What Is Stock Photography?

What is Stock Photography?

Open up any magazine and flip through it, looking at the pictures. Unless it is a picture of a specific product being advertised or a specific person that was photographed as part of an article or ad, it is a stock photograph. Do the same for websites. As you can see 95% of all images used for commercial purposes (and to a lesser degree for editorial) are stock photographs.

Stock photography originated back in a time when cameras were much rarer and professional photographers even more so. If you needed an image for your article, you could hire a photographer to come take a picture, which took a lot of money or time, or you could buy one from a stock agency for (probably) less money and certainly less time.

What About Microstock?

In today’s world, with web pages increasing the need for images a thousand-fold and the proliferation of digital cameras, the landscape of stock photography has changed. But the basis is still the same. If someone needs a picture of a plate of fried chicken, they can hire a professional food photographer to shoot it, or they can buy one online at one of the new eras of stock agencies called micro-stock.

Old school photographers were very much against this model when it began about 16 years ago. Images they could get hundreds or even thousands of dollars for were going for less than a $1. Sometimes much less. But as micro-stock has grown and the market for traditional stock has dwindled, many of them have, by necessity, come aboard.

Plus, many of them finally did the math and realized that getting $1000 for a picture and getting $1 for it a thousand times was the same money. I mentioned a plate of fried chicken because my best selling set of images was of a plate of fried chicken, which had the added benefit of being lunch. I’m not going to give away revenue numbers here, but that set has netted me several thousand dollars, and I have over 30,000 images online. Of course, that is not an average number, and in fact, there are many images I have never sold.

What Do I Take Pictures Of?

Everything. All the time.

For the first several years I did this, my camera never left my side. I literally took pictures of everything I saw. Food, traffic signs, cellphone towers, even fire hydrants. And I’ve sold all of those at one point. As time passed and more people have entered this industry, even with cellphone cameras, the market for the mundane is overly saturated.

So, I have to be more selective. What can I shoot that is somewhat unique, either because of access, location, or knowledge? What can I take a quality picture of that the average amateur can’t? I have to be thinking of questions like these all the time.

What about travel? Well, I do travel and when I do, I take pictures for stock. Mostly because I’m there. But it’s not an efficient way of obtaining stock images. Why? Because of the first sentence, travel. I traveled there. I took two cars, a plane, a cruise ship, and a bus to get to the Roman Coliseum. But within a mile of it, there are hundreds of photographers with access to it all day, every day.

Where Can I Sell Them?

Google it. Sorry, but that’s the easy answer. I’ll give you the link to one site, Shutterstock.

It’s been one of the top two or three agencies for over a decade. For a variety of reasons, it’s losing its hold on that title, but it’s still one you should consider. But there are many and some will be better for you than others.

But regardless of which sites you choose, the process is the same. First, you have to shoot high-quality images. Just because they are selling them for a $1 doesn’t mean the quality can suffer. This is one industry where you get more than you pay for.

You have to apply proper metadata, including title, description, and keywords. This is so buyers can find your images. I have another article that covers more of this here.

Then of course you create an account on the sites you choose and upload your images. A lot of images. When I first started out, I uploaded a dozen the first day and sold one the same day. That won’t happen today without an enormous amount of luck. You need hundreds to get started. At Shutterstock, they get 1.5M images a week. Let that number sink in before you go any further.

Stock photography is a great industry because the subjects are literally everywhere. But like anything else, it’s not a get rich quick scheme. It takes time, talent, and work. A lot of work.