There are many ways to make money with your digital camera. One method is to do stock photography.
There are several different types of stock photography sites out there looking for high-quality content.
Stock photography is a very widely used tool by many different print and web designers to get high-quality images for their projects at reasonable prices. Microstock agencies are a favorite of designers who can access these images for a reasonable price.
So, how does it work? Let’s say a designer is looking for images about healthcare professionals to use on a website. They wouldn’t pay a photographer to go out and take images which would be quite expensive. What the designer would do is go to a stock photography site that has generic images of the subject, in this case, healthcare professionals, that they can purchase various usage rights to use on the websites (or in a calendar, magazine article, magazine ad).
There are various types of stock agency websites out there with different features for designers, not only dealing in imagery but also ready-made graphics, video footage, and more.
There are traditional stock photo agencies and there are microstock agencies.
Using a traditional agency for the healthcare professional project, the designer would likely pay between $500 to $1,000 for half a dozen images for them to use in the project. If you are working in a large design firm, this cost may not be an issue when creating the project.
But, some people are just making a not-for-profit website or on a tight budget. Microstock agencies fulfill this need by providing high-quality images/graphics for an affordable price. Prices in some microstock agencies can be low, sometimes $1.00 per image, even lower in some cases.
As a photographer supplying the microstock photo agency you won’t receive a lot of money per image download, the idea is to create a large portfolio of great generic images that people will need. The agencies themselves offer several great tips for the photographer starting out including suggestions for what sort of images to shoot.
With such a low payout per image, professional photographers tend to shy away from them, however, they are a great place for amateur photographers to start.
After a free sign-up, you begin by submitting a small portfolio of images, usually under ten, for review by the agency reviewing team. After you are excepted you start submitting your photos to the agency for the sales to begin.
A partial list of stock photo agencies accepting new photographers includes Alamy, Shutterstock, Dreamstime, IStock, and EyeEm.