Sell Your Photos as Stock Photos!
Have you got an eye for design? Are there features of your home that are eye catching and complimented often? Then you may want to try to sell your photos of these areas in your home as a way to make some extra money.
Many creators are using their phones to capture those photos and videos you see on the internet. They’re not investing in fancy cameras. Though if you want to you can!
A Few Ideas of Photos to Take
Consider a niche, a specific photo subject you’ll capture regularly that you want to master. You don’t have to know this right away, consider setting up some photos around the house. You can take photos of spaces as they are or set the scene and change up some elements of the area as you go. Print all the photos you’ve taken and take a good look at them all together. Which ones pop to you? How can you make these better? Lighting, setting up elements for certain ones to stand out, adding textures, there are many ways to change up photos for the better.
Photos Within Your Home
Go throughout your home and look for areas that stand out or that need little adjusting to stand out. Do you have books organized in an aesthetic manner? Maybe they’re organized by color, or you have quite a collection of well known beloved titles. Look at the bookshelf as a whole. Do you have some interesting art pieces on your shelves with the books? An interesting vase, or item from your travels will add some character to these normally ordinary looking shelves.
If you look down your kitchen counter, is there something about whatever is just beyond. Do you have a plant out there, perhaps a table with a beautiful layout. How about your closet? Are you a fan of timeless clothes organized beautifully? I organize my closet by color, and I think it’s just stunning. Do you have a sneaker collection that would catch the eye of other sneaker fans?
When it comes to holiday decor, are you a master of setting the scene? Do the lights on your Christmas tree hit reflective ornaments just right creating that perfect holiday twinkle? Is there a tiny drummer boy ornament viewable in the background? Look at the areas of your house not just as you normally would look around a room, but really look at details.
Photos Outside Your Home
Outside of your home, does your front porch have the perfect sunrise or sunset view? What about the plants in your yard? After a snowfall, before there are even animal tracks in the snow, does the view out your door just look absolutely serene?
Perhaps your pets enjoy running around your yard playing during the day when lighting is naturally perfect. maybe during a storm, the rain runs off your patio roof just right.
Take some time to really look at the things you see every day that you may not realize are art. We use plenty of stock photos on our site, and they need to come from somewhere. My photo skills are not anything to brag about.
Where to Sell Your Photos
The following are stock photo sites, where you can set up an account to have your photos seen and hopefully downloaded/purchased. I am working on a plan to join one of these sites as a study to see how things go and report back on payment structure, ease of use, etc.
- Shutterstock
- Perfect for beginners, Shutterstock, has been around for about 15 years. Create a contributor account and upload your content on their built in platform. You’re paid whenever your images and downloaded by customers of Shutterstock world-wide.
- Alamy
- Alamy is another well known stock image site. It pays contributors monthly and pay depends on whether your images are exclusive to their site.
- Stocksy
- With Stocksy, your images can only be sold exclusively through their site. Though they do offer competitive pay up to 75% per image. You do have to apply to be part of their program as it is an artist owned co-op, meaning creators are part owner in the company and can vote to influence company choices and changes.
- Getty Images
- Getty Images is perhaps one of the best known photo sites around. It is also selective and for higher quality, more experienced photographers. All images are exclusive to Getty once you apply to be a creator.
- iStock
- Part of Getty Images, with iStock, you can sell your images elsewhere as well. This means you aren’t only selling exclusively to them like with Getty. Though, you will get paid more if your images are exclusive to their platform.
Sell Your Photos – Final Thoughts
While there is a lot of competition, if you find a niche you can excel in, you can make a decent side hustle. Selling your photos as an artist/photographer is a whole different monster and takes more research and training. But if you can provide some stock photo sites with content, you may find a nice little somewhat passive income.