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How to Make Money with Microstock Photography

By Autumn Lockwood

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 09Jun2010 Word count: 648 Viewed: 429 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

While photography is certainly a fun hobby and can lead to great personal fulfillment, it is also a high-skill profession that thousands of people use to pay their bills every single day. Not everyone can shoot for Sports Illustrated or Cosmo, but that doesn't mean there isn't a good living to be made working in other mediums. Micro stock photography, for instance, is a relatively new concept and a great way to make a little extra cash.

Understanding the Basics About Micro stock Photography?

You may be familiar with the term "stock" photography - it refers to photographs that are licensed for a wide variety of uses. For instance, a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco could be a stock photo, which could be used in magazines, ads, calendars, or whatever else the person who buys it wants to do.

Micro stock photography is similar, only the images sell for less and can be uploaded by anyone with high-quality material. With micro stock, you sell more images at a lower cost so you have to be willing to upload a lot of images to make it work. Fotalia, Shutterstock, and iStockphoto are all great websites for this purpose.

How Do I Get Started?

Getting started with micro stock is easier than you think. The two things you'll need is a basic editing and shooting setup but you can find these very inexpensively. A digital SLR will be suitable for most of the photos, and you can use a free editing program like Paint.net until you feel ready to invest in one of the paid ones.

After you have your equipment all ready, it's time to take a bunch of pictures so you can use them for the initial application process. If you want your images to sell, focus on subjects that are easy to sell in markets like business, home decor or other lifestyle themes. Try and bring something to the market that a person buying photographs would be looking for, but wouldn't be able to find elsewhere. It is important to remember that your images cannot contain copyrighted or trademarked subjects, and if they feature a person's face you'll need a signed release from the model.

Before you upload any images, check out the site and see what types of photographs they offer as this will give you a good idea of the types of images that will likely sell. Once you have a strong portfolio, find a site that you like (or go to all three) and submit your photos for review. Pay close attention to the training materials and description the sites provide and make sure your portfolio completely fits within their guidelines, otherwise you may be denied.

How Do I Profit?

Unlike traditional stock photography, with micro stock images, it's all about quantity. The more photographs you upload, the better you'll do in terms of cash. There are people that make thousands a month working in micro stock, but it is important to note that these people also use it as their full time job and upload hundreds of photos. if you can invest the time needed to do the job, the income potential is truly endless.

Always start small so you "test the waters" before investing a lot of time and effort into uploading images before you know if it will be a good fit. If it looks like micro stock photography will work for you and you have the time and effort to upload a lot of images, then gradually increase the amount of time you spend on it. If micro stock photography doesn't seem like a good fit, keep looking for other photo opportunities that are better suited for you. You should always have fun and enjoy taking pictures so find something that works best for you and you'll end up shooting images that everyone will admire!

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