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Stock Photography

If your looking for career choices that involves digital photography, or just something that is easy to learn or even something that pays well with enough hard work, you could want to look into stock photography.





A Quick Definition of Stock Photography

If you search the internet, read magazines, seen advertisements, read a brochure, seen a label, then you have seen stock photography. Stock photography can be found everywhere and is used by many people in order to fulfill some means in their job. The freelance photographers taking these pictures aren't taking them for any specific purpose. And the purpose of the photos are really dependent on the job type and company. Lots of companies higher graphic designers, advertisers and so on but don't hire a photographer. Especially on the web, photographers aren't always needed but digital photos are needed. Instead of worrying about another salary companies purchase or have plans with stock photo sites. These sites supply people with large amounts of varying pictures.

A stock site accumulates all the pictures from the digital photographers who upload the photos. This isn't something that only an experienced professional can do, anybody with a digital camera and a little time can do. Every time someone purchases one of your uploaded photos you earn money, it is as simple as that. So you can think of a stock photo site as a mediator between photographers and jobs that use photography.

Things You Need to Get Started

If this is the first time you are considering to earn freelance money selling through stock photography sites, then you are going to need the basic information and equipment. First off you have or buy a digital camera. If you are just starting out then you might not be set on buying an expensive digital camera, either would I. You should buy a digital camera in whatever your price range, if that means 200$ - 800$. Remember though that the better the camera is the better you digital photos will turn out, which will yield higher picture sales. Check out Cameras Section for further help picking out a camera.

Now that you have your main medium for earning a profit (a camera) you need to learn how to it. Look in the Tutorials Section for photography tutorials. The tutorials are focused so you can learn how to take pictures in several different fields. The basic knowledge taught on these tutorials is all you need in order to start selling.

A lot of digital photographers who may not consider themselves gifted at taking digital pictures choose to edit their pictures with a computer. Sometimes a simple sharpen filter will do the trick in order to make your pictures look professional, other times you may need extensive altering in order to get a picture just right. I suggest purchasing a program photoshop or like-photoshop. If you can't afford that try the Digital Editing Alternatives to Photoshop.

The Best Stock Photography Sites

Now that you know a little bit about what stock photography is you can learn where to upload your photos. These are the best sites to upload your photos, this is based on our opinions in the office so you might have different results.

Photos.com can be the most profitable but you can try other stock sites to see what's right for you.

Stock Photography Profits and Paychecks

As a beginner it may be daunting to find out that this can be a slow growing business. It may take over a month to see commendable profits, but soon you will earn a good amount of money to show for you hard work.

A big questions that someone can't help but ask is "how much will I earn?" The answer simply depends on how much you work. If you do more of something you can apply that same "more" to something else. Meaning, more time spent = more time worked = more pictures taken = more pictures to upload = more pictures purchased. It is all dependent on how involved you are, and knowing the proper information to get started (more on that later). To roughly answer the question I have seen people do this as a career making up to 500.00 dollars on just one stock photo site per paycheck. But starting out it may be a great achievement to earn your first 10 dollar paycheck. Remember that you can earn more money by uploading pictures to multiple stock photo sites. If your serious about your career then you can earn multiple thousands on accumulating paychecks.

Another big question is "how will I get my earnings?" That really depends on who you sign up with, but most sites will probably want to send you a written physical paycheck. But sometimes you can have your money go straight into your bank account/paypal.

Qualifications

As we stated before you only need to know the basic knowledge of digital photography. But other aspects of this job can be quite difficult to learn. Don't worry we offer a way to learn the technical aspects. It is imperative that you research what the best photography subjects, keywords, uploading and so on. Learning these aspects will make the difference of whether you make 10 dollars or a 100 dollars.

Sometimes a stock photography site will not except every picture you submit to ensure the utmost quality, so you can just take out of focus pictures and expect to see results. Read more stock photography guidelines on the stock photo sites themselves.

Types of Stock Photography

Stock Photos Photos that are paid for and bought by several different types of jobs with varying uses. Stock Photos have varying rights and properties.

Royalty Free

Royalty free means you will not be paying for royalties on whatever photo is purchased. More specifically that photo can be used more than just one time, and a one time only fee applies. When you sell a photo to a buyer that buyer gets rights to use the photo, and although you have no say in what the photo is used for to most extents, the photo is owned by you (the photographer). With Royalty Free you are licensing out your photos for multiple uses, which may vary in how many uses and the way the photos are being used. Quantities and copyrights are validated by the stock sites and the photographers. Because the photos are be licensed out multiple times the prices can be hire for buyers.

Rights Managed

Rights Managed or RM are photos are sold in a more constrictive and controlled manner where only a set number of people or company have the rights to use the photos. These pictures are of premium standards and can be sold for way more than other types of freelance photos. Ongoing fees may apply to how long the digital picture will be used for, and what it will be used for. Several different types of restrictions may apply to buying this type of photography. It may be considered the hardest type of stock photography to get into.

Micro Stock

Micro stock photography can be considered, and have the same properties as Royalty Free Photos, but much cheaper. With the lowered price usually comes the lowered quality.