I don't think anyone has mentioned this site yet, I just saw it mentioned on Twitter and decided to check it out. https://www.stockai.com/ This is a stock site giving away free AI generated stock photos. I had a quick look through. You will find people with 5 arms here and there, or a dog with a human mouth. But other than some really obvious AI errors, there's so far a lot of beautiful photos on there.

I don't sell on Shutterstock but I do find the new rates incredibly offensive. I've made a post on my own personal FB page to ask my friends whom buy stock photos, that if they have a Shutterstock account, please do me a personal favor and cancel their account and go buy somewhere else. All you guys should do that same.

How did you guys do for March on iStock? I was really dreading the worst due to the coronavirus. It ended up being the highest earning month since last August. So pleasantly surprised. Though now I'm really dreading April's stats, again due to the coronavirus.

What is everyone's average dollar per download at each site? I assume this is not a personal question. I saw on this other thread that some of you are making between $0.70 and $1.10 per download at shutterstock alone. I make $1.90 as an exclusive on iStock. If those are numbers at shutterstock are consistent with a fair number of you guys, it for sure makes no sense to be exclusive to iStock anymore.

https://www.microstockgroup.com/depositphotos/their-price-for-photos-are-about-12-what-shutterstock-charges/msg545799/?topicseen#new

Though even if it was really obvious I should go independent, I might still sit on it for sometime, I might be pretty busy with other things in the coming months.

Typically I use Adobe Bridge to keyword on my Mac. I have a huge list of saved keywords in the keyword panel and I just search for the ones I want to use and select them from different categories.

I realized today that as I go from category to category selecting prewritten keywords, sometimes all previously selected keywords would get wiped out from the metadata of those selected files. The difficult part is that this glitch isn't repeatable. It just randomly happens on different files and I have no idea why. I can even go through the exact same steps of choosing keywords on the same files and it won't repeat. But I've seen a bunch of different files lose all previously entered keywords.

I'm using Adobe Bridge 2020, so I downloaded AB 2019 and saw the same glitch happen there. Again, not repeatable by following the exact same steps a second time.

Clearly at this point Bridge is not trustworthy. What are my other options for keywording on a Mac. I had a look at xpikes but it doesn't seem to allow a pre-saved list of keywords to choose from. I don't want to use any software that requires me to do a search on shutterstock/adobe stock and then select a bunch of similar files and then manually choose which keywords I want. I just want to presave keywords in the software and then select from it as needed, just like I can do in Bridge.

BTW I don't seem to want to use lightroom to keyword. I've taken a look, I don't seem to like their interface. It doesn't seem to be anywhere near as easy to use as Bridge.

Also I've looked at the mac software on this page
https://shuttermuse.com/best-digital-asset-management-software/
that suggested DAM software, then I went to youtube and search for videos on each mac software's keyword features and they all look incredibly time consuming to use. Thus all inferior to presaved keywords in Bridge that I can quickly search and select.

Thanks.

Which of the big earning stock agencies accept editorial stock footage?

I just bought the DJI Maverick Mini, so I have that part covered. What I'm thinking about now is I would enjoy getting some aerial photos of people in the city, over crowds. My understanding is flying drone over people is generally frowned upon, and depending on the location it could be illegal. So if I can't use the drone, I'm wondering about what my other options are. I just ordered a 3 meter selfie stick for my GoPro. I was thinking I could just extend it at a 45 degree angle over city crowds. Obviously no where near as high as a drone would be, but better than nothing.

Any other creative ways to get aerial photos without a drone?

I might have asked some variation of this question 6 months ago, but what I want to know is a little different now, same same but different.

In January I'll be in Australia, and February perhaps some parts of South East Asia.

I have very minor interest in shooting videos either for stock or Youtube. Maybe more for youtube, like a vlogger, since it seems if I could ever figure out how to get a lot of subscribers, the money is infinitely better on Youtube.

Right now I only know how to do stock photos. I don't do anything else but photos. I do also know how to do stock illustrations, though I no longer do it.

I know as much about video as a 5 year old. I don't know anything because I've never been interested in learning. I have a Nikon D800 I could bring, but most likely I might only bring my iPhone 11 Pro, which some people on the internet says records great video. I mostly don't like carrying around a heavy camera. I also have a GoPro 7 with a mechanic gimbal, which I've only used to take photos.

Could you please just write down some subject matter that I should google search on. I can do the research on my own, I just hope you guys would help me shortcut the process by telling me what to search for.

Also if I did want to shoot some travel videos for stock, what kind of things should I shoot that is high demand? I'm likely to be two different states in Australia. Traveling by car. Then I might hope over the ocean to New Zealand, or I might head straight back stateside, or I might head north to either Singapore/Thailand/Japan/Hawaii then back to the 48 contiguous states. BTW I love to go hiking, so I'd be looking for wilderness areas/mountains to go for a hike.

Thanks!!

Currently I own the iPhone 11 Pro. For the previous few iPhones I've owned, I've always used Lightroom Mobile App to take important photos, because it has the RAW feature. Today I had hunch that RAW has met its match in computational photography. So today while I was at the mechanics I took some photos of their workshop with both the iPhone default camera app and Adobe's Lightroom Mobile App. In the RAW file from Lightroom Mobile I can see the details in the highlights are not kept well. Whereas in the iPhone's default camera app, the details in the highlights are well preserved. I did a quick google search but I didn't see anyone doing a review of iPhone camera app Vs Adobe Lightroom's RAW capable software.

I'm mostly wondering if I can stop using LR Mobile's app all together? It is a hassle to use, versus the default iPhone camera. Especially if the iPhone default camera app delivers superior photos because of computational photography.

Thoughts?

Edit: I took a better look at some of the other photos from today from both the default iPhone camera app, and LR Mobile RAW photos. Hands down the iPhone photos are better. Computational photography is clearly winning out.

I was watching this youtube video "How to Make Your Mac Faster"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeVPwlbownU

He talks about adding an external eGPU for base model 13" Macbooks. How that makes the machine run a great deal faster for video editing.

I have 15" 2017 MBP with a graphics card - Radeon Pro 560 4GB, Intel HD Graphics 630 1536 MB. I also have 16 GB memory 2133 MHz.

Would I get any performance boost from adding an eGPU? Or would it be for naught since my machine is not a base model machine.

I'm not particularly tech savvy when it comes to tech hardware. I don't do any video editing. Though I do tons and tons of photoshop batching. Like tens of hours every week. I would like to see my photoshop batching speedup if possible. 

PSA. If you have a 2015-2017 mac laptop, you might want to call Apple to see if it is on their list of potential exploding batteries. I called them this morning and I was unlucky enough to be one of those customers. They said it takes the service center a week to fix it. You will be denied boarding planes if you have one of these laptops with you.

Edit: Apple called me back to say they double checked after my call and my laptop is not one of those affected.

Just wondering how I can upload vector files to iStock and have the IPTC/XMP keyword metadata read upon upload?

I did a test this morning. My JPG file already had keyword metadata added by Adobe Bridge. DeepMeta was successful in reading the metadata. While esp.gettyimages.com did not read the metadata. How do I get esp.gettyimages.com to read the metadata? Yes I understand I have already discovered a workable path via DeepMeta. I'm more just exploring my options right now. Sometimes I prefer to use esp.gettyimages.com for different reasons.

Edit: I just tried putting the keywords also in the metadata of the eps file and esp.gettyimages.com also did not read it from there either. So perhaps there is no way to get esp.gettyimages.com to read the metadata for vectors. Thus DeepMeta seems to be the only way.

Here's a very lengthy article on the stock photo industry.
https://medium.com/storiusmag/fixing-photography-593e97aa2417

So long that it was hard to read. There were some parts that were quite interesting, a lot that I found quite boring and so I skimmed over those parts. But for sure he makes a good argument about some of the problems that micro stock has evolved into. Namely there is too much crap content that has suppressed prices. Low prices make it difficult for pro photographers to want to contribute, the low prices don't justify their time. Thus just ensuring more crap content that fits the low prices on offer.

I don't think he mentioned this or that I skipped over that part, is that, there is so much amazing content already on micro stock sites, it's very difficult to raise prices for new amazing photos. Because few people want to pay more if they don't need to. In my personal life I often look for the cheapest prices for items I purchase.

Just wondering if anyone knows what is happening with Yuri Acrus's business? For the longest time he was THE mega selling photographer. He shoots great stuff. He had a huge staff. I can only imagine his earnings has collapsed like everyone else's. In the era of low prices, I can only imagine his high production costs no longer works. I know some of you are not a fan of him. Let's not say negative things about him. Thanks!

On iStock search

excitement - 601,966 results
https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/excitment?license=rf&phrase=excitment&assettype=image&sort=best

excited - 766,167 results
https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/excited?license=rf&phrase=excited&assettype=image&sort=best

Just wondering why the search results are different? When you upload via the ESP, excited is not even an option in their CV, excitement is the only available option. I 'assume' their CV understands excitement and excited are exactly the same thing, so I would have also assumed their search results for the two words would have been identical, but they are not.

Normally this isn't something I care about or would spend anytime thinking about, but recently I've been quite curious about how their algorithm work. A while back I read a comment from them saying titles and descriptions are just for SEO and don't mean anything on the site, but from random searches I've done on their site, I am forming a hunch that isn't entirely accurate. I 'think' their algorithm does take titles and descriptions into account for search results, to what degree I'm not sure. But I don't think they ignore it entirely for search. 

Just thought I'd ask a question that I already know the answer to. While I still upload photos, I mostly haven't uploaded any vector illustrations in 3 years. I stopped when I was getting $0.25 sales. I used to upload very detailed illustrations. Clearly that is no longer going to make any sense with $0.25 sales. As I look into the idea of resuming vector illustrations, I'm slowly looking into seeing how I can dumb down the illustration by a lot and figuring if that even makes any sense with $0.25 downloads. It isn't obvious to me that any effort makes any sense at $0.25 downloads. Vector work is very labor intensive, whereas photos, takes only a fraction of the effort per image. Once upon a time, in my best year, my vector sales was twice my photos sales for that year. Now photos are almost 3 times my vector sales. My sales of both formats have fallen a lot over the years, though of the two formats, vector has been the most, this year it is trending to end the year 87% down from my best year. I'm mostly posting on this forum now because I'm wondering out loud why anyone would bother creating new vector images in the age of $0.25 downloads.

I've decided "maybe" I want a compact camera that sort of fits in my pocket. Right now I'm looking at the Sony RX100 VII https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VPQV7BY/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

I'm not concerned about costs. I just want high quality and fit in my pocket and I definitely like the 200 zoom.

Thoughts on this or another camera? This camera would become a travel camera. I'm allergic to carrying around my big DSLR with the huge lens.

Edit:I just saw that this camera does not have GPS. Given how often I travel and the wide distance that I often cover, I have a hard time keep track of locations. With the iPhone all photos have GPS built in. So far it seems the lack of GPS might be a deal breaker.

Is it possible to launch own subscription site? I have a lot of photos, I sell a lot of photos. Like between 25,000 - 50,000 images, per year, mostly all subs. Most of my photos are of one genre that graphic designers use a lot of. If I just charged a $5 per month sub fee, and I got 4,000 people to sign up, that would be $20,000 per month, before expenses. My thought was that $5 per month is a rounding error for almost all advertising agencies. I think my content is good enough that I can get 4,000 people to sign up, BUT I earn enough from iStock's exclusive contract to be weary to experiment, it is the same reason I've never tried to sell to other sites.

Right now I'm just speaking out loud. It is fairly unlikely I'd try this, I don't feel like having my income plummet by going independent.

How exactly do I compare a smart phone sensor to a handheld regular camera of any sort? I've seen the DXO scores, but from memory the smartphones are only compared to smartphones, and regular cameras only to regular cameras. I use to assume the numbers they give are interchangeable from phone to regular camera, but then doubt set in and I wasn't sure anymore.

Yes I realize the regular camera like a top line Sony is likely much better than the top of the line smart phone. I'd just like to know by how much better in image quality. I have an iPhone X and I usually shoot in RAW on that phone. I have several Nikon DSLR cameras and they are heavy and I don't like to carry them when I'm traveling. I've thought about mirrorless a bunch of times. Though if the iPhone X on RAW is seemingly good enough and it is already on me, I don't care to carry another camera, unless there is a strong reason to. I did recently buy a GoPro Hero 7 and I've learned to clip it on my backpack strap and put it on time lapse photo at 30 seconds interval. And so far I love it. I get so many cool random photos when I go hiking. I liked the GoPro so much that I recently just bought a gimbal for it and I also strap that to my backpack strap, because the hundreds of unlevel photos is a pain to fix one by one. Anyway, point being, I would carry a mirrorless camera if I thought the image quality was a lot better the RAW on iPhone.

I'm wondering if following type of keywording software exist?

It would show thumbnail views of photos like Adobe Bridge, I would be able to select one or more photos, then I would start typing in the keyword I want, and a drop down box would auto appear showing all auto complete options that I can choose from. Then I can either finish typing or just press enter at any point, or arrow up or down to choose from the selection. Then I can move on and manually select one or more new thumbnails and start over again.

Currently I do most of my keywording in Adobe Bridge, I'd have to manually select one or more images, then move the mouse to the keyword panel and use the search bar at the bottom of the keyword panel to search for previously saved keywords. Then select the one I want. This method works fine, it is just slow. The method I described above would be a great deal quicker.

For several hours today I thought I had lost my GoPro from my month long trip in Alaska. Then I found it in one of my jacket pockets, and I was quite relieved. I recovered 22GB of JPGs on the GoPro.

So now I'm thinking ahead to future outdoor trips where I don't have a laptop with me. How exactly do I make copies of the Micro SD card on the go?

I saw this on amazon, but it is quite expensive. Though I would have paid that much earlier today to un-lose my GoPro and 22GBs of photos.
https://www.amazon.com/Passport-Wireless-External-Portable-Drive/dp/B07C8LGFD9/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=My+Passport+Wireless+ssd&qid=1562179538&s=gateway&sr=8-3

Just wondering if you guys had other thoughts. My laptop does often come with me when I travel, but sometimes I'm in the wilderness for a long enough time that a laptop's weight is not practical to lug around, and sometimes would be considered a burden.

Is there a software that can or can be trained to automatic remove logos in photos or video? I assume no, but thought I'd ask anyway. Because who knows.

Do you think this videographer had model releases for all every single person in this video? There must be around 20 people in this video.

https://www.istockphoto.com/video/alpine-climber-is-watching-the-team-climbing-in-the-peak-of-mountain-in-winter-gm933368080-255697716

I suppose it is possible the creator got a model release for every person in the video. Though is it also possible he didn't need a model release for any of those people because you can't see anyone face.

I'm mostly asking because I could get a shot like this next week.

**Disclaimer: I know very little about shooting video. Have never submitted any stock footage**

I went on a hike today up a mountain near me and put my new GoPro 7 on a strap meant for my head. I actually was recording on my way down the mountain. I just got home and started watching some of the footage, and now I want to vomit. It is nauseating watching the footage move up and down with my head. I thought the GoPro 7 had image stabilization? Anyway, obviously it was a terrible idea to strap it to my head.

I also own the DJI Pocket. I bought in January for my trip up Aconcagua. Didn't really end up using it then much. Though I also tried it today on my hike up the mountain. I had it strapped to my backpack strap, by my chest. The footage was a lot easier to watch when compared to the GoPro, way less up and down shaking. Reviewing the videos at home, my thought was, those videos are way boring to watch.

I'm leaving for Denali next week. At this point, I don't really care if I get any useable stock footage from my trip, because it is obvious to me I have no idea how to record videos that don't suck, but I would like to figure out how to shoot some videos that I can show friends and family post trip. Hopefully videos that is not going to induce vomit

Tips please!!!

P.S. I'll probably go on Youtube and see how other people filmed their mountain climbing videos for their own personal use and take some notes.

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.

I was just reading this article on Petapixel.

Apple's First 8-Core MacBook Pro Runs Photoshop Up to 75% Faster
https://petapixel.com/2019/05/22/apples-first-8-core-macbook-pro-runs-photoshop-up-to-75-faster/

I "thought" most photoshop processes only run sequentially and do not multitask. Thus it would only use one core at a time, versus many cores at the same time. There are a number of articles online that go back a number of years that all say other than a few filters, most tasks in Photoshop do not use more than one core.

Is my knowledge wrong? I have a 2017 MBP. I'd seriously consider getting the new machine if it really ran photoshop 75% faster.

Thoughts?

I'm an iStock exclusive, in February I earned about $1.90 per download on average. That is total amount earned, divided by total number of sales.

I'm curious about what other people's average per download is, especially those who sell on several sites. I was reading on one of the other threads here about someone that sells 25,000 images per month and my first thought was - wow that is a huge number, then my next thought was, I wonder what their average per download was?

I've been selling stock 'photos' for a long time, over a decade. I just recently bought the DJI Osmo pocket and thought maybe I'll dabble in seeing if I can sell some stock footage. Especially since I travel to far away places some what frequently.

I know almost nothing shooting video or editing video. What are some term I should use to search on Google or Youtube that would help me understand how to both shoot and edit video clips? Also if you have any lessons learned the hard way, and would like to share to help me not make the same mistakes, I would appreciate it.

Also a couple of questions that come to mind.
1) What happens with logos in videos? Say I was in a big city? With a photo, I'd just retouch it out.
2) The DJI OSMO Pocket has a mechanical gimbal, which works great when I'm snowboarding, but when I'm just walking around in an urban area or even on a mountain trail, I see consistent slight bumps up and down as a I walk. I find that a bit irritating. Is this the best I can expect, especially since I've seen so many glowing reviews of the Pocket on youtube from vloggers.

Is it possible to see the download history of individual files on iStockphoto.com or on the ESP on Gettyimages.com.

Right now I can see the downloads on the monthly tab on the Getty ESP, but I have no idea how a file is doing over time. I clicked around iStockphoto.com today and on esp.gettyimages.com and I did see where I can find this data for sales over time of a particular file.

If you guys had a reasonable amount of money saved, say between $100,000 - $500,000, is there some other type of photography related business/job you would start? If so, how much would you hope to earn yearly?

Does anyone understand why Shutterstock's stock (SSTK) has surged 13% today, 31% in the last 30 days, 44% in the last 3 months?

I have some Shutterstock shares and have made a nice small profit. I'm trying to understand why Shutterstock is still doing really well, or even better than before, despite the entrance of Adobe stock.

I did a Google search just now to see if Nikon was still not able to tether with Lightroom CC in OS X El Capitan.
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=Tethering+Nikon+Lightroom+CC+El+Capitan

Just looking at the results Google brings up, it seems after 9 months this problem is still not fixed. I'm posting here incase someone knows something different. I'm using OS X that is one generation back to keep the tethering ability with Nikon and lightroom.

I think there will be a new Macbook Pro announced later this year and I think I'll get it because my current laptop is 4 years old. Just wondering in advance if I'll need to downgrade the OS on the new machine.

Are there any generic tips on finding locations to shoot city skylines? I've got 3 weeks to drive around Europe later this month. From past trips around the USA, I sort of worked out that if the city is costal, then getting on the river boats is a great way to shoot the city skyline. Sometimes I just look at google maps and have a guess where to go. Sometimes the city will have a tall building with an observatory. Sometimes I'll just Google it.

I'm mostly a studio photographer. I don't do much outdoor photos. I will be traveling a lot this year. About 3 months in total this year. Which means I can shoot thousands of images for stock. In the past I would have just sat down and retouch each image one at a time, but given how low the return on investment is these days for stock photos, I don't think it is worth my while. Especially compared to studio work where the lighting is always controlled. What software can I use to batch process all my images. The end result don't need to look amazing, just better than whatever came out of my camera. I have a D800. In the past I've often used Topaz Adjust or Nik Effects.

In the other poll (http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/poll-earning-per-photo-per-year/new/#new) I did recently I saw all these people that were making more money per file per year than me and so I started wondering just how much gross income did other people make last year, 2015?

I was looking at this other thread
http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/you-are-able-to-say-the-values-of-their-income-each-month/msg444614/?topicseen#new

And decided to make a poll to see how much money everyone is earning in general on a per photo basis, ignoring portfolio size, and ignoring subject matter in portfolio. 

For those of you who shoot people, in particular those who shoot one gender at a time. Which gender do you find sells better overall, regardless of the theme of the photo.

In my experience I find the men typically outsell women, year after year. Though my best seller of all time is a female. I find women around 18-20 years of age to be typically the lowest selling.

Does anyone know if there is any decent money that can be made in doing product photography for clients directly? And what would one charge that is typical for a medium size US city of 0.5 million? I'm thinking of branching out from stock photos. I've never tested the waters of photography outside of stock photos, so I'm not sure what to expect. I fear product photography is also low margin and low paying, like photography is in general. For stock photos, at least that is a one to many relationship. I would dread low margins on a one to one relationship.

EDIT: I did a google search after posting, and saw the earnings were very average. https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/product-photographer-salary-SRCH_KO0,20.htm

Does isolated on white video sell much? I'm not a video guy and don't know how do shoot video nor have any constant video lights. I do know how to shoot isolated on white photos. Those are easy, and I sell enough to make it worth my while. I've resisted doing learning to shoot videos because I just have so little knowledge, that I've always thought my time is better spent taking photos. The reason I'm asking now is because a friend of mine wants to come to my studio to shoot video on white. I told him I don't know how to do it and it will likely turn out kind of ugly looking but since he is my friend, I'm willing to spend a little time for him if he really wants to come do it at my space. Another video friend of mine explained that shooting video on white is similar to shooting photos on white. The back lights need to be brighter than the front lights on the model, and that this is usually a 6 light setup.

Anyway I'm asking now if isolated on white video sell much because it seems like I maybe learning how to shoot isolated on white video by default. I would be shooting people doing all the usual stocky looking things.

What is everyone's break even point on a per file basis? No doubt it is different for everyone. I was trying to work it out on a spreadsheet today. If I looked at my expenses for 2014, I need every file that I upload to earn around $10 before I can break even on my costs. This does not count whatever my own time is worth. It does count studio rent, equipment purchase, props, travel, models, etc. Probably like many other contributors, most of my files never sell once, so which means the ones do sell need to work much harder to help me reach overall break even point.

As an iStock exclusive, it definitely concerns me that I might not be able to break even on newer work, because the sales keep disappearing. Overall I'm still profitable, largely because files from previous years still sell. But it is definitely important to me that all new files pull their own weight and pay for themselves over time. Too bad it will take a number of years before I find out if recently uploaded files are successful or not.

Edit: Break even point might be more around $6 for 2015 because there were a lot of one time costs in 2014.

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/istockphoto.com

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/shutterstock.com

Looks like in October both sites took a huge dive in web traffic ranking. Does any one have any theory on why this is? Also is there some way to see some educated guess on how many visitors each site gets? It looks like Shutterstock is visited a lot more than iStock by a long shot.

On an unrelated note. Does anyone know if customers who buy the cheaper subscription package on iStock, are they denied the ability to get any exclusive images, other than buying it with credits? I'm exclusive and I'm just wondering if I'm locked out from those customers.

I randomly found this one last night. http://blog.johnlund.com/. So far I've read back to early 2013. It is pretty interesting.

What are some other good stock photo blogs to keep track of?

I wonder what people's rough guess of their net return per $ for each hour of work is? Say over a 18 month period. Be it on all the sites or as istock exclusive. I wonder if this might be the equalizer between someone who shoots fruits on white background versus someone who does extensive and highly technical composites. I picked 18 months because that is what I've read previously some where that some have speculated that is the typical life of each image in the search engine before it is mostly forgotten by the search engine.

Stock is mostly my only income. It was more difficult to work out what my hourly earn might be because there were so many variables.

I spent a lot of time doing prep work that is used across multiple shoots. I spend a lot of time doing R&D. I spent a lot of time building sets. I've spent a lot of money on studio lighting. I spend money on models. I have an assistant who helps me. I spend a lot of time working out how to do more with less time.

At this point, most of the heavy one time spending for my photographic needs are done. Most of the set building are done. So the cost of doing each shoot drops when I don't count all these costs anymore. I do cash based accounting. So I only count it when the money enters or leaves my pocket and not when they are actually earned, nor do I spread out costs over it's expected life time. Though when averaged over 18 months, I don't think it matters what type of accounting one does.

My net income before taxes is probably between $25-$40 for each hour that I work over a 18 month period. This is a very rough guess. And could be possibly wildly inaccurate.

EDIT: I do out source keywording, so that saves time. And since I have an assistant who helps me during shoots, the shoots moves much faster and smoother than if it was just me alone. So some of these variables complicate the calculation of what 1 hour of work actually really means.

The other thread on Shutterstock was quite interesting, so I wondered what people who are exclusive on iStock thinks the magic number is.

I used to make $0.50 per image per month. But these days it is more like $0.30 per image per month. So my personal experience is that it would take about 33,000 image to earn $10,000 per month.

I guess the one variable is that different people make different percentages on istock exclusive. I earn the 40% split with iStock.