This is a breakdown of the submission process to sell your stock photography to iStock Photo. Like all micro-stock agencies, they won’t put up photos from just any photographer. You must go through their submission process to see if they’ll carry you.

iStock Photo accepts images as small as 1600 x 1200.

1. Go to http://www.istockphoto.com/sell-stock-photos.php
2. You must sign up to be an iStock Member and create an account.
3. You then are taken through a series of pages listing all manner of guidelines. At the end of this they have a simple online quiz that you have to take based on what you just read. Your quiz is instantly graded (pass or fail) online.
4. You then have to upload one piece of photo identification. For this I just snaped a photo of my driver’s license.
5. Finally, you have to upload just 3 sample images. With only three images by which you are judged, make sure they are good and show a good variety!

I’ve sorted through my photos, I’ve done endless research, I’ve go my model releases… it’s about to time start submitting photos to the stock agencies!

Here is a list of the major micro-stock photography agencies. I plan to submit photos to all of them, and will update this article with links to each agency as I go through the submission process. The current plan is to go down the list in order.

Micro-Stock Agencies List

iStock Photo (http://www.istockphoto.com/sell-stock-photos.php)
One of the origial innovators in micro-stock. They pay 20% of the price of downloads (more if you’re exclusive, which sounds like a bad deal). They charge $2 – $24 depending on the size of the photo downloaded. iStock accepts photos at 1600 x 1200 or larger (2 MP).

Checkout the breakdown of the iStock Submission Process

Shutterstock: (http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=474139)
They accept photos as small as 4 MP. Stutterstock works on a subscription model for their buyers. Buyers pay a fee for a month and can download as much as they want (great deal for buyers – and encourages them to download a lot). Photographers are paid a flat $0.25 per download, but once you make over $500 (2k downloads) you bump up to $0.30 per download. They have a nice fast review process for new photographers which makes them nice as well!

Check out the breakdown of the Shutterstock Submission Process

Fotolia (http://us.fotolia.com/Info/HowToSell)
Fotolia pays from $0.30 to $0.60 per download – the exact amount depends on how many total downloads you’ve had. The more images you sell, the more you get paid for each image you sell. They accept images as small as 4MP, and certainly have the easiest submission process.

Checkout the breakdown of the Fotolia Submission Process

Dreamstime (http://www.dreamstime.com/sell)

Stockxpert (http://www.stockxpert.com/support/help/4)

ClusterShot (https://www.clustershot.com/account/edit)
ClusterShot seems to have an unusual approach, in which they let you set your own prices for your photos. I’ll be digging into this more closely as I work down the list, but my hunch is that it’s a smaller site that won’t get nearly as many sales (bad deal for the buyers).

As I mentioned in my last post, I think that it’s vital for your inital submissions to stock agencies to include at least one shot of people. This is the most in-demand kind of shot from marketing types. As I’ve been sorted through my photos to decide which to submit, here is what I was going to use as my people shot:

This shot has some nice stylish aspects and leaves good room for ad copy. Additionally we’ve got both dreadlocks and tattoos going on – and tattoos are a surprisingly highly searched keyword on stock sites, so I’m hoping that a reviewer would look at it and think “Hey! We can sell this – we always need more tattoo and punked up looking shots!”

Only one problem: no Model Release.

In fact, I don’t have a model release for any of my people shots. Sure I’m going to try to track down this model – but it’s been a couple years and I’m not couting on it. So I’m also setting up a quick emergency shoot of a person to have something that I can actually include in my initial submission. My schedule requires me to submit to the first stock site on Monday — and I gotta have a shot of a person to include!

Fingers crossed that the shoot works out!

I have no gone through all of the photos on my hard drive, and made a folder of the ones that I think might be viable for submission to stock photography agencies. It is a depressingly small folder. I have no been working to narrow those down to the ones that I will use as part of the initial submission process.

You see, micro-stock agencies don’t accept everyone. There is an initial submission process that they use to decide if they’ll sell your stuff at all. Some sites like Fotolia want to see 10 sample photos. Other sites are more dedicated to increasing your level of stress, like iStock, who wants to see just 3 photos.

How do you sum up all your photographic offerings with just three photos?

Well, I say think like the person doing the reviewing. Someone who has a full-time job of digging through people’s photos and deciding who’s stuff is going to sell and who’s will not. Here is my shortlist of how to select the photos for your submission:

• No pictures that stock agencies generally don’t want/are overstocked on. This means no pics of flowers, dogs, cats, clouds, sunsets, etc. Try to find in-demand photos.
• All pictures should be tack sharp. You have very few photos to show that you’re capable of taking good shots. Only the A-list goes here.
• Radically different photos. You want to show that you have a range - no variations on the same subject or theme. Also it might end up that that the reviewer has seen hundreds of photos of a person jumping or food that day – you don’t want several photos that make the reviewer think that’s all you’re going to do.
• At least one photo of a person. I think this is key – in general photos with people in them sell better. Show them that you’re capable of shooting people. And make sure you have a Model Release for your subject.

I’m still working on my short list — in particular the people shots. But once I have them finalized, I’ll let you know what they are, and we can see how they work out!

The concept of stock photography is that an agency, or a photographer, has a stock of general-purpose photographs — as opposed to hiring a photographer for a specific shoot. Stock photos are technically licensed, rather than sold. This means that the photographer retains the copyright and simply allows someone else to use the photo.

There are three basic types of stock photography: Royalty-Free Stock, Right’s Managed, and Micro-Stock. Let’s take a look at each of these.

Royalty-Free Stock Photography

Royalty-Free means that when someone purchases a photo from an agency they are paying for the right to use that photo as many times as they want, wherever they want, whenever they want. There are a few restrictions – the big one being that they don’t have the right to sell the photo for someone else to use – but it’s pretty wide open. This is the standard of stock photography.

Until recently buying Royalty-Free photos was the cheapest way to get quality photos, and they would cost around a few hundred dollars per photo. Getting into a stock agency was very difficult and exclusive. However, the cost of standard royalty-free photography has been dropping steeply with the rise of micro-stock agencies, which we’ll get to in a moment.

Rights Managed Photography

Rights Managed means that buyers pay for specific rights to a photo. For example, they might purchase the right to use a photo only in a calendar, or for a book, but they can’t use it for anything else. Rights managed photos always come with a sunset – someone buys rights to the photo for a limited amount of time.

Rights Managed photos can cost tens of thousands of dollars to purchase. The main advantage for the buyer is that they’re not only buying rights to the photo, but they’re keeping anyone else from getting it. So if you buy rights to use a photo in calendars, then no one else can use that photo in a calendar for the duration of your contract.

Rights Managed photography is a very small and elite group of photographers. Getting accepted by an agency often has more to do with your reputation and renown than simply the quality of your work.

Micro-Stock Photography

Micro-stock is basically just royalty-free stock photography that has taken advantage of the internet and the proliferation of talented amateur photographers with digital cameras. The only difference between micro-stock and standard royalty-free is that micro stock uses thousands of photographers (anyone can submit) and in turn they charge radically less for the photos — often as little as $1 for a small photo.

Micro Stock sites typicaly allow a photo to be purchased in a number of different sizes. The smallest size (usually only good for web use) is the cheapest. If you want high resolution large files they charge up to $25 or more — still far, far cheaper than standard royalty-free.

The last couple of years have proven that micro-stock is the future of stock photography. Standard royalty-free stock agencies have had to continually lower their prices to compete. Professional stock photographers have found their income from stock plummeting with the competition, and many of them have even moved to offer their photos through micro-stock agencies themselves.

This site is all about micro-stock agencies. Anyone with decent equipment and good photos can sell their photos to micro-stock agencies.

Just how much money can you make with micro-stock agencies? We’ll find out!

One of the most interested shoots I’ve done was when I worked for a company that manufactured copier parts. As part of a promotional campaign, we were doing a shoot that needed a live cougar and a bear.

We found a place about an hour away that had the animals we needed — they were “animal actors.” The place had about 100 acres of land and every animal that’s native to Minnesota, including a pack of wolves and a few bison. It’s at places like this that the vast majority of wildlife photography is actually shot. They have some land, the photographer chooses the animals he wants, and the animal handlers bring them out and try to coax them into doing what the photographer wants.

Our first shoot needed the cougar, also known as a mountain lion. The handler drove up with Rocky in a cage in the back of a pickup. Rocky was huge, but sweet. He was rubbing his head against the bars for the handler to scratch his ears for all the world like a giant kitty. He was adorable.

And then we got the safety talk. That was a sobering experience. It went something like this:

“Don’t have any food in your pockets, and don’t chew gum. He’s attracted to the smells and might attack. Don’t make any sudden movements. Don’t try to pet him. Don’t make eye contact with him – that might make him attack. Everyone stand together in a group, and don’t leave the group. Cougars are attracted to prey that is alone. These two guys have cattle prods and will stand with the group. Everyone stay here.

“Okay Brian, you can come over here to get the shot.”

And sure enough as I walked away from the group, Rocky – previously sitting there drowsing – suddenly got very, very interested in me. I watched him tracking my movement, then caught myself looking him in the eyes. It was amazing how deadly this previously adorable cat suddenly seemed.

And I can only imagine how the model felt, who had to be standing right next to him. Just off frame in this photo is the handler hiding behind a tree with a cattle prod. When the model took the chain off the cougar, it was supposed to walk away (handler luring it out with some meat). But instead it just turned and looked up at the model, considering whether to eat her I presume.

In the end the shoot went more or less as planned. Once Rocky took off into the woods for a bit of a run (and in the process going – I’m dead serious here – through a fence, blowing it apart) but the trainer lured him back with some cat & mouse games.

Then we switched to the bears, even bigger and more massive than the cougar, but strangely less threatening. Immediately the extra guys with cattle prods went away and the trainer came out with a bag full of gummy bears.

“Here,” he said to one of the models. “Put this in your lips and the bear will eat it out of your mouth!”

If you’re taking pictures of people (including yourself) that you plan to sell to micro-stock stock photography agencies, you are going to need a model release. Stock Photographer Blog has a sample model release for stock photography that you can download in either Microsoft Word or PDF formats:

Download Model Release (Microsoft Word Format)
Download Model Release (PDF Format)

This sample model release should be valid with any of the major stock agencies. Please note that all of it must be filled out – assume that every blank on the model release is required, because for some stock agency it is. That includes the phone number, the description of the shoot, the photographer signature, and the witness signature on the model release.

And no, the photographer cannot sign as the witness. Furthermore you cannot use a “blanket” release for a model. You must have a new release for each shoot.

Here is a quick look at what this stock photography model release looks like:

If you download the word format of the model release, you can change the second blank in the first paragraph to read your name, or your company name. Thereafter you just need to print out a stack of the model releases and include them in your camera bag to bring with you wherever you go.

You can also read our guide on When Do You Need a Model Release for more information about when the model release is actualy needed.

One of the realities of stock photography is that you need permission to sell a photo of a person who modeled for you. The actual laws of when you need a model release get a bit complicated, but the stock photography agencies simplify model release matters a lot:

You need a model release anytime you can recognize the person in the photo.

Simple and straightforward. This means that you do not need a model release for shots taken behind people, if they’re covered in a ninja outfit, silhouetted, etc. However, if you have a model in full kabuki face paint they may well be unrecognizeable, but if you can see their face, you need a model release. Also note that you need a model release even if it’s a picture of yourself.

As a general rule of thumb try to get a model release for everyone you shoot, even if you don’t think you need it. Carry model releases with you everywhere and make getting them part of your standard operating procedure. When in doubt, assume that you need a model release.

When You Need a Model Release Examples:

If you wanted to sell this photo you would need a model release from the man sitting on the chair. Even though he’s blurry and in the background, you could easily argue that you can identify him. However you would not need a model release from the woman owning the legs in the foreground.

This photo is a bit tricksy. We can see the entire ice climber and we can even see his part of his face. However, because he’s covered in bulky winter clothing and we can only see a bit of his face — and of that his goggles cover up even more – it is not a recognizable image. If you worked with this guy and saw this image, you’d never realize the model was your coworker unless you were told.

However, that said, stock agencies are hyper-careful about model releases, and some of them may require a release even for this photo (or a silhouette, or a photo with no faces at all). In general the only way to be safe is to get a release of any photo with a person in it.

Where To Get a Model Release

Stock Photographer Blog has a sample model release that you can download in microsoft word or pdf format. You can get it here: Downloadable Model Release

I imagine that I’m much like you. I’ve been taking pictures for most of my life, since my father gave me my first cmaera when I was 7, a sad little twin lens reflex.

Over the years my equipment has upgraded and I’ve gotten a littel better about knowing when not to press the shutter, even if I don’t know anything more about when to press it. As the photos piled up on my hard drive, at some piont I began to think about selling my photos.

Fortunately with the recent advent of micro-stock agencies, that’s now a possibility.

After more than a year of researching micro-stock on and off I’m going to start. This blog will record the process, from the first submission to the first sale (we hope!) to tracking what kinds of photos sell well and which micro-stock agencies do best.

Along the way we’ll also take a look at equipment, software, and everything else remotely related to stock photography.

Thanks for reading – hopefully we’ll both learn something!

Shot with a NIKON D200. (90mm, 1/125 @ ƒ/4.2) © Stock Photographer Blog

This is my sample of uploading a photo and how it will look complete with description and watermark. Click to make it bigger!