Making Some Extra Income With Stock Photography

Stock photography can involve photos of many things that you see every day. But it goes beyond that and often the images that are bought and sold as stock involve staged scenes, specific places, or specific interactions. The images are sold to be used in many different ways, and the price for an image can vary by the content and the way the image will be used.

Professional Or Part Time Income

There are a lot of people that have gotten involved in the stock photo industry, and because of this, the industry has changed some. There are stock sites that sell images for very low prices and pay very small amounts to the photographer who took the picture and there are others that sell at much higher prices to photo buyers for media or marketing companies, and the photographer makes a much larger commission from these sites. 

Because of this, the income levels can range from small to large and depends on the quality of the images produced, some photographers do nothing but stock and make a great living at it. Others dabble in it and make a little extra income. What you want to make is up to you and who you choose to work with.

Hiring Models For Staged Images

For many stock photographer, creating images may require some additional help. Sometimes the photographer needs to hire models, and there is no shortage of people available to work with. There are a lot of young models that are willing to play a teacher or doctor in your photos for a small fee and a there are more experienced models that will ask for more pay. 

What one photographer can afford over another is typically related to the amount of money they are making in the industry. If they are making a professional level income, professional models are great. If not, less experienced, or new models might be a better fit.

Selling Your Stock Images

Once the images are completed, there needs to be a place to sell them, and while there are some big stock agencies that would like to be the only one selling images, there are still many specialty agencies within the business you can work with. If you like to shoot food images, there are food stock agencies out there. If you like to shoot sports or business, there are agencies for those. 

The key is to search out the agency that you want to work with then submit your work for them to present to their clients. They may not take ever images submitted, but even if they don't, another agency might so don't be afraid to spread your work over several places and see where your work sells the best.

For more information, contact a company like Dembinsky Photo Associates.


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