So Ya wanna shoot stock?

Stock photography is perceived by some as an instant moneymaker and a path to wealth, "it's easy and all you need is a camera" claims one ad. However, if you think there is no work involved after you take that million dollar seller, you are sadly mistaken.
Let me briefly outline a submission procedure step by step;

1) Research - hours surfing thru sites getting ideas and finding out which areas are "hot" (best selling images)

2) Shoot preparation - putting together essential elements for the shoot (wardrobe, backgrounds, lighting,etc)

3) The shoot - shooting enough to make sure you have the shot, then shoot variations

4) Image editing - select only the "best" images and color correct

5) Photoshop - remove unwanted items and details (logos, dust spots, distracting features, reduce noise if needed)

6) Keywords - you must add keywords if anyone is to find your image. This is an extremely important step and can mean the difference between a few sales and a lot of sales. I generally try for the maximum number allowed. (50 seems common)

7) Upload - This is when you upload your images to the stock sites for approval. Most stock sites offer several ways to do this.
FTP is the easiest for larger quantities or you can upload 1 to 3,5 or 10 images via the browser upload feature.

If you image has a visible human face you will have to have a "model release"

8) Categories - once uploaded, most sites require the second step of choosing a category. Then you finalize the submission.

9) Wait - depending upon the amount of images pending, you might be approved instantly or wait a week for the outcome.
Stock agencies will generally give you a reason for rejection if not accepted. Use this info so you don't repeat your mistake.
It might be something that you can correct and resubmit.

10) Start over - these are the steps you must follow for each and every image you submit.

As with anything in life, you get out what you put in. Stock photography is literally a numbers game. The more images you have, the more money you will make. A high percentage of would be stock photographers become discouraged with the
large amount of work and very little return. Persistence is the key! Continuos shooting and submitting is crucial to success.
Research can help you achieve images that sell more than others.

Ya wanna shoot stock? Then be prepared to put in some time and effort. If you do, then you could be making some good
money in 2 to 3 years.

I will be RICH........................

First of all, there are very few get rich schemes on the planet. Stock photography is a real job, just like any other. You will get out of it what you put into it and there are no real short cuts other than reading this blog or others like it where people will tell you about their trial and errors.
When I started, there were no keyword tools (or none that I knew of), so I had to come up with as many keywords to describe the image accurately as possible. Now if you think that cutting and pasting takes a long time, try it on your own. This alone would be enough to deter 50% of the people from selling stock.
For those of you who don't know, keywords describe the image accurately, there are generally up to 50 and they are located (after you put them there) under keywords in the metadata.
Metadata is defined as "data about other data" which seems kind of confusing to me but essentially it's data about the image.
Things like shutter speed, f/stop, white balance, creation date and yes, keywords. These keywords are the basis of search engines. If you type in baseball, you get instant results. It's the same way on the stock sites, type in what you are looking for and the results are immediate.
So whether you start with a traditional stock house (very hard) or a microstock agency remember it's a numbers game. It will take some time to get, let's say 1000 images online. In the beginning you might not have a sale for weeks only to find out that you made 25 cents today. Wow! I'm not getting rich very fast at this rate. However, over time you will get to the 1000 image mark and you will see that you are consistently making money. So do your homework, study top selling images on the sites (most downloaded) and try and figure out why. Look at the top selling categories and plan some shoots using that theme to go on.
Business, finance, healthcare, family are all good starting points.
So before you start shooting aimlessly, do your homework!

In the beginning.......

I graduated RIT in 1984 with a degree in professional photography and immediately embarked into a full time assistant position in Dallas, Tx. While assisting, I ran across many photographers who shot stock and after many conversations I had a strong desire to shoot stock. After investigating the top agencies and submission requirements, I postponed my interests for 20 years, big mistake!
With the advent of digital cameras and the progressive advances in image quality, combined with the ever falling prices of prosumer cameras, anyone can claim to be a photographer. Gone are the days of paying you dues as an assistant, just add a digital camera and your a photographer. What's funny is many of these instant photographers cannot even tell you what an f/stop is. Now that's scary! If I may be so bold as to offer up advice to people that want to be known as photographers, take the time to learn the technical aspects of your camera, lighting and photography in general.
In 2006, I came across an article on iStockphoto, my interests were renewed. With traditional stock houses accepting submissions only one time a year or having enough contributors at the time, iStockphoto made sense to me. I have always followed upcoming trends and tried to go in that direction, trying to maintain an edge ahead of the curve.
Many photographers claimed that there was no money in it, took up too much time or would not sacrifice their images for pennies on the dollar. Most of those images are still in file cabinets or on hard drives gathering dust. With a little initiative, these dormant images could be making money on a daily basis!
Case in point, top selling microstock photographer Yuri Arcurs has taken his career in stock photography to new heights. If you ever have doubts about making money in microstock, read the many posts about Yuri's success! If that doesn't give you some incentive then you should probably be looking at a different career.
So I started in 2006 and have put a few images up here and there and then started putting images up more often. Let me tell you that when you had to come up with 50 keywords for each image, it was very time consuming. You got a great rush out of your first sale and then realized it was only 33 cents on your end. I put up more images and got a few more sales but nothing consistent. Time passed and I sort of became disenchanted with the whole process. Then with the economy changing and more photographers entering the marketplace, I saw that this could become a great revenue stream if properly attended to.
If you want to be successful (like Yuri) then you have to eat, drink and sleep photography. If you approach it as a casual relationship you will get an equal return.
So in conclusion, you must first research the stock sites for what is now selling, plan each and every shoot, select the very best images, retouch any possible objections, keyword (very important) and submit all the time. If you think the image is just okay and you know you could do better, then don't submit it and create the better version. Stock image reviewers reject tons of images, so when you submit a substandard image, it not only waste your time but theirs as well creating a bottleneck causing longer approval times.
Welcome to the world of stock photography!