Hi,

The biggest limitation I am finding with Microstock is finding the time to sort out enough quality images to increase the size of my portfolio.

I was wondering about the possibility of employing a freelance photographer, or buying unique images directly from one, so I can upload them on to my accounts.  Thisis intended to be 100% above board from a copyright perspective.

So, has anyone else ever used others to take photos for them and if so, what sort of price would you pay per image?

thanks

Look at Dreamstime. Only the rights of an image is around 500$ each. There was some thread about a portfolio for sale lately.
That was 10 000$ and plus, for a couple of pictures.

1 image can easily earn up to 500$ in 1 or 2 years. I don't think you will get anyone giving away their pics for a couple of dollars. That don't even include the photoshop job ect... I put around 2 to 3 hours for each images i create. Then I get the earnings who come with. So it's worth several hundred of dollars each. Good luck...

If you don't want to do the shooting part, have you considered hiring yourself out as an image editor/keyworder?  Some micro photographers who can afford to (small minority) seem to be interested in paying for that. 

Maybe approach one of the factories and offer your services?

Quote from: lisafx on September 03, 2010, 15:19

Maybe approach one of the factories and offer your services?

He wants "passive income" from other people's work. I think Karl Marx wrote a novel about it. 

Ha ha... Yeah...

I was once offered about $20-25 per image to supply a new library with images. I was fine with that and hammered off a pile of table-top images for them. They then got back to me and said they had decided the price was too high, they would pay about $10 per image and they didn't mean simple images, they wanted top-end production with all the props etc.

Naturally, they could eff off on that. I just dumped what I had shot on the micros. But $20 per image would represent $200-300 for a days work, after costs. In my view, that is fine as a day rate for simple home-based work. Talking about not parting with copyright because the images can fetch hundreds or thousands of dollars is just BS - it is the average return that matters, not what your best-seller makes.

There is nothing wrong with being paid to work on a contract where your employer retains the copyright of the work you produce. Lots of people work on that basis. Producing hundreds of shots so that someone can cherry-pick one or two for $20 would be a different matter.

To look at it another way, if you want me to produce stuff in bulk for you and give you the copyright I would expect you to pay the equivalent of my probable commissions on that work for the first year or two. Then, after a couple of years, you would start showing a profit - much sooner if you are actually the agency and are good at your marketing. I think that is fair to both parties.