Tips To Sell Photos Online


By Alta Moreno

You can sell photos online and make pretty good money. However, this does not mean that you can sell any type of photos and make money. Understanding what can sell and what cannot sell is one of the key points that a photographer must understand about stock photography.

Stock Photography

What is stock photography? A stock photograph is one that a photographer can sell to a third party for specific uses. Basically a stock photo is a photo that you already have. All you need to do is find a buyer for it.

Advertising agencies, graphic artists, marketing professionals, designers, website owners, marketing brochures, and art directors are just some of the people who are interesting in buying stock photography. It is cheaper and convenient for them to buy stock photos rather than to hire a professional photographer to create a professional photo or image.

There is no doubt that there is a huge demand out there for stock photos. However, this does not mean that an advertisement professional or a graphic artist will buy photos of any type.

What Will Not Sell

As a stock photographer who wants to sell photos online, one of the first things that you must understand is what type of images are not in demand. If you are thinking that you can go around the town taking snaps of people and then sell them, you are absolutely wrong. Keep in mind that these professionals are looking for images that are commercially viable.

Images of your friends on vacation or your pet will also not sell. It does not matter how good your pictures are, if they do not depict a concept they will not sell. In order to sell photos, your images should depict generic objects, a particular concept, or emotion. Images of travel destinations can always find a buyer provided that the images capture the essence of the place.

Images with digital noises will not sell. Images taken with poor quality digital cameras will also not find many buyers. If you want to sell photography online, you must first invest in a good quality digital camera. When you are taking photos, remember that only well-lit, good quality and sharp images will sell.

Your photos should be nicely composed, clear, and free of digital noises. Most importantly, your images should be of high resolution. Over or under exposed photos will also not find any buyer. Images with heavy shadows are also rejected.

Images with copyright issues will not sell. If you are serious about selling photos online, you must learn in detail about copyright laws. First, you cannot sell photos that have been taken by someone else. Only the person who has taken the photos have license of the images.

If someone has hired you to take photos, then that person has the copyright over the images.

Photos that include artworks or famous landmarks can have copyright issues. Art work is usually a copyright material. This means that you cannot sell a photo containing an image of an art work.

Images which are offensive, obscene, vulgar, or degrading often do not find any buyer. Therefore, avoid photos that can offend the sentiments of a reasonable person.

If you keep in mind what type of images will not sell, you will be able to come up with photos which will have a good chance of getting buyers. Once you have mastered the knowledge of what sells and what does not, you will be able to sell photos online and make good money. 

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