Stock photography is huge for many – many photographers! However not everyone is up to selling their photo’s for such small prices. In todays article we’re going to look at the basics of stock photography and if it is worth it for you.

Many amateur photographers think they can make it big within weeks just by posting their photo’s on their free, template-based website for $300.00 each. Other’s believe they can make a living just on stock photography with all their amazing holiday photos. Simply put, neither of these methods will work (Sorry Guys). However if we combine both ideas, well then you’re starting to see the true ideology of stock photography.

Stock photography is simply selling the rights to your photos for a very cheap price. For this reason, many professional photographers avoid stock photography at all cost and others relish in it. It mainly depends on the type of photography you are interested in; for example few nature/environment shots are ever sold on a stock photography website, while product or concept shots may have hundreds to thousands of downloads. So to start out:

1. Don’t plan on making much on more sunset pictures.

2. Don’t plan on making much if you don’t really care about quality.

3. Don’t plan on making much if you don’t know how to edit photos.

Now that you’ve decided not to start stock photography, we’re going to give some beneficial reasons:

However on that note, why not try selling photo’s if they are just sitting on your hard drive chewing space? Stock photography is great for any photographer willing to take the time researching their niche, planning concepts, staging images, editing, and taking the last final minutes in uploading and adding keywords. For example, six months ago I finally found an area where I wouldn’t be dwarfed by every image. It was the perfect place to start my profile. I planned, staged, and uploaded three images. Following a few sales I uploaded another couple. So with around ten photo’s uploaded I had made $50.00 without doing anything else once they were up! It was a nice feeling to actually get paid for photo’s that really didn’t mean much too me – and on that note I’ll switch subjects.

You always want quality when dealing in stock photography, however I have images that are simply too good and mean too much to me to sell them for $0.50 each; so take the time and choose images that you aren’t attached too.

Unless you are dedicated to stock photography 100% of the time, you won’t make a living on it. I do believe it is a great way to make a little cash to pay off your expensive equipment! I don’t think it would hurt to just dip your toes in the water and see what it’s like if you’re still a pessimist.

Now which stock photography company to start with? Personally, I would start with iStockPhoto.com. They are easy once you are set up and their service is always top-notch. Along with this, their standard of quality is great and their visitor traffic is one of the largest. Getting started with them isn’t the easiest though, you need to take their photography test with three image samples before you can get started. Once that’s done your off to the races! From there you simply follow their easy instructions on how to upload (they even provide many easy ways to upload images through different programs ex: iPhoto).

Why not try it out?