Making money off your photos
To most photographers, Photography is – and always will be – a keen hobby. Some of us, however, are burning to take the hobby to the next level, and want to start making some cash from it. Perhaps not enough to buy a Ferrari, or even enough to pay the electricity bill, but at least enough to be able to buy a couple of photography toys along the way.
I worked as a photographer full-time for a couple of years, and ended up deciding that the lifestyle wasn’t for me. Even though I jacked in my career as a photographer, I’m still making money off my photos.
How? Well…
Over the years of working as a photographer, I built up a pretty sizable library of photographs. Some of them are covered by some sort of restriction (model release, contract, or otherwise), meaning that I cannot publish them further, and that means they are of no value to me further. Some of my concert photos are still selling via my Rockprints site, but I am not publicising it enough at the moment, and business is very slow.
quick poll
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Do you make money off your photos?
Where I do still make quite a bit of money, however, is by selling stock photos.
A stock photo is an image that someone could conceivably want to use for something. Imagine if you’ve taken a photo of a pretty girl holding a mobile phone to her shoulder, and typing on her laptop at the same time. If you have a model release for the picture (i.e if the model doesn’t mind her photo being used, and you’ve got a piece of paper confirming that), there are a thousand and one uses for the picture. A newspaper may be doing an article about stress. A magazine may need an image to illustrate the dangers of mobile phone use. An job advert might need to appeal to a female audience. The possibilities are endless, but key to all of this is your photo.
Now, think wider. Fabulous landscapes. Extreme macro photos. Portraits of people doing things. Photos you’ve taken of events, actions taken by police, and stuff like that. Let me give you a piece of advice right now: As someone who works in the automotive trade, I can never find enough photos of police making arrests of motorists, of speed cameras, and of speed humps. You’d think it was obvious, but I guess it’s not. Point being? Take pictures of everything around you – it costs very little to keep the pictures on-line, and you never know what people are going to need.
There are people out there making fortunes off photos they have taken of different types of boats, certain plants, and who have libraries of photos of different types of food. You’d be amazed.
Selling your pictures
So what do you need to do to get in on the action? Well, first of all you need to be a pretty good photographer, but that bit is easy – you’re reading the right blog, at least :) From there on, you need to find a way to sell your photos. At first, I used to sell my photos via my own website, being naive enough to think that there would be people out there who would find my photos. In reality, picture editors in newspapers, magazines, and books are two things: a) extremely busy and b) extremely lazy. If they spend 10 minutes to find a photo on a website, why should they trawl the web to find a different photo?
So essentially you need to find someone who can sell your photos for you. It’s slightly counter-intuitive, but think about it: The bigger a website is, the bigger the chances are that a picture editor can find an image right there and then. And more importantly, the bigger the chance is that they will end up buying from you.
I’ve tried a variety of different sites out there, but ultimately I ended up settling on Photo Stock Plus (al). For one thing, the website has a lot of functionality that others don’t, but most importantly, they took care of me right from the beginning.
You can sell stock photos, which is a big bonus to begin with, but you can also sell prints and gifts featuring your photos to friends and family via a slick eCommerce interface.
Bulk upload tools make uploading your photos easier, and if you decide to go with a pro account, you’ll get all sorts of fancy-arse possibilities, including your own URL, possibilities to pick from a stack of designs, getting special assignments from commissioning editors, good deals on business cards and flyers, and even a press pass (which, personally, I doubt will be worth jack, but then I’ve got a ‘real’ one, so I’ve never tried it).
No reason to be worried about your photos either – The site will watermark them all for you, and Photo Stock Pro keep full track of all of your photos for you. You can set your own prices too, which is exciting in itself – charge too high, and nobody buys, charge too low, and it won’t be worth your time – but I’ll be writing more about that in a future article.
And the really clever bit? They only take a 15% commission, which is next to nothing, compared to some of the other sites out there, and you can try it all for free before you decide if you like it or not. Give it a shot (al)!
My day job, if it can be called that, is being a writer. I've got one book out there so far and it's awesome, so go ahead and buy a copy! It's available from 
In front of you, five hyperactive men with guitars, drums, and microphones. Behind you, five thousand fans. In your hands, a camera... You're going to need more than just a little bit of good luck to pull this one off. That's where this book comes in.
Take a Canon EOS 450D. Attach a Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens. Hit the streets of London. See what happens.
Insights, suggestions and comments
Sadly it has a fee $24.95 per month or even more after 30 days of trial use.
Janis: Yeah, you do have to pay, but the thing is, if you manage to sell a couple of images, you can make that money back easily. They seem to have one of the best systems out there, and it’s all about having faith in your product.
If you don’t think your photos are good enough that you will be able to sell them, then paying for the service is not for you. If you believe your pictures are good enough to compete, then you’ve got yourself a winner.
I’ve been able to make a profit from this website over the past 3 months, and I’ve had my account for about 7 months. In total, I’m running at a loss, but if the last 3 months are anything to go by, I’ll be running a profit overall from next month onwards.
I’m really excited, actually, it’s the first time I’m making money off my photos. Even if I end up not making much from this, I can say I’m making money of photography, which has been a life-long dream for me.
YMMV, of course, but I’ll stick with Photo Stock Plus for as long as they’ll have me.
so is it leagal for me to sell concert pictures? if not what can i do to make my pictures legal?
Hi! My name is Joseph. i live in western Canada. The rocky mountains is 30 minute drive from my front door. Im an avid fisherman and i got over 450 pics that i took from all over western canada. I would love nothing more to make some kind of profit from my pics. I showed alot of my friends my pics and they tell me i should consider selling them. I have anywhere from a close-up shot of a ladybug on a leaf on a beautiful fall day,to majestic rockies with a spectacular views.
Please feel free to contact me
Hello, my name is Danielle Carson. I am a Senior in a small rural town in Ohio. I have been taking pictures for years, I would really apprieciate if you would take a look at my myspace and see if my pictures are up to par (so to speak). I have been struggling with this decision. I know that they are really good, I just don’t know if they are what people are wanted, so please help! And apr. how much do you make on a picture? That is probably a stupid question, however, if/when I do this I need to know how much to charge. Thank You, Danielle
i am looking to sell one of my modeling pic can u tell me how it can go fast i think itss a good picture
hi, i’m out in La now, originally canadian, just basically take photo’s of celebs at movie premiere’s and star unveilings. also the odd candid shot if i see a celeb out and about. Have sold some of my photo’s before for peanuts, selling away my rights to the pic. Now i deal with an agency, haven’t sold any yet but have a a couple on the site and when it does sell i’ll be making 50% of the sale every time it sells. So now my comment, i’ve been looking into a site called photoreflect, seems to be no charge to the seller unless a sale is made then its 15% e-commerce. They can take care of the transaction and even the shipping of the pic(for another fee if u like). you set your own prices to your pics and they are protected. I’ve been contemplating setting up my own site soon, so keep an eye out for my celeb pics. Best of luck to all the photographers out there
Hi,
I’m new to all this and have a quick question. Can you upload/sell your photos to only one company, or can you upload/sell to many companies? Do they own copyright to your photo after you sign up with them, or do you still retain the right to produce and sell your photos? Thanks.
Sorry -typos in last post – here it is again.. (Thanks)
Another way to make money from your photos is to set up your own website, and give them away free.
It works really well for me (I made $660 from Adsense adverts in Feb 2008)…
http://money-from-photos.blogspot.com
The stock trade has killed the photog! Why will people buy a image of mine for framing for $100 when they can get stock for $1? I sold a pic for a small Christian magazine cover for $30, now the magazine only buys stock and they can get 30 different images for local versions to choose from that better describe their demographic (it is translated in many languages worldwide). Is a bit of the case like the Tesco and Wal-Mart move in and fold up all the local shops. The web has opened up your images and Zanbar’s images in Timbuktu to everyone, everyone saves, but kills (or devalues) our work. We have to rely on events and local happenings that are not generic topics like flowers and girls on phones.
I love your concert article though and that is where I am learning from these days, need a better lens though but am making a little that way, shoot 8 bands two hire for another time, it’s slow but it’s a nice side job.
Hi, I am thinking of possibly selling some of my photographs. I have some pictures of some front doors of peoples houses in historical philadelphia. I know you are allowed to take pictures of front doors while on public property, but is it ok to sell them?
Hey Sonya – I can’t see why that would be a problem, so go for it! :)
This is a fab idea to sell pictures. Maybe someone should set up a online home business so that anyone can sell their pictures for a small fee a bit like ebay -sell to the highest bidder.
Just a thought….
Thanks for sharing this post. I really enjoyed it.
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