Tough decisions with regards to my Stock Photography endeavors

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Few years ago I decided that Stock Photography could be my biggest source of income as a photographer. Back then I was a freelancer photographer and I was also working on several projects, some for a couple of NGOs, some my own, personal, related to few concepts, portrait and travel as well. I was taking company contracts as well.

Some of those projects were quite outside of my comfort zone as I consider myself an introvert and being among several people, whole day was exhausting sometimes :) I had to "recharge my batteries" for days after that if you know what I mean. ;) So Stock Photography was an obvious solution to that problem as I have hundreds of thousands of photos of good quality maturing on my drives and storages.

I did a lot of research back then, picked about ten agencies and started to upload images to sell to each one of them. In the beginning the process was very slow, I didn't know there was a software that helps you upload and submit to multiple agencies at once. Not surprisingly, each of those agencies has it own interface and transfer protocols.

Let me drop here a quick list of all the agencies I've worked with.

Shutterstock, iStock, BigStock, Alamy, Adobe Stock, Dreamstime, PicFair, Pixta, EyeEm, 500px, ViewBug, 123rf, Deposit Photos, CanStockPhotos, MostPhotos. Maybe I am missing some.

The good side when uploading to multiple agencies is that you create different portfolios as those agencies have different clients, different requirements, different demands. As an outcome those portfolios become quite different!

If you're interested in some numbers, my portfolios in these agencies were between 2000 and 4000 photos. Some footage as well now and then, mainly time-lapses.

The Covid situation has shaken that industry a lot. Of course it also revealed all its flows and also made clear which agency actually cares about its contributors and not about the salaries of its CEOs and stuff only.

So after a careful consideration and reflecting a lot, I have decided to stop uploading and submitting any new photos to all those agencies with the exception of Adobe Stock where I will continue to upload works for sale.

Here is a list of the reasons that let me stop using those agencies:

  • Shutterstock - It was and maybe it still is, the biggest photo stock agency. In my opinion this company is a goner. Why? In 2020 they changed the rules of the games in two negative, for the contributors, ways - they cut the minimal commission from USD 0.25 to USD 0.10. Also, they implemented am annual contributor level reset. Moreover, even when you make enough sales and move to level 2, still most of the commissions are USD 0.10. There are several contributors who deleted their whole portfolios from Shutterstock. I am keeping mine but it hurts when I see a new 0.10 commission and that happens quite often.

  • iStock - too many "partners" and "third-party" resellers. Having a commission of USD 0.0041 is really a joke. I requested complete deletion of my account but I still get cents now and then, which pisses me off because they continue to sell my works via their partners.

  • BigStock - became property of Shutterstock. No sells for months. Payment threshold is too big.

  • Alamy - good commission %, 40 or 50, depending on exclusivity. Unfortunately, just a few sells over the years.

  • PicFair - friendly agency with great attitude but only 3 sells for more than 5 years.

  • Dreamstime, Pixta, EyeEm, 500px, ViewBug, 123rf, Deposit Photos, CanStockPhotos, MostPhotos - not enough sales to make my engagement worth the time I spend.

All the stock photo agencies have one common problem - they have a payment threshold and unless you reach it you cannot withdraw your commissions.

What I love about Adobe Stock:

  • They didn't change their policies during Covid

  • When you reach a certain volume of sells, they give you for free a Creative Cloud license for 12 months, that means you have for free the latest versions of Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom (both mobile and classic version)

  • Their payment threshold is not big

  • Last year they integrated Adobe Stock with Photoshop & Lightroom and that led to increased sales volume. It is obvious that the management of this company is investing a lot and thinking of ways to improve their service and not only increase the quarterly profits!

Here's the link to my high-quality, print-ready approved gallery of works for sale: https://stock.adobe.com/contributor/206416265/lightcaptured

My Conclusion:

If you plan to make a living of stock photography... Just don't! Unless you plan to live for 200 years, you suffer from insomnia, have nothing else to do, you want to upload your photos somewhere prior deleting them, etc... Then it may be worth it.

I really hope the NFT buzz word (the abbreviation :P) will change all that!

However, this all stock photo experience could be a fun one and also you will learn a lot! It takes time to match the industry quality standards and expectations but I promise you, you'll be a better photographer after that!

Is my decision for the best? Is this a time to celebrate? The future will tell...

If you find this article useful, please reblog, upvote and comment! Have a great day!

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Copyright: Damian Hadjiyvanov, Light Captured

My photo site: https://hadjiyvanov.com/

For licensing my photos, please drop me a message on Discord: lightcaptured#2698

Thank you for all the support!

Have a great photo! :P

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22 comments
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Bang, I did it again... I just rehived your post!
Week 48 of my contest just started...you can now check the winners of the previous week!
!BEER
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Great post, @lightcapture! Unfortunately, only we who have gone through this frustrating process can say for sure what stock photography means, and why one should never think about doing it.
As a person who for months has put all my efforts and all my time, day and night, to build a diverse portfolio and enter this market .... then suddenly realized that none of the things are as I thought they were, this topic is too painful.
Stock photography is now synonymous with a noon robbery, at least as far as the criminal changes that made Sh^tterstock with its contributor's policy.
What this company is doing right now, in my opinion, is to "pack their suitcases", squeezing as much profit as possible, stealing as much as possible from the artists who had the stupidity to upload their photos there. Because not only on the second, but also on the third and fourth level, photographers get basically 10 cents for their images.
And yes, I agree with you about Adobe. Not only do they invent opportunities every year for free annual plans for their wonderful products, but they never change their policy, and they don't make fun of the artists' work.

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You're so right, it's good to see I'm not alone in this! Huge thank you for the moral support! !wine

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This is definitely a useful article. 👍 Thanks!
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Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read and comment :)

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You know... I'm not a professional photographer, and my photos suck compared to yours (and many others), but I was still thinking about selling them through agencies. But now I've given up on it. 😁

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Don't underestimate yourself and your works, I like them a lot! I don't know if I am a "pro" photographer as lately not much action... I hope block-chain based services will change the future, I should've mentioned that I tried a couple of such projects (stock agencies based on blockchains) but most of them went dead few months after their ICOs, unfortunately. Probably NFTs will change the game but I am still looking for the best chain for that, as it is obvious to me Hive based NFTs are not working, at least for me, not that I've tried harder but one of my worst investments here, I am afraid, hehehe :)

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Congratulations @lightcaptured! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You have been a buzzy bee and published a post every day of the week

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

To support your work, I also upvoted your post!

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Great post! Have you considered uploading some of your stockphotos here? there is a stock images community and they curate your submissions pretty good! Much more than 0,0004 $ for sure
In case you are hungry take a sandwich!
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Sandwich, taking you places.
!invest_vote

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Thank you! Yes, I upload batches of photos in the Stock Images community now and then but as you may guess the image hosting part isn't the best here so no max resolution and 300 ppi images, just web resolution and sizes. I love that community, they are a bunch of great guys! I think there may be a visibility issue with the photos there as there isn't a search engine for them and I know keeping the index there updated needs efforts.

Thanks for the sandwich :) I liked a lot the fresh taste of that slice of cucumber on top :P

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Yeah keeping the stuff in order is very difficult, maybe the devs can come up with a nice solution. There is a lots of good heads here so we just have to raise awareness :)

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Indeed! The best are always too busy though :P
Hopefully we see that new feature soon ;)

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