In this beginners guide tutorial, we show how to become a Shutterstock contributor to sell photos online to make money. We go over tips and strategies we personally use to score higher approval rates for our stock images. We also share our experience how we improved our photography and Photoshop skills.
Stock photography is a business that can provide a passive income stream and financial freedom in 2023. However, it is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It takes a lot of time, patience and experience to produce a large portfolio of stock content to earn a living.
My wife and I have been doing stock photography as a full-time business since 2015. It took us almost 7 years to have 40,000+ images and 6,000+ videos to earn a living. Our biggest advice is to be patient and keep on submitting!
You can read our blog post on this topic at: [ Ссылка ]
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Shutterstock is the best place to sell photos online. To become a Shutterstock Contributor:
► Step 1: Sign up link: [ Ссылка ].
Provide your name/email/address.
► Step 2: Fill our the required tax and payment information
► Step 3: Submit your first stock media files
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To succeed as a stock photographer, there are certain skills that you need to master:
► Skill #1: See Creatively. You need know how to compose and properly expose your photos. We personally read books by Bryan Peterson, who is a successful photographer, runs his own photography school and published many books since 1988. My all-time favorites by Bryan are:
- "Learning to See Creatively": [ Ссылка ]
- "Understanding Exposure": [ Ссылка ]
- "Understanding Composition": [ Ссылка ]
- "Understanding Close-Up Photography": [ Ссылка ]
- All books by Bryan Peterson: [ Ссылка ]
► Skill #2: Master Photo Editing. You will need to learn to edit photos. We use Adobe Photoshop/Camera Raw/Bridge to edit/manage our photos. You can use free trial for Adobe Photoshop at: [ Ссылка ] (link to Adobe Photoshop)
We watched classes by CreativeLive at [ Ссылка ] to boost our Photoshop skills. Our favorite classes are:
- "Adobe Photoshop: The Complete Guide Bootcamp" by Ben Willmore: [ Ссылка ]
- "Fundamentals of Photography" by John Greengo: [ Ссылка ]
► Skill #3: Properly Title, Keyword Content. These are very important for discovery of your photos. We made a comprehensive beginners guide at: [ Ссылка ]
You will also need to supply your keywords, title/description to stock photo platforms. Do not copy and paste this data manually. We made tutorials how to do so efficiently with the free ExifTool program. Other methods are Adobe Bridge and upload CSV metadata. Here are the tutorials on this topic:
► Embed Metadata in Adobe Bridge: [ Ссылка ]
► Embed Metadata with ExifTool:
- MacOS: [ Ссылка ]
- Windows: [ Ссылка ]
► Use Upload CSV Metadata file: [ Ссылка ]
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The common Shutterstock rejection reasons: (1) Focus, (2) Noise, (3) Exposure. To deal with it, we use Photoshop plugins that noticeably improve our approval rates on stock photo platforms. We use Topaz Labs products:
► Topaz Sharpen AI: [ Ссылка ]
► Topaz Denoise AI: [ Ссылка ]
We also use DxO Nik Collection to give a color punch to our photos: [ Ссылка ] (30-day free trial included).
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Other Resources:
► Give number names/track your images in spreadsheet: [ Ссылка ]
► Upload content with free FileZilla: [ Ссылка ]
► Easy Release to manage releases: [ Ссылка ]
► Our video on cons of stock photography: [ Ссылка ]
► Our video on pros of stock photography: [ Ссылка ]
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Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
00:41 - Shutterstock Contributor Sign up
01:23 - How to Deal With Rejections (noise, sharpness, exposure)
08:11 - Title, Keyword Images
10:57 - Upload, Submit, Resubmit
14:02 - Shutterstock Contributor Earnings
15:53 - See Creatively, Photoshop
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Subscribe to our channel @BlokhinFilms to learn how to succeed in stock photography.
#stockphotography #stockphotographer #stockphotos
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