Stock Photos

[Blue Sky]

Hi,

Anyone here has experience with trying to "sell" your work to stock photo agencies?
Any sites/companies to recommend? ;p

Regards

 

[Bernard Ong]

There are a few local stock firms in Singapore. http://www.*************.com.sg/

 

[taipankid]

what do you want to know .. i have been selling photo on stock sites for about 9 months now .. slow at the start .. but bring me decent "bonus" every month now

 

[1911]

what do you want to know .. i have been selling photo on stock sites for about 9 months now .. slow at the start .. but bring me decent "bonus" every month now

will be interesting to know what kind of photos will be most sought after by the stock agencies? and how did you step out your 1st step? :sweat:

 

[Blue Sky]

Hi taipankid,

Glad to hear that you are making a decent 'bonus" every month. Like what 1911 said, I am just keen to know how and where to start. Looking forward to your experience sharing...

 

[taipankid]

First step is to register with the sites of course.
Some sites need you to upload some sample shots .. to check your works before they allow you to sell.

Initially, sales for me is slow .. and seems impossible to reach the $100 mark required for you to get your first payout when each photo sale only bring you 20c on some sites, which is what makes many people give up halfway.

Isolated objects and business items are the more sought after one. Unique photo tends to do well, else it will just be another similar shots to the hunders of thousands of photo already on the micropayment site.

After you shoot your photo, you need to edit, keyword it. Next you have to upload it and categorise it on the site. Very much time consuming. It's not that hard, but time consuming and can be de-moralizing when they reject your photo.

But i see no harm in converting my photo to cash. Generally people are very skeptical that such micro site works. Or they wonder if they will really get payment, or they think their photo are worth more than the 20c, or they just dun have the time are reasons for not joining in the microstock site.

Hope my little feedback can help you.

 

[ortega]

so what kind of "decent bonus" in S$? roughly will do

 

[taipankid]

average about 150-200 SGD per month. I know of ppl who earn more than 1K per month. but their work are much better than mine of course

 

[Bernard Ong]

Thats enuf to cover my transportation and a few jugs of beer. Good and decent, indeed.

 

[Phildate]

Hi there,

Hey Taipankid, don't put your work down! You shoot great stuff and you have a best-seller whilst I don't!!

I earn a significant income from microstock photography and whilst I don't wish to get embroiled in a "Getty vs istockphoto" debate here, microstock sites do give the good amateur/semi-pro photographer the possibility of a good source of income, be it for lenses, gadgets or just for a beer or two.

There are links to the different microstocks out there on my website: http://www.phildatephotography.com. Just click on the Links page.

If you'd like to know more about the microstock industry, just drop me an email and I will try my best to answer your questions.

 

[taipankid]

Hi Phil,

Thanks for your encouragement. My sales are nowhere comparable to yours. That best seller is just a lucky one.

My thinking .. instead of keeping my photo and not doing anything .. why dun i let them earn those "bonus" for me.

But i think i am shooting too much .. LOL .. whatever i can lay my hands on that can make me money .. they ended up in my portfolio.

Have fun.

 

[Blue Sky]

Hi guys, thanks for all the advices.... time for me to go register and download ;p

 

[Sion]

average about 150-200 SGD per month. I know of ppl who earn more than 1K per month. but their work are much better than mine of course

Microstocks seems to be flavour of the month these days mostly due to the aggressive promotions. I saw Istockphoto taking out full page ad in a desgin magazine.

Moving away from microstocks, a photo alone would have got you more than SG$150-200.
At this stage to me producing an image for microstock would take the same amount of time, energy and care as producing it for a traditional stock agency with higher returns.

I would encourage those who are interested in stock photography to do the necessary research and look at long term interests beside going for microstocks.

 

[behyx]

Ok digging out this '05 thread..

Anyone has any experiences with Gettyimages? Perhaps you can share some insights about Singaporean working as image contributors for them?
I do know of a US stock photographer who gets a 5-digits USD paycheck from Getty every quarter.. :bigeyes:

 

[Sion]

Ok digging out this '05 thread..

Anyone has any experiences with Gettyimages? Perhaps you can share some insights about Singaporean working as image contributors for them?
I do know of a US stock photographer who gets a 5-digits USD paycheck from Getty every quarter.. :bigeyes:

These days it's very difficult to get into Gettyimages unless your works are very unique and cutting edge.

A Getty photographer showed that his downtown night photography of Tokyo was a composite of multiple exposure for several parts of the night scene skillyfully stitched together in PS. You won't be able to get such effect by setting up your tripod with one time-exposure.

An overseas trained pro in Singapore with full studio facilities couldn't get into Gettyimages. So what chance we amateurs have got?

You could get into Gettyimages by backdoor through its many sub-agents. But your royalties will be split twice between your agency and Gettyimages and between your agency and you.

Don Farrall is one such American photographer who could command a 5-digit royalties from Gettyimages quarterly.

Good luck.

 

[taipankid]

I know of people who get 5 digits from microstock site quarterly too.

Now all the microstock site are trying to increase their share of pie in the market. istock recently acquired by getty.

I am happy with my monthly "bonus" from microstock site. Hopefully these bubble will never burst.

 

[behyx]

These days it's very difficult to get into Gettyimages unless your works are very unique and cutting edge.

A Getty photographer showed that his downtown night photography of Tokyo was a composite of multiple exposure for several parts of the night scene skillyfully stitched together in PS. You won't be able to get such effect by setting up your tripod with one time-exposure.

An overseas trained pro in Singapore with full studio facilities couldn't get into Gettyimages. So what chance we amateurs have got?

You could get into Gettyimages by backdoor through its many sub-agents. But your royalties will be split twice between your agency and Gettyimages and between your agency and you.

Don Farrall is one such American photographer who could command a 5-digit royalties from Gettyimages quarterly.

Good luck.

Great to know more informations about Gettyimages. Thanks bro
Their preference of works changes a lot during the recent years. I do subscribe to their newsletter, and all of their featured photographers do not take photos the conventional 'stock-photo' style.. I can sense they're trying to shift corporate customers' taste to photos more contemporary and setting a new, refreshing standard to stocks.

I have some questions to ask though.. If i chose to get through the backdoor, is there any way to deal with Getty in the future? ie without the sub-agents.
And how long do they take to review your pictures and give a definite reply? Do people try and try many many times and get in finally? (haha!)

Finally, is it possible for you to point me to the picture of the Tokyo nightscene please?

Thanks again!

 

[Sion]

I know of people who get 5 digits from microstock site quarterly too.

Canadian Lise Gagne, a istock photographer would be the obvious one to make that kind of figure.

 

[Sion]

One thing when you submit to a Gettyimages sub-agent and they in turn will submit your selected photos to Gettyimages which Gettyimages will select again. This process is kind of tiresome and time-consuming to keep up.

In my personal experience persistence does help. I recently resubmitted a new portfolio to two agencies which rejected me previously and got a greenlight from them the second time around. I have heard such stories before. There is no limit to how many times you could apply to get into Gettyimages.

Gettyimages is the largest but not the only stock agency. If you find yourself wasting too much time trying to get into it, you might as well try other agencies in which there are photographers making 5 digit sales half yearly.

Wishing you the best of luck.

 

[behyx]

Thanks for the great info Sion

If i choose to sell my pictures RF, can i sell the same picture across many stock agencies? I'm sure different agencies have different pricing for their customers...