Part 3 - My Stock Photography Options

It's a new day, and a new stock photography site to evaluate. Today's choice? iStockphoto.com.

When I started reading the terms and conditions, I admit I was a little frightened. They are pages and pages (and pages and pages) long, or so it seemed. After calming down and taking a closer look, I realized that this site was simply more thorough than some of the other sites. This is not a bad thing.

On to the content:

1) Keyword "orchid": While most of the backgrounds are black or white, there are several multicolored backgrounds. There's potential here, but some of these arrangements are very "editorial", if that makes sense. Also, there isn't much experimentation regarding depth of field (where some flowers would appear sharp and in the foreground, while others are more blurred and in the background). I would likely prefer to go out and shoot new content before submitting any orchid shots to this website, except for:



2) Butterfly - Many of these shots are what I would classify as "cutesy". Some of my newer pictures could work here, including:



3) Abstract - not a fit at all.

4) Nature - I think my work is a little too "soft" for this category. So, I tried "flowers". Yeah, not so much, either.

5) Travel - Most definitely not.

Not willing to give up so easily, I flipped through some of the other categories. Architecture abstract? Maybe. Churches? Quite possible, something like this:



I didn't see any pictures like this at all. So, there's a chance there.

Overall, though, this was about a below average fit for me. I'd have to think about it.

Tomorrow - Shutterstock - did I save the best for last?

Part 2 - My Stock Photography Options

I kicked off this series earlier in the week to help me understand the potential market for my work. Today, I'll focus on Dreamstime and my stock photography options there.

I found the look and feel of the website to be a little strange (to me), honestly. It's not as user-friendly as the others. This is important because if it's difficult to navigate your way around, then it's probably not easy to buy the images you like, either.

However, my work might be a better fit here. While I would need to go out and shoot more content for submission to Bigstock, some of my existing work has a place here.

Examples:

Keyword "orchids" - while there were quite a few examples with pure black or pure white backgrounds (something I have explored in the past), there were some that did not. Some of my pictures are not crisp enough here, but overall, these pictures are more in line with what I do today.

Keyword "butterfly" - my best butterfly pictures are a good fit here, as well as some of my tier 2 - I think. The common element here is that the pictures are nice and crisp. There's a lot of leeway regarding the backgrounds.

The "abstract" category - there's potential in the "textures" category - I could submit my minerals and NYC building shots, as well as "colors" (since all of my work is quite colorful). Blur is an interesting one, but not a fit for me.

The "nature" category - also lots of options. Oceans, sunrises, sunsets, all a fit.

Finally, the "travel" category - my Syria pictures would look good here.

Naturally, seeing so much of my work as a fit here made me very suspicious. Did they pay any less than the other sites? There seems to be a wider range of earning options with Dreamstime. There's definitely more upside. Bigstock seems to have a model that is less complicated.

Anyway, some examples of pictures I would send here, in addition to yesterday's ideas:

... and others.

Tomorrow - iStockphoto.com and my thoughts.

My Stock Photography Options

This is proving to be quite a project. Over the next week, I'll cover the following sites (aside from Photographers' Direct, which I already covered before):

1) Bigstock

2) Dreamstime

3) iStockphoto.com

4) Shutterstock

My evaluation criteria will be the work they accept, and whether or not I feel my work fits that mold. I don't care as much about process, and most of the payouts are fairly standard. Once I've evaluated, I'll post a few examples of my work that might fit.

For today, though, I'll start with Bigstock. I was a little worried, at first, when I pulled up the top 500 downloaded images and didn't see any macro work. Before giving up, though, I decided to search by category. After looking at the top 500 pictures in the abstract, landscapes, and nature categories, well ... I felt a little discouraged, I admit. Finally, I searched for orchids, and found that the situation wasn't completely hopeless. However, I did notice that almost all of the pictures had white or black backgrounds. Most of my pictures don't.

Another keyword I chose was butterfly. This looked a lot more promising, actually. More so than I'd thought. Cathedrals, not so much. I'll need to look elsewhere. My work doesn't fit.

As for those that could be a fit for this site:



I wouldn't really consider submitting any of my orchids here. I might submit this flower picture:



But that's really it.

I've signed up, taken their tutorials and quizzes, and will ... set this aside for now. Tomorrow, I'l cover Dreamstime.