Stock Photos

Are Stock Photography websites the way to get started selling pictures? How much does a good picture sell for? If they pay good and its the way to go to get started, then please list some stack photo websites in your reply.

They can pay anywhere from .20 cents to thousands of dollars. Depends on who your agency is, how marketable the photo is, what rights go along with it, how bad they want it and how well it will sell their product.

What kind of images are you looking to license throgh stock agencies and how many images do you have?

-Brent-
www.abouttheimage.com

I think around 150. I do mostly nature photography

Try the Photographers Market, Here (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/158297277X/002-3824065-2612045?v=glance).
Good luck...

150 images is a small collection and many stock agencies would want you to have around 1000 images before they accept your work. Of course there are exceptions if the images are Outstanding.

One good site for those looking to start out is Alamy. They allow you to upload your images (Must be 50mb+ hi-res images) and their interface allows you to do all of the keywording which enables them to work with smaller collections and new artists. You can also set your own pricing for Royalty-Free licensing.

Another approach might be to find a stock agent that specializes in nature or travel images and work with them. They are likely to accept your images and would proabably do a good job marketing the images because they are well known for offering the type of images you shoot. You can see a list of stock agencies on my website www.abouttheimage.com.

Hope this helps.

-Brent-
www.abouttheimage.com

PS. if you have a link to view the images i'm sure everyone would like to see them.

No, No. I mean 150 in my portfolio. In my whole lifes work, out of about 10,000 photos, probaably willing to sell around 2,000 od them

http://www.istockphoto.com/ This site looks like it would be helpful...

http://www.istockphoto.com/ This site looks like it would be helpful...

If you don't mind getting $.10/photo. ;)

http://www.istockphoto.com/ This site looks like it would be helpful...

If you don't mind getting $.10/photo. ;)

Eeeek! $10/photo? Ouch. I withdraw my last statement...

Not $10... $0.10... mind you, that seems to be the direction a lot of "online" stock photo sites are going...

Yeah, that's what the good luck... part of my post was. Like every budding amateur, I looked into this as well.
I finally resolved myself to just take pics for fun, in the unlikely event that anyone wanted to buy one...Bonus!

Nowadays there are a lot of ways to get into stock photography. I started my own site just to show off my photos and now, 3 years later, I own a stock photography agency with over 100 photographers and 4 employees.

I would carefully consider which sites and companies you hook up with. Contributing to a site like shutterstock will hurt you if you want to get on with a higher quality agency.

Getty Images is the class stock photo agency: they are the biggest and they have a good reputation...which is why it's almost impossible to get signed by them.

I own Acclaim Images and I am basically trying to be the best agency around but we have a long ways to go. We are only looking for professional photographers who have a real commitment to this business.

One thing you may want to try is to create your own site to show off your photos. Make it look good and put up your best photos and then you will be able to show others your best work without sending them to a site with all sorts of ads.

Best of luck!

One thing you may want to try is to create your own site to show off your photos. Make it look good and put up your best photos and then you will be able to show others your best work without sending them to a site with all sorts of ads.

Excellent advice! Listen to Fred - he knows of what he speaks. ;)

I've found that selling prints and downloadable from action photography and stock photos on your own website is actually very easy with the right software.

I use a piece of software that will work on most web hosts, or they even have hosting available.

CHECK THEM OUT HERE! (http://www.ktools.net/?partner=abrandt@iatvhss.com)

It's a great way to get started, and they'll even give you some stock photos to help populate your site.

Like I said, I've looked into agencies and everything else. And doing it yourself seems be the most profitable.[/b]

ill be more then happy to answer anyones questions about istock... ive been a member there since 2002 and used to work w/ them.