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Thursday 24 April 2008

What is Microstock Photography?

What is microstock photography?

(the short answer is, it is like Flickr though with earning potential for you... but read on).

Before understanding what microstock photography is, it is worth knowing what stock photography is.

All the images you see in your daily life have to come from somewhere.

These images are primarily supplied by photographers and designers, though typically they will get into the media via a stock agency. Stock photography consists of existing photographs that can be licensed for specific uses. Publishers, advertising agencies, graphic artists, and others use stock photography to fulfill the needs of their creative assignments. Professional photographers submit thier work to a stock library, or stock agency. When a publisher, for example, needs an image to illustrate a book, they will approach a stock agency to supply them with their needs. The publisher will be supplied with an appropriate image under licence from a stock agency for a fee, which is split between the agency and the photographer. Traditionally the cost of these images can range from hundreds of Dollars, Pounds or Euros up into the thousands. It would be easy to think that professional photographers are well paid - they do still have equipment to pay for though. But let's move onto microstock photography.

Microstock photography puts the earning power once mainly enjoyed by a professional elite into the hands of the amateur or hobbyist.

In other words if you are an amateur or hobbyist, your images no longer have to sit on your hard drive doing nothing - they can now earn you at the very least enough money to pay for your hobby - at the most a very good living (the reality is that the majority of 'amateurs' use microstock photography to earn a few extra quid or dollars to help pay the bills, but cash is cash).

Microstock photography is an offshoot of traditional stock photography. What defines a company as a microstock photography company is that they

  • source their images almost exclusively via the Internet,
  • do so from a wider range of photographers than the traditional stock agencies (including a willingness to accept images from "amateurs" and hobbyists), and
  • sell their images at a very low rate (anywhere from Pennies to pounds, Cents to Dollars or Euros) for a royalty-free image.

Initially some photographers are put off by the apparent low-earning potential per photo BUT, where a traditional stock photographer would earn a healthy amount on one image ONCE or maybe TWICE, the nature of microstock photography is that you can be earning small amounts per image OVER and OVER and OVER.

A number of microstock sites also sell on your behalf, vector art, and some sell Flash animations and video, as well as images.

Each microstock company uses a different pricing and payment scheme. Photographers can upload the same pictures on multiple sites or, with some agencies, become an exclusive supplier and receive an increased commission and additional benefits.

There is no fee to post photos on a microstock site. However, microstock companies do not accept everyone or all photographs, though if you can take a technically sound image of 'typical' stock requirement your images will be accepted. Each employs a team of reviewers who check every picture submitted for technical quality, as well as artistic and commercial merit. Photographers add keywords that help potential buyers filter and find pictures of interest.

Have a look for yourself, I have included links below to my favourite microstock agencies.

Don't blame me if you become addicted!
Royalty Free Images


Fotolia


Stock Photos, Royalty Free Stock Photography, Photo Search




Unwatermarked versions of these images are offered at the following sites, for use in a variety of situations from simple website illustration to top-end advertising campaigns.
Alternatively rather than buy images, you might like to sell your photographs and artwork.

The following links are agencies where you can buy and sell photos and artwork.
Most of the photos you see on this blog are images I sell regularly through these agencies. If you can take a better picture than those I have on this blog, you will easily make money. Good Luck.

istockphoto

Fotolia

Dreamstime

Bigstockphoto

Yaymicro

Mostphotos

Featurepics

Keywording

Keywording


This is just a really quick word about keywording. Nobody likes doing it, but it has to be done. Keyword BEFORE you upload. Use IRFANVIEW (it is free). Load your image into Irfanview, Press I, click the "IPTC Info" button, enter the info into the fields (use the tabs as well), click write on the dialogue box when you are finished, and you are done. Make a copy of the info you entered, either as a text file or excel file - whichever suits you.

Why keyword before you upload?

Because you only have to do it once. If you upload to multiple microstock site and don't keyword (i.e. add IPTC info), you will need to keyword for every site which as well as being mind numbing is unnecessarily time consuming.

Unwatermarked versions of these images are offered at the following sites, for use in a variety of situations from simple website illustration to top-end advertising campaigns.
Alternatively rather than buy images, you might like to sell your photographs and artwork.

The following links are agencies where you can buy and sell photos and artwork.
Most of the photos you see on this blog are images I sell regularly through these agencies. If you can take a better picture than those I have on this blog, you will easily make money. Good Luck.

istockphoto

Fotolia

Dreamstime

Bigstockphoto

Yaymicro

Mostphotos

Featurepics

Tuesday 22 April 2008

oops!

oops!

Don't worry. No-one has slipped up, tripped up or spilt milk. I post this image here to show you the type of simple image that can earn you money on microstock.
This is exactly the sort of thing that publishing houses often look for, but deadlines dictate that it can't be 'knocked up' in-house. I have these and similar images spread across a number of stock agencies. They don't take long to make and, most importantly, they sell.
You will notice this is watermarked YayMicro, so I may as well tell you that at the time of writing Yaymicro is a new stock agency which is currently building up its seller/image portfolio. Yaymicro, until recently, were only granting membership by invite only - the current situation at the time of writing is that anyone wishing to sell can join - I don't kow if they will be reverting to invite only for sellers, when they open their doors up to buyers in June 2008, so it is probably best not to hang around sign up now and have your images ready for their first buyers!

Unwatermarked versions of these images are offered at the following sites, for use in a variety of situations from simple website illustration to top-end advertising campaigns.
Alternatively rather than buy images, you might like to sell your photographs and artwork.

The following links are agencies where you can buy and sell photos and artwork.
Most of the photos you see on this blog are images I sell regularly through these agencies. If you can take a better picture than those I have on this blog, you will easily make money. Good Luck.

istockphoto

Fotolia

Dreamstime

Bigstockphoto

Yaymicro

Mostphotos

Featurepics

Variety - and a small selection of my stock

Being new to Microstock means I haven't settled into any 'niche' or corner. Not only are my photographs varied, but also the bits of graphic work I do from time to time has a certain variety.
I don't see variety being a bad thing at this stage - the microstock industry needs this. This is encouraging because the beauty of microstock is that it is attracting those who have otherwise treated their photography as a general hobby - and only a hobby. What microstock is doing for the general hobbyist is allowing them the opportunity to make some money from images that would otherwise be hidden in a hard drive, or seen once a year at the local photography club. Although I may be wrong, in my experience the general hobby photographer has not settled into a speciality - their pictures have a healthy variety, which is healthy for the stock industry.

Unwatermarked versions of these images are offered at the following sites, for use in a variety of situations from simple website illustration to top-end advertising campaigns.
Alternatively rather than buy images, you might like to sell your photographs and artwork.

The following links are agencies where you can buy and sell photos and artwork.
Most of the photos you see on this blog are images I sell regularly through these agencies. If you can take a better picture than those I have on this blog, you will easily make money. Good Luck.

istockphoto

Fotolia

Dreamstime

Bigstockphoto

Yaymicro

Mostphotos

Featurepics

Welcome to tommroch

Hello and welcome to tommroch.

The image shows a collage of Lava Lamp images created with photoshop. The full images are available to buy for a very small amount at a variety of microstock photography sites the links are at the right hand side.

Whilst not a photographer or designer in the strict sense of the
"years of study and years of employed experience" sense, it is what I now do for a living. My images sell at a variety of microstock, midstock and macrostock agencies. I literally fell into doing this. - O.K. more like stumbled across a Microstock website which aroused my curiosity, and haven't looked back since.

Making money on microstock is
really, really easy!!!

Right, I better rephrase that!


After you have got yourself a LOT (i.e. quantity) of really good images suitable for stock (i.e. quality), and then keyworded these images (that is the boring bit), you upload them to the stock agencies of your choice and sit back and wait for the money to come in.
Now don't get too excited yet, this isn't going to make you a millionaire overnight - consider the following.

The music industry has its share of David Bowies and The Beatles. The music industry also has the groups that "get-by" doing weddings and corporate gigs. Many of the groups "getting by" are probably as good as The Beatles and The 'Stones, but were never discovered, or didn't put themselves about enough. Then there are the guys who have been happy to plod away in a pub rehearsal room, to their wives and kids for years promising themselves they will be good enough to gig someday.

The fooball world has its Henrik Larssons and Gordon Strachans. The famous guys of yesteryear never got rich. The famous footballers of today are stupidly rich.
The football world also has its guys who played for their school, works team, then the over forties five-a-sides. Some might have got a short career with Accrinton Stanley.

And this has absolutely nothing to do with stock photography - except perhaps to illustrate that, like music and football, you are only going to get out of stock photography what you put into it, you are going to have to be somewhere between reasonably good to excellent in the quality of image you produce and you are going to have to get noticed - oh and graft a little.

Thanks for your visit to my first blog post. Tomm.


Unwatermarked versions of these images are offered at the following sites, for use in a variety of situations from simple website illustration to top-end advertising campaigns.
Alternatively rather than buy images, you might like to sell your photographs and artwork.

The following links are agencies where you can buy and sell photos and artwork.
Most of the photos you see on this blog are images I sell regularly through these agencies. If you can take a better picture than those I have on this blog, you will easily make money. Good Luck.

istockphoto

Fotolia

Dreamstime

Bigstockphoto

Yaymicro

Mostphotos

Featurepics