Microstock Photography

172 Case Studies

Marianne shoots a lot of holiday images, people shots, and isolated

objects for microstock. I asked Marianne whether the microstock or

traditional libraries were more important to her. She told me that she

does not contribute to traditional libraries and thought the microstocks

were more important: “I believe there is room for both traditional and

microstock sites.”

Marianne uses a good-quality entry-level photographic kit of the

kind many enthusiast photographers might own. She also has a set

of studio lights, which she uses for her isolated image work. Her

computer is a PC. Marianne uses Photoshop as her image-editing soft-

ware and Adobe Lightroom.

Figure 10.5 shows Marianne’s total image uploads and her per-

month earnings in US dollars, based on an average over 3 months. I

have also extrapolated from these average per-month fi gures to arrive

at a theoretical yearly total (not necessarily Marianne’s actual annual

sales). I must emphasize that these and the other fi gures presented in

this chapter are just snapshots and will probably vary signifi cantly

over time—particularly as libraries expand and develop.

Wrap Up

Figure 10.6 presents the results of a survey I undertook in August 2007

of around 120 microstock photographers ranking key site features

131

(^395369)
645
769
540
(^393369)
285
416
14.3 22.5 36.7
66
23.7 10.2 3.7 8.8 8.5 2.5
171
91.7
440.4
792
284.4
122.4
44.4
105.6 102
30
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
Marianne - Images Average $ Per Month Annualized sales
FIGURE 10.5 Marianne, a retired secretary, started with the microstocks for some additional money and fun.