Making money with stock photography sites is no longer new. A lot of people are aware of this method of earning an income on the internet. Even if you do not have professional photography skills, you can still get some cash through this method.

However, it is vital to know the skills that will set you apart and make you to upload photos that will be in great demand. This is how to make more money with stock photography sites.

• What Stock Photo Site Pays The Most?
• How to Sell Stock Photos And Make Money
• How do You Make Money From Stock Photography?
• How Much do You Make From Stock Photography?
• What Type of Photos Sell Best?
• What Stock Photos Are in Demand?
• How do You Take Good Stock Photos?
• What is The Best Place to Sell Stock Photos?
• Can I Edit a Photo And Sell it?
• Can I Modify a Shutterstock Image?
• Is it Legal to Use Shutterstock Images?
• How to Earn More With Good Stock Photos?
• How do You Edit Photos For Commercial Use?
• Which is The Best App For Photo Editing in Android?
• How Can I Edit Photos to Sell Online?
• Stock Photography Income
• How to Make Money With Photography Online
• Shutterstock Sell Photos
• Stock Photography Websites
• How to Make Money Selling Photos of Yourself

What Stock Photo Site Pays The Most?

Some stock photography websites allow anyone to join. Others are a bit more selective but offer a better royalty rate. Many agencies pay photographers a percentage of the profit from their images, though each option may vary a bit.

Interested in making your images available for purchase? Here are 10 excellent places to sell stock photography.

1. Alamy

With over 60 million images, Alamy is the largest stock photo website, but they also pay well too. Photographers earn 50% of every sale, and aren’t restricted to selling exclusively with Alamy. To join, photographers need to fill out a form and pass a quality control test.

Read Also: Make Money Marketing Environmentally-Friendly Laundry Detergent

While Alamy doesn’t edit or alter the images you submit, they do have strict guidelines. Images must be shot on a DSLR or mirrorless with at least six megapixels (though likely not a problem in today’s camera market). They’ll reject images for 26 different reasons, including bad exposure, camera artefacts, sharpness, and over-editing.

2. Fotolia and Adobe Stock

Fotolia is now part of Adobe Stock, which sells images directly to Creative Cloud users. This is important. Users of popular programs like Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator can buy images directly from their design program, which will theoretically place your image in front of more people than just the website alone.

Photographers earn 33% of each sale through both Fotolia and Adobe Stock. For images downloaded from a subscription plan, the minimum guaranteed payment depends on the photographer’s rank. To sell here, you must be 18 or older with a confirmed Fotolia account.

3. Getty Images

Getty Images is a well-known platform that offers both stock photos as well as editorial images of current events and celebrities. Photos with Getty are either royalty-free or rights managed. Microstock, which allows users to use the image as many times as they’d like once downloaded, isn’t on Getty, which is good for photographers.

While highly reputable, Getty Images is hard to break into. They no longer have a way for you to submit images, but according to a post on their previous Flickr group, editors look through Flickr to handpick photographers to invite to the platform.

4. iStock Photo

Offer your images only with iStock Photo, and you could be looking at royalty rates of up to 45%. Of course, if you don’t want to commit to just one platform, you can still choose to do so and earn a 15% royalty instead.

But perhaps what’s even more lucrative about iStock Photo is that it’s also a community of photographers too. Once you join, you have access to online forums to chat and learn with other artists. Anyone can create an account and access the forums, but to sell with iStock, you’ll also have to pass a quiz and submit samples of your work.

5. Can Stock Photo

Can Stock Photo is both fast and fair. They pay up to 50% on each image downloaded. With funds available for withdrawal to Paypal once reaching $50 and by check once reaching $100. Images on Can Stock Photo are also available for download on Fotosearch, so there’s potential for more exposure.

Signing up is a matter of sending an application and three images. Most photographers receive a response on the same day. You can upload a large number of images at once, and they’re often live on the site quickly.

6. Dreamstime

With over 35 million images, Dreamstime is a well-known microstock website. Photographers can expect a 25-50% royalty, though can only withdraw once their account balance exceeds $100. If you upload an exclusive image, you’ll receive an extra 10%.

Photographers must be approved to get started, then are given access to an FTP to upload their images to. Images must be at least three megapixels, and can also be rejected for excessive noise and other quality issues. Photographers have an approval rating.

Those with a higher rating can upload the maximum number of images per week, though profiles with low ratings are much more limited in their number of uploads. Exclusive contributors are also granted additional uploads.

7. Shutterstock

As a well-known database with over 350 million images, Shutterstock is an excellent option for selling stock photos. Along with having a wide reach, they also offer resources for photographers looking to improve their work and make the most out of their stock photos.

Shutterstock contributors earn up to 33% of the sale. Contributors earn a higher percentage as their lifetime earnings grows, so while payout could be slow at first, it does have a pretty big potential. Shutterstock also sells enhanced image licenses, where photographers take home $28, and custom images as well.

Plus, selling stock isn’t the only way for photographers to earn money. When you make a referral to another photographer, you’ll earn $.04 of every sale that new contributor makes for the next two years. Customer referrals earn 20% of their first purchase (up to $200).

8. 123RF

123RF is another platform that pays more as you get established, with the potential for a 60% royalty for the highest-ranked photographers, and 30% for those just getting started. Extended licenses also enhance the possibility of a higher payout.

After the initial sign-up and upload, 123RF is fast and easy to use. Since the more photos you add, the higher your commissions are, the quick uploads are a big advantage.

9. Stocksy

Stocksy is relatively new on the stock photo scene but worth considering nonetheless. They pay out a 50% commission, and unlike many others, accept smartphone photographers too. This new form of photography is on the rise with the growing mobile penetration, and an online smartphone photography course may be good way to turn into a mobile photographer. 

While Stocksy only takes in a limited number of new photographers every year, they encourage creativity. They want more than the boring traditional stock photo.

Stocksy images must be exclusively sold on that platform. Photographers can still work with other stock photo agencies, but cannot sell an image that’s on Stocksy anywhere else. They’re also a bit slower to respond, with submitted portfolios reviewed within one to two months.

10. Crestock

The beauty in Crestock is the simplicity. Applying is just filling out a form and uploading photos, then waiting for approval by the editing team. The photographer retains their rights and can still sell on other stock websites too. Pay is between 20-40%. While not as well known, it’s still a solid option, particularly because you can sell images elsewhere too.

How to Sell Stock Photos And Make Money

You can, but it’s definitely not easy. While there are plenty of stock photographers who make a decent living, there are easily as many more who do not. Things have changed dramatically in the 15 or more years microstock has been available.

In the early days, it used to be much easier to earn enough income to live off. There weren’t as many images out there and the market wasn’t saturated with photographers.

These days, however, the industry’s matured and the supply of images is vastly outpacing demand.

Shutterstock alone now has over 225 million images with over 1 million more added every week. This means that to succeed, contributors have to work harder and smarter than they did say, 15 years ago when microstock was just starting.

The good news is that, while you might not make a full time living off it, it’s generally not too difficult to get up to a place of earning a few hundred dollars a month.

It’ll take a while (unless you’re incredibly lucky) and you’ll need to upload a lot of images, but with a bit of perseverance and dedication, $200-$500 a month is definitely doable.

The first and foremost thing to keep in mind to be successful in the stock photography world is that you need to be willing to shoot stock photography.

To truly be successful in this business, you need to know your target, take aim, and fire.

In other words, you need to operate as a business.

Producing marketable stock images means researching the markets and current trends. It means taking the time to see what’s currently selling or what holidays are coming up and making/capturing images accordingly.

The highest earning microstock photographers plan their shoots carefully, often using models and props or traveling specifically to places or events that they know will be in high demand.

They pay attention to the forums and the sites requests for new photos. They spend time looking through stock libraries to see what’s missing and create photos accordingly.

As important as research and planning are, they’re just a piece of the microstock success pie. Here are the other slices you’ll need to keep in mind:

1. Keywording

Keywords are the primary way prospective buyers find your images, and as such they’re extremely important. That means it’s important to get it right.

Here are a few tips on keywording for stock photography for beginners:

Make your keywords as descriptive as possible. Depending on the microstock agency you’re working with, it may be important to list them in order of importance.

For example, you’ll want to place the more specific keyword “cat” in front of the more generic “animal.” Basically, the more specific, the better.

You’ll also need to indicate whether there are one or more of the subjects in the shot (i.e. “cat” vs. “cats”), include any objects that are in the image, and list actions such as “running” or “jumping.” If your image illustrates a concept such as “teamwork” or “hope,” be sure to include those as well.

Some platforms like Adobe Stock offer an auto keyword tool that works pretty well, but don’t rely on it. It’s best to do due diligence and make sure you’re not missing any key words and to arrange them in order of relevance.

Thankfully there are some great keywording tools out there that make this process easier. I’ll get to those at the end of this post.

2. Always Keep the End user in Mind

To sell your photos you need to have something end users want. Bloggers, marketing agencies, businesses, or magazines, the end users determine what sells – literally.

What are they looking for? Image content that helps illustrate concepts and/or complements the content they’re creating. This can be just about everything and anything, but some things are in higher demand than others.

For example, businesses are often needing images that illustrate concepts like “family,” “teamwork,” and “trust.” The more images you can put together bring these kinds of concepts to life, the more sales you can make.

Businesses are often needing images that illustrate the concepts of teamwork and collaboration.

People creating websites or advertisements often need images with a lot of negative (empty) space where they can put text… and so on.

This translates into three key questions:

1. Who is going to want to buy this?
2. What will they use it for?
3. How are they going to use it?

If you compose your images with these in mind, you’ll have a far better chance of selling.

3. Upload Regularly

Uploading regularly is important for a number of reasons. First of all, the more photos you have out there, the better your chances of making a sale.

Second, it keeps your images up front and center in the search results of most platforms.

Third, trends change and many images that will be popular one year won’t be so “in” a few years later.

So what about this promise of passive income? Well, it does exist. For example, once you reach $500 per month, chances are you’ll stay there… for a little while at least.

If you don’t keep uploading new content however, you’ll find that amount dropping as the months go on.

If you go a full year without new uploads, you’ll probably go down to around $300/month, which for some is still a great passive income. For others, not so much.

So in general, if you want to avoid time decay, you’ll need to keep uploading new high-quality content. This will keep you’re images more findable in current searches and also help keep them relevant to changing trends.

This doesn’t mean your old photos won’t sell – there are many buyers looking for photos that were popular years ago – but you’ll sell better by keeping your content fresh. If you’re on a stock site that features new photos in a separate category, all the better.

How do You Make Money From Stock Photography?

There are lots of great sites or apps to sell photos to. To help you get started here are two of the best known.

Shutterstock is probably one of the best-known stock photography sites. As mentioned earlier the site has more than 350 million images that are available to buyers in more than 150 countries! That’s a lot of potential customers.

Clients range from individual bloggers right up to large international corporations. The potential is there to make a steady income uploading your photos on Shutterstock.

Adobe Stock is a site that is remarkably like Shutterstock with similar rates of pay. One feature that is unique to Adobe Stock is that users of Adobe software can buy photos directly through any other Adobe platform. This is great for reaching more potential customers. It’s also a very easy platform to submit photos to.

These two sites are great places to start. The good news is that you don’t have to limit yourself to one site. You can upload your photos across multiple sites and maximize your earnings. The only time you can’t do this is if you have agreed to exclusive rights for a photo. Otherwise, you can upload to as many sites as you like!

Apart from selling your photos on stock photography sites, there are some other ways you could earn from your photos.

Selfie Apps

Selling selfies is a great way of making some easy money from your photos. Terms and payments vary so make sure to check the requirements before starting. To get started check out Pay Your Selfie and Scoopshot. Both are available on the Play Store and the App Store.

Start Your Own Blog Or Website

Selling photos directly using your own website or blog is a great way to earn more. This is because there are no fees or commissions to pay. You keep 100% of everything you sell!

All you need to do is create a simple site showcasing your work. You could sell photos individually or in bundles. If your site gets popular, then you can add more revenue streams such as ads or affiliate links.

Instagram

There are 3 ways to make money from selling your photos via Instagram.

First, offer your photos for sale. Lots of brands want genuine photos to use in their ad campaigns. You could sell them individually or as bundles. Remember the topics that are popular are things like food, travel, and nature.

Another way to earn from Instagram photos is once you’ve got a decent following. Many brands will pay you to post a photo with their product. If you have several thousand followers, this could be a good earner.

One final method is to sell physical copies of your photos. In your bio put a link to your website or blog for buyers to follow and make an order.

How Much do You Make From Stock Photography?

Let’s be honest, you probably won’t get rich selling your photos. If you work hard you could make a full-time living from stock photography, but most people will fall into the side income range. This means realistically you could earn a few hundred dollars a month. Still, $300-$500 a month isn’t bad for just uploading photos you take anyway!

There is a massive amount of competition as most people have a smartphone capable of taking high-quality pictures. One stock website, Shutterstock, has more than 350 million images!

That’s not to say you can’t get rich selling your photos. You could if you dedicated yourself to it. However, for most people, it’s best to think about it as a side hustle and enjoy the extra passive income every month.

What Type of Photos Sell Best?

1. Single Photos Sell Better than Group Shots

This one really surprised us. When you think of the standard “stock photo” you think of a group of smiling young people or a couple of businesspeople shaking hands. But companies no longer want ‘standard’ stock photos.

And so we found that the VAST majority of our best sellers had a single subject instead of 2, or more. How vast? According to the data, 60% of the best-sellers had just one subject, compared to just 20% each for 2 and more.

2. Candid Photos Sell Better than Posed Shots

No surprise here, given the italicized point above. As companies strive to communicate their authenticity (or at the very least to seem authentic and approachable) they no longer want the cheesy stock shot. They want candid.

The difference here wasn’t as vast, but definitely noticeable: 62% of best-sellers are shot in a candid style, while only 38% are obviously posed.

Tip: Take candid photos. If you can photograph your friends and take real-life photos of real-life interactions, all the better!

3. Wide Shots Sell Better than Closeups

Another one that makes a lot of sense, it turns out wide shots are much much much more popular among image buyers than close-ups or even mid-shots. This difference was even more pronounced than the number of subjects difference: 72% of best-sellers are wide shots compared to 12% close-ups and 16% mid-shots.

The way we figure, this is because it allows designers room to work. If you’re using an image for an ad campaign or to design a beautiful website, a close-up gives you no room to add text or description or even just let the design breathe.

Tip: Prefer wide shots when you’re out taking pictures you’d like to sell… image buyers sure do.

4. Looking Away is Better than Facing the Camera

This was another very surprising finding for us, and another where the numbers are undeniable. Contrary to the standard stock photo narrative (not gonna beat that dead horse again…) having your subject look AWAY from the photo is better than having them looking into the camera.

This was the most extreme data we found, and it’s hard to ignore. A whopping 85% of the best-selling photos we analyzed had the subject looking AWAY from the camera, while only 15% had subjects looking into the camera.

Note that this doesn’t mean the people in these photos had their back to the camera, only that they weren’t looking directly into the lens.

Tip: Have your subject look away from the camera. That might mean they’re fully turned away, or just looking off camera, but buyers definitely don’t want you ‘breaking the fourth wall’ so to speak.

5. Unidentified Subjects Sell Better

This isn’t surprising once you consider point number 4, but the numbers actually help clear something up. Remember how we said subjects don’t have to be fully turned away in #4 above? In this one they do.

So, what do the number say? A full 57% of best-sellers had a “blurry” or not identified subject, while 43% revealed the identity of the person in the shot.

Tip: It’s more effective to keep your subject a mystery than to identify them. Given the numbers aren’t as strong here, however, we suggest you yield to whatever the situation calls for.

What Stock Photos Are in Demand?

There is a growing community of photographers sharing their images for free. Staying up with stock photography trends is more important than ever.

Photographers often gain clients through free stock sites like Unsplash. And that’s because their pages get millions of views per year.

Now let’s look at the stock photography trends for 2022.

1. Vintage Editing for Lifestyle Photos

We know that VSCO reintroduced the feeling of the film with their Lightroom presets. It made stylistic editing more accessible to the photography community.

We will continue to see lifestyle stock images with a film or matte look being popular for websites and blog posts.

2. Negative Space

A stock photography trend that will never get old. Negative space will only see increased demand in stock photography.

The ability to be able to adjust an image for text requirements is always something that buyers are looking for. Having images in your stock portfolio that have negative space located in different areas is key.

It’s worth checking out the layout of a magazine or website to see how space for text is being used.

But negative space can be more than just for text requirements. In a noisy world where we are bombarded with messages. There might be a call for some imagery to provide a sense of calmness.

3. Cultural Diversity

A category that will continue to be a stock photography trend in 2022.

From diversity and blended families to images that depict gender equality. In 2020, there was a popular theme of images occurring in stock photography of ‘strong women’.

You can expect that trend to continue with the current discussion of gender quality and discrimination across all media in the media.

Take a moment to watch commercials. You’ll notice about every form of advertising imagery shows people who could fit into many racial categories. Images here should be of an inclusive natural.

4. Simple Flatlays

Continuing on from the where we will see the hottest social app taking us in 2022, we will also see a shift in the popular flat lay images.

Flat lays will still be popular. But there will be an increasing need for simple flat lays. Simple flat lays are more adaptable for the buyer. They can add their own touches to the images before they shared in many forms.

5. Stories of Authentic Living

Predictions for where the world’s most popular app, Instagram, will take us in 2020 was towards authentic living.

Before there was a huge interest in images depicting unrealistic scenes. It saw many accounts growing hundreds of thousands to millions of followers.

But the community is shifting from unrealistic to authentic.

Along with it will be imagery that depicts authentic living and ‘real talk’.

The stock photography trend here will be to capture every day in a beautiful way.

Engagement on these channels and with companies will depend on this. Engagement in 2020 will enable storytelling. Stories of authentic living.

How do You Take Good Stock Photos?

1. Flood the area with light.

A lot of images appear grainy because there’s not enough light.  A good rule of thumb is to flood the area with light. You’ll want to use as much light as possible without actually vaporizing your subjects. 

The more light you have, the better clarity you’ll get on the images.  You can control the stark shadows by diffusing the light which you can do by bouncing it off of the walls or ceiling.  Or just move the light source back a little.

 2. Keep the image in focus.

The problem with a lot of digital cameras is that after you take the shot, it looks great on that tiny LCD screen.  However, when you get into the office to edit the photo you see that the image is a little out of focus.  Your best bet is to use a tripod (or at least rest the camera on a solid surface).

3. Use the best quality settings you can to get the best image quality.

Imagine a person who would always use the lowest settings on his digital camera because he wanted to have room for as many photos as possible. That made no sense. He had room for something like 5000 photos.  If he had used the highest quality settings, he would have still been able to put a few hundred photos on the camera.

Here’s the deal. You can’t make a bad image good (even if you send it to Sunday school).  So, you want the best quality possible from the get go.  You can always frame and resize the pictures later.  However, you won’t be able to make a low quality image better.

4. Remember the “rule of thirds.” 

Divide your image in thirds.  The best pictures will have the subject intersect two perpendicular lines.  Some digital camera even have a grid feature to make this easier.  Yours might, too.

The good thing with editing software is that you can always crop your photos to better frame your subjects and make the pictures more interesting.  This is also why you want the best quality and highest resolution as a starting point.

5. Don’t take just one shot.

It used to annoy me when I’d send someone out to get a photo of a machine operator on the shop floor and he’d come back with just one picture. It’s a digital camera, for crying out loud! Take as many pictures as you possibly can. It’s not film. There are no development costs. The more choices you have, the better off you’ll be.

6. Create visual interest.

Make the images interesting by shooting from multiple angles and distances.  Take one wide angle shot.  Get another that’s closer and tighter.  And, then do a close up, or even extreme close up.  Get down low.  Get up high.  Tilt the camera a little.  You don’t want all of your photos to look the same or be from the same angle.

Also, try to keep the people from looking at the camera.  You want things to look natural.

7. Use real employees to make the images authentic.

People like to see co-workers and themselves in the elearning courses.  Take advantage of this.  It’s also a way to build some interest in the course prior to roll out since the break room will be abuzz, eagerly anticipating the final product.

8. Don’t use real employees because they could be losers.

There’s nothing worse than having John Doe (or your state’s governor) in your ethics course and then find out two weeks later that he was fired for lying about his sales quotas or worse.

Depending on your project, it might even be worth your while to hire a few people for a day and take as many photos as you can.  For example, get a bunch of people in a business casual setting and then shoot images of all sorts of conversations.  You can use the extras for future projects.

To keep costs down, I’ve done projects where I’ve had friends come in and we shot some quick photos.  This works as long as they’re not fugitives or have warrants for their arrest.

9. Get signed releases.

You want to get signed releases to make sure all of your bases are covered.  Here’s a link to learn more about releases.  You probably want one for adults and one for minors.

10. Share your photos.

Sometimes all you need is a guy in a hard hat, or someone who’s not in a suit.  These aren’t always easy to find.  And, it’s not always cost effective to buy one, either.

What is The Best Place to Sell Stock Photos?

These are the five considered to be the best stock photo sites for selling your photography.

Shutterstock

The big one. Shutterstock dominates the stock marketplace, and for good reason. It has a monstrous library of stock images and video. Most of the photographers I’ve spoken to who sell stock will tell you that Shutterstock is consistently their best seller. It definitely has been for me, although that’s changed in the last six months.

Shutterstock’s contributor tools are easy to use, and I’ve always had a great acceptance rate. Although royalties are often as low as 25c, the sheer volume of image buyers is so big that it’s still worth using in my opinion. Many 25c sales add up to many dollars. Shutterstock made up 24% of my stock photography earnings in the first half of this year.

Adobe Stock

Adobe Stock is a relatively new player, having bought out one of the previous big boys, Fotolia. I’ve been using Adobe Stock for close to a year, and so far I’m pretty impressed. They have a unique corner of the market given that a significant proportion of visual creatives use Adobe software. Adobe has capitalized on this brilliantly by allowing images to be sold and bought from right within their applications.

Earnings are in a similar ballpark to Shutterstock, but again, its strength is in their numbers. The Adobe Stock user face is simple to use, and I love being able to upload directly from Lightroom. My image acceptance rate is almost 100%, which is pretty awesome. Adobe Stock made up 11% of my stock photography earnings for the first half of this year.

Alamy

While most stock agencies are technically “microstock”, Alamy is one of the traditional agencies. It’s been around for a long time, right back to the days before you could buy stock online. Alamy seems to have much higher standards, making it harder to get accepted as a contributor and build up a decent archive.

It’s worth the effort, though. Royalties are much higher than the microstock agencies. The platform isn’t as user-friendly as some of the other agencies, but could be worse. Alamy made up 53% of my stock photography earnings in the first half of this year.

iStock/Getty

iStock was one of the first stock agencies that I signed up with, and has continued to offer a great service. They’ve since combined with Getty, which is one of the traditional stock agencies, much like Alamy.

This seems to have worked out well, as any images submitted through their awesome submission tool are potentially available to licence on either library. Exactly how they decide where to put images I’m not sure, but my sales have certainly increased as a result.

Earnings from iStock fluctuate quite a bit, but that seems to be a common issue for many contributors. Still, iStock made up 10% of my stock photography earnings in the first half of this year, so I’m happy to keep offering my images through the service.

Dreamstime

A lot of photographers have had great results from Dreamstime, but my earnings have dropped off significantly in recent months. Certain images seem to do well, but nowhere near as well as my other stock libraries. Dreamstime’s submission tool is also painful to use. It’s slow and requires a lot of unnecessary repetition. It’s seriously in need of an update.

This may be one you want to experiment with, but I will likely be jumping ship if things continue as they have recently. Dreamstime only accounted for 1% of my stock photography earnings in the first half of this year.

Can I Edit a Photo And Sell it?

Technically you can sell a photo you don’t own but it would be illegal. You would be in essence stealing someone else’s work and pretending that it is yours just because you edited it. That’s not how art works. You are supposed to make your own creations. Now, it is ok to be inspired by someone else’s work but not to copy them or steal their work, edit it and say that it is yours.

Not unless the photo copyright allows it. There are very few cases where you could do that without risk of legal repurcussion. Plus, if you don’t have permission, you’re effectively stealing. When in doubt, don’t do it. Find the creator and ask, or find a new photo. Failure to check copyright status could get very, very expensive for you.

Can I Modify a Shutterstock Image?

Shutterstock content is great for bringing your projects to life. Learn about how you can edit and incorporate content into your work:

Images and Vectors
Both images and vectors can be edited extensively, with few limits on the edits made. Two important limitations do exist:

• Images market “Editorial Use Only” may be edited only in minor ways, and should not alter the content represented in a significant way. For example, an image of a celebrity may be cropped, but it should not impact how the subject is represented in the image.
• Vectors can be edited extensively and used within your creative projects. However, Shutterstock’s Standard and Enhanced Licenses do not allow images to be used as trademarks or logos – this includes incorporating elements of a vector as a part of a logo. Use of images as a logo (or part of a logo) requires an exclusive license.

Is it Legal to Use Shutterstock Images?

You can use Shutterstock images on websites without any restrictions on the number of viewers or hits on the website. Under the Standard License, images can also be used in web video without regard to audience size, provided that the production budget is less than $10,000 USD.

If your budget exceeds $10,000 USD, the Enhanced License allows for unlimited audience size without regard to production budget. All of Shutterstock’s licenses are royalty-free, so you can use the images without time restrictions.

How to Earn More With Good Stock Photos?

Knowing the photos that sell

In order to make money uploading pictures to stock photography sites. You have to focus on the type of images that people are looking for. No matter how good you are with a camera, you will not make any sale if there are no buyers for your photos. The following are a number of ways to know the types of images that are in great demand.

Check popular photos

Visit the largest stock photography sites and check the most popular pictures. These are the ones that a lot of people are downloading. Each one of these sites has a section that is dedicate to these popular pictures.

Once you know the type of images that are in this category, you can go ahead to capture these types of photos too. Just be sure to add your own creativity so that our style will be different from others. Use different backgrounds and colors even if you copy the concept.

Focus on photos that include people

Most of the best selling photos are those that include people. You can make money with other types but these are the ones that will give you more sales. Most buyers are looking for people-based photographs that they can use on websites, magazines and book covers.

You can easily get people who will model for you if you have a lot of friends. Remember to ask your models to sign model release contracts before you take their photographs. Samples of these agreements can be found on stock photo websites.

Take practical photos

You will have more sales and make more money with stock photography sites if you take useful photographs. Abstract photography may be attractive but it may make very little money. The best photos are those that can be used by website owners, designers as well as business owners.

Think of concepts that will be useful to these people. Think of the type of photographs that they will need. Think of the type of pictures that you see when you visit different types of websites.
Making money with stock photography sites is not difficult even if you have never handled a camera before.

You only need a little practice to be able to take acceptable photographs. Go through these tips from time to time so that you can become familiar with them. It would not be long before you start seeing the financial reward of your efforts. Don’t be afraid to try new ideas from time to time. You will soon find something that will work for you.

How do You Edit Photos For Commercial Use?

Photo editing tools are becoming essential as the quality of social media images escalates. Customers want to see ads that are aesthetically pleasing and fit in with the rest of their highly visual feeds.

That means you need to produce high-quality posts for your Facebook and Instagram campaigns.

We’ve collected five of the best free tools to help you convert images to black and white, correct and retouch colors, sharpen specific details, and much more.

1. GIMP

Those who love Photoshop will also love the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP). GIMP is an open-source application that relies on volunteer developers to maintain and update it. As a result, it has a current set of professional-level editing and touch-up tools.

In particular, GIMP can be a great tool to use for black-and-white conversions. The platform offers an in-depth tutorial for converting your color images to black and white, along with tutorials for layer masks, basic color curves, and more.

To convert an image to black and white using GIMP’s basic desaturate command, users can select from three shades of gray: Lightness, Luminosity, and Average. Each produces a slightly different variation, based on the tones in the original image.

2. Pixlr

The Pixlr photo editing tool is perfect for marketers looking to make small, creative changes to their photos before publishing.

Pixlr Express offers quick fixes and simple overlays and borders, while Pixlr Editor allows you to work with image layers, color replacements, and object transformations. Both options are free.

For marketers interested in pixelating their images, the app features a pixelate tool, which allows users to transform all or part of an image. Several gaming companies, for example, use pixelated images to capture the virtual feel of their products.

3. iPiccy

If you want a more automated photo editing process, take a look at iPiccy.

Instead of manually changing parts of images with wands and other tools in Photoshop, iPiccy allows you to use a set of processes, including fixing, resizing, cropping, rotating, and flipping an image, to instantly edit an entire photo.

Shifting from a bland, hilly landscape on the left to a brilliant lake view on the right can take a matter of seconds with iPiccy’s set of effects.

iPiccy’s Collage feature can be ideal for marketers looking to showcase a product from several angles. iPiccy makes it simple with a six-step process.

4. PicMonkey

PicMonkey is a great photo editing tool for amateur photographers who want to make a few quick adjustments to images.

In addition to adding popular effects like sepia and enhancing portraits with tools like Smooth, Wrinkle Remover, Blemish Fix, and Teeth Whitening, PicMonkey also allows users to add their own stickers, graphics, and logos.

5. Vsco

Vsco is best known for its filters or presets, which lots of pro accounts use instead of Instagram’s suite of features.

The presets below highlight the range of artistry Vsco can provide.

The additional custom profiles for Canon, Fuji, Leica, Nikon, Olympus, and Sony cameras make Vsco a great tool if you are already working with professional equipment.

If you are a travel company, for example, try a Vsco preset to enhance the depth of natural beauty in your posts

Which is The Best App For Photo Editing in Android?

Every smartphone processes images differently and produces photos that may not appeal to everyone. For example, some phones may capture photos with higher saturation levels, while some may capture warmer tones compared to what the scene actually looked like. This is where editing the photos you make comes in handy.

Regardless of whether you have the best flagship smartphone or an affordable phone, editing photos to the way you like them is important. Especially if you plan on posting your photos on social media platforms, as it’s vital to give them a good look in order to make them attractive. To do so, you’ll need a good photo editor and we’re here to help you with just that.

Here are some of the best photo editor apps for Android to help you make your photos look the way you want them to.

• Snapseed
• PicsArt
• Adobe Lightroom
• Adobe Photoshop Express
• VSCO
• Photo Editor Pro
• Canva
• Fotor
• Pixlr

The Play Store is flooded with multiple photo editor apps, but not all of them are good or offer sufficient features and options to achieve a good edit.

So we have zeroed in on the best apps that you can find to edit your photos, and ones that offer a good set of features and multiple editing options in the same app, like creating a collage, making graphic templates for YouTube thumbnails or Instagram stories, etc.

Each app has its own set of use-cases and advantages so you can pick the one best suited to your needs or you can even download multiple apps based on your requirements.

How Can I Edit Photos to Sell Online?

According to Forbes, a staggering 1.2 trillion photos were taken in 2017 that is 38,025 photos taken every second! In 2018 this numbers increased astronomically. Shooting photos has become the world’s pastime, enjoyed by three thirds of the world’s population.

Whether shooting with a DSLR camera,a point and shoot camera, or a Smartphone camera, this hacks, applied professionally, will set you apart from the debris of ameteur photography.

Light is the pillar of professional photography, experiment with your camera, get to know how to capture images in different light situations, in addition,apply these four photography secrets:

1. Resolution, Aspect ratio, and Cropping
2. Background, Color correction, Saturation and Contrast
3. Composition, Context, and Consistency
4. Free Editing tools and Apps.

Start by picking the most pleasing photo to the eye, proceed to edit using any of the free online editing software shared below:

1. Resolution, Aspect Ratio and Cropping

Screen resolution of your image affects how professional and well rounded an image looks. The pixels per inch (ppi) of your image must be right for your audience, it must load fast enough on all devices.

Statistics show that most viewers access online images on smartphones. Resize your images appropriately to accommodate them. Make sure your image’s resolution is high, save your image in JPG format, it’s more adaptive to web pages.

A square image is attractive and fits on most screens comfortably, keep thumbnails and aspect ratio of the image balanced, the image will look polished. Crop, trim, and straighten the image, to remove distractions. help the viewer focus on your subject.

2. Background, Color correction, Saturation and Contrast

Remove clutter and noise from the background. Most image buyers prefer images on a clean uncluttered background.Adjust your image’s brightness as appropriate, take care that you do not create blowouts.

When contrasting strive to keep the image’s original colors, contrast will also help you create a favourable mood in your image. Take care of the blue and yellow hue as you balance brightness, saturate the image to make your colors more vibrant, evoke your viewers emotions.

3. Composition, Context, and Consistency

Different image buyers want different color schemes targeting a specific market niches, study your targeted buyers and create images with content that resonates with the Brand’s demographic group.

Remember to shoot images with the Brand’s colour palette, use complementing colours to reflect the brand’s image.Images should be shot with the right focal length to get right composition.

A Brand’s identity will dictate the image’s composition, some Brands require a minimalistic look with a lot of negative space and a single subject, while others prefer a more crowded approach with multiple lively subjects.

The last Tip is actually not a Tip, but free online resources!

4. Free Editing tools and Apps.

Photoshop is the most common editing software, it’s however not free. In this article I will share a few free online resources that will help you edit your image professionally.

Pixlr
This is a free online photo editing resource with most features found on photoshop.

Canva
A comfortable user friendly free online editor works well with your marketing images.

GIMP
This is an open-source resource meaning that it’s free. Its versatility will manipulate your photos beautifully.

VSCO
An app that lets you edit images directly on your phone, easy to use with multiple interfaces to help you create perfect product images.

Fotor
Free easy-to-use app,creates wonderful frames and visual effects compatible with RAW among many other features.

Aviary Photo Editor
A simple and intuitive free app, it boasts of all basic photo editing features, it’s easily manipulative.

Your passion, commitment, and hard work, will help you to create stunning images, images that will be accepted and sold by stock agencies.
In closing, Practice. Practice to shoot excellent photos, practice to edit, practice to create astounding images,- wow your viewers with your creations.

Stock Photography Income

Earnings per photo vary a lot among agencies. Unfortunately, the earnings from stock photography have been steadily dropping over the years. This is mainly because stock photo agencies have been consistently lowering the rewards for images sold.

Additionally, the earnings hugely depend on how much you sell, as virtually every stock photo agency pays based on your contributor level.

• Stock photo agencies pay between $0.10 and $2.24 per image for subscription-based purchases and up to $99.50 for on-demand sales. On average, stock photo agencies pay $0.32 per sale.
• To maximize your earnings selling stock photos, you should upload new content regularly for long periods of time.
• After you stop uploading content, you can expect a slow decrease in sales.
• On average, a (semi)-professional photographer earns between $0.05 and $0.25 per month per image uploaded.

However, these numbers vary greatly on numerous factors, such as the quality of your photos, your keywording, seasonality of photos, and to which and how many agencies you upload them.

You can earn between $0.30 and $99.50 per (royalty-free) sale by selling stock photos, but no less than $0.10. For selling stock photos under an extended license, you can earn up to $500.00 per sale. In summary, stock photos earn around $0.35 per image per month.

Agency	Minimum	Maximum	Extended license
Shutterstock	$0.10	$5.80	$39.80
iStock & GettyImages	$0.10	$16.20	$113.40
YayImages	$0.10	$10.00	$25.00
123RF	$0.22	$24.00	$77.88
BigStock	$0.25	$0.50	$29.70
Canstockphoto	$0.25	$5.00	$25.00
Depositphotos	$0.30	$5.88	$37.38
Adobe Stock & Fotolia	$0.33	$3.30	$26.40
Dreamstime	$0.34	$10.10	$40.80
Photocase	$1.52	$16.50	$110.00
Alamy	$4.00	$99.50	/
Stocksy	$7.50	$62.50	$468.75

How to Make Money With Photography Online

Here are 28 ways to earn money as a photographer online.

1. Sell Stock Photos

Stock photography grew quickly within the internet age, and it’s still a viable way to earn a little spending money. (After all, photography tends to be an expensive hobby). Stock photos are used by advertising agencies, websites, bloggers, publications and more. You can sell stock photos of pretty much any genre — to really gain some ground, try to shoot photos on subjects that aren’t yet well covered.

2. Sell an eBook

Another way to share your photo knowledge is to write and sell an eBook. Look to see what’s already out there before deciding on a subject. Platforms through Amazon and Barnes and Noble make it possible to get your title in popular online stores. ‘How to’ guides often do well, but you’re only limited by your imagination.

3. Create a travel guide

Not into the ‘how tos’? If you’ve got a lot of photos of one location, from either your travels or because you live there, you can put together a travel guide to sell as an eBook. Include photographs of all the must-see locations along with a few travel tips.

4. Sell a printed coffee table style book

Got the photos but can’t do a lot of writing? Sell a coffee table style photo book featuring your own images. Blurb.com is an excellent platform for doing just that.

5. Sell prints

Selling online doesn’t mean just selling digital goods — you can sell prints too. You can create your own website or sell them through a service.

6. Take pictures at local events and sell them online

Parents love pictures of their kids t-ball games. Offer more than a cellphone snapshot, and you’ll likely have quite a few people wanting to buy your shots online. From games to fairs and festivals, there’s a lot of options, you’ll just need to do the groundwork. Upload your images to a website like Pixieset.com and they’ll take care of the printing and shipping for you.

7. Sell photojournalism prints to news publications

If you’re in the right place at the right time, your image could be worth quite a bit for the right publication. Location or newsworthy events often determine what publications might be interested in the shot.

8. Edit photos

No, it’s not taking photos, but chances are if you’re good at photography you’ve also accumulated some Photoshop skills either through real life practical experience or through learning via an online photoshop course. Search job boards for people looking for some photo editing, or reach out to publications.

9. Sell your photo on a greeting card

Toss in a touching bit of prose or a joke, and your images could make excellent greeting cards. You can pitch card companies, or create and sell them yourself on places like Etsy.

10. Build a following on social media

This option works well mixed with other ideas, to promote an eBook, for example. But that’s not always the case. Popular Instagrammers are often paid to take pictures of a product and share it with their followers.

Shutterstock Sell Photos

Earning money in stock photography starts with knowing the basic ins-and-outs of the stock photography industry. At Shutterstock, Their contributors come from all corners of the world, with a wide variety of photography experience. From professional photographers to stock photography agencies, amateur enthusiasts to smartphone-slinging hobbyists, artists on Shutterstock do it all.

Whether you’re interested in earning an income off your creativity or simply want a way to earn money from wherever you are in the world, contributing to stock is a great place to start.

Shutterstock accepts photographs, illustrations, and footage clips. Photographs are images taken with either a professional DSLR camera or a high-quality smartphone that matches our required image specs. Vectors are digitized artwork that features graphic design, type, or scanned illustrations. Footage clips are motion clips that tell a moving story.

When you upload, ensure that the image or clip you submit matches the correct description of the type of content that you are uploading.

Chances are, the first batch of content that you submit to Shutterstock may get rejected. Whether it simply didn’t meet our standards or had incorrect releases, stock image rejection is more common than you’d think. Don’t be discouraged by rejections. Understand why they occurred and learn from them. All artists have to grow before they master their craft.

Stock Photography Websites

Shutterstock

Shutterstock is considered by many photographers to be among the top three stock imagery sites today. Shutterstock offers free registration, and commission rates start at 25%. Since Shutterstock is one of the main hubs for stock photography however, photographers face a decent amount of competition. To get accepted into Shutterstock, you must submit 10 photographs, 7 of which must be approved.

Fotolia

Fotolia is another top tier stock imagery site. It was acquired by Adobe in 2019 and is in the process of being merged into the Adobe Stock photography service. Fotolia features curated collections of high-quality images, graphics, and more from their large creative community. As you can imagine, with Fotolia becoming part of Adobe Stock, it is quite the powerhouse in the world of stock photography.

Dreamstime

Dreamstime is generous with their commissions and is considered by many photographers to be one of the best stock imagery sites to work with. Keep in mind that Dreamstime has very high quality standards, so quality counts when submitting photos.

To start selling on Dreamstime you will need to set up an account and submit sample photos. If your samples are approved, your photos will then be made available for sale, and you will receive a 25-50% royalty off of each sale.

Getty Images

Getty Images was one of the first companies to start licensing stock imagery online. Today, it is one of the most popular stock imagery websites. Getty’s entry requirements are more stringent than many of the other agencies, and they only pay out 20% commission to photographers, but the amount of traffic that Getty receives means more potential sales, making it worth it for many photographers. Getty looks for images that convey emotions or concept, and images that are engaging, exclusive, and unexpected.

iStock

iStock is Getty-owned, and is one of the most well-known stock imagery sites. In order to start contributing, you will need to sign up for a free account, and submit three of your very best photos. If your photos pass the quality standards, iStock is a great place to start selling stock imagery. They offer 15-45% for commissions, and their site gets more traffic than almost any other stock imagery site.

Stocksy

Stocksy is a relatively newcomer, founded in 2013 by none other than Bruce Livingstone – iStock’s original founder. Many photographers are finding Stocksy to be a great place to start selling.

The Stocksy business model is something that most photographers can appreciate; its stated focus is on fair pay and creating sustainable careers for its members. Unlike many stock imagery sites that tend to be stingy with their pay outs, Stocksy pays out 50% commission; a fair deal for most photographers.

Crestock

Crestock is a relatively simple site to use. After setting up a free account, you can upload photos for review. If approved, you will receive 20%-40% commission on each photo that sells. Signup is simple, and once you’re registered you can start uploading images immediately.

BigStock

Founded back in 2004, BigStock is another massive stock photography website – it’s in fact a trademark of ShutterStock since 2009 when it was acquired. This probably makes them one of the largest stock photo network out there.

Not only does BigStock feature royalty-free images, but also videos and vectors. In fact, there’s a reported 81M+ files on the site in a wide range of categories. Their signup process is straightforward and you can signup and upload photos.

123RF

123RF is a great site if you are planning on contributing a lot of stock images. Once you are accepted, you start out at 30% per download, and can work up to 60% – depending on how active you are and how popular your photos are.

Alamy

Alamy is another great site to sell your stock imagery on. Photographers get to keep 60% on any of their images that sell. Better still, Alamy doesn’t require you to give them exclusive rights to your photos, which means you can list your photos on other stock imagery sites as well.

How to Make Money Selling Photos of Yourself

You don’t need to be a professional photographer or marketer to make money selling photos of yourself online but knowing how and where to sell them will go a long way.

Based on my research, there are a few ways on how to sell pictures of yourself online, including:

1. Sell through stock websites

Selling through stock websites is a popular option to make money from your images. Thanks to the demand of self-publishing in the forms of e-books and blogs, stock photos have likewise become popular. Stock photos are used for a variety of purposes, such as posters, flyers, book covers, and more, and stock websites are often the go-to place to source out images for these.

2. Sell via your website

Additionally, you can make money selling photos online by putting them up on your website. Whether or not you are a professional photographer, having a website can go a long way with exposure and branding.

Read Also: Earn Money With Decorative Wall Painting Business

You can post your stock photos on your website and allow customers to download and purchase them directly. It’s also good to make sure that your website is search-engine optimized to draw more traffic and attract more buyers.

Fortunately, you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars to have a website of your own for your photos. You can actually create a website such as this blog for as low as $2.75 per month without knowledge about coding.

3. Market through blogs

Starting a blog is another great way to market your photos. You can put your photos up on display on your blog. You can also optimize your text to win the favor of search engines, increase audience exposure, and encourage shares.

4. Run a giveaway/contest

Running a giveaway or contest is also an effective way to attract new customers and engage with existing ones. These also help in increasing brand awareness for your brand and generating more leads.

Lastly

Selling photos of yourself is a legit gig. The best thing about making money from selling photos online is that it can be a passive income. Once the images are uploaded on these sites, all you have to do is optimize them and do some marketing.