How to make money with your pictures?

jrcastillo · 11-17-2013, 08:05 PM

Forum members, sitting here at home I was just thinking about ways to justify buying gear

One of the main things stopping me is that, in reality, I am only doing photography for fun/hobbie and money I put in photography does not necessarily makes its way back to my pocket.

I was thinking, what are some ways I can make some money (just enough to pay for gear every now and then)?

I was checking online and among all options (like selling your prints in art galleries, etc) I saw one compelling option:

- selling your pictures in stock picture sites like fotolia.com among others

So the question is:

1- Is this realistic? I mean, I know there are 1,000,000 variables, but are there any forum members getting some money by doing this? what is your experience?

lguckert79 · 11-17-2013, 08:19 PM

I have been thinking the same thing and if there is someone on here please let us know what site you use and why?
Thank you.

ElJamoquio · 11-17-2013, 08:27 PM

You can make a few bucks here and there on websites but it's tough to get eyes to look at your pics. It's a crowded field.

It's much easier to make money as a wedding photographer. Of course you don't want to do THAT half assed.

Bob from Aus · 11-17-2013, 08:35 PM

Good sale people can make money out of photography. Do you want to do photography or sell photographs? Not much low picking fruit out there because photography and photographers are used and abused and there seems to be less respect for the skills involved.

Start by looking at what you do for a job and if you can weasel photography into it.

**jatrax** · 11-17-2013, 08:51 PM

Originally posted by jrcastillo

selling your pictures in stock picture sites like fotolia.com among others

You can do quite well, although the good days are long gone. If you are looking to make gear money that is. Making a living at it is another story.

But shooting stock is not like shooting for fun. Each image must be technically perfect. it is a lot of work and then you sell images for maybe 25 cents each. So it is a numbers game. If you can build a good sized portfolio of over several thousand, technically perfect, creative, and in demand, images you will do fine.

Stock itself is not a monolith. There are a number of different markets. Fotolia is a micro-stock site, pricing is,well, micro. .27 cents for most sales. There are a number of such sites. Then you have "macro-stock" sites which are usually much harder to get accepted to but CAN have sales of up to $100 per image, though most sales will be far less than that. You also have the big agencies like Getty and Corbis but it is nearly impossible to get into those these days, at least as a hobbyist.

Taking a picture is about 10% of the actual work. You need to stage the image, hire models, get releases, keyword, title and caption and then upload. And don't even think about taking those 10,000 images on your hard drive and uploading, it won't work. If you want to shoot stock, you have to shoot for stock.

Neville · 11-17-2013, 09:23 PM

Although I take all sorts of photos as a hobby, I recently volunteered to take pictures at all our provincial athletics meetings, which involves a full Saturday every weekend.

The organisers give me full access to the track and field events and they provide me with an official photographer vest.

Although I don't charge the organisers, I make some money by selling my pictures to the athletes themselves, via a local site at www.photofrog.co.za. Photofrog takes the orders online, on my behalf, and then provides the athletes a choice of digital downloads and prints.

Photofrog deducts their costs and a small commission, and pays me the difference once a month.

I get my exposure from a link that the organisers have placed on their website - www.kznathletics.co.za as well as posters that I have put up on the stadium notice boards.

Athletes can view and order photos from my Photofrog portal - http://nevillebailey.photofrog.co.za.

I am making a fairly decent amount of money so far.

jrcastillo · 11-18-2013, 12:40 AM

Thanks for your comments. One thing to clarify however, I am not planning on making my salary out of this. For example, if I can make 1,000 in a whole year (I wish) to buy a new lens, body etc, that would be more than perfect.

Originally posted by ElJamoquio

It's much easier to make money as a wedding photographer.

I am not really planning to make a living out of it. I know life can turn around at any moment. But as I said, IF i can make some money for lenses, or flashes or bodies. great. Not sure why you see a problem in that.

Originally posted by jatrax

Each image must be technically perfect. it is a lot of work and then you sell images for maybe 25 cents each

Originally posted by Bob from Aus

Do you want to do photography or sell photographs? Not much low picking fruit out there because photography and photographers are used and abused and there seems to be less respect for the skills involved.

Sounds like stock photography might be more work than what i thought. In reality, I was thinking I was going to upload my 10,000 off my HDD and see what happened. But sounds like is not that easy.

Originally posted by Neville

Although I don't charge the organisers, I make some money by selling my pictures to the athletes themselves, via a local site at Photo Frog. Photofrog takes the orders online, on my behalf, and then provides the athletes a choice of digital downloads and prints.

That sounds like a good idea. I mean, i might not just go to a athlete's club, but "volunteering" to take pictures might actually open some doors like it did for you.

**Lowell Goudge** · 11-18-2013, 04:01 AM

I would suggest another means. Contact a local paper, not a big publisher, a neighbourhood paper. In the Toronto area there is a publication called snap. The shots are largely semi armature shooters. Try to get onto the staff of one of these

ElJamoquio · 11-18-2013, 08:01 AM

Originally posted by jrcastillo

I am not really planning to make a living out of it. I know life can turn around at any moment. But as I said, IF i can make some money for lenses, or flashes or bodies. great. Not sure why you see a problem in that.

You do realize that I did (and am) taking time out of my day to answer your question to the best of my ability, right? I said that it's a crowded field and it's tough to make money. I never said anything about 'making a living'.

A lot of people would be better off spending the setup/processing/uploading/keywording time at another job. People do it because they like photography. Because a lot of people like to do photography, you don't get much money to do it.

bluestringer · 11-18-2013, 08:29 AM

I've sold a few images through stock agencies, but unless you sell hundreds of images a month there is really no money in it. You only get a small percentage, and most agencies are very selective in what they accept.

Dr Orloff · 11-18-2013, 08:35 AM - **2 Likes**

To make a small fortune out of photography start off with a large fortune.

**Rondec** · 11-18-2013, 08:46 AM

What you do is have your wife do photography and you use her money to finance your <acronym title="Lens Buying Addiction">LBA</acronym>, etc.

Actually, my wife does shoot for hire -- portraits/weddings mainly -- and makes quite good money at that. I think it is probably a lot better money than you get through these on line sites, but I could be wrong about that.

ElJamoquio · 11-18-2013, 10:05 AM

Originally posted by Rondec

I think it is probably a lot better money than you get through these on line sites, but I could be wrong about that.

You're not.

**jatrax** · 11-18-2013, 10:43 AM

Originally posted by Rondec

I think it is probably a lot better money than you get through these on line sites, but I could be wrong about that.

Maybe, maybe not. I do OK on stock sites, but you have to understand that it is a long term project. It has taken me years to put a portfolio together. Now I get a nice amount each month, but early on it was easy to get frustrated when you only earn $20 a month putting in maybe 40 hours in that month. Looked at short term it would have been much better to get a job flipping burgers part time. But if you can stick with it and keep adding to your portfolio every week for a long time you will get to the place where it starts to go the other way. And you don't have to deal with clients, which was something I was not going to do.

If you have the people skills to get gigs then I am sure that will return more money on a faster time frame. But those gigs only pay once, my stock portfolio pays each month. Just a different way of looking at things.

**Rondec** · 11-18-2013, 11:25 AM

Originally posted by jatrax

Maybe, maybe not. I do OK on stock sites, but you have to understand that it is a long term project. It has taken me years to put a portfolio together. Now I get a nice amount each month, but early on it was easy to get frustrated when you only earn $20 a month putting in maybe 40 hours in that month. Looked at short term it would have been much better to get a job flipping burgers part time. But if you can stick with it and keep adding to your portfolio every week for a long time you will get to the place where it starts to go the other way. And you don't have to deal with clients, which was something I was not going to do.

If you have the people skills to get gigs then I am sure that will return more money on a faster time frame. But those gigs only pay once, my stock portfolio pays each month. Just a different way of looking at things.

Sure. My wife makes about 250 on an hour photo shoot (with about an hour of editing after the fact). A wedding (for a day of shooting) is a little over a thousand.

The thing is that as you build up a name, you can raise your prices, so that you work the same, but make more money. And she likes it, so not a problem.

It wouldn't work for me though. I don't like portrait shoots, particularly not with kids and don't enjoy weddings at all.

11-17-2013, 08:05 PM	#1
jrcastillo Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2013 Posts: 161	How to make money with your pictures? Forum members, sitting here at home I was just thinking about ways to justify buying gear One of the main things stopping me is that, in reality, I am only doing photography for fun/hobbie and money I put in photography does not necessarily makes its way back to my pocket. I was thinking, what are some ways I can make some money (just enough to pay for gear every now and then)? I was checking online and among all options (like selling your prints in art galleries, etc) I saw one compelling option: - selling your pictures in stock picture sites like fotolia.com among others So the question is: 1- Is this realistic? I mean, I know there are 1,000,000 variables, but are there any forum members getting some money by doing this? what is your experience?

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11-17-2013, 08:19 PM	#2
lguckert79 Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 601	I have been thinking the same thing and if there is someone on here please let us know what site you use and why? Thank you.

11-17-2013, 08:27 PM	#3
ElJamoquio Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 4,873	You can make a few bucks here and there on websites but it's tough to get eyes to look at your pics. It's a crowded field. It's much easier to make money as a wedding photographer. Of course you don't want to do THAT half assed.

11-17-2013, 08:35 PM	#4
Bob from Aus Veteran Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Australia Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,094	Good sale people can make money out of photography. Do you want to do photography or sell photographs? Not much low picking fruit out there because photography and photographers are used and abused and there seems to be less respect for the skills involved. Start by looking at what you do for a job and if you can weasel photography into it.

11-17-2013, 08:51 PM	#5
jatrax Site Supporter Join Date: May 2010 Location: Washington Cascades Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 12,991	Originally posted by jrcastillo selling your pictures in stock picture sites like fotolia.com among others You can do quite well, although the good days are long gone. If you are looking to make gear money that is. Making a living at it is another story. But shooting stock is not like shooting for fun. Each image must be technically perfect. it is a lot of work and then you sell images for maybe 25 cents each. So it is a numbers game. If you can build a good sized portfolio of over several thousand, technically perfect, creative, and in demand, images you will do fine. Stock itself is not a monolith. There are a number of different markets. Fotolia is a micro-stock site, pricing is,well, micro. .27 cents for most sales. There are a number of such sites. Then you have "macro-stock" sites which are usually much harder to get accepted to but CAN have sales of up to $100 per image, though most sales will be far less than that. You also have the big agencies like Getty and Corbis but it is nearly impossible to get into those these days, at least as a hobbyist. Taking a picture is about 10% of the actual work. You need to stage the image, hire models, get releases, keyword, title and caption and then upload. And don't even think about taking those 10,000 images on your hard drive and uploading, it won't work. If you want to shoot stock, you have to shoot for stock.

11-17-2013, 09:23 PM	#6
Neville Pentaxian Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Durban, South Africa Photos: Gallery Posts: 561	Although I take all sorts of photos as a hobby, I recently volunteered to take pictures at all our provincial athletics meetings, which involves a full Saturday every weekend. The organisers give me full access to the track and field events and they provide me with an official photographer vest. Although I don't charge the organisers, I make some money by selling my pictures to the athletes themselves, via a local site at www.photofrog.co.za. Photofrog takes the orders online, on my behalf, and then provides the athletes a choice of digital downloads and prints. Photofrog deducts their costs and a small commission, and pays me the difference once a month. I get my exposure from a link that the organisers have placed on their website - www.kznathletics.co.za as well as posters that I have put up on the stadium notice boards. Athletes can view and order photos from my Photofrog portal - http://nevillebailey.photofrog.co.za. I am making a fairly decent amount of money so far.

11-18-2013, 12:40 AM	#7
jrcastillo Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2013 Posts: 161 Original Poster	Thanks for your comments. One thing to clarify however, I am not planning on making my salary out of this. For example, if I can make 1,000 in a whole year (I wish) to buy a new lens, body etc, that would be more than perfect. Originally posted by ElJamoquio It's much easier to make money as a wedding photographer. I am not really planning to make a living out of it. I know life can turn around at any moment. But as I said, IF i can make some money for lenses, or flashes or bodies. great. Not sure why you see a problem in that. Originally posted by jatrax Each image must be technically perfect. it is a lot of work and then you sell images for maybe 25 cents each Originally posted by Bob from Aus Do you want to do photography or sell photographs? Not much low picking fruit out there because photography and photographers are used and abused and there seems to be less respect for the skills involved. Sounds like stock photography might be more work than what i thought. In reality, I was thinking I was going to upload my 10,000 off my HDD and see what happened. But sounds like is not that easy. Originally posted by Neville Although I don't charge the organisers, I make some money by selling my pictures to the athletes themselves, via a local site at Photo Frog. Photofrog takes the orders online, on my behalf, and then provides the athletes a choice of digital downloads and prints. That sounds like a good idea. I mean, i might not just go to a athlete's club, but "volunteering" to take pictures might actually open some doors like it did for you.

11-18-2013, 04:01 AM	#8
Lowell Goudge Site Supporter Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Toronto Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 17,888	I would suggest another means. Contact a local paper, not a big publisher, a neighbourhood paper. In the Toronto area there is a publication called snap. The shots are largely semi armature shooters. Try to get onto the staff of one of these

11-18-2013, 08:01 AM	#9
ElJamoquio Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 4,873	Originally posted by jrcastillo I am not really planning to make a living out of it. I know life can turn around at any moment. But as I said, IF i can make some money for lenses, or flashes or bodies. great. Not sure why you see a problem in that. You do realize that I did (and am) taking time out of my day to answer your question to the best of my ability, right? I said that it's a crowded field and it's tough to make money. I never said anything about 'making a living'. A lot of people would be better off spending the setup/processing/uploading/keywording time at another job. People do it because they like photography. Because a lot of people like to do photography, you don't get much money to do it.

11-18-2013, 08:29 AM	#10
bluestringer Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Cotton fields of South Georgia Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,748	I've sold a few images through stock agencies, but unless you sell hundreds of images a month there is really no money in it. You only get a small percentage, and most agencies are very selective in what they accept.

11-18-2013, 08:35 AM - 2 Likes	#11
Dr Orloff Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Brighton, England Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 512	To make a small fortune out of photography start off with a large fortune.

11-18-2013, 08:46 AM	#12
Rondec Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Gladys, Virginia Photos: Gallery Posts: 27,653	What you do is have your wife do photography and you use her money to finance your <acronym title="Lens Buying Addiction">LBA</acronym>, etc. Actually, my wife does shoot for hire -- portraits/weddings mainly -- and makes quite good money at that. I think it is probably a lot better money than you get through these on line sites, but I could be wrong about that.

11-18-2013, 10:05 AM	#13
ElJamoquio Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 4,873	Originally posted by Rondec I think it is probably a lot better money than you get through these on line sites, but I could be wrong about that. You're not.

11-18-2013, 10:43 AM	#14
jatrax Site Supporter Join Date: May 2010 Location: Washington Cascades Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 12,991	Originally posted by Rondec I think it is probably a lot better money than you get through these on line sites, but I could be wrong about that. Maybe, maybe not. I do OK on stock sites, but you have to understand that it is a long term project. It has taken me years to put a portfolio together. Now I get a nice amount each month, but early on it was easy to get frustrated when you only earn $20 a month putting in maybe 40 hours in that month. Looked at short term it would have been much better to get a job flipping burgers part time. But if you can stick with it and keep adding to your portfolio every week for a long time you will get to the place where it starts to go the other way. And you don't have to deal with clients, which was something I was not going to do. If you have the people skills to get gigs then I am sure that will return more money on a faster time frame. But those gigs only pay once, my stock portfolio pays each month. Just a different way of looking at things.

11-18-2013, 11:25 AM	#15
Rondec Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Gladys, Virginia Photos: Gallery Posts: 27,653	Originally posted by jatrax Maybe, maybe not. I do OK on stock sites, but you have to understand that it is a long term project. It has taken me years to put a portfolio together. Now I get a nice amount each month, but early on it was easy to get frustrated when you only earn $20 a month putting in maybe 40 hours in that month. Looked at short term it would have been much better to get a job flipping burgers part time. But if you can stick with it and keep adding to your portfolio every week for a long time you will get to the place where it starts to go the other way. And you don't have to deal with clients, which was something I was not going to do. If you have the people skills to get gigs then I am sure that will return more money on a faster time frame. But those gigs only pay once, my stock portfolio pays each month. Just a different way of looking at things. Sure. My wife makes about 250 on an hour photo shoot (with about an hour of editing after the fact). A wedding (for a day of shooting) is a little over a thousand. The thing is that as you build up a name, you can raise your prices, so that you work the same, but make more money. And she likes it, so not a problem. It wouldn't work for me though. I don't like portrait shoots, particularly not with kids and don't enjoy weddings at all.