# Stock photography?



## Ccarver80

I been hearing about stock photography I registered on alamy.com and I think I have an account on istockphotos.com.

I know there's a quality check before you can start submitting photos I submitted four to alamy.com still waiting to hear back.

I'm relatively new to this, is it better to submit photos unedited or is it okay to touch them up a bit in Lightroom?

Also what images do the best I'm kinda into landscape and wildlife right now but that's kind of my only options living in rual Montana any advice would be nice thank you!


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## tirediron

IMO, stock is more effort than it's worth these days.  The market is so over-saturated, which, combined with the huge decrease in quality requirements by end users means that everyone and his dog's dog is in the stock game now.  Most good stock agencies will list the sorts of images that they want, but in general 'people' and 'tech' are categories that do very well.  As far as processing, you should only be sending images which have been optimized to the best of your ability.


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## ronlane

welcome to the site.

I know nothing about alamay but I am a contributor to iStock. I process all of my images that are submitted for review. I wouldn't dare submit a photo SOOC to them.

Good luck, it's a tough road.


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## Ccarver80

ronlane said:


> welcome to the site.
> 
> I know nothing about alamay but I am a contributor to iStock. I process all of my images that are submitted for review. I wouldn't dare submit a photo SOOC to them.
> 
> Good luck, it's a tough road.




SOOC?


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## ronlane

Straight Out Of Camera.


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## Ccarver80

Ok sweet thanks! 

My main goal I guess is I would like to make $$ with my camera just as an additional income (expecting our first child March 2016 ) 

would I be more profitable with stock? Or selling prints on etsy.com or ebay or locally? 

It's been a hobby that I would like to see a return on


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## JacaRanda

Ccarver80 said:


> ronlane said:
> 
> 
> 
> welcome to the site.
> 
> I know nothing about alamay but I am a contributor to iStock. I process all of my images that are submitted for review. I wouldn't dare submit a photo SOOC to them.
> 
> Good luck, it's a tough road.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> SOOC?
Click to expand...

 
Straight Out Of Compton


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## tirediron

Good luck with that.


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## BananaRepublic

You have to have a gun, hat, spurs, a horse, whip, and at least 1000 head of cattle. You then go out a photography each animal in there journey from field to abattoir.


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## ronlane

Ccarver80 said:


> Ok sweet thanks!
> 
> My main goal I guess is I would like to make $$ with my camera just as an additional income (expecting our first child March 2016 )
> 
> would I be more profitable with stock? Or selling prints on etsy.com or ebay or locally?
> 
> It's been a hobby that I would like to see a return on



You know how to make a million dollars in photography???

Start with two million dollars.


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## Ccarver80

Yea I know.... it's a long shot but even $50/month would be nice....


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## ronlane

Ccarver80 said:


> Yea I know.... it's a long shot but even $50/month would be nice....



I'm not saying that I've been trying too hard with it, but I barely got $50 in six months of being on iStock and you need $100 to cash out.


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## Ccarver80

Hmm good to know, Grrrr I hate being an adult and having responsibilities... lol


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## ronlane

You would have an easier time making $50 a month with portraits. Schedule, about 5 a month and have at least one of them show up. JMHO


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## waday

Ccarver80 said:


> Hmm good to know, Grrrr I hate being an adult and having responsibilities... lol


Yeah, being an adult stinks.

There are perks, though. You can have cookies and/or ice cream pretty much whenever you want.


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## KmH

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away I used to make some nice money from stock.

The stock photography industry back then was lots of stock photography agencies that sold Rights Managed (RM) use licensing of stock photographs. RM licensing has very specific terms that define how, where, and for how long an image can be used.
Getty Images (Mark Getty, son of Billionaire J Paul Getty Jr. & Jonathan Klein) and Corbis (privately owned by Microsoft founder & Billionaire Bill Gates) started buying up stock houses and consolidated the industry. Alamy was started in 1999 and is privately owned by James West and Mike Fisher CBE.
In 2009 Jupiterimages, about the last of the independent big stock agencies at that time, was sold to Getty Images.

With the emergence of the Internet microstock photography agencies began to appear.
Microstock agencies sell Royalty-Free (RF) use licensing which is not only way less expensive than RM licensing, the use licensing terms are very much broader for non-commercial usage and usually allow high volume perpetual use.
Being way less expensive, once the microstock agencies takes their cut, little money is left for the copyright owner - the photographer.

In the mean time the big boys - Getty, Corbis, Alamy - have been buying up microstock agencies continuing their consolidation and dominance of the stock photography market.

At any rate, getting a check for $100 once a year won't buy much photography gear.
BTW - $100 a year is an average of $8.33 a month.
Eliminate 2 lattes or 3 Red Bulls a month and you can save as much as what stock photography pays.

By submitting your photos to stock agencies you're just helping the rich guys get richer while they pay you pennies (litterally) for your time and talent that lines their pockets with $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.


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## imagemaker46

Ccarver80 said:


> Ok sweet thanks!
> 
> My main goal I guess is I would like to make $$ with my camera just as an additional income (expecting our first child March 2016 )
> 
> would I be more profitable with stock? Or selling prints on etsy.com or ebay or locally?
> 
> It's been a hobby that I would like to see a return on


Be more profit in selling the camera than trying to sell stock or on ebay. Sad truth


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## Derrel

Images "selling" for 29 cents from a library of 10 million images, or $5 for a high-res downloadable file....pfft...you'll make more money going can and bottle collecting by the side of the g*******d road for an hour on Sunday morning.


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## osumisan

Here's my take on this thread.  I think stock can be a source of income but it's definitely a numbers game.   My goal is to get at least 10,000 images on 10-20 stock sites over the next few years.  Currently, I have galleries on iStock, Fotolia, Pond5, Dreamstime, Big Stock, Depositphoto, Shutterstock, and 123RF.  Can anyone suggest to me other good stock sites as well?


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## desertrattm2r12

If I knew any easy way to make  money in photography I'd be doing it and I have been selling photographs since the 1960s. It's getting harder and harder. If you are okay with a small return there is your circle of friends and people in your home town. Having a specialty or two or three helps. Be the local "go to" dude for this and that kind of photo. What kind of photo can you take that is better than Joe Lunchpail or Mom Lunchbox can come up with? And will they know your photos are better?


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