English Language Teaching in Japan and Asia

How to take photos: Making Money in Photography

Basic gear you need:

• An SLR camera (digital or film, more on this discussed below), at least two lenses that cover from about 20mm to 300mm, tripod, remote shutter release, flash (that can be remotely triggered when not on the camera), and basic filters (polariser at least)
• A bookmark in your internet browser to Photographer's Index: Stock Prices.

The Aim:

• Attempt some form of 'cost recovery', or
• to put some food on the table (and buy nice, new, expensive lenses)
• Or, become a semi or aspiring professional (in better terms)

How:

• By working on and perfecting a genre of photography that you're good at. Read books and study excellent samples of photographs in your field / genre, and find faults and improve upon what you've done previously, and then improve upon what others have done.
• Private sales, Rights Management, and Royalty Free licence sales.
• Self promotions, joining agencies

Agencies and outlets*

There's two ways you can go, micro-stock or the traditional agencies. Please boycott micro-stock. The problem is, is that you won't earn enough to even cover the cost of your equipment, and definitely not enough to cover any upgrades. Many of iStock's photographers don't earn enough to buy or upgrade a professional grade SLR. iStock under-cuts prices, and the company earns money from generating a sales volume from an ever-increasing crowd of under-paid hobby photographers. It's industry vandalism. (Also see blacklisted photocompetions here).

Going traditional, is to get paid at industry rates (see Photograthersindex.com). If you set up a free portfolio at PhotoShelter, you'll be able to use their pricing facilities to see the current going rates as researched by Fotoquote. An iStock photo could sell for USD$10, and you earn $2 at best (I used to get $0.50 on average). The same photo, according Fotoquote, for use in the US, for full page Advertorial use, would sell on average at USD$600. Now consider "running costs", equipment costs, wages, and helping other photographers in getting a good price, too. You might say, "it's just a photo", but hairdressers never say "it's just a cut", and charge you nothing! Nikon NEVER gives anything away, they charge for it, and so should you.

Below is a quote from Editorial Photographers:

* My position has changed from supporting any sales outlet, to now calling for a boycott on any underpaying sales outlet, and currently that is the microstock model of iStock and others similar.

Advertising, Commercial and Editorial:

For advertising, a Model Release (MR) is required (see below), as this legal protection for you and the advertiser if the model you used wishes to sue. The use of a model for advertising gives the appearance that he or she endorses a product like a tobacco product, a bank, a political policy or political party, whatever. So MR's are required.

Commercial allows photos to be used for anything, perhaps including advertising. For commercial, RM and RF licences are available, but a Model Release isn't required for commercial (non-advertising) if you're selling under an RM licence (but a higher price can be fetched if one were included).

For editorial, Model Releases are not required, as this is anything that is considered 'news' or 'news worthy', and has a legal status as such. These do not require the permission of the person you photographed. If you're interested in supplying images for news / editorial, take a look at Editorial Photographers.

Commercial

Rights Managed (RM) vs. Royalty Free (RF) sales:

Essentially, the main difference is price and restrictions you impose. The price of a single RM picture can be anything from $50 to $10, 000, though I think $500 is more common. The buyer can have exclusive right to use this, usually within certain conditions you've attached and for a certain length of time. Restrictions can be for geographical regions, editorial, advertising, or other. And pricing is based upon circulation, and size of end use. See Fotoquote in the Pricing Profiles of your PhotoShelter account to see the current average rates or Photographers Index.

RF, on the other hand, for the buyer can be quite cheap, $20 for a 300kb picture for publishing on a website, to $1,000. There's no exclusivity, no restrictions, and so this picture can sell hundreds of times, if it's a good and popular picture. Also, the buyer can use it for hundreds of years, if they wanted, and without paying you a cent more. Be aware that you often don't recoup the cost of a photo shoot if you plan to use the RF option, so this is only good for cheap-to-set up shoots, and "already commonly available" photos. But please boycott micro-stock, as you'd earn on average $0.50 per sale.

Rights Managed: Some (brief) details:

Rights Managed (RM) is an older model of photography sales, when RF first started to really take off as a cheap alternative for buyers. Many photographers predicted it'd cause the end of their profession; though it was a kind of experiment that was imposed upon photographers, it seems to have provided entry points for good amateurs and semi / aspiring professionals (including yours truly).

Today, we're witness to a backlash against micro stock of iStock and Getty Images (and others). These agencies are seen as exploitive of photographers and turning what was an art, into a cheap, tacky, commercial product. Fortunately, since I've started these photographic pages, new agencies have sprung up, and appear very healthy. Gekko Images which offers both RF and RM licences, but pays much, much more to photographers is an alternative that supports both our livelihoods, and our ability to afford newer and better equipment, and with better finances, can we produce better photos. Also following this charge, IF Images and Alamy of the UK are doing all right. Unfortunately, Photographers Direct (an agency strongly supporting photographers) wants exclusivity of the photographer, thus restricting our options. Fortunately, there are smart buyers who know they should pay photographers more, in order to protect the quality of images they need in the future, but Getty and iStock aren't making it easy for them.

Earnings? Most of these stock agencies expect up to 50% in commission, so that could mean your earnings could be $25 per sale at a minimum, and up to perhaps $4,000 plus. Some other agencies offer 85% for the photographer. PhotoShelter is not an agency, but a kind of central shopping point for image buyers. Photographers are self promoting (ie: you employ your own sales staff), and PhotoShelter is the host, and handles the sales transactions for you. Here's what my portfolio looks like: http://pa.photoshelter.com/user/ablyth

Royalty Free: Some details:

Micro stock agencies have taken this licencing agreement, offered it with their established libraries but selling at very cheap prices. These agencies charge you 80% in commission, earn a lot from the sheer volume of sales they can generate. However, you cannot recoup the cost of your equipment, you would have to go into over-drive to continually come up with new concepts, and shoots to keep expanding your portfolio to be more attractive to more customers. It's a model that exploits hobbyists, and it doesn't support professional photographers, nor the cost of new equipment.

Who to go with?

Alright, I have been with iStock, but I didn't know any better at the time. There are others including, which if you have a read of their forums, you may not be so satisfied with. I'm still with iStock, but I'm not adding anything new to my portfolio there.

You could try out Redbubble for a while and learn from them, but remember that they are not professionals, and don't have that depth of quality. Later, move to the RM market, say at PhotoShelter, where you could earn a minimum USD$25 per photo sale, and up to perhaps USD$8,000 (you control the prices). Look into IF Images, Gekko Images, and others if you're looking for bread-and-butter providers.

Rejections:

All companies that survive have a business plan. If they have a good plan, and stick to it, they'll be successful. This plan could include people like you, or may not. It could include your genre, style, or level of ability, or it may not. If you're rejected, keep trying to improve your work, and keep practicing and learning or look for another place that accepts your style and genre.

If you're in with an agency, all images you upload to make available for sale are inspected for technical, artistic and even salability qualities. Some agencies will reject 99% of flower pictures, as they already have enough of them. Others will reject anything that probably will sell just once; they want a stellar, top selling library. Before you submit anything, take a look at this 'Rejections & Technical Problems', feel free to contact us if you're looking for advice. However, with PhotoShelter, there are no image inspectors, so you need to control your own quality.

Private Sales

These are quite rare, but do happen. Essentially, read up on Rights Managed licences before you begin, design your licence, and be aware of copyright. The other thing is, work out the value of your time, wear and tear on equipment, and expenses (cost of props, travel to the site, and other things), and add all these on. I know of some amateurs who've sold some brilliant landscape pictures, that could easily earn $500, for just £10 or £20. ARR! It's a crime to undervalue our work, and it makes it harder for the rest of us to make sales at reasonable prices to support our starving children! Worst still, GIVING them AWAY for FREE! Yes, it's nice to see your picture in print, it is a form of validation of your ability, but it's not a good form of validation to give away your valuable work, and without a licence. If you get the opportunity to sell this same picture by RM... you can't, as that picture had already been used by someone else! For nothing! "For the love of Ilford!" Ask for at least $100 / £50 per photo and attach an RM licence! Refer to some good photography books or contact us for information on the possible contents of RM licences. Better still, look at PhotoShelter and see how it all looks in automation.

A good outlet for private sales is PhotoShelter, where you can set your own pricing, licences, and even allow products like cups, mouse pads and such to be made for you via EZprints. Unfortunately, PhotoShelter needs you to pay USD$50 to activate the financial transaction service on your account. One alternative, though not the best is RedBubble, where there is no such charge. Anyway, you should check with Photographer's Index as to the current industry standards for prices.

Model Releases:

These are a legal prophylactic for the photographic industry. It essentially prevents a model you used from suing and seeking damages, (more) money, or anything else for their own advantage. All agencies that offer Royalty Free (RF) licences will reject any image that doesn't have a Model Release attached. Some RF agencies will expect you to use their own Model Release, which makes it easier for you (you don't need to hire a lawyer to make one for you). An Rights Managed image with a Model Release will fetch a higher price.

What does a Model Release include? Here's one example: (Note that there are better ones out there.)

Please don't use the same wording above, modify it for your use and have a lawyer check it and modify it, too. Get some books and read up on this. Also, "benefits" means the way you rewarded (or paid) your model, be it money, food, a beer, a kiss, whatever.

Useful Links:

10 things you should know about Stock, from PhotoShelter.

Model Releases, from PhotoShelter.

Tutorials:

Some useful tutorials that relate to commercial photography