What is Stock Photography?
Stock Photography. You may have heard the term, and granted, the name isn’t exactly self-explanatory. I feel compelled to explain what it is and why your photography needs it. To begin with, I’ve been in the stock photography world since 2009, and I started taking photography seriously in 2009. So yes, stock photography has been my companion from the get-go, and it’s why and how I very quickly became a pretty good photographer.
So what is stock photography, and why do I truly believe it could be the most rewarding aspect of your favourite hobby?
Let’s start at the beginning:
What exactly is stock photography?
Stock = a storeroom full of photos showing many different things and places, captured by many different photographers.
Let’s just say you offer one of your photos as stock. Someone (the customer) can buy the rights to use it in their projects. The customer, = the person who couldn’t come up with a more convincing photo to use in one of their projects, even if they tried, comes across that said photo on a stock photography agency’s website and pays a fee to use it in their project. For instance, in a flyer, on a book cover, or in their blog.
Three people are happy:
The customer: They don’t have to pay a photographer to capture a similar photo.
The owner of the online stock photography agency: Earns money in exchange for letting you use their platform to offer the photo to their clients.
YOU: As you’ve just earned money in your sleep from a photo that would otherwise be gathering dust on your hard drive.
The good news is that the rights to use the photo can be sold countless times, and you can also continue to use it in whichever way you find appropriate. It’s always yours*
WHERE CAN I FIND THE BEST AGENCY?
Selling photos as stock used to be pretty straightforward. You looked for an agency that offered photos with a vibe similar to yours AND that paid well. You created an account on the agency’s website, selected a few photos from your hard drive and uploaded them to the site. After a few days, the individual photos were either accepted or declined. The accepted photos could then be published (meaning that from then on, the right to purchase usage was available on the agency’s site. Then you just had to wait for the sales to come in.
Nowadays, there are so many different types of agencies, each with a unique concept, that it’s hard to keep up. Each agency is trying to outdo the competition. Some of them thrive, others disappear shortly after making their first appearance.
If I were to look for a new stock photography agency, I would do a Google search, read the small print in the terms and conditions, and look at the sites from both the photographer’s and the client’s perspectives.
So why you?
If you’ve ever secretly dreamed of earning money with your photos and/or your photography skills, then stock photography is by far the easiest and most fun entry point. Firstly, as with everything, if you put your mind to it, success is pretty much guaranteed. Secondly, even if you were never to earn a penny, I think you’ll find that having your photos accepted by a team of experts is one of the most rewarding feelings you can have - one you can quickly become addicted to. That sense of achievement is what will drive your creativity again and again. This is something I still experience, even after 17 years, and my students say that it’s the thing that motivates them most, more than the money.
Do you want to start your journey today? Then don’t hesitate a second longer. Grab the ebook “How to earn a side-income with Stock Photography” and get started today. Currently, anyone who purchases the ebook also gets access to the Stock Photography Forum, which comes with feedback and a motivating community.
*Some stock photography agencies offer exclusive rights, where the customer can purchase ownership of the photo, usually for a pretty high price. You, however, have the last word.