Hi Eric,

signing a deal and uploading content are two different things. A 6 year commitment is very extreme. This is a very fast paced industry and companies move up and down the success ladder at lightening speed. I certainly wouldn�t commit my portfolio to just one agency for 6 years.

If possible, maybe try to negotiate a one year trial phase with corbis, just to get to know them. If they are really interested, they should be able to give you an individual contract with an early opt out possibility.

If not, then I would only give them non exclusive files in the beginning. Also ask them how many files a year they expect you to produce, i.e. what are their minimum requirements?

In the forum here we have Jonathan Ross from spacesimages/blend. Maybe send him a sitemail and ask his advice.

It takes time to find the right partner for your production.

Might also be worth applying to stocksy or Offset or other special collections in the industry.

From the experience of others with Getty (which is the big dog), the "list" prices on the site are not even close to what the actual sale price is, so try not to give too much weight to the good feeling you get by having a high price tag attached to your work - it's the volume of sales and the actual sales price that will matter.

I agree, the prices on the website are no indication of what you will really earn. It might be several 100 dollars, it might be a few cents. Even for RM. If you can, try to find an artist who is working with Corbis and can give you realistic insights of how much you might be earning.

A lot of artists make this mistake. They see their files priced for 500 dollars and think they will always earn 20% of that. And then they get a sales report with sales for 50 cents, 5 dollars,20 dollars etc...with an average of maybe 12-16 dollars. That is not too far from the average in the micros, especially if you add the much,much higher volume in sales.

Also macro agencies are very selective, so instead of having 20 files on a micro agency,you can maybe just place 3 files at a macro agency. And these have to be placed in one series together,so they all get the same time stamp in best match. With the micros you would have been free to spread the files over 2 or three years and so give the whole series a regular boost. Or deactivate them whenever you like if somebody wants to buy all rights to the files etc...

So your 3 files in macro have to bring in the same regular revenue as the full 20 image series on the micros.

It is very difficult to predict with what kind of license or what kind of business model  would make more money for your images. So I would suggest to explore all avenues to get an organic feeling for the market.

Good luck.

That's tough.  A lot of people have very nice images of blurry water, trees, landmarks, and hillsides.  It would be hard to stand out in micro.  Hopefully "small collection" doesn't just mean the images on that portfolio page.  Those won't get you any where in micro.  Maybe try offset?

Maybe you can find accurate numbers from Jim Pickerell�s site,but I am sure RF sales must be over 80% of stock revenue in the whole market. Ignoring RF means, you are ignoring the majority of sales.

Like others here have said, travel images is probably the most overcrowded genre unless what you have is extremely rare or unusually well done. There are hundreds of thousands of extremely talented photo enthusists who take lovely pictures on their vacations and then send them up to all the stock agencies. Just have a look at Shutterstock/istock/Fotolia and getty what kind of images they already have and if what you have is in any way better or even comparable to their midlevel quality.

The question is: do you just want to place images that you were taking for yourself on agencies to get a little additional income, or do you really want to produce stock on a regular basis and generate a reliable income stream?

If you are mostly interested in money, why not let the customer guide you? With that I mean upload 300 Rf files to agencies with high volume traffic and sales,i.e. the top 4 sites on the right and then simply observe what sells. Also try to create a regular upload flow of at least 10-20 images a week to get into the shoot.upload.repeat rythm. Have a look at the agencies request list, what they are really asking for and I am sure travel images is usually not on there.

And experiment with things you would maybe not normally shoot for yourself - food,lifestyle,photoshop collages etc...or add some editorial into the mix. Just experiment and have fun.

Then after a few months and with 1000 images online you will have a much better understanding how stock works,what the customers actually want to buy from you and if the whole regular production workflow is the right thing for you. And then might be a better time to look at adding exclusive images to certain agencies and trying RM etc...


Perhaps you stumble on a special niche related to a hobby you have - building canoes/canoe travel/family holidays or the classic - all about wine,wine production,people with wine,wine recipes. Or if you love to travel, specialize in one genre - mostly camping shots, or horseback riding journeys, holidays with elderly people or travelling with children.

There is no limit to what you can do with stock photography and once you have found a good combination of what you love to shoot and what your customers love to buy it is a fantastic way to earn a living. But you really need to just do it and experiment. It is very hard to predict how much you will earn otherwise.

And regular uploads are often more important than the most fantastic images. People with a decent midlevel quality that upload 50 files a week will usually outsell a superstar photographer who only uploads 50 images a year. You need to get your work seen, every agency is an individual marketplace and customers have to find you in the 200 000 images that are being uploaded every week in the industry.

I really love my job, but it is not for everyone. But it is worth trying if you love photography.

The absence of people from locations makes them look very "microstocky" in my opinion. I don't know if people look for that sort of work on RM these days.

When you say 6 years, being a 3 year deal + a 3 year "survival" clause, what does that survival clause actually entail?  Many agreements will include a boilerplate "survival" clause after termination, but this relates to ongoing obligations around things like maintaining confidentiality, effect of warranties or indemnities.  The survival clause may be unrelated to the duration of the term of the agreement.  Or is it perhaps a 3 year renewal term, and then the question is, at whose option?  You might want to re-read carefully to be sure whether it is really 3 or 6 years you are potentially committing to.

PS I think your photos are beautiful.