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So, last year I got a 6-month ($19) subscription with Shutterpoint.com, but didn't sell a single photo! The camera I use is a Panasonic 8MP, bought in Nov 2005. I haven't taken any "fabulous" photos, like I've seen on SP, but wife, family and some friends think my photos are awefully good. But, I truely have to say they are bias towards me, although, after my wife looked at other photos on SP, understands why I feel the way I do about my photography.......not nearly as good as others. However, we don't have the money for a new camera or to travel. Photography is not my career by any stretch of the imagination, but I do love taking photos.
Many people I talked to in a Forum on SP told me they sell very few photos, but just like being a part of the website anyway. Many are retired and don't really care of their photos sell or not.......that already have a nice "retirement income" coming in already. All I like to do is make a few dollars from some photos.
Anyone ever put any photos to sell on Facebook?
Any suggestions?
27 people have viewed my Thread and not a single comment........what's that about? I'm waiting!!!!!!
I'm sorry, I didn't realize we were obligated to reply. Have you considered the reason why no one has replied is that maybe no one here has experience with stock photography? Have you considered that you haven't even told us what subjects you're trying to sell pictures of (let alone showed us some examples) or how many of them you have on sale so it's difficult to judge what you're doing right or wrong?
From what little I know of stock photography, you have to take literally thousands of photographs in many various fields in order to make any money. I once met a stock photographer through my mom - because she works in the OR and the photographer can gained permission to shoot medical/surgical stock images in the OR. He was there shooting for 2 whole weeks - imagine how many images he got just of the medical/surgical field. Now imagine how many images he gets in total by covering all the fields he does on a constant basis. Successful stock photographers do this for a living and are constantly on the go, immersing themselves in every subject, field or industry they can possibly think of. It's not so much about the quality of your images - it's about the subjects you're offering.
I took a class on selling photo giving by a major seller of stock photo's. Stock purchasers search data base photography sites by meta data to find photo's. There is no way anyone sits and scrolls through millions of photos...meta data contains descriptive words that they are searching for in a photo for the selected use of the photo.
You haven't given much information other than that your friends and family think your photos are very good. You've already found out that most people on Shutterpoint sell very few photos, so maybe that's your answer right there.
Other possible answers might include:
- Your photos aren't good enough.
- Your photos might be good, but they are of things that nobody is looking to buy.
- The stock photo site you're using may not get the most/best traffic of potential buyers of your images.
I generally don't believe in selling my photo's unless someone is making money using them. Some of my photo's are used in schools in England and they offered money but I did the right thing and told them to use them and they need not pay me anything. I receive wonderful messages from the happy school children in England as my reward.
First, be patient and don't "bump" your thread. Next - I'm not familiar with Shutterpoint. If they charge a "subscription" in order to sell your photos, it's the wrong service to use. No one should charge you to sell on their service - they should only be taking a percentage of the sales as their fee and giving you the rest (which varies depending on the stock site).
Things that micro-stock agencies typically look for/at:
1) Flaws: They look at the images at a 100-200% pixel level for flaws such as noise (grain), compression artifacts, blown-out highlights, composition, off-color casts, or dust/dirt showing up in the image, among other things.
2) Sellable subjects: Each site is different. Some may specialize in "people" shots (business subjects, etc), some landscapes, other animals, and some may take any of the above. No one can predict what buyers may be looking for, as especially with the micro-stock sites, you get buyers that range anywhere from kids in school to mom and pop businesses, to larger businesses trying to save some money.
3) Quality: While it's possible to take pics with a point-and-shoot camera and get them on a micro-stock site, a DSLR is going to ensure a higher quality of image overall. The number of pixels a camera has, has nothing to do with the quality of the pixels. Larger sensor cameras (DSLRs) have higher quality pixels, less compression flaws, less noise (grain), etc. You of course have to have an eye for being able to compose a good shot though, as good equipment is only part of the answer - the ability to use it is the rest.
There are some people who will spend hours setting up shots, pay models, and more in order to take stuff that looks pro to sell on these sites, and typically, those people will have the highest sales. I'm not one of those people, as I don't have the time and to be honest, patience, to do what many of them do. I do however, sell what I call "filler shots" on a couple of stock agencies, and my sales are fairly brisk.
I'm not sure who the buyers are exactly or what many of the pics are used for, but if you want to see the pics I do sell on one such agency, you may do so by clicking HERE to go to the portfolio (there are several pages to it). These are not an "answer" as they sell on one site, but may not on another, but you'll see one thing that has helped me - diversity. I don't focus primarily on just one subject matter, so while my shots are more "filler" rather than "studio pro", I sell a fair amount of them because they range in topic and variety of buyers use them. You may want to take the time to look around that site and other stock sites like istockphoto and fotolia as well, and see what the more popular images are there, too. Then look at your own pics, and see what you might be lacking in them compared to those.
Last edited by atlantagreg30127; 10-18-2010 at 12:50 PM..
From looking at other photos on this website, guess I'm only going to have to stick with HOPING I can sell some photos SOMEDAY! The camera I use is ok, but certainly not the best I could have. My photo enhancing/eding software is ok, but (again) certainly not the best! My knowledge of digital photography is ok or should I say...........well, let's just not go there! It all takes money, time and knowhow of which I don't have enough of all three!
But, thanks for the comments.
The pics of Moose above are fine for "consumer taken photos", and with some tweaking would make something nice to frame in your house.
But if you don't mind I'll tell you what it is about them that might get them rejected on a stock agency, so you'll have some base info to think about:
1) The Moose in the field three pics above is ok color/contrast wise, but the branches on the ground behind it are distracting and the pic could be cropped so he's a little more centered. Had the branches not been there and cropping was done, it would stand a better chance of making it.
2) The two Moose pics just above - both are faded and lack saturation, and the greenery has blown-out highlights in several areas. Commands in Photoshop Elements (or other programs) that might help... the "shadow/highlight" control, the "brightness/contrast" adjustment, "levels", and "saturation".
With those controls alone, you can take the faded Moose Cow image above and in about 2 minutes do this to it:
More time could make it better as I just quickly jabbed it some, but you get the idea. Your current camera does not take "RAW" images, which contain more data and would have allowed for better highlight recovery, so yeah, you need to save up for a DSLR or an upper-end consumer model maybe such as the Canon G10/G11/G12, etc.
It takes practice. Be patient, and practice.
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