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Author Topic: How does selling video compare to selling photos?  (Read 16598 times)

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« on: May 28, 2019, 12:44 »
0
I only sell photos. I was wondering what it was like selling videos? That is for those who sell both photos and videos, in general terms, how do photos compared to videos when considering the amount of effort/time/money spent producing each format versus some general expected return over time? I haven't tried selling stock footage because I haven't want to spend the time learning a new skill. And I don't know if it is worth it. As in opportunity cost, that is I could be taking more photos instead of learning to shoot stock footage. I use to make stock illustrations, the money use to be good once, and it was the majority of my stock income, then prices collapsed and I haven't uploaded any new stock illustrations in several years (whereas I still upload stock photos). The expected dollar return was too low for how time consuming stock illustrations were.


« Reply #1 on: May 28, 2019, 14:22 »
+5
Well, don't expect to just pick up a camera, shoot some video and get rich quick.  Just like in photos, you need to understand your craft and know how to produce a quality result before you have a chance to make a dime.

However, if you can do that...  I get $30 to $70 PER download on video, while I mostly get 36 cents (Shutterstock) on photos.  IOW, one video download pays roughly 100 times more than photos.  The volume is much lower (at least for me), but it isn't hard for videos to make more total dollar monthly revenue than photos with it only requires 1/100 as many sales to match them...

I have been selling photos for about 8 years (though only 1 year actually seriously), and have a portfolio of 3500 photos.  I started selling videos this past December, have a portfolio of 800 clips, and the revenue of both sides is close.  I am currently working through 3000+ raw clips I shot on a recent trip to 6 countries (Thailand, Sri Lanka, Iran, Jordan, Israel and Egypt).  I am uploading roughly 50 clips per day, and have had a nearly 100% acceptance rate (blew it on one group of editorial when I forgot to set the editorial flag on submission...).  I am expecting my video sales will easily surpass my photo sales by the end of this year. (FWIW, I also have a little over 600 stock-worthy photos from that same trip. Uploading 50 every couple days there too, and again nearly 100% acceptance rate across 12 agencies)

« Reply #2 on: May 28, 2019, 14:37 »
0
Wow, thanks, really appreciate the info.

« Reply #3 on: May 28, 2019, 15:33 »
+1
Well, don't expect to just pick up a camera, shoot some video and get rich quick.  Just like in photos, you need to understand your craft and know how to produce a quality result before you have a chance to make a dime.

However, if you can do that...  I get $30 to $70 PER download on video, while I mostly get 36 cents (Shutterstock) on photos.  IOW, one video download pays roughly 100 times more than photos.  The volume is much lower (at least for me), but it isn't hard for videos to make more total dollar monthly revenue than photos with it only requires 1/100 as many sales to match them...

I have been selling photos for about 8 years (though only 1 year actually seriously), and have a portfolio of 3500 photos.  I started selling videos this past December, have a portfolio of 800 clips, and the revenue of both sides is close.  I am currently working through 3000+ raw clips I shot on a recent trip to 6 countries (Thailand, Sri Lanka, Iran, Jordan, Israel and Egypt).  I am uploading roughly 50 clips per day, and have had a nearly 100% acceptance rate (blew it on one group of editorial when I forgot to set the editorial flag on submission...).  I am expecting my video sales will easily surpass my photo sales by the end of this year. (FWIW, I also have a little over 600 stock-worthy photos from that same trip. Uploading 50 every couple days there too, and again nearly 100% acceptance rate across 12 agencies)

Very helpful info - and incredibly impressive upload rate!
Where are you selling video? Shutterstock & Pond5? Others?
What software do you recommend for editing?

« Reply #4 on: May 28, 2019, 15:50 »
+1
I am uploading roughly 50 clips per day

Don't burn yourself out bro. I find I might have a mega spell then need a few weeks off (month) to calm the mind and creative soul. Plus key-wording 50 a day is a right bit*h.
You might find it better to drip feed it in to get better results in the algorithms?

Key-wording and selective editing is a skill in itself.

« Reply #5 on: May 28, 2019, 17:15 »
0
just got started on Video, so interesting to see what happens over the coming months ;)

« Reply #6 on: May 28, 2019, 20:17 »
+1
Don't burn yourself out bro. I find I might have a mega spell then need a few weeks off (month) to calm the mind and creative soul. Plus key-wording 50 a day is a right bit*h.
You might find it better to drip feed it in to get better results in the algorithms?

After 10 weeks exploring 6 countries, I came back with 3000+ raw clips.  I am processing them "one day of shooting in one day of editing."  Roughly 1/3 of the raw clips just get trashed. Nothing useful.  About 20% have more than one useable stock clip in a single raw clip. The rest are one raw = one final.

First pass is just edit and chop into usable pieces.  Then a pass for exposure, making sure highlights, shadows and mid-tones are all proper. Third pass is color grading, where needed.  Then export from FCPX, using a clip name that will later be the clip title.

Import into Lightroom. Using a plugin, transfer & fix the file name into the title and description.  Use ImKeyworder to add keywords.  Use MicroStocker Plus to send them off to 12 agencies.

All that comes out to between 30 and 50 clips most days. It was 62 today -- productive day shooting in Sri Lanka. :)

I need to keep this up, because in three weeks I leave for Galapagos Islands.  I will be back from that for only 2 days, then off to Chile for the Solar Eclipse. Then the next day off to Easter Island.

The travel and shooting time IS my down time from editing. If I don't keep this up, I will (1) forget what the heck I was shooting, which would make editing / keyboarding a lot harder, (2) see the pile of raw clips get ever larger and feel overwhelmed, and then get nothing done at all...

That is the same reason I make sure I edit all out photos every single night we are traveling. Between my wife and I, we shoot 700 - 1000 photos per day. Before the next day's sun rises, we have checked all of those, chosen the best 10% for the blog, edited them, and have the blog photo blocks ready for text.  (The text sometimes runs a couple days behind, but never more than that). I came back with 700 stock photos from this same 6-country trip.  I am doing title / keyword on those (they have already been edited) at a rate of about 100 per week.

I tried hiring and editor / keyworder for the videos. One person was pretty good, but way too slow (one day of shooting took more than a week to process and return).  Three others were incompetent amateurs who claimed to have the skill, but actually just wanted to stamp out junk as fast as they could, hoping to make money off the back of a shooter -- any shooter, didn't matter who or what the subject was... :(

Found I could do it pretty fast myself.  Having done keywording for 8 years for photos, it wasn't really all that hard to pick up how to efficiently do it for video too.

marthamarks

« Reply #7 on: May 28, 2019, 20:50 »
0

Import into Lightroom. Using a plugin, transfer & fix the file name into the title and description.

I'm doing much the same process as you are except this one step. Could you tell me which plugin you use for this process?

Thanks so much for your help with this and your overall input into this discussion!

« Reply #8 on: May 28, 2019, 21:22 »
0
I'm doing much the same process as you are except this one step. Could you tell me which plugin you use for this process?

jbListView

« Reply #9 on: May 28, 2019, 21:25 »
+1
Oops. Misspoke.

That (jbListView) is what creates the CSV file that MicroStock Plus can import to transfer title, keywords, etc.

I use jbSearchReplaceTransfer to move the file name to the title, delete the ".mov" (and "ED-" that I use in the file name to indicate editorial clips), to then transfer the title the description, and finally to append a period ('.') to the end of description, so that it no longer matches title (which some agencies will not allow, but are not smart enough to notice if the only difference is a period at the end of one... :) )

marthamarks

« Reply #10 on: May 28, 2019, 23:10 »
0
Oops. Misspoke.

That (jbListView) is what creates the CSV file that MicroStock Plus can import to transfer title, keywords, etc.

I use jbSearchReplaceTransfer to move the file name to the title, delete the ".mov" (and "ED-" that I use in the file name to indicate editorial clips), to then transfer the title the description, and finally to append a period ('.') to the end of description, so that it no longer matches title (which some agencies will not allow, but are not smart enough to notice if the only difference is a period at the end of one... :) )


I appreciate that info. Not sure I fully understand it, but I'll give it a try to see if I can get it to work for me.

Thanks again!

EDITED TO ADD: I believe this is what you're talking about. Correct?

http://lightroomsolutions.com/plug-ins/search-and-replace/
« Last Edit: May 28, 2019, 23:12 by marthamarks »

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #11 on: May 29, 2019, 00:18 »
+2
I'm not all that on photos, but if you're good at photography then you've got a head start on video. The rules of composition, lighting and exposure are pretty much the same, just ensure that your exposure is set to twice your frame rate so you get natural motion blur. So you're limited from a creative standpoint on that... as your exposure will always be around 1/48th of a second to 1/120th of a second, unless you're doing super slow motion.

The general rule for video (it might just be my rule, but...) is to make sure your subject is moving or your camera is moving. I.e. if there's no movement in the subject or the camera, then as lovely as the subject may be, it may as well be a still image. So if it's a landscape, you could always do a timelapse so you have movement in the clouds. And if you're moving the camera then you want to keep movements slow, steady and of a consistent speed... so you're best using a slider, a gimbal, or a decent fluid head on a tripod.

You might know all this already, and as I say... I'm no expert, but there you go!

« Reply #12 on: May 29, 2019, 00:54 »
+1
I believe this is what you're talking about. Correct?

http://lightroomsolutions.com/plug-ins/search-and-replace/


Correct. That is the one.

« Reply #13 on: May 29, 2019, 00:58 »
+1
ensure that your exposure is set to twice your frame rate so you get natural motion blur.

You say "exposure" multiple times. I just want to clarify for anyone not sure what SSF meant... He is referring to "shutter speed."

"Exposure" is a combination of ISO, aperture and shutter speed.  He is saying to fix shutter speed to 1/<2X frame rate> and let the others float as they must for a properly exposed final result.

Lots of theory around why that is best. Google and YouTube can answer those questions if you have them...

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #14 on: May 29, 2019, 01:06 »
0
Yeah sorry... shutter speed! :D

marthamarks

« Reply #15 on: May 29, 2019, 08:25 »
0
I believe this is what you're talking about. Correct?

http://lightroomsolutions.com/plug-ins/search-and-replace/


Correct. That is the one.


Thanks. It looks interesting, so I'll probably get it.

« Reply #16 on: May 29, 2019, 12:54 »
0

That is the same reason I make sure I edit all out photos every single night we are traveling. Between my wife and I, we shoot 700 - 1000 photos per day. Before the next day's sun rises, we have checked all of those, chosen the best 10% for the blog, edited them, and have the blog photo blocks ready for text.  (The text sometimes runs a couple days behind, but never more than that). I came back with 700 stock photos from this same 6-country trip.  I am doing title / keyword on those (they have already been edited) at a rate of about 100 per week.


Mind sharing your blog? I would be interested in seeing more of your travels.

I spent the last three months of last year traveling around Asia, shot a ton of footage and photos, but unfortunately not doing as well as you at getting everything processed. I still have a full time job when I'm not traveling, so don't have as much time to precess videos.


« Reply #17 on: May 29, 2019, 13:36 »
+2
Mind sharing your blog? I would be interested in seeing more of your travels.


Blog is at www.MindStormPhoto.com

There is a menu at top also. If you choose "Travel" it expands out to year, and then to trips taken that year.

If you wish to keep current with the blog, the easiest is to:

(1) 'Friend' me on Facebook. The only posts I make on my timeline are to announce when a new blog post is up, or

(2) give me your email and ask to be notified. Once a month (except in rare months with no blog activity) I send out a short email summarizing what blog posts were made in the prior month.

wds

« Reply #18 on: May 29, 2019, 21:29 »
0
Mind sharing your blog? I would be interested in seeing more of your travels.


Blog is at www.MindStormPhoto.com

There is a menu at top also. If you choose "Travel" it expands out to year, and then to trips taken that year.

If you wish to keep current with the blog, the easiest is to:

(1) 'Friend' me on Facebook. The only posts I make on my timeline are to announce when a new blog post is up, or

(2) give me your email and ask to be notified. Once a month (except in rare months with no blog activity) I send out a short email summarizing what blog posts were made in the prior month.


Wow, you have a very interesting story. So is your mirror on the moon something that disproves people claiming the moon landing was a hoax?

« Reply #19 on: May 30, 2019, 00:36 »
0
I almost never shoot video at all, not even for personal use. Though I did buy a Gopro Hero 7 recently to take on my mountaineering trip to Denali, Alaska next month. I have low confidence I will summit because I haven't been training...haha. Stupid I know. Anyway, what tips can you guys share with taking some useable stock footage with my gopro camera? Please assume I am really dumb, and I need the most basic things explained to me. I barely even know how to use the gopro. I waited 2 weeks after purchase before even taking it out of the box, then I let another 2 weeks past before I pushed some buttons on it. I basically wanted the gopro because it has voice activation. So I can wear it on my head and say 'gopro take a photo' or 'gopro record video'.
« Last Edit: May 30, 2019, 01:50 by charged »

« Reply #20 on: May 30, 2019, 00:54 »
+3
Anyway, what tips can you guys share with taking some useable stock footage with my gopro camera?

My best tip is to use it for what it's made for - action and difficult angles. Under a car, on your head while mountain climbing, on a surfboard, on a ski helmet, on a ski, etc.

If a big, better camera can be used instead, the footage will not be too impressive because the quality isn't there, and there's usually too much wide angle... Get close, lots of movement, action, difficult angles. That's where these cameras shine.

georgep7

« Reply #21 on: May 30, 2019, 02:11 »
+1
Anyway, what tips can you guys share with taking some useable stock footage with my gopro camera?
Get close, lots of movement, action, difficult angles.

And water / moisture. Free to use in rain, snow, rivers, whatever could destroy a "normal" camera :)
What people don't often use but seems good for stock as long as keeping "everything" in focus sometimes kill the frame is a "macro" kind of close up lens.
Not the best blurring but good enough to isolate a subject from unwanted persons or whatever in the background drives the final clip to editorial.

« Reply #22 on: May 30, 2019, 11:38 »
+1
Wow, you have a very interesting story. So is your mirror on the moon something that disproves people claiming the moon landing was a hoax?

I don't want this thread to get too sidetracked, but... that is a question that comes up surprisingly often.

1) Do you really believe that a project with thousands of people over a decade of time could be faked?

2) Did you watch MythBusters "back when it was still good"? (jab at current wanna-be crew...).  In 2008, they did an episode specifically debunking such nonsense.  One of the ways they did that was to go to a telescope and actually saw the mirror I designed that was put on the moon in 1969.  They then bounced a laser off that mirror (which is what it was designed for), and saw (on an oscilloscope) the returning photons.

That entire episode can be seen here -- https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2m7k1z

« Reply #23 on: May 31, 2019, 03:42 »
0
Mind sharing your blog? I would be interested in seeing more of your travels.


Blog is at www.MindStormPhoto.com

There is a menu at top also. If you choose "Travel" it expands out to year, and then to trips taken that year.

If you wish to keep current with the blog, the easiest is to:

(1) 'Friend' me on Facebook. The only posts I make on my timeline are to announce when a new blog post is up, or

(2) give me your email and ask to be notified. Once a month (except in rare months with no blog activity) I send out a short email summarizing what blog posts were made in the prior month.

Excellent blog and beautiful photos!
How to find you on Facebook?

OK, I found you. We are already friends in FB :-)
« Last Edit: May 31, 2019, 03:45 by Brightontl »

jonbull

    This user is banned.
« Reply #24 on: May 31, 2019, 05:38 »
0
Wow, you have a very interesting story. So is your mirror on the moon something that disproves people claiming the moon landing was a hoax?

I don't want this thread to get too sidetracked, but... that is a question that comes up surprisingly often.

1) Do you really believe that a project with thousands of people over a decade of time could be faked?

2) Did you watch MythBusters "back when it was still good"? (jab at current wanna-be crew...).  In 2008, they did an episode specifically debunking such nonsense.  One of the ways they did that was to go to a telescope and actually saw the mirror I designed that was put on the moon in 1969.  They then bounced a laser off that mirror (which is what it was designed for), and saw (on an oscilloscope) the returning photons.

That entire episode can be seen here -- https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2m7k1z

the content are good but really in 2019 with all the template and word press the graphic is very basic. don't know if it's just an hobby or you wanna make some money with blog, but really will be so easier to make it more interesting and easier to navigate with a smile wordpress template.


 

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