Stock images

[gedbrogan]

I want to move into shooting stock images. I am confident in my ability to take the shots but need some advice on how to submit to various stock agencies, size pixel count etc. Is there a good primer on the web for this.? Are there any succesful stock sellers on the forum that would share some knowledge.? Are some stock agencies better to work with than others etc etc...

[David Kilpatrick]

The easiest to try first is Alamy.com because it is not an edited agency - they only reject on Quality Control grounds. You need to export or upscale your images to 48 megabytes of 8-bit RGB TIFF (uncompressed) data, but for submissions, the resulting file can be set to JPEG Level 10 which typically means 2 to 6 megs of data to upload per image. They have a very fast on-line submission system and quite often your images will be on sale within the same week. But they also have 13 million pictures on line and your first few dozen will be a drop in the ocean!

I do not recommend iStockphoto, because it uses a micropayment model which devalues photography to clients. Because dozens of users download each image, the eventual return is similar to Alamy (about $1-$2 per image per year for the average shooter, much higher for those who hit paydirt with valuable or popular subjects). But I prefer not to support any site which sells downloads for $3. I do have a few pix with them just to keep track of how they perform.

David

[gedbrogan]

David, Sonolta,

Thanks for the information, I will do my homework on all that.

Gerard