Author Topic: What Earns More: Photo's or Illustrations? (Read 4694 times)

rachell · « **on:** October 16, 2006, 10:58 »

I'm torn as to what I should be focusing on for the microstocks -- photography or vector illustration. Do illustrations tend to be downloaded more than photos? Or are photo's by the far the favorite?

eendicott · « **Reply #1 on:** October 16, 2006, 17:20 »

I don't have any factual research to base this on but from what I have seen, good illustrations outsell photos hands down. That being said, you have to understand that there are illustrators at iStock that are in a class of their own and I know a couple of people that have tried to compete with them and haven't been as successful...those same people do very well everywhere else.

fintastique · « **Reply #2 on:** October 16, 2006, 23:42 »

I find that most of best selllers at SS are illustrations (though I am not in iStock's league) so can't comment on sales there.

I do sell a few at DT and FT though the rasterizing tends to work against me sometimes in getting them accepted.

DT have the $2 for an eps file a pain to upload them sepeartely but nice when one sells for $2.

I suppose illustrations are something to be doing on those rainy days.

maunger · « **Reply #3 on:** October 17, 2006, 07:08 »

Seems to me those who do mostly illustrations get far more $

rachell · « **Reply #4 on:** October 17, 2006, 11:06 »

Thank you guys for responding! It sounds like it may be worth it to me to spend some time on the illustrating end of things -- thank you!

leaf · « **Reply #5 on:** October 17, 2006, 12:13 »

yeah, just to pipe in here.

I made a few illustrations a couple days, and i am surprised how well they are selling. it was a nice little break from photography one day.

not sure what the average per image is, but perhaps it is a little better than photography. However, that may be just because there is less of them on the micros.

rachell · « **Reply #6 on:** October 17, 2006, 13:59 »

This is so good to hear because I love doing illustration, but its so time consuming I couldn't justify spending time doing it instead of photography unless I thought I'd make something from it.

Leaf, I'd love to see some of your work -- could you add a link to your illustration portfolio?

marcopolo · « **Reply #7 on:** October 19, 2006, 16:10 »

My illustrations make in terms of revenue a ratio of several to one compared to photos. They do well on iStock and Shutterstock, and the rasterized verstions do a little better than average on the other sites as well. It is just alot more time consuming than photos, so it evens out. I think that illustrations will hold thier sales value longer than photographs because they require alot of skill and are difficult to produce, where most stock photos will eventually become diluted to the point that no one can make serious money being a photographer anymore.