The Microstock Challenge - Which sites make you money and which ones don't

I have been doing a little bit of Microstock here and there for a few years but never really applied any analytics to it. Four months ago, I set out with the goal of tracking my progress and quadrupling my Microstock income purely by spending four hours a week in the first month, two hours a week in the second month, and one hour per week in the third and fourth month on it. My first four hours were spent on researching various Microstock sites, creating new accounts and developing a spreadsheet to track my progress. The second four hours were spent tagging all the images with Metadata and uploading them. There is a nifty tool called ProStockMaster that allows you to submit to all the major Microstock sites at once. During the four months, I almost doubled my portfolio purely out of pictures I already had but never used ranging from objects to lifestyle (a rough average of what's out there). I did not reach my goal of quadrupling my income, but I increased it by a factor of 3.5, which is pretty good.

On the way there, I found out which sites actually make you good money and which ones don't. I also made several accounts to track different factors that aren't part of this write-up, so here goes the summary ranked by awesomeness (which is how much money they made me). Just so you know, I have a degree in economics and finance, so I actually know about this stuff.

1) Shutterstock (link) Acceptance Rate: 60% % of Total Monthly Income: 38% Average Earnings per Download: $0.42

2) Dreamstime (link) Acceptance Rate: 65% % of Total Monthly Income: 31% Average Earnings per Download: $1.70

3) iStockphoto (link) Acceptance Rate: 38% % of Total Monthly Income: 12% Average Earnings per Download: $0.74

4) 123rf (link) Acceptance Rate: 98% % of Total Monthly Income: 9% Average Earnings per Download: $0.59

5) DepositPhotos (link) Acceptance Rate: 74% % of Total Monthly Income: 4% Average Earnings per Download: $0.37

6) Fotolia (link) Acceptance Rate: 63% (I found the approval process to be a hassle, so I didn't bother to upload all images.) % of Total Monthly Income: 3% Average Earnings per Download: $0.38

These are the six Microstock sites I would go with. The other ones had no or only very minimal payouts below 1% of my monthly income. They were: CanStockPhoto, BigStockPhoto, PantherMedia, YayMicro, CutCaster, and StockFresh.

How to create proper Separation / Isolation Lighting

Some call it separation lighting, others prefer the term isolation lighting, but both mean the proper lighting technique to separate your subject from the background. While this technique is applied just about everywhere in photography where a subject is the main focus, this technique is a particular for Stock Photography, where the proper separation technique determines if your image will sell or not. As you will see, the lighting techniques that I will show you are very straight forward and you can easily use them to make a decent side income on sites like Dreamstime. If you want to learn more about Stock Photography, check out my recent posts (here and here). Separation Lighting Setup 1 With this setup, you have a main light on camera left to light the subject, a fill light on camera right to fill in the shadows, and a separation light on the background. If you don't have three lights, you can also use a reflector for fill. To get a cleaner separation light (e.g. for high key white backgrounds), use two lights on the backgrounds placed on each side and a little behind the subject.

LightingSetup

Separation Lighting Setup 2 This setup is very similar to the first setup, but instead of having a strobe standing on the floor and illuminating the background, you now have a boom arm with a softbox on it. This has the advantage that you can tilt the softbox over your subject, which gives you a nice specular highlight (hairlight). Naturally, this method is not as good for high key white backgrounds.

LightingSetup

Separation Lighting Setup 3 For this setup you either need a really big softbox or a translucent background that you can light up from behind. Aside from that, the main light and fill light are the same as the first two setups. Just be sure that you know how to avoid unwanted lens flare or loss in contrast, when you use this setup.

LightingSetup

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How and Where to make money with Microstock Photography

micrologos

Several fellow photographers have been asking me about Stock Photography and Microstock Photography, so I found it time to write a little compendium. While I understand that there are several Macrostock photographers out there who dismiss the Microstock model, I feel like it has a not insignificant earnings potential.

While you need to upload at least 500 good quality images per month to actually make a substantial full-time income, I found that even uploading only about 10 pictures a month generates enough income to buy new equipment and to go on a nice vacation. Of course, this largely depends on the quality of your work and the sales potential of your pictures.

It is not hard to make money with Microstock Photography if you understand the basics. Your images need to be of good quality (sharp, no noise, no blur, etc.), be marketable (e.g. no snapshots of your cat), not infringe on any copyrights (such as brand names or labels in the picture), and last but not least they need to focus on what your photo is actually trying to sell (e.g. if your picture is about apples, make sure the apples are the main focus of the image).

In this compendium, I will give you a little overview over the Microstock sites ranked by their earnings potential in my personal opinion:

1. iStockphoto

iStockphoto was recently bought by Getty and is currently the biggest and most successful Microstock site. To sign up, you have to send them three photos that need to be approved by them, which can take a few days. In addition, they have a little exam for you to make sure that you understand the rules. They tend to be very picky about artifacting, noise, oversharpening, and all the other things you can only see when you zoom in 500%. I once even had a picture be rejected for it being overly retouched although it came right out of camera. I talked to them about it and they accepted it in the end. In the end, do not get discouraged if several of your pictures are rejected as the ones that are accepted usually generate frequent income. Once you have 250 sales, they will offer you an exclusive membership with a higher earnings potential. Plus, they favor exclusive photographers, so you will see your presence on the site will be more prominent.

2. Dreamstime

The registration is easy. You do not need to take an exam and your pictures do not need to be approved. While Dreamstime is still a comparably small Microstock agency, they seem to be the fastest growing one and many people actually think that they will compete with iStockphoto for the #1 within the next 12-18 months. While they are not quite as strict about image quality (though still very strict), they are extremely strict about subject matter. I tried uploading some jellyfish pictures that generated very good sales on other sites but had them refused because they already have enough jellyfish pictures. Something like that can be quite discouraging as your acceptance rate affects Dreamstime's page rank of your images.

3. Shutterstock

In comparison to the first two sites, this is a subscription site, which means that their clients can download as many pictures as they want for a monthly fee. While this means that you will only get a very small payout per download ($0.25 for starters), it also means that you have tons of downloads and for quite a few photographers, this is actually the top income generator. Shutterstock is very strict on noise and most photographers need 2-3 attempts to actually be approved. You send in 10 pictures and if 7 or more are not approved, you have to wait a month and then try again. Usually it helps to size the images down to about 4-5 Megabytes and to make sure that they have absolutely no noise as ShutterStock is very strict on any noise issues. It also helps to upload diverse images. Interestingly, once you are approved, it is much easier to get your pictures approved.

4. Fotolia

I have not been on Fotolia for very long and only signed up because several photographers recommended it to me due to the income potential. Judging from the time I have been on it, I would certainly say it is one of the better sites. Signing up is pretty easy though you have to either scan your ID or let them access your Credit Card for verification.

5. StockXpert

StockXpert was recently bought by Getty, so I assume we will the pace pick up, which is why I ranked it #5. They used to have very high payouts per sale but they are moving over to subscriptions. Signing up is no problem, but becoming a contributor requires you to upload five images for review. Passing this test should not be a poblem.

6. CanStockPhoto

Among the smaller Microstock sites, this one has one of the highest income potentials. All they expect you is to send in three pictures which they inspect at 100%. Nonetheless, it sure helps to be a professional photographer and to provide a link to your professional website.

7. Zymmetrical

This is a fairly new site, but I like they have been doing business so far. Unlike the other sites, you can choose to set your own prices or to have them set a price for your photos. While there are not necessarily a lot of sales, you get 70% commission for each sale, so you can still make a large amount of money. In regards to the image quality, they are about as strict as iStock, so you want to send your best work in.

8. BigStockPhoto

The main marketing strategy of this site is to sell microstock for cheap, which works for some and not for others. In order to become a contributor, you have to pass a test and get a few images approved (I don't remember how many). The payouts are regular though have been a bit on the decline lately. Nonetheless it is still one of the top Microstock sites.

9. 123rf

The amount of sales over here is very small, yet if you have enough pictures in, you will still get regular payouts. They are not as strict on image quality as other sites, so if you are just starting out and want to see what sells, this is a great place to start.

10. Crestock

The sales are below average, but their upload system is working really well and is very uncomplicated (plus you can mass upload to their FTP server). The reason for the sales being low is that they are a fairly new site which is still growing. By the end of the year, I will probably rank them much higher. Once you get 100 sales (which may take a while), your commission level rises to 30%, which is a pretty decent deal. You also don't have to go through a long sign-up and approval process, which I think is a plus.

11. MostPhotos

First of all, this is a European site, so it pays in Euros. There is no application process and your photos do not need to be approved. You just upload whatever you want and wait for other contributors to rate you (which I personally think is a bad system). While this is pretty easy and straightforward, the returns are almost non-existent. Some people seem to generate some income, but it does not work too well for me.