1. You love taking pictures You have a camera and love taking pictures. Seriously, it doesn’t get any simpler than this. If you are like me and take your camera everywhere, it makes sense to have a platform to share this content with the world.
2. Honest feedback You’ll get honest feedback. Generally, you’ll be provided with reasons why your content is rejected. It happens to the best of us. Platforms like Adobe Stock and Shutterstock get millions upon millions of submissions. What are you doing to stand out? They will let you know if the image is blurry or if the composition is off. This minimal feedback can be super valuable for a beginner or even a professional photographer.
3. Testing new ideas You have the perfect audience. Did the photo get accepted? If so, does it sell? When images meet both of those criteria, you know it is a good image and is likely to sell elsewhere. Perhaps you want to sell prints at a local farmers market or create a photo book to sell on Amazon. Your top sellers on stock will be the perfect starting point.
4. Documented experience Finding credits through reverse image searches. Say you want to get into a specific type of photography like product or architecture. It’s possible to find your top sellers with Google reverse image search. When credited, you can use this reference on your resume/portfolio to show documented experience.
5. Some extra cash If the previous four reasons sound good to you, then the money earned from stock photography is just icing on the cake. Those are the reasons I continue to submit photos and videos. The pay isn’t much, but the experience gained through the process is quite valuable. I’ve been able to get feedback for my work and establish catalogs of media to verify skills not shown in my portrait portfolio.
Camera- Olympus E-M1 Mark II
Lens- Panasonic Lumix 14mm F2.5
#stockphotography #shutterstock #adobestock #dreamstime #gettyimages