Microstock Photography

16 How to Make Dollars from Cents

shop CS2 (noise reduction, perspective correction, copyright logo

removal). That one shot has more than paid for the camera that took

it. You don’t need expensive equipment (although good equipment

helps); you just need to know how to use what you have. Who said

you can’t earn dollars from cents?!

In Chapter 3, we’ll consider why this image has been so successful,

what images are generally likely to be winners, and what images may

be losers. But next up in this chapter, we consider the different types

of microstock sites and their pros and cons, with reference to specifi c

examples.

Sales Models: The Choices

The way the microstocks sell images is highly relevant to both pho-

tographers and photo buyers. There are broadly three different stan-

dard microstock sales models to consider:

1. Credit package (single sale) sites, where buyers purchase images singly, usually
   using credits purchased in advance


2. Subscription sale sites, where buyers purchase a subscription and can then down-
   load a set number of images overall and per day during the subscription period


3. Hybrid sites, which combine the best of both worlds
   Let’s look in more detail at how four of the leading microstock
   libraries—Dreamstime, Shutterstock, iStockphoto, and Fotolia—sell
   images. I have chosen these libraries because they are among the
   largest and they have proven track records, but that is not to say other
   libraries are not as good or better choices for you. A list of leading
   microstock sites is presented in Appendix 1 so that you can compare
   them online. Please bear in mind that these packages are liable to
   change and are provided as examples only.

DREAMSTIME

We’ll start with Dreamstime (www.dreamstime.com), a hybrid library,

offering buyers the choice of single-image downloads paid for with

credits or a subscription. Dreamstime started as a royalty-free stock

photography Web site in 2000, selling images on compact discs. It

relaunched in March 2004 as a microstock site, and it has now grown

to become one of the larger and more successful sites. As with all

microstocks, it relies upon contributing photographers to provide the

content through the online Web site and FTP upload, with a present

minimum fi le size of 3 MP.

At the time of this writing, Dreamstime offers two purchase options.

You can buy credit packages of between 20 and 130 credits, starting

at $19.99 for a 20-credit package and ending at $99.99 for 130

credits (Figure 2.3). There is also a higher discount available using