Photographer

                    Tips for photographer to earn from internet

There is no doubt that the Internet has made many things easier, simpler and affordable. One of the biggest benefits that the Internet provides is in the acquiring of images from all over the world. In the pre-Internet era if someone needed a photograph he or she either had to go out and shoot it or hire an expensive photographer to capture that. Besides that, small companies couldn’t afford to hire such expensive models or venues but still desired to get hold of some great images. On the other hand, photographers with great talent and some priceless photographs, roamed around in search of buyers for their photographs without any results. The solution to both these problems lied in one service which we now know as stock photography. This platform is beneficial for both buyers and sellers of stock photographs.

Stock photography existed long before the Internet was invented. In fact this is as old as the print media when freelance photographers conveniently sold their photographs for use in newspapers, magazines and for advertising in different medias.

Basically stock photography is the supply of photograph’s licensed for specific uses. A person or a company can use a photograph for a specified purpose for a specified period without actually owning that photograph. This brings the cost of a photograph to a considerably lower price. The photographer or the previous owner continues to own the ownership of the picture.

Online Stock Photography

The basic idea behind the online photography was to make available large amount of images, illustrations and flash and video clips to designers, advertisers, entrepreneurs and bloggers. To make their web pages and blogs look attractive and to help them advertise and tell their story in an easier and convenient manner.

Users

Most stock photo providers keep photos, illustrations, animations and audio and video clips in bulk so that their members can get what they want from one location. The usual users of these images are advertisers, bloggers and those who require images for their online businesses.

At the other end there are photographers, artists, animators, flash designers, Photoshop experts and teams working to make great quality video and audio clips. These sites provide them the platform to exhibit their talent and work of art and get them a fair price for it in the long run. The creators remain the owners and have the opportunity to upload their work at more than one site for better and wider projection of their work.

Some terms used in stock photography

Like any specialized field, stock photography has its terms which can be misleading if someone doesn’t know their meanings and implications. This will help in deciding what type of rights you would like to have over an image that you decide to choose for you.

Royalty Free

This doesn’t mean that the image is free for use, rather it implicates that the user can reuse multiple times after paying for it just once. The royalty free image cannot be bounded by a time limit and at the same time no one can have exclusive rights on its usage. But the license can limit its number of reprints if being printed.

Rights-managed or licensed images

If a company wants exclusive rights over an image then either they produce an image through an in house photographer or get a licensed image which has a lot of other limitations on its use like usage, duration, number of allowable prints, area or territory where it would be used, size and its exclusivity.

How to get stock photos

Every day millions of people search for images. Some look for free to use images while others look for some images which they can put to use exclusively. There are basically two ways to get stock photos. One is getting free to use photos which fall in the public domain category. Such images are offered by the owners for free use basically for their advertisement or are shared by amateur photo enthusiasts who prefer to get appreciation for their work and not money. There are many sites where these photos are shared and anyone can get them for free. Here you will only get the low resolution images which do not possess the quality that is required if anyone intends using them professionally.

But if you want to use a high resolution images use a paid site which can help you get images and other forms of media at a very affordable price.

Pricing

The rates vary from site to site and some sites offer different packages and some offer monthly subscriptions for the ease of their users. The price per image can be as low as under $1 and can go as high as $250. This depends upon the quality and its exclusivity. For other media like animation and audio clips the price starts from $2 and up and for the video clips the price starts from $20 and up depending upon the quality, duration and other factors. The monthly subscription packages start from $200 to $250 per month which allows users to download and freely use around 500 to 800 images per month. There are packages which cost higher but give them more right over the photo or media usage such as allow users even to resell the photos.

If you are interested in making stock photography your hobby or your business there are a lot of avenues open for you to try. You can make money through this and also become popular if you have great unique images and other media on your site.




Below is a list with most popular Stock photography sites to help you get started.