Earning Money from your Photos

I have quite a collection of digital photos and since it has been pretty slow over at the Izea market, I thought it would be a great idea to spend the time uploading some photos over at Istockphoto to check out what the buzz is all about making money on a bunch of pictures. I have heard of people who have quit their day jobs to become full time freelance photographers. Who wouldn’t want to be in that position? Freelance = freedom! Travel to places and snap photos, sounds like a dream job to me or to anyone who craves the flexibility to enjoy life and make a living at the same time. Sounds oh so glamorous!

To my dismay 95% of the pictures that I have right now aren’t considered “money shots.” You see, I take photos when I’m relaxed. I like to capture and preserve that moment of time because it brings back good memories when go back to them months, years or decades down the road. The photos are an expression of what I find interesting, beautiful and worth the 3.5MB of space.

So if you want to make money from photos, you have to keep mind to capture images that are useful to graphic artists, publishers, webmasters etc. Here is a list of what Istockphoto would want you to upload:

Corporate shots - Everyone looks a little more handsome when a suit’s involved.

Groups Teams- One person is great, two, three, four… just gets better and better.

Concept Store- Leave it to others to shoot the obvious.

Sports -Cycling, ping pong, soccer, skateboarding, kung-fu, bocci ball, the list goes on.

Rare Artifacts - The more rare, the better.

Illustrations- Vector and not rasterized.

Holidays- Christmas, Valentines, Easter: don’t wait until the last minute.

Fashion- Leave the jeans behind, unless they’re couture…

Analogue and Grunge - Intriguing textures, effects, & treatments – not for the amateur of style.

Food and Beverages - Preferably with someone holding the edible item.

For more information, visit their tutorial section. Taking these kind photos need a conscious effort with business in mind. I’m sure you can be artsy about it but really, if you were a graphic or web designer for a company what photos would you use? Pictures of yuppies(traditional young urban professionals) would be your best bet. The more diversity the better(people with different ethnic backgrounds). So where will I find handsome gentlemen in monkey suits and ladies dressed in cute professional suits? If I would have known before, I would have set up telephoto lens from the window at the office in NJ. We were right next to the Metro train station. I could have been the window paparazzi or better yet ask the people to pose while they were waiting for the train.

If you can convince your friends to get together all dressed in your “interview attire,” go down town and have a photo shoot with tall buildings or office environment as your background, you may get a good start with your Istockphoto artist side job/career. Food photos are also hot, so next time you go out for dinner you may want to snap a photo first before you eat. Who knows it might be your next money shot.