Submitting to stock photo libraries - your experiences!

[Gordon Laing]

Hi everyone, one of the most common questions in this section is how to submit photos to libraries and whether you can really make any money from it.

So I've started this stickie thread as a place where people can describe their experiences with stock libraries. Which library, how they submitted work, what works, whether they're making money etc.

Please only post here if you have experience with stock libraries. If you have any questions, please start a new thread, or ideally continue an existing one here.

Thanks,

Gordon

[Bjorn van Sinttruije]

I'm no expert when it comes to stock photography, but I thought I'd share Yuri Arcurs' YouTube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Crestock

Yuri Arcurs is one of the best selling stock photographers and knows a lot about the business. His videos include some great tips about studio equipment and how to deal with models.

- Bjorn -

[yorkiegem]

I joined both picturenation & photobucket galleries.

With picture nation I'm between a rock & a hard place. I have only uploaded the 5 free I'm allowed before I have to pay somewhere around £20, I think for the year & unlimited upoads.

I haven't taken the plunge yet, but also haven't sold any images yet, but with 5 among 1000s & 1000s, I will struggle.

I enjoyed putting together my photobucket gallery - for free. My problem now is I need to get my url for my gallery out there for people to look at but I don't know where to begin!

My url for the gallery, btw, is:

http://www.photoboxgallery.com/3005912

[cybermystic]

I have just signed a contract with the former Oxford Scientific Films. I will let you know how things develop.
Greg

[cybermystic]

Update on the above post. I didn't go with OSF in the end but ended up signing with The Science Photo Library. Recently sent off the first portfolio of work - waiting for their response.
Greg

[theorigamist]

Photography is a hobby of mine, and I have no plans or desires to do photography professionally or full time. But I have noticed that it's a particularly expensive hobby, so I wouldn't be against making a little money, if only to afford the gear. I've looked around iStockphoto a little bit, and it seems this might be an easy way to generate a small revenue stream. (By easy, I don't mean that my photos will necessarily sell quickly or raise a lot of money. I mean it won't take much effort to leave photos there to sell. I won't have to do things like market myself or seek out clients/projects.)

Does anybody here make use of iStockphoto? If you don't mind sharing the information, how much might a casual photographer hope to make? Are there similar sites I should be considering? Am I misunderstanding the amount of involvement that would be required?

I'm a little curious to see that there hasn't been much discussion about this. I know there are a lot of enthusiast and hobbyist photographers here. I would have thought this would be a group looking to support their habits (er...I mean, hobbies ) with a low-effort stream of income. (Perhaps this just means I'm wrong about the effort involved.)

[cybermystic]

In the end I did go with OSF. I sent through a couple of DVDs and I was just starting to earn some cash - when - they were taken over by Getty Images!! I didn't like the Getty Images terms and contracts so didn't go with them. Back to square one
Greg