Photography - How to Sell Your Photographs

Posted by adamatstride on August 12th, 2019

Selling your photographs to make some extra money is an attractive idea. But how realistic is that? Turns out it's pretty realistic as long as you don't expect to get rich doing it.

Let me say straight away that if you expect to go into social media photography and live off the revenue from your photo licenses, it's a whole different ball game. Like any other artist in the world, you need an extraordinary game plan and the talent needed to execute it. I can't help you with that.

However, if you are already taking pictures regularly and at least a fraction of them are very good, then it makes sense to consider approving them. As I said, he is unlikely to get rich doing this, but he could make enough money each year to equip himself with a new, advanced camera body, or the goal with which he fantasizes, but otherwise he would never buy.

So why is it not possible to get rich selling your photos?

It is simply a matter of numbers. The most popular online image exchanges, which allow anyone who is able to create quality photos, upload their material and license it, sell images for about a dollar a day. Piece and it can be paid for 25 cents (maybe 50 cents if you are very lucky). If you think this is a pretty bad deal for the photographer, you are right. But this seems to be normal for the race, so there may be some operating expenses to perform an exchange of images that are not immediately obvious. Either way, this is the current reality of the business.

So let's consider the numbers again. The reason images are generally sold for a dollar is because shoppers are webmasters looking for low-resolution fill-in images for their web properties. Fortunately, they would spend more than one or two dollars on an image, but they would frown upon paying five dollars. It's possible that hundreds of people are willing to pay a dollar for an image before finding a couple willing to pay five dollars for a high-resolution version that could be printed on a cup of coffee. You will find even fewer buyers, magazine and book publishers and the like willing to pay twenty dollars for the highest-resolution version available.

That's why you make your money on the masses, and 25 cents each needs 4000 licensed instances of your images before the image exchange reduces your first check by $ 1000. You can manage this by loading 100 images that have an average of 40 downloads, or you can upload only 4 amazing images that average 1000 downloads per Piece. It will come as no surprise that most people make money by creating as many good images as they can. They have no confidence in their ability to generate the rare master photo that everyone should have.

Most online photo exchanges will reject your photos if they do not meet the high standards set by the stock exchange. So be smart and research the exchanges to get an idea of ​​the required quality. In addition to being captivating enough for people to download, your images must also be technically perfect. High-resolution images with invisible noise levels and perfect color balance are the minimum technical requirements. Be wary of shooting at ISO 100, even for low-light footage that requires tripod, mirror lock and cable release.

The editors of each exchange, of course, have their own standards and what is rejected on one site can be accepted elsewhere. So do not give up immediately if you have a closed door on your face. Van Gogh couldn't convince anyone to buy even one of his paintings during his own life. That didn't mean his photos were worthless. But image editors may not be able to see where it comes from if they do not recognize the market it is targeting. For this reason, it is worth finding out in advance what is being sold long before sending your first wallet. Then you will likely find less resistance if you deviate in a slightly different direction.