StockPhotography, Digital Cameras & Making Money

You perhaps already know that there are really only a couple of principle ways of making money from photography. In fact, there are only two. There's Assignment Photography and Stock Photography - both are lucrative if they are handled correctly and professionally. Assignment photography is based on you taking pictures at a predetermined function or event. Stock photography however, is based on you taking the pictures and hoping that someone will buy them later. Remember, this is in principle only. There are ways to ensure that you do in fact sell stock photography. More on that later. It's true that stock photography demand a lower price in general but they have a wider audience and base. Their sales can also be ongoing.

There are Stock Libraries all over the internet which are keen on being the agent between the photographer and the buyer. The system is pretty much the same between most of them except for a few. You take a clever picture, they post them on their highly visited sites and 'on sell' them to agents, production houses, designers, advertising, publishers etc. This is a highly popular vehicle and has grown tremdously over the last decade. This manner or niche of photography has many benefits including when you are just starting your photography business part time or looking for some compounding income so that you may one day move into your planned business. The list goes on.

This way of marketing photographs has more distinct advantages, if you are a part time freelancer, or have just started your own business. Either way you are probably too busy making portfolios, and taking pictures to market them. Another factor, which makes this method of marketing advantageous, is that when you are starting you do not have the network of contacts to market your photographs. Added to that there are some people who won?t or can?t perfect their marketing skills.

A downside of this marketing method is that there is a little more to it than taking photographs and waiting for the Royalty cheques to come in. Most stock libraries, will want to re-caption your pictures to fit in with their image, this can be a time consuming process and it can take months to get them online. However, you can avoid these stock houses and work with those who have better systems too. Like many aspects of selling it is a ?numbers game?, the more photographs you have available to sell the more you are likely to sell. This is a fairly general aspect of marketing, but it is more specific in this instance, as prospective buyers may look at other images, if they like one particular one. Because of the time factor of getting your work to the buyers or the public, many stock libraries, have insisted on a minimum contract, which means that they typically ask to retain your work for a minimum of two years.

Some of the stock libraries are general and some are more specific. Marine Themes obviously specialise in underwater photography, and they scan and correct all their images before sale. They are then color corrected to ensure that any prints will be the best quality. All this takes time, to get the images actually for sale on the Internet. The benefit is that marine photography is highly specialised, and this process does increase your chances to merchandise your work.

In the past the market was limited to buyers who were sent colour brochures and made their selection from them, now the market is expanding, as many libraries have widened their sales base by allowing customer?s to make their purchases directly on line. This factor alone has increased the numbers game the more people who have access, the more who are likely to buy. Some stock libraries are general and some are highly specific such as South African images. Some cover specialist areas such as marine photography, or nature.

So how do you choose the stock library that will be the most beneficial to you? There are independent reports covering the various strengths and weaknesses. The annual Freelance Photographer's Market Handbook in the UK features a section on stock libraries and is an excellent reference guide. Some of the stock libraries have been established for ten years. They have hundreds of photographer?s and hundreds of thousands of images. As a result of this they may be reluctant to take on new clients. However if you have a large portfolio available immediately it may be worth trying one of the older companies. However you will be competing with established photographers who have built up a client base. Many of the new companies have less than a hundred photographers and you will start by being a bigger fish in a smaller pond. However, I will soon show you a good way to beat the bigger fish if you so choose - stay with me!

At the end of the day, the choice has to be your personal decision, and there is nothing to stop you from registering with more than one library. Whilst the market is growing and will continue to grow to encompass on line sales, remember to consider that sales from a printed catalogue will be important for a while, and it may be advantageous for you to choose a library with a well referenced catalogue.

Many stock library have different terms and conditions. In general most give you a straight 50% of the earnings. However some do let the images go into the hands of ?sub agents?, and they will expect an additional cut from any sales. Read your contract well before you sign and beware of copyright issues. Normally when the photograph is sold the buyer is issued with a license number, which only allows them to use the image the once. You minimise your royalties if you allow a buyer to pay once and then get multiple uses out of it.

All in all if you are prepared to look at your market strategy over a long period of time, stock libraries offer you an option. There are forums for professional photographers that do address the issue, and it may be worth you looking into othe peoples style and work. In a second, I will show you where you can get some great information on making good money with your digital camera related to all of this.

There are also available a huge number of royalty free sites. You may question why buyer?s would consider paying for an image whilst they can obtain other?s free? The answer here is that royalty free photographs don?t make them free, you do purchase them, but you have the rights to re-use the stock photos and CDs for as many different projects and clients as you choose without paying additional licensing fees.

Article courtesy of Roy Barker who has supplied you access here to cash from your camera or if that link is inactive try http://photography-business-tips.com/2007/02/28/stockphotography-digital-cameras-making-money/

Where To Find Free Stock Photography, Clip Art, And Other Graphics For Your Web Site

MorgueFile

The name "MorgueFile" refers to a popular newspaper business term that describes a file that holds past issues flats. Here you can have access to a sizeable database of downloadable images, without the need to even register. Pictures are grouped into several categories. Just click on what you want, and thumbnails of the selections pop up for easy browsing. You can even give a little something back by submitting your own pictures, although you will have to register for that. Chat rooms and forums provide a community of people to ask if you need some advice. An online store of books, computers, and cameras round out the package. A highly recommended site for bloggers and web designers alike.

Webweaver's Free Clipart

Clip arts are tiny illustrations that can help to get your message across. With these little pictures, a website can look alive and full of activity, catching the attention of anyone who just happens to be passing by. For web designing newbies, Webweaver's Free Clip art is a good place to start browsing for these webpage ornaments. Just like the MorgueFile, images from this site can be used for free, with no copyright or usage rights to worry about. The clip arts are in sets of well planned categories, and finding the images you want is easy. There are Christmas and New Year clip arts, as well as most other major holidays. Cliparts for entertainment, animals and nature are also available, though the size of their selections can be inadequate. Good thing they accept submissions, too. Though some of the clip art seems outdated, there's enough here to justify a visit.

Adsen Favicon

See that little icon on the address bar on top of the webpage? That's a Favicon, and if you ever wondered how you can change that into something that's more to your liking, then Adsen FavIcon is the program for you. It is a simple editor that can convert a GIF, JPEG, or PNG into a favicon.ico file. When done the image shows up on IE's favorites list. It works with other browsers as well, such as Firefox and Opera.

Daily Clip Art

Every day, Daily Clip Art (www.dailyclipart.net) adds one or two new pieces of clip art. It doesn't sound like much, but over a period of months they've built up an impressive library of colorful and fun clip art on a wide variety of topics. The images there include animal clip art, music clip art, sports clip art, and much more. Every image is available for free use. Or, you can pay $4 for a hi-resolution version of any image.

Making sure that everything corresponds to a central idea goes a long way to establishing a website's professional feel. To do that, you need just the right images and design to make everything feel whole. Free image archives and simple image editors can certainly help you make everything look just right.

Kevin Savetz is creator of www.FreeForYourSite.com, a blog that covers free webmaster tools including SEO tools, keyword tools, graphics utilities, and more. All of the utilities mentioned in this article are linked in the web site graphics category at FreeForYourSite.

Stock Photography

Today when it comes to finding the right kind of stock photography which you can then use as part of your advertising campaign or website design there are plenty of places where you can find the right ones for you. No longer are you restricted to finding an agency close to where you live to provide you with the photographs that you want a quick search of the internet will bring up a whole list of agencies around the world.

As you will soon discover once you start looking more closely at what these agencies have to offer they will all provide you with a system that makes it very easy for you to search and find what you want. Most will have their photographs divided up into various different categories and so if you know exactly what it is you are looking for within a matter of minutes you will find what it is you want. But if you are unsure they will also have search facilities available that allow you to search by selected keywords, types of image as well as what the options are in relation to the licences on the photographs.

When it comes to the licences that are placed on these photographs you will have to choose between either rights managed, released, non exclusive, exclusive and royalty free ones. With the rights managed images or photographs you will be required to pay the agency a fee which then entitles you to use them for a set period of time and for every time that you use them. Therefore if you are looking to use the same photograph in both a brochure as well as part of a print advertising campaign then you will be required to pay the agency 2 fees as this counts as you using the same photograph or image twice.

As for released images these are photographs which the owner of the image has signed a release and so making them available for licensing through which ever stock photograph agency has them. If you choose to use these kinds of images or photographs you need to make sure that they are released or you may have to end up trying to contact the owner of the image to see if they will release them to you.

The final kind of stock photography images that we are going to be looking at now are those known as Royalty Free ones. These are the kinds of images where you do not have to pay a usage charge every time that you choose to use them. Instead once you have paid the initial fee then you are licensed to be able to use them as many times as you want for as long as you want. But be warned unlike the other methods mentioned above with these you do not have sole and exclusive rights to use them and so they can still be used by others. Also it is important to note that although you hold a licence to use these stock photographs you do not have the right to then sell them on to others.

P Abbey owns and operates http://www.imagebankguide.com/stockphotography.html - Stock Photography

Are You Looking to Sell Your Photos as Stock Photography?

There are a number of sites that accept photos to sell as stock, ranging from microstock sites that accept amateur photographers to the big-name players in the industry. Stock photography can be very rewarding if your pictures are the type they need. This is not the same as setting up a photo gallery - stock houses don't want another sunset picture or a shot of your backyard rose bush.

It's important to read all the instructions for submitting your photos. Most sites have a minimum resolution requirement and list the subject matter they are looking for. And most require model releases and possibly even property releases. If you're looking to start making some $$$ for your photos, here are a number of sites to try.

Microstock Sites

Shutterstock - this is a subscription based stock site. It is free to submit photos, however users pay a monthly membership fee. The payout is $.0.25 for each photo download. Because this is a monthly fee, users will typically download multiple photos per month. Shutterstock is also now accepting Video Footage, with a payout of 30% of the purchase price which typically ranges from $69 to $199.

Dreamstime - this site has a generous compensation model. Purchases by users are done on a credit model, with a small photo (800x600) selling for 1 credit - up to a very large 8MP+ file selling for 4 credits. Photographers earn 50% of the sale - 60% if the image is exclusive to Dreamstime. There is also a sliding increasing scale based on the number of total downloads you have as a photographer. So as a beginner selling the smallest size photo, the payout starts at $0.50 and can range all the way to $4.80 per image for an exclusive 8MP+ photo. Definitely check these guys out if you are serious about selling your photos!

Fotolia - this is another credit based site, with the photographer payout starting at 33% for a non-exclusive photo. Currently 1 credit = $1.00, and Fotolia also has a increasing scale for number of files sold. The photographer has some control on setting the price for the image based on the file size and their overall ranking. At the top range for a 15MP+ photo the maximum selling price can be 100 credits for an exclusive photo - with a payout of 64%. This is a strong contender in the microstock industry and well worth a look.

While it may be difficult for amateur photographers to break into the world of stock photography, microstock sites like the ones above provide a good opportunity to start making money with your photos. If you want to make money with a hobby you love, these sites could provide your start!

Be sure to visit Shutterbug Source for more great photography tips, techniques and resources