How to get started in Microstock photography

You don't have to be a professional photographer to sell your photos for money. People are constantly in need of stock photography for websites, presentations, brochures and so on, and are willing to pay for the right image.

People generally search for images on stock photography sites by keywords, not by photographer, so you have the same chance as anyone else of having your image picked. Just be careful that you don't have images of trademarked brands, copyrighted art or people's faces that are readily identifiable (unless you have a model release), but just about anything else is fair game, and I promise - you'd be amazed what people need pictures of, so don't make any assumptions.

If it's a decent photo, upload it. Some sites to get you started include Fotolia, ShutterStock, Dreamstime and iStockphoto. The great thing about this is that it's truly "set it and forget it".



Some tips to get you started in Microstock photography

Here is a simple guide to help you get started in Microstock photography and sell stock photos online.


Step 1: If you haven't already done so, open an account with Paypal and Moneybookers. Most royalty free Microstock sites pay commissions through Paypal and Moneybookers.


Step 2: Open an account with the Top 5 Microstock sites. Take the time to browse these sites and read the Terms and Conditions and other small prints. It's particularly important to understand what photos you can and can't upload.


Step 3: Copy all the photos you took in the past years into a folder. Then, delete the photos that have no commercial value. You should also make sure to delete any photo that contains a brand (for example a photo of a Fedex truck, even if the Fedex truck is not the main subject of the photo). You should also delete any photos containing copyrighted items such as painting, sculptures etc...


A model release should be uploaded along with all photos containing recognizable human faces. If you don't have a model release and can't get one, then you should delete the photo.


Step 4: Edit the IPTC tags of the photos you intend to upload on Microstock sites. To do so you can use an IPTC editor such as iTag. Make sure to write descriptive titles, descriptions and keywords, else it is less likely that buyers will find your photos.


Step 5: Upload your photos to the Top 5 Microstock sites. They are considered as the best earners by most Microstock contributors. Some of these sites will let you upload your photos right away. Other request that you first get approved by submitting a sample of your best photos and/or passing a test. It's usually fairly easy to get approved but if you are turned down, don't get discouraged. It also happened to me. :( Try to understand why you were not approved and try again later on.

If you have a large number (several hundreds) of photos, it's probably better to divide them in several batches of 50 or 100 photos and upload one batch first, see how it goes and then upload the other batches one by one.


The microstock photography business is growing out of nothing. The leader in the market, iStockphoto, is projecting $200 million in revenues this year.

When iStockphoto was bought by Getty Images February, 2006 for $50 million, its revenues that for year were about $23 million, according to COO Kelly Thompson. In 2007, revenues were $72 million, 2008 revenues were around $150 million.

The demand for affordable images for use on Websites and in print is catching on and iStockphoto is the main beneficiary. It sells a photo, illustration, or video every second, and pays out $1.2 million a week to the photographers and artists who upload images to the site. There are nearly 80,000 artists in total represented on the site and 5 million images. “Definitely the print side is declining and we are seeing lots of Web usage,” reports Thompson.

But iStockphoto is not without competitors. Rival Fotolia is trying to catch up and recently received a massive cash infusion from TA Associates. It has about the same number of images and recently launched a completely free stock image service called PhotoXpress (which competes against Getty-owned Stock.xchng). Fotolia also has about 6 million images and roughly 90,000 contributors.

The battle, though, is now going to be around quality and price. iStockphoto is trying to go upmarket by exposing some of its top photographers to Getty clients. And today it just launched its Vetta Collection, which is comprised of about 35,000 higher-quality photos which are more produced than the typical stock image (the space farmer image above is one from Vetta). The Vetta images start at around $20 each, compared to regular images, which start at about $1.