – pictures for travel and tourism (windmill counts )
Well, you won’t get rich by selling photos to these places, but if you are good and devote a few hours every day to taking and uploading photos, it could become a part-time income with time – because as your portfolio grows, more of your images gets downloaded and each image can be downloaded by several users.
If you are a professional photographer, you can make a lot more money by selling to agencies from A Photo Editor’s list
langvang
paulathecatlady
marriedtoadane
Hi Paula,
I have discovered stock photography just recently. And I love it! I always liked taking pictures, but now photography has a new meaning to me!
What is your experience with all these sites? I tend to believe it is best to focus on 1-2 places. Which “agency” do you think is the best and why?
I started with iStockphoto, but they are very slow with confirmations. I also tried Shutterstock, but apparently my level is still not good enough for them.
How did it go for you with all these sites?
Have a good coming week!
Mindaugas
By: Mindaugas on June 28, 2009
at 8:35
Hi Mindaugas! I can definitely recommend Dreamstime. I have uploaded just one picture and two designs I made, so I am not really a seller, but mainly a buyer there. But the selling process is also very easy. You upload the images and they are available in about 10 hours. Then you go in and add descriptions. And in 24 hours (I think), you get the approval.
I use it mostly for buying pictures. Their prices are very reasonable and I buy about 2 pictures a week. Yesterday I found out something very funny actually! A woman wrote on a dog forum that an agency called her to take pictures of her puppies and that PetDreams.dk (us) ended up buying the pictures: http://hundegalleri.dk/html/for_messageDetail.asp?Msg_ID=294445
I had no idea that they came from Denmark! What a coincidence!!!
I think it can actually become a good job for people who have a good camera and upload many pictures a day.
Have a good week as well!
Regards,
Paula
By: paulathecatlady on June 28, 2009
at 8:35
I am not a buyer in any of these sites. But I like photography, and I am now trying to upload some pictures that I made.
I only had pictures on iStockphoto, but now I also uploaded some on Dreamstime. Lets see how it goes
By the way, I think all these agencies have unique characteristics that differentiate them from the others. When it comes to quality of the pictures, I think Shutterstock is the best due to extremely tough selection procedure. At least this is what I believe based on uploading pictures as a photographer and checking pictures on most of these agencies.
But I agree with you — these stock sites are very useful for both the photographers and the designers/picture buyers.
Regards,
Mindaugas
By: Mindaugas on July 1, 2009
at 8:35