hello,

A month a go i sent 10 of my photos taken by iphone to gettyimages and they invited me to istock. The story starts there

I don't consider myself as a photographer. I am graphic designer and i believe i have a good eye on photography. So i wanted to try the stock agencies to have my photos used by people around the world and make some extra cash. When i got an invitation from istock, I tried my chances at shutterstock, fotolia, dreamstime and 123 rf.. All accepted. Mostly iPhone photos Alamy and depositphotos are the ones rejected my images.

I have around 150 photos and graphic design works at my portfolio at the moment. I know that is really little comparison to most of yours

Even if i have a full time job that i love and uploading, key-wording take really good amount of time, i decided to keep doing this. I am even getting my first dslr this week. Technically there is no chance to go further with iPhone Sorry apple!

So my question is what road you guys think i should take?. I don t want to take another picture of million ones already there. I really love street and nature photography. Do editorial pictures work in stock photography world? If so i would really take my chance there. What do you think What part of nature photography is less taken?

I would really appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks in advance

PS: I am attaching some photos that made me accepted to the agencies in case of curiosity.

hello,

A month a go i sent 10 of photos taken by iphone to gettyimages and they invited me to istock. The story starts there

I don't consider myself as a photographer. I am a graphic designer and i believe i have a good eye on photography. So i wanted to try the stock agencies to have my photos used by people around the world and make some extra cash. When i got an invitation for istock, I tried my chances for shutterstock, fotolia, dreamstime and 123 rf.. All accepted.. Mostly iPhone photos

I have around 150 photos and graphic design works at my portfolio at the moment. ı know that is really little comparison to most of yours

Even if i have a full time job that i love and uploading, key-wording take really good amount of time, i decided to keep doing this. I even getting my first dslr this week. Technically there is no chance to go further with iPhone Sorry apple..

So my question is what road you guys think i should take?. I don t want to take another picture of million ones already there.. I really love street and nature photography. Do editorial pictures work in stock photography world? If so i would really take my chance there. What do you think What part of nature photography is less taken?

I would really appreciate your thoughts..

Thanks in advance

I started in stock with similar attitude and more or less similar genre of photography, so maybe I can tell you what I think after doing it for some time. It is often hard to predict what is going to sell, especially in the beginning. Sometimes I see my sales and start wondering for what reason people bought that particular image of mine. You would be surprised what kind of stuff people buy sometimes, that is why I am uploading all my pictures almost indiscriminately now. You simply never know. However, after doing it for some time, I can now roughly estimate the chances of a particular image to become a good seller. There are only few which become your regular sellers and in my experience, about 70-80% of your earnings will come from that relatively small pool (10-20%) of images (Have you ever heard about 80-20 law?). The rest will sell occasionally, sometimes months after upload. I think if you want to continue doing it as a (serious) hobby, just upload whatever pictures you are taking for your own pleasure and see where you are heading with the sales and what kind of your images people buy the most. After you have at least 1000 images online you will start seeing trends. Each photographer is unique, my bestsellers can be quite different from yours because of difference in style/genre. Nature, street and general travel photography (including editorials) sell okay but it is pretty saturated market, so you have to either supply technically good images with vibrant colors, interesting angle, composition or find some locations/subjects which are not covered sufficiently yet (that is hard with SS being 70+ millions pics). It is still possible though. It was quite a pleasure to see some of my images to climb to 1-2-3 place in their respective keyword search, especially considering I started pretty recently already competing against millions of previous images, many of which are brilliant. Also, different agencies sell different stuff. Most of my bestsellers sell well across all agencies, but I still see some differences in what people buy there. You have to try them for yourself.       

"I need a vision"

Ok, close your eyes and what do you see?  Nothing but darkness - that is your vision...

J

I want to keep my eyes open. So what is the vision in this case you'd give Joker?

I started in stock with similar attitude and more or less similar genre of photography, so maybe I can tell you what I think after doing it for some time. It is often hard to predict what is going to sell, especially in the beginning. Sometimes I see my sales and start wondering for what reason people bought that particular image of mine. You would be surprised what kind of stuff people buy sometimes, that is why I am uploading all my pictures almost indiscriminately now. You simply never know. However, after doing it for some time, I can now roughly estimate the chances of a particular image to become a good seller. There are only few which become your regular sellers and in my experience, about 70-80% of your earnings will come from that relatively small pool (10-20%) of images (Have you ever heard about 80-20 law?). The rest will sell occasionally, sometimes months after upload. I think if you want to continue doing it as a (serious) hobby, just upload whatever pictures you are taking for your own pleasure and see where you are heading with the sales and what kind of your images people buy the most. After you have at least 1000 images online you will start seeing trends. Each photographer is unique, my bestsellers can be quite different from yours because of difference in style/genre. Nature, street and general travel photography (including editorials) sell okay but it is pretty saturated market, so you have to either supply technically good images with vibrant colors, interesting angle, composition or find some locations/subjects which are not covered sufficiently yet (that is hard with SS being 70+ millions pics). It is still possible though. It was quite a pleasure to see some of my images to climb to 1-2-3 place in their respective keyword search, especially considering I started pretty recently already competing against millions of previous images, many of which are brilliant. Also, different agencies sell different stuff. Most of my bestsellers sell well across all agencies, but I still see some differences in what people buy there. You have to try them for yourself.       

thanks photodude..

Your training as a designer shows - all your photos have nice copy space.
I shoot a lot of travel and I find that and simple (i.e. uncluttered) but interesting shots with copy space do well for me on the micros.
I really like the vibe of your tent shot. It took me a minute to figure out what it was but it really drew me in.
Good luck.

I really like the vibe of your tent shot. It took me a minute to figure out what it was but it really drew me in.
Good luck.

Thanks 

2 cents. My photos are generally landscapes, buildings, and animals, so I can't speak to isolated object, people, or emotion concept photos. That said...

My "best" photos are not my big sellers. In micro stock, many people are looking for what I think of as purely "functional" images. I have several photos of a historic building up, and the one that sells is a straight on, boring, centered image. The other, more artistic photos, taken at angles and using the rule of thirds, have never sold. 

I think if you're someone putting together a brochure or some kind of advertisement using a stock image, you're generally going to want something basic, and not an arty kind of shot. A question a lot of folks post here, and I try to take it to heart is, "What would someone do with this picture? Why would someone buy it?"

In landscapes, you'll probably have a bunch of shots rejected for issues with shadows. I'm actually surprised you had luck with the tent picture; reviewers are often negative about that sort of thing. Overcast is usually not my friend when it comes to getting images approved.

I agree ....stock is not about art its about meeting a functional need...most images will only be viewed for seconds on a website, magazine etc etc they are not going to be hung on a wall for years to be admired. Shutterstock in particular detest shadows

I like your work!

I would continue shooting what you like even though your images are more artsy and some won't sell much, but I guess eventually you will learn to find a compromise between what you love to shoot and what has a higher commercial value.

You will have rejections sometimes and it will teach you what to correct. Don't avoid critique forums, at SS for instance you might get some particularly harsh and straightforward critique - don't take it personally, just learn 

And don't be in a hurry, just keep building your portfolio little by little. The fact that you're a graphic designer is definately a huge advantage since (I gather) you can diversify your portfolio with vectors or even graphic motion, or use your skills in post processing.

Travel images do sell (I do only travel) so wish you best of luck!

PS And hey, don't quit your day job