Is Selling Stock Photos Hard? (2023)

Is selling stock photos Hard?

While you can make money off stock photography, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to do so as competition amongst photographers has grown and the market has become saturated. No, stock photography is not dead. You can still do money with it, but you have to focus on images that sell.

On average, stock photographers make $0.02 per image per month with stock photos, while professionals make $0.05–$0.25 per image per month. Royalty-free sales earn between $0.10 and $99.50, while extended licenses bring up to $500. Stock photo agencies pay $0.32 per sale of a royalty-free license on average.

In general, stock photos earn approximately 25-45 cents per image, per month. This obviously depends on many factors, including how many agencies you upload to, your skill in keywording, and the uniqueness of the images.

Time is money.

On the other side of the coin – if you're limited on time and your time could be better spent on something higher paying, like earning a few hundred dollars per shoot. Then stock photography may not make sense for you, as it'll take a long time to exceed those earnings with stock photography.

Images that have strong leading lines will continue to be in demand for stock photography. Photos that capture relaxing scenes like beaches, snow-capped trees and fields of flowers will be the most popular.

Candid Photos Sell Better than Posed Shots

They want candid. The difference here wasn't as vast, but definitely noticeable: 62% of best-sellers are shot in a candid style, while only 38% are obviously posed. Lesson Learned: Take candid photos.

1. Alamy. With over 60 million images, Alamy is the largest stock photo website, but they also pay well too. Photographers earn 50% of every sale, and aren't restricted to selling exclusively with Alamy.

Photos are one of the most profitable digital products that you can sell online. Choosing what you'll specialize in is the first step to find the right audience and attract potential customers. If you haven't decided on a niche, take time to experiment with different photography styles.

Earning a living (or extra income) selling stock images may take a little extra research to get started, but it's not at all far-fetched. It's a great way to make passive income as a side hustle. And if you want to put in the extra work, it can even become a means to making full-time wages.

How long does it take to make money on Shutterstock?

But you must sell more than 25,000 photos per year to make the top level. As Shutterstock pays a percentage of the sale to the contributors, we can't give you an exact amount you'll receive. The price of stock photography varies on their website. And the price can also depend on the type of licence the photos have.

At the most basic level, your photos need to look technically sharp and polished. Take them with a professional camera (or at least a very good smartphone camera), and make sure the shots are in focus, correctly exposed, and properly framed. Unappealing or amateurish shots won't sell.

Distributing prints can be difficult, especially if you're selling more than just one or two a month. As a consequence, most photographers prefer to outsource rather than to handle all of the work themselves.

Here you get 33% royalties for every image you sell, and considering how well-known and favored Adobe Stock is in the creative community, there is a good chance you will make some money.

Rebecca Givens has launched memes, appeared in ads around the globe and perfected the toothy grin. She just doesn't want to talk about it. Photo, iStock.

You guessed it, Stock Photo too! You're going to find that graphic designers, marketers, publishers, and business owners on every level use stock photography in one way or another and there are loads of great reasons why!

There are many important components to creating a stunning photograph. Some of the most important are your ability to capture the right light, the right composition, and the right moment—the three elements of a great image.

Most Downloaded Images FAQ

The best-selling style of images varies from one year to the next, but overall, images of people (or lifestyle photography) are an all-time best-selling genre in stock photography. Other concepts like landscapes, flowers, and beaches are also consistently popular.

What's trending in stock photography?

Rustic backgrounds and outdoor photography

For photographers who concentrate on creating stock imagery, rustic backgrounds for still life photos are predicted to remain popular. Using earthy tones, items from nature, and focusing on creating an organic, natural feel will stand out.

Uploading images to a stock photography house like Shutterstock is easy, free, and can be quite profitable over time. When you contribute to Shutterstock, you still retain the copyright to your creations, and you receive a royalty whenever a subscriber downloads one of your photos.

Making sales on Shutterstock requires, first and foremost, consistency, time and dedication. But don't let any of this discourage you if you are a keen photographer and you have the time and discipline, the reality is that Shutterstock could work for you in the long-run.

Minimum payout: Enter the amount of earnings that must accrue in your account before a payment can be made. The minimum payout amount is $35 and the maximum is $2000.