How to start making money from photography. How to make money from photographs on the Internet - a ready-made plan for turning a hobby into income

The Internet provides almost unlimited opportunities for earning money. Many have already understood this and rushed to the Internet to look for how to do this. Yes, of course, there are sites where they will tell you how to make money from photographs of your family on the beach, for example, or your cat with a wrapper. They will convince you that it is very simple, since you already have a camera. Based on my experience as a photo bank inspector, I have a different opinion. So

How to make money from photographs

If these are photos like “my wife against the backdrop of the sunset”, or “me and the men in a restaurant”, then I’ll tell you - practically nothing. Most of the so-called family photos“It’s impossible to sell, no one needs them. Except, perhaps, you and your family members.

The basic principle here is exactly the same as everywhere else – you can’t pull out a fish without difficulty! I confirm: you can make money by selling photos online! You can live a very good life, that's true. But you have to work for this! A lot, and very regularly. Please don't be fooled by slogans like “Stock photography? It's very simple!” It is not simple. And to reach a noticeable level of regular income, you will have to work for several years, every day, almost seven days a week. I tell it like it is, I don’t want to feed you fairy tales.

I’ll start with the way of earning money that I myself do, and which this site generally talks about. This

Sell ​​photos to a photo bank

For those who don’t know at all what it is and how it works, I’ll tell you.

Basics of photo banks

A photobank (or another name - photostock, or microstock) is an Internet site that serves as an intermediary between content providers (photographers) and consumers of this content (designers, magazine editors, advertising agencies, etc.). You, as a photographer, register on the photo bank website and upload your pictures there. Anyone who needs illustrations (for example, an employee of the advertising department of some company) also comes to the photo bank website, selects the photographs he needs, pays for them, and downloads them for further use. The photo bank usually keeps from 30 to 50 percent of this transaction, the rest goes to your personal account. That's the whole scheme.

The convenience of image consumers here is that they do not need to employ a full-time photographer or pay a hired one. Photo sessions are expensive, and not all consumers can afford it. In photo banks, the cost of one photo can reach literally a few cents, or 40-50 rubles. Despite the fact that the quality of these photographs more than covers the needs of the vast majority of consumers. Very comfortably. And for photographers, the convenience of such a business is also obvious - with an impressive portfolio, your photographs will be sold regularly, every day. And although you will receive only a few cents for each sale, if there are a lot of these sales, then the income can be very significant!

The process might look like this, for example.

1. Driving along a mountain serpentine, you saw a very beautiful landscape. The time of day is right, and the angle is right, and the light of the sun is just wonderful, and the clouds in the distance are just like in a picture!... You stopped and photographed this view (and how to do it competently and beautifully is a completely separate conversation).
2. Next, this picture needs to be processed in the editor. Yes, as a rule, it is necessary; without processing, straight from the camera, rarely does anything turn out well. Photographers almost always have skills in Photoshop or Lightroom. Without this, any sale of photographs on photo stocks, or simply beautiful photography, does not make sense.
3. You upload the finished image to the photobank website. Or several at once - most stock photographers work this way.
4. After uploading, your landscape does not immediately go on sale. The photograph must be attributed, that is, an appropriate description must be filled in for it. This description usually includes the following:
   • image title;
   • keywords;
   • short description;
   • rubrics

   The first two attributes must always be specified. Without them, your image simply will not appear in searches. The second two depend on the specific photo bank. Some don't have them at all. I have a separate section on how to properly attribute images.

5. You have completed attribution and clicked the “Submit for review” button. Come to us, the inspectors, for inspection. The speed of verification varies greatly, and depends, as is easy to understand, on two things: the number of images in the queue, and the number of inspectors working. Sometimes this happens very quickly - literally a few seconds! Sometimes you have to wait 5 or 6 days. Here's more about how photo bank inspectors check images.
6. Finally, your mountain landscape has been checked, approved, and appears in the photo bank search. Next, the build editor of a publication, for example, a travel magazine, comes to the photobank website. He has an article, say, about automobile tourist routes in the mountains of Switzerland. And he needs to get to her beautiful pictures. He enters keywords into the search, something like “mountain landscape, car, road, sunrise.” If you also entered such words when attributing, then your landscape will appear in front of the editor, along with many other landscapes.
7. If the editor liked your picture, he puts it in the cart (as in a regular online store) and pays. After this, the photo bank website gives him a link to download your picture, and a certain amount of money drops into your personal account.

The last point requires a few clarifications.

Cost of images in photo banks

Photo banks, as a rule, do not work with dollars or rubles. They often settle in their home currencies, which are usually called “credits”. In order to purchase images, you must first purchase these credits. The most common scheme of work is for the buyer to transfer, for example, 1000 rubles to the photo bank account, and for this amount he receives 35 credits. (The numbers are completely arbitrary, since the pricing policies of different photo banks are very different!) Another very popular scheme is subscription. This is when the buyer transfers, for example, 5,000 rubles to the photo bank, and receives the right to download a certain number of pictures within a month. Subscription schemes are also very different, and as usual, than large quantity pictures are purchased as a subscription, the cheaper each of them. Well, this is true in any business - in a large batch the price per unit of goods is lower.

Each image, for example, your mountain landscape, can be purchased in photo banks in several sizes. And the cost of these sizes is different. Let's say, for the simplest decoration of an article on a website, so that it is not a dull white stripe with text, a very small picture, approximately 100 by 100 pixels in size, is quite suitable. This is the cheapest format, it usually costs 1 credit. Specific sizes are left to the discretion of each photo bank; there is no standard. The picture is a little larger and will cost more. Pictures that are downloaded for printing in magazines are even more expensive. Well, the most expensive ones are full-length, in the size that your camera produces. For large street advertising, for example.

In order not to be completely unfounded, I will still mention prices in understandable terms. In the photo bank you buy 30 credits. This is a minimum package, you cannot buy less, but you can buy more. You need to pay about $32 for them. Now the cost of the smallest format of any photo will be 1 credit. And this format is approximately 400 by 300 pixels. Plus or minus, that is, a little more or a little less, depending on the format of the photo and which photographer sent it. For 2 credits you will buy the same photo, but at a size of approximately 800 by 600 pixels. The next price is 4 credits, and the dimensions are 1600 by 1200. The highest cost is 80 credits. This is the largest format, the most high quality. Usually suitable for expensive printing or large street billboards.

The credit sales scheme is convenient for those who need pictures from time to time. For those who need them constantly, every day, a subscription scheme is more convenient.

Legal relations with models and editorial

All people who pose for you must give written consent that photographs with their images will be sold in photo banks. This rule applies to all commercial microstocks without exception. They want to be sure, with documented evidence, that your models posed for you voluntarily, that the models know the purpose for which they were photographed, and that they do not object to it. Therefore, when photographing people, you will almost always have to negotiate with them and ask them to sign a model release - a model release. A scan or photograph of this release will then need to be uploaded to a photo bank, along with photographs of the model.

But this does not always happen. General rule this: a model release is needed in cases where the photo clearly shows that people are posing for you. But photographs of all sorts of street scenes, when people are just going about their business, just passers-by on the street and the like - all this can also be uploaded to photo banks! No releases. But they will be sold in special regime. This is called “editorial”. Editorial images have a number of serious limitations for sales, and first of all, they cannot be used for advertising. This means that they cannot be sold at high prices and in large sizes. There are many nuances here, and I have separate articles devoted to this.

Photo rights

This is very important point, which some do not immediately understand. Photo banks do not sell images, but only the rights to use images!

To a first approximation, this is true. Each photograph, upon its creation, immediately receives a whole bunch of different rights. The photographer can sell some of them, while others remain his forever and are not subject to alienation. This is done by lawyers and copyright specialists, and there is no point in raising this topic here. The main thing to understand is that the pictures you sell through photo banks remain yours intellectual property. Stock photo banks simply sell the right to use your images to buyers on your behalf. The relationship between the three parties is described in detail in the agreement, which you, as a photographer, sign or accept when registering on the photo bank website. It’s worth reminding again: read the contracts carefully, you can find a lot of interesting things there.

I will mention, however, that there is a sale of photographs that are not in the photo banking business format. Here, indeed, the image is sold as a whole, with its giblets - with the source (or with the negative as it was before), with the full transfer of all rights to it. This happens if the client requires guaranteed exclusivity - so that no one else has such an image! Ordinary photo banks, as is already clear, engage in non-exclusive sales - that is, the picture you purchased can already be used on a bunch of other sites, and after you they can buy it a bunch more times. Strictly speaking, in the case of a complete exclusive sale, you will not even have the right, having seen a photo at an exhibition, to say that you are its author... For you even sold the right to authorship to the new owner... Although, I’m not an expert here, legal advice is required. But I know for sure that according to this scheme, photographs are sold very, very expensive. Photo banks don't work like that. The maximum they can offer is if someone buys a photo for a couple of thousand dollars, and this photo will immediately be taken off sale and disappear from the photo bank database. Something like this.

Russian photo banks for earning money

No matter how difficult it is for Russian photo banks to operate, they exist. And for beginning Russian stock photographers, they are more convenient than foreign ones. If only because everything there is in Russian. There is also a Russian community of photographers there, to whom a beginner can turn for help. And what’s even more important is that technical support there also responds in Russian.

However, I suspect that if someone is looking for a “Russian photo bank”, then he is most likely looking for a “photo bank with a Russian interface”. It's not the same thing. IN last years Some foreign photo banks have acquired Russian versions of their sites. I have reviews of photo banks, including Russian-language ones and completely Russian ones, in separate articles. I'll just mention a few of them (all links will open in a new window).

Is it possible to make money from my photographs...

...my cats, my vegetable garden, my collection of fish hooks, etc. This is the question with which this article begins. I’ll answer again – practically no! Photo banks do not need just any photos, or any photos, or photos of anything... Photo banks need high-quality photographs on topics that are in demand by the business community. Photographs that will definitely be bought. A photograph of your collection... well, they will only buy it if it is taken absolutely perfectly! Or so unusual that everyone will gasp! And this is very difficult to do. I am considering the question separately, because the topic is voluminous.

Free photo banks

This is for freebie lovers. Yes, this happens too. But these sites are usually just a “junk store.” For example, photographs that were rejected by inspectors of commercial photo banks end up there. What is piled up is what did not pass according to various criteria. This means that the quality of the portfolio of such “microstocks” leaves much to be desired.

This doesn't mean it's all rubbish. No; For example, on this site I actively use photos from such free repositories. And often you can find very decent works there, both in quality and artistic parameters. This picture on the left, a beautiful summer landscape with a river, was also downloaded by me from one of the free stocks. Doesn't it look really good?

But it’s still not a fact that you will find something that suits you there. Or rather, no one guarantees it. Or you will find it, but in unacceptable quality, which is often exactly what happens. Again, look at the landscape on the left. In a small format it looks great on the site! But in full format everything is bad there. Very strong soap and lots of compression defects. This is why the photo was rejected in one of the “big” microstocks.

Here are a few similar addresses (as of December 2014):

And also keep in mind that in this free segment of the market everything is constantly changing. New sites appear and old ones disappear. So it's possible that by the time you read this article, some of the links no longer work!

Bottom line

Many people think that a photographer's job is to run around with a camera and click without a break. Well, sometimes you still come up with “all sorts of compositions.” That is, such a stress-free life. In fact, according to statistics, much more than half of a photographer’s working time is spent working on a computer. Sorting, rejecting, processing, and all that. Nothing creative. I gave an example above of shooting a landscape in the mountains. So, this rarely happens. To capture a beautiful landscape, the photographer arrives at the location several hours before the scheduled shooting time, and then stays there, waiting for the right light. Landscape photographers know that sometimes one shot can take many days! But for a stock photographer, the work turns into a conveyor belt of thousands of almost identical images. There is less and less creativity, and more and more tedious work.

Well, now, if you have read this far, I will tell you what working on photo banks will give you. Why is all this needed? This is necessary in order to have passive income. What many people dream about. Once you have built a portfolio of 10-15 thousand high-quality, commercial photographs, you will find that it works for you. “The soldier is sleeping, but the service is going on” - you relax, travel, spend time with your family, etc., and your photographs hanging in photo banks are sold! Without your participation. Of course, it would be advisable for you to regularly update this portfolio so that it does not drown in the mass of others of the same kind. But the job will already be done - you will have constant flow money to your accounts. Regardless of whether you are working or not, whether you are sitting in your studio or lying on the beach in Tahiti. Passive income is a sweet thing. For this, some are ready to work for five or six years, almost exhaustingly. I know people who, as they say, “made themselves”, established their financial well-being, earned themselves a comfortable life - and all this by working on photo stocks. This path is not closed to anyone, not yet. The secret of these people is a very serious, continuous, hard work for several years.
Well, for a change, here are a few other ways to make money from photographs, and not only on the Internet. But I’m not an expert in this, just for information, it happens.

Wedding photography

This is perhaps the most understandable way for many to make money as a photographer. I took photos at a wedding, gave away a disk with pictures, received money - it’s much easier. I shot only one wedding in my career, I realized that it wasn’t for me, and I didn’t do any more. But I have friends who live from this type of business.

Since this is the easiest way to enter the profession, there is also the greatest competition. And young students who “bomb weddings” during the holidays, and venerable professionals with whom people sign up a year before the celebration. Be prepared for tough competition, dumping and all sorts of scams. A wedding photographer is a psychologist who understands human souls, and at the same time is ready to quickly respond to unexpected input. The words are also fully applicable to this profession - nothing comes for free. Again, don’t believe those who say “it’s very simple.” Yes, everyone can “click young people,” but will they produce artistic, beautiful, romantic photographs? Which will the family be proud of for many years to come? Can you spend 12-14 hours straight on your feet, constantly running around? How about a heavy bag with all your accessories - a spare camera, several lenses, a flash, reflectors, and sometimes a tripod - carrying all this on you for a whole day? What if the wedding organizers even forget to feed you? On the other hand, for those who have achieved success, for those who have made a name for themselves in this type of photography, a constant flow of orders is ensured. People will learn about you through word of mouth, and often you don’t even need advertising.

I don’t know, I won’t advise anything here, since I don’t know much about the subject.

Shooting for documents

You are sitting quietly in your nook in some mall and take “passport” photos of people. Most likely, with the proper organization of your business, you will be able to live comfortably on this income. But I, for example, would get bored within six months. If you are drawn to creativity, then I would not recommend it. And so it’s quite a worthy business. There’s nothing left of photography itself.

Earning money from photo processing

This is for those who can say to themselves “I’m good at Photoshop.” Home employment for a freelancer. You study a photo editor, make yourself a portfolio, register on freelance exchanges, and go ahead. I can’t say anything here either, because... didn't do this. For a homebody, or for someone who is forced to stay at home, this type of income is ideal. But I think that here, as in wedding photography, you weren’t the only one who came up with the idea that you can do this, so the competition can be quite significant. You have to be a true master of Photoshop, and your work on retouching or restoring old photographs must impress people in order for you to receive a flow of orders.

Photos for news and gossip columns

At the master classes of some venerable photographers, I heard the opinion that paparazzi work is the easiest way to enter the world of reportage photography. We know, for example, what kind of photographs some socialite fashion tabloids are ready to shell out good money for new shoes. And I’m not even talking about pictures on the beach, they are grabbed like pie. I don't know, that's probably true. I can say something else that I know for sure. News agencies, daily newspapers, news sites constantly need illustrations for their news. And I know people who do just this kind of work. These are not full-time photojournalists for publications; they are not sent on business trips with editorial assignments. They work freelance. But their photographs are often bought by editors directly, without any photo banks.

However, this job is not for everyone. If full-time correspondents have an editorial ID, which protects them from all sorts of troubles, then a freelance photographer is constantly at risk of being kicked out of the establishment by security guards, or of having proceedings with the police. You need to have a certain type of character, courage, even arrogance, and not be afraid to risk the camera or your own face - the stars themselves, or their security, are not always peaceful and calm. It even seems to me that there is something of missionary work in this segment, a way of life. Climbers go to the mountains and risk their lives only because they cannot live any other way. Most likely, the work of the paparazzi also has a lot of this approach... Although, perhaps not. If you can get a couple of millions for one sensational photograph, then, you know, many are ready to leave life’s principles behind their backs...

At one time I was interested in filming in clubs. Musical, concert photography, one might say. I don’t know about anyone, but it turned me on! A small hall, excited people jumping around the stage, everyone is waving their arms, yelling... You have to look around, dodge so that the camera doesn’t get knocked out of your hands, or beer gets poured on it, or someone falls on you... And at the same time keep an eye on stage, to catch the light, which is constantly changing there, and the musicians are actively moving... I took this photo of Sergei Mavrin with an old, amateur Nikon D50 camera in a cramped, stuffy club, with difficulty squeezing my way to the stage between a group of drunk guys. They were good-natured, so I wasn't hurt. 🙂

In general, I honestly liked it all! But if anyone tries to do this, keep in mind that you will not make significant money from such a shoot, this is not a wedding. It's more for the soul!

conclusions

Someone, having read to the conclusions, will say in disappointment: “Well, I wrote so much, but didn’t say the main thing - how much can you earn?” This article was not written to tell you “how to make money quickly.” I described the very basics of how to make money on photo banks. And also to say that achieving success in this business is very difficult. I would like you to clearly understand: there is no easy money, and microstocks are no exception. If you decide, you will have to work very hard, for 5 or 6 years. Any experienced stocker will tell you that regular sales can begin when your portfolio exceeds 1000 high quality photos on one stock. Precisely high-quality, and not just any! With a portfolio of 5,000 photos, you can already count on this income as real money. That is, the income from photo banks will become tangible for you. And with 10 or 15 thousand, you can think about quitting your job at your tired company and just doing photography!

Do you have a camera and are you interested in photography? Do you have time to devote yourself to something interesting? Then making money from photographs is just for you.

To make money from photographs, it is not enough just to sit at your computer on the Internet, you will have to spend a lot of time on the street, taking suitable pictures. After you take interesting and high-quality photos, you will need to upload them to the appropriate Internet resources. There are special sites where you can put your own photographs up for sale. Such online resources act as an intermediary, ensuring the security of the transaction with the buyer. The quality of the pictures directly determines how quickly they can be sold. Obviously, having a knack for photography, the ability to choose an angle and a popular topic is the key to successful earnings from photography. This activity can be combined with other ways to make money on the Internet.

What photos are in demand?

Beginning photographers usually wonder what is best to shoot? To start, you should just take pictures of everything you like. Post the pictures you take to find out through trial and error which ones are most in demand at the moment:

• Photo reports.
• Thematic photos. Construction, handicrafts, repairing something, materials, travel, etc. You can agree with some, for example, information construction site and take photos for them.
• Artistic photography.

It is important to understand that having a professional camera is not a guarantee of success on specialized exchanges. High-quality equipment will not make you a talented photographer. At the same time, if you don’t have a very good camera, the imperfections in the image can always be corrected using a photo editor. You can sell your photographs on various resources; there are both Russian and foreign photo banks that are popular among those who want to make money from photos.

Services for making money online using photographs

In order for you to make money from photographs, there are special photo stocks on the Internet. We list the most popular of them:

1. On the website dreamstime.com you can sell illustrations, just photos and Raw sources. The minimum resolution of photographs is 3 megapixels, and the cost can range from one to three hundred dollars. After the sale, the author receives from 50 to 80% of the value he declared, the rest is considered a stock photo commission. Please note that this site has a minimum withdrawal amount limit: you will not be able to receive money until you have more than $100 in your account. You can transfer them through the payment systems Moneybookers or Paypal.
2. Photobank lori.ru acts as an intermediary for the sale of photo and video content. Pictures are accepted only in JPEG format, there are restrictions on resolution: it must be from 2 to 40 megapixels. The cost of one photo ranges from 40 to 6,700 rubles. You can withdraw your earnings to PayPal, WebMoney or Yandex.Money wallets.
3. Another site where you can sell your photos is CreStock.com. This photo bank accepts Raw sources, illustrations, 3D and regular photographs. The cost of one photo is from 5 to 15 dollars, the system commission is 30%, funds can be withdrawn as soon as the balance exceeds $50. The transfer is carried out at your choice through Moneybookers or Paypal.
4. You can also sell your photo through Shutterstock.com. To start working through it, you need to pass a mandatory test: you need to send 10 of your works, of which at least 7 must be approved. If you fail to register the first time, you can try again in a month.
5. You can use the intermediary services of the photo bank Depositphotos.com. To register, you must pass a test. To do this, you need to first send 5 of your works for evaluation.
6. From Fotolia.com. You can sell illustrations, 3D images and photographs with a resolution of 2400x1600 and a size of up to 20 MB. The cost of one photo varies from 1 to 2000 dollars, the system commission ranges from 20 to 65%. Withdrawal is possible after receiving at least $50, the money is transferred through Moneybookers and Paypal.

Making money from photographs is an exciting activity for creative people. To evaluate your strength, you can always register on one of the listed sites and try to sell your work.

PS: If you are interested this type business and earning money, but you don’t know how to take photographs, then you can take photography courses.

For some, photography is just a hobby and everyone sooner or later wonders whether it is possible to make money from this hobby? Yes, this is possible and does not require any qualifications as a photographer or special photography skills. Enough to have good camera and a desire to take photographs.

The principle of making money from photographs

Who needs your photos and where to sell them? The principle of such a business is extremely simple. Between the photographer and the people who are interested in them there is an intermediary, the so-called photo stocks and photo banks. Their service greatly simplifies the work of both the photographer and people looking for photos.

Photostock allows each user to post a photo on their resource and indicate the price, and people who want to purchase it, in turn, will also go to the site and buy it from you, that’s all. This simplifies everyone’s work: for magazines you don’t need to look for individual photographers and negotiate work, and at the same time you photograph whatever you want, do your hobby and make money from it.

Where to start a business?

To start such a business you will need:

Where to sell your work?

The most popular methods of selling images are photo stocks and photo banks. Millions of amateurs use such services, and if you have your own photos lying around, why not make a profit?

However, if you are going to work on photo stocks, you need to take into account some details.

Don't forget about copyrights; your photos should not contain popular brands, for example: a can of Coca-Cola on a table, a popular watch brand in the frame, or the Apple logo on a laptop. All these unnecessary attributes and accessories in your photos can lead to scandals for copyright holders.

Media - if you take any good photos of celebrities, say in a candid pose, you can make a lot of money by selling it to newspapers or magazines. So you can get about a million or more for one photo, depending on the photo itself, the main thing is that it is rare and in demand.

Popular photo stocks and photo banks

So, if you have already decided to sell your photographs on photo stocks, you need to familiarize yourself with the most popular and profitable ones:

You should start working with these services; they are the most popular and productive, and therefore the most promising for you. Of course, starting to work for them requires a lot of effort, but if you want to make money from your hobby or have a stable income, this will not be a problem. In the future, you will be able to earn good money doing what you love.

How much can you earn from this?

You can earn from 20 to 2000 dollars a day from photography, depending on your work. Let's say you have 10 unique images and want to sell them.

By registering on popular photo stocks (two or more) and downloading each of your photos 100 times, you already get 1000 downloads. Let’s say they pay from 20 to 60 cents for one download, which results in at least $200 in net earnings. What if you have not a hundred, but a thousand photos? Your income increases significantly and is already equal to two thousand dollars. Also, your images can be sold to various media, so for one successful photo you can get a lot of money, but the chance to take it may never arise, which is why they are sold for so much money.

Earnings on ordinary photographs there is a place and the main thing in it is to cover as many resources as possible and sell as many copies as possible, thereby you will increase your income significantly.

Tips for beginners:

• To start your work, you need to create your portfolio. It is recommended to start when you already have more than two hundred photos, so that you can add to your portfolio every day, even without being able to take photos.
• Registration on several or more photo banks will increase your productivity and income in general, take advantage of this. Also, if there are tests on the photo bank, do not discard this option; on the contrary, it shows the seriousness of the resource and, accordingly, the prices on it will be higher.
• Carefully study the rules on photo stocks, they can vary significantly. However, remember that a photo that has already been sold cannot be posted anywhere else. If this is your first experience in this field, learn all the basics completely. Read forums and thematic sites that will tell you how to improve your photographs and the quality of your shooting.
• Describe your photo in detail and preferably in English, this will determine how well your image will sell. Required to fill out English language, photo stocks are mainly aimed at the English-speaking audience.
• Please check your photo carefully before submitting and uploading. There are special services that check all sorts of imperfections and noise in your image, use them.

It is a mistake to think that you can earn decent money from photographs only offline, for example, by photographing celebrations and weddings. There are many online resources where people can post their pictures for sale and earn good money from them.

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What photos are in demand?

Most often they buy subject photography, thematic photography, and less often – reportage photography. Nature magazines can pay for landscapes, news agencies can pay for exclusive photos from events, and webmasters can pay for graphics.

In order to decide how to make money on photographs on the Internet, you will need to study the photo bank in which you plan to place your work.

Experts identify several types of images that are in greatest demand:

• professionals at work (accountant, architect, farmer, etc.);
• reports from events;
• individual objects on a plain background;
• rare animals;
• landscapes;
• artistic photos;
• architectural photographs.

How to make money as a photographer using an intermediary site, published by the Vinyl Planet channel.

Description of photo banks

Photo banks are attractive because the client sees a photo and can choose the most suitable one. This saves a lot of time, and allows photography enthusiasts to monetize their creativity.

Requirements imposed by services for making money from photographs

Basic Rules:

1. Uniqueness. However, you can sell the same frame on several platforms at once.
2. Photo quality. Most of them set a condition on the number of megapixels, there must be at least three or four. Practitioners suggest checking the quality of photos with programs such as Actual Pixeles.
3. Permit guarantees. If there is a person in the photo, you will need to provide their consent to use the image.

Earning money from photo banks

You can earn from $10 to $1,000 or more per month by posting photos. One download costs approximately 20 cents. Considering that we are talking about downloads, and there can be 10 or 100 of them per day, a good fee accrues.

Don't ignore descriptions and add tags. How more information about the photo, the higher the chance that it will be bought.

For professional and amateur photographers, more details about this in the video from the channel “Work on the Internet, make money at home. Work for everyone. Earnings. Freelancing. Bitcoins. Social networks."

Shutterstock

Home Collections Photo Editor

DepositPhotos

DepositPhotos has more than 75 million files. The photobank team publishes a specialized magazine and holds a competition for designers.

Home Collections Photos

Dreamtime

This resource is also well known in the media community.

Home Collections

Istockphoto

American resource that accepts photos and illustrations.

Home Photo

Lori

The photobank, created in Runet, works in Russia and with foreign partners.

Home Collections Photos

Fotolia

Another Western resource. This photo bank is directly linked to Adobe Stock, both photo banks are synchronized. The resource library consists of 109 million images, vectors, illustrations and video clips.

Hello! For those who are new to the pages of my blog, I hasten to introduce myself. My name is Natalya Krasnova. I am a wedding photographer in the city of Novokuznetsk.

Who else, if not me, knows better about how to make money on the Internet using photographs? Not modestly, of course. But don’t rush to draw conclusions, it’s better to read my article to the end.

I have been passionate about photography for a long time. Today it is available to everyone. We no longer carry films to salons for printing. To view it, you only need to have a computer, a digital frame or a regular TV.

I use the YouTube channel to store my photos. I create in the program " Photo show» slide show with musical accompaniment and upload it to my channel. Here's your first way to make money!

YouTube provides free PR opportunities for both your own and other people’s products. Orders from YouTube will simply pour in if you make high-quality, unique, attention-grabbing videos. The downside is the prohibitions on imposing musical accompaniment(each melody has its own author, and violation of copyright is punishable by law).

Read about how to create your own YouTube channel.

Photobank Lori

I became acquainted with Lori’s photo bank a long time ago and, oddly enough, the process of meeting me did not take place on the Internet. I first heard about the creator of the photo bank, Irina Terentyeva, on TV. I listened to the interview in one breath. The subject of blogging and the topic is very close to my heart. After watching the show I registered in the photo bank to become better acquainted with the terms of cooperation.

At first glance it seems that everything is quite simple, but this is only at first glance. You look through the bank's photographs and it seems that you can take any photo. Terms of cooperation are acceptable. The mere fact that professional equipment is not required gives hope for the opportunity to stand on a par with experienced authors.

But you should approach your candidacy more critically, since the requirements in photo banks are strict.

Who buys photos from photo banks? Of course, advertisers, among whom there is a very large percentage of Internet project owners. Pay attention to the billboards of our supermarkets. Who is depicted more often? Of course people. The best-selling photographs are those of people in beautiful clothes and a Hollywood smile.

Do you have similar photos stored on your hard drive? Try selling them. But first you need to edit them in Photoshop. Lori will not let your photo pass if the white balance is not adjusted, if there is no clarity, if the background white background has color inconsistency.

To test your strength, register in the project, sign agreement with photo bank and feel free to get to work.

Photobank Fotolia.com

Before writing this article, I registered with fotolia.com. And what do you think? I can upload photos and put them up for sale without concluding a contract, without an exam and without providing scans of documents. Here, the payment for your work will increase in percentage terms depending on the pace at which you work. You can upload images (JPEG files), vectors (AI, EPS) and videos (uploaded using FTP). The minimum resolution for JPEG format is 2400 by 1600 (4 Mega Pixels).

Popular photo stocks

Today, any website needs unique content, otherwise he simply will not have visitors. The price of high-quality and unique material sometimes reaches tens or even hundreds of dollars.

The problem is that there are a huge number of photos on photo stocks and finding the necessary and high-quality photo is very difficult. For the same reason, it is very difficult for a beginner to create a good reputation and portfolio from the very beginning.

If you do not want to get lost among thousands of mediocre authors, then you need to remember very simple rules. First of all, you need to understand that the buyer is always looking for a specific product. That is, a certain theme should be clearly visible in your photograph. To find the right topic for your photos, you can turn to various services, such as wordstat yandex. Using these services, you can determine the most frequent search queries of Internet users. You must always remember on copyright protection, so try to avoid famous brands in your photos.

If you photograph people, do not forget to enter into an agreement with your models, giving you the right to sell, publish and distribute photographs with their participation, the so-called model release.

If you decide to master stock photography, then you need to choose a suitable platform. Let's take a closer look at the most famous online photo exchanges.

Istock (istockphoto.com) is one of the largest stock photography exchanges. This site is great place for a beginning photographer, as it has greatest number registered users, and therefore a huge number of buyers.

Shutterstock (shutterstock.com)- a service that is practically not inferior in sales volumes to Istock, and may well compete with it for primacy among other content exchanges. A special feature of this photo stock is a unique sorting algorithm, which increases the speed of sales of new photos.

Fotolia (ru.fotolia.com) is another very large content exchange, which today has at its disposal one of the largest photo databases. All settlements on this exchange take place in credits. One credit is equivalent to one US dollar.

500px Prime (prime.500px.com) is a photo stock where only high-quality works by professional authors are found. All works on this exchange have high value from an artistic point of view. But the price for a photograph often exceeds 100 euros.

In fact, there are a huge number of photo stocks, so the choice is always yours. If you spend a little time, you will certainly find an exchange that will best meet all your requirements. All that remains is to wish you success in your endeavors.

Guerrilla shot

It’s a pity that I don’t live in Moscow, where there is an opportunity to partisan beyond the stars. The paparazzi have plenty of room there. Do you know how much you can earn from such guerrilla photographs? I can give you an example: they paid about 6 million dollars for a photograph of Jennifer Lopez with her twins.

For that kind of money I could sit in ambush for a long time. Don’t discount this method, but rather think about having a small digital camera that will always be at your fingertips.

When shooting in a guerrilla way, there is no need to follow the principle of the “golden ratio” when choosing a composition, or to retouch the photo to give it a marketable appearance, as required by stock photos.

Types of photo sessions that generate income

1. Matinees in kindergartens

2. Family photo session

3. Wedding photography

4. Maternity photo session

5. Corporate photography

Copywriting exchange to help

To start earning money, you need to register for etxt.ru. After registering in your account, follow the links “Photos”, “Add for sale”. A field opens that must be filled in, namely: name, category, model consent or permission of the copyright holder.

On copywriting exchange I haven't tested my strength anymore detailed information, you can find out what form to use to fill out a model’s consent from the support service. You set the price of the photo yourself.

We work to order

On the freelancer exchange you can find tasks for taking photographs for the customer. Let's say you write a blog detailing the best resort areas in the world. Where can I get photos for my blog? You can use the search, but these images are posted on many other resources and have long lost their uniqueness. Therefore, bloggers place orders through freelance exchanges. Visit such exchanges and take orders that suit you for execution.

We make money without clients

More details here - http://flash-photo.pro/

Restoration and professional retouching

Today it is difficult to imagine a photographer who does not own Photoshop or Lightroom. Offer your photo processing services online. This is not difficult to do, today VKontakte groups, Odnoklassniki, and thematic forums will help you.

I created my own group with classmates, posted photographs that showed the result of image processing. Promoting a group requires a lot of time and effort, but there will always be those who will place an order for professional processing.

Have you heard about the existence of a 3D printer?

It turns out that owners of such a printer print plastic figures. Yes, don't be surprised! It is enough to have a full-length photograph of a friend to create a figurine of him as a gift. Such a gift is invaluable, you want to be proud of such a gift, and you will no doubt keep and cherish such a gift for a long time.

But in order to give such a gift, you need not only to buy a 3D printer itself, rent a room, but also have the qualities of a freelance artist to draw and transfer it to 3D format.

There is an exit! Today you can order any figurine of a person or group of people via the Internet.

Consider that after studying my article, you will have Own business! All you have to do is find a customer, we will talk about this later in this article. After the customer has been found, take a photograph from him, which must be digital and good quality. If you are a photographer, do the customer a favor and photograph him yourself.

Please take note of all the customer’s wishes regarding the creation of the figurine. After such simple preparation, send the order to the contractor. Within a few days, a model for 3D printing will be drawn for you free of charge. All that remains is to agree on the layout with the customer and take payment for the future figurine.
On the Internet you can find services for creating 3D figures, for example http://www.bein3d.ru/ or http://prolab3d.ru.
If you followed the links, you will notice that it is very convenient to work with such services and they send orders throughout Russia. Orders are completed on time and with high quality.

You can view the price list and evaluate the advantages of a particular service. You, as an intermediary, set your own price for the client. When ordering just one figurine, you can earn up to two thousand rubles. What if you receive an order for a group 3D photo? Here you have a business or additional income for a photographer using 3D figures.

Where to find a customer?
It will be much easier to find a customer if you have a 3D figurine of any person in your hands. This figurine can be shown to parents at parent meeting, friends in in social networks. If you are a wedding photographer, offer your service to create figurines for the bride and groom. I hope you have a business card? You can create your own capture page, your own with an order form. Another option is a group in contact.
You can earn money too. Don't be shy about taking money for your services. Good luck in business! Natalya Krasnova.