If you’ve never considered selling stock photography, you could be missing out on extra money. While selling digital images is not hard, you need to know a few things to do it successfully on your own. For one thing, you need the people who would buy those images to actually see them. That’s no small feat when you consider that over 95 million photos and videos a day are uploaded to Instagram alone. For another thing, you’ll need to protect yourself and your images from rights misuse. 

 

A stock photography agency can advocate for your rights while getting your photography in front of buyers. Not to mention, it’s great passive income for you to pursue while you’re mastering your craft and working on starting your own photography business. But how to find the right site for your needs? Fortunately, I have some experience working with stock photography sites and I’ll discuss my top picks here, along with some key information about the process. Let’s dive in!

 

What Exactly is Stock Photography?

 

Stock photography is non-commissioned photography that a business or individual will (Hopefully!) purchase for their own use, usually through an intermediary stock website. The stock website, of course, takes a significant cut, but it comes with a built-in audience and infrastructure.

 

Let’s put it into food terminology: think made-to-order versus ready-made. Photography consumers can hire a photographer and have their exact vision brought to life, complete with special orders and substitutions. The catch? Custom orders (food or otherwise) are on the pricier side. Then sometimes you don’t have a specific vision, you just want to eat and you have a vague idea of what will fit the bill. In this case you would go and pick up something that is ready-made. It’s designed to be enjoyed by a wide swath of taste buds in varied situations. Enter stock photography. 

 

That’s not to say that stock photos are the greasy burger and fries of the photography industry, far from it in fact. Some of the sites we’ll cover here have very high standards, and they will expect your composition, color balance, and point of focus to be…well, on point. But stock photography and fast food are alike in that stock photos are meant to appeal to a broad audience and fit a myriad of needs. That’s something to keep in mind as you start to curate your stock collection!

 

Which Photos Can I Sell as Stock?

 

To start with, they must be yours. Not only that, but you’ll need to be sure you have permission to use everything that appears in the image. For example, you will need to provide model or property releases for any recognizable private property, people, and copyrighted logos that might pop up while you’re out shooting.

Once you’ve got your photos ready to sell, it’s important to understand your rights. There are different “levels” of copyright, if you will, for stock images. You will need to know which one makes sense for you. We’ll talk about some examples below:

 

Royalty-Free (RF)

 

We all have a basic idea of what royalties are and how they work, right? You create something and receive a cut from its ongoing sales or usage. When you choose to sell royalty-free stock photography, it’s the opposite of that. You’re agreeing to a one-time payment for the use of your photo. This can be to a single person, or maybe it’s to a business and the license allows a certain number of members to use it. Either way, you’re not receiving an additional payment each and every time the image is used by the purchaser. 

 

Rights Managed (RM)

 

In this situation, your image is being sold for a single or temporary use. Once the agreed-upon use limit has been reached by the client, they no longer have rights to the photo. This type of license may allow a long “life cycle” for your photo if it has a wide appeal and the potential to be purchased again and again.

 

Creative Commons (CC)

 

If neither of the above options really describes what you’re looking for, you might consider looking into your Creative Commons options. These legal tools build upon your copyright to include more specific guidelines. You can allow your clients a little more freedom and flexibility in this way, or you can just clarify exactly what you want to allow.

 

A Note on Stock Use Categories

 

You may see the words “editorial use” and/or “commercial use” quite a bit as you look over stock photography options. These terms are simply the difference between using an image to sell something and using it to illustrate something to your audience. You would generally only use editorial photography to convey a point or main idea. You might see something like this in a newspaper, for example. Commercial stock photography may be used by brands to promote or generate sales of a product. 

 

Note: You’ll likely want to start out by selling your photos as microstock. Microstock photography sites generally will sell your work at a lower price, and they may or may not offer the option to sell exclusive rights to one client. You may find it easier to get images accepted to a microstock site, which is great when you’re starting out, but it’s also easier to get lost in the crowd.

 

Microstock Sites for Getting Started

 

Microstock is a great jumping-off point and there are a lot of choices out there. I’ll cover my top two picks here:

 

Twenty20

 

Twenty20 allows you to sell your photography for editorial or commercial use – with the proper release. You retain the rights to your photography and are free to sell the images you upload to Twenty20 on other sites as well. This is a great one for earning a little money on the side while you’re still learning your craft because there’s no approval process. You can upload any image you want…even ones you shot with your smartphone! (Aim for quality, though. I find that professional-looking images still sell better.) Microstock is rarely a get-rich-quick deal, but compared to other platforms, the commission rates are very good at Twenty20. It’s a safe enough place to get your feet wet.

 

Snapwire

 

Another service I like is Snapwire. Like Twenty20, you can upload any image without needing them to be approved. Snapwire also has a {slightly complex} point system that can earn you some perks as you grow your profile, including invites to custom shoots — which pay better! Enter into challenges to kick-start your presence (and maybe earn a little dough, too).  After a couple of years being on the platform, I now get invited to high-paying, custom shoots for large brands, so it really is worth sticking around!

 

Intermediate Stock Sites

 

Once you start to understand how things work, you can move up to even more recognizable sites that have a higher profile following. Mid-level stock photography sites may have stricter standards, but they also have the potential for a better payout if you can catch the right eye!

 

Adobe Stock

 

Chances are you recognize this one, and if you’re a Photoshop or Lightroom user, you already have the login info to start. Adobe Stock is right in the sweet spot; almost everyone knows their name, but they’re still primarily microstock, which means you don’t have to jump through as many hoops to get in. Their agreement is also non-exclusive. I’m a big fan of their dashboard design, which makes it easy to see at a glance how your work is performing, plus it has a great keyword suggestion feature that saves you a lot of time. 

 

EyeEm

 

EyeEm has a different type of advantage, in that they work with bigger names in the stock photography world. It’s an easy way to fly under the radar if Getty won’t approve you, for example, and it prevents you from the hassle of uploading a single image to multiple sites in order to maximize its exposure. 

 

Congrats, You’re a Microstock Wizard! Now Let’s Try the Big Dogs.

 

Premium agencies are more exclusive but in theory, they offer a higher payout to match the challenge. Don’t worry if you don’t break into macrostock as easily as you sailed into microstock! As your skills improve, so will your photo quality, and it’s only a matter of time before you get your big break. 

 

Offset

 

This is Shutterstock’s high-end resource. The site focuses on “unique, authentic content” from “world-class assignment photographers, publishers, and agencies”. What this means is, you should only contribute photos that bring something different to the table. It also means you probably have a much better shot if you already have an established following.

 

Stocksy

 

Switching gears a little, let’s talk about this selective, artist-owned co-op. Stocksy focuses on originality and ethical business practices. The advantage here is that you’re working with other artists, which means things are geared toward a fair shake for creatives like yourself. Their Call to Artists is always open (for now) but they accept a very limited number of applicants, and the images you upload with them are exclusive to Stocksy — including other images from the same shoot. 

 

Getty Images

 

And here it is, what many consider the gold standard of stock photography. Whether or not you knew what stock photography was before this article or realized that it’s what Getty dealt in, you had probably heard or seen the name somewhere. iStock is their microstock counterpart, but you won’t find anything micro about Getty Images. You’ll need to submit a mini-portfolio of your work and wait for approval before you can upload to their site. Bonus: you can now contribute images via their app!

 

Food for Thought

 

Here are a couple of agencies for my food photographer friends out there. If you have off-brand images or shots from personal projects just sitting unused on your hard drive, this is a great way to put those to good use!

 

StockFood

 

A food-centric alternative to some of the entry-level microstock agencies I talked about above, StockFood is intended for photographers at any stage of the journey. If your images are good quality and you’ve followed the submission guidelines, StockFood could be your stock photography starting line! StockFood has several other photography agencies under their umbrella, so check out those other sites as well. 

 

Picture Pantry

 

This is a premium site for exclusive images, paying out a generous 50% commission. Like Stocksy, Picture Pantry is an artist-run venture, and they are similarly selective. The site is very popular with food bloggers in particular, and they look for quality work with a modern feel. They frequently open the application process for short periods of time, so start putting a portfolio together! The website recommends that you apply with an established collection of at least 100 images. 

 

Whether you’re looking to give a purpose to leftover images from your latest shoot or just want a new challenge, stock and microstock photography are relatively easy options to earn passive income from your images. It may not happen overnight, but once you’ve made a name for yourself you might find a nice little nest egg building up. In the next few blogs, I will be sharing about how and where to find clients for your photography business, so be sure to stay tuned, and make sure to sign up for my newsletter to get notified of new blog posts!