Make Money. How To Use Alamy To Sell Photographs

Using Photographic Image Stock Libraries To Provide an Income

Nov 10, 2008 Martin P Wilson

By creating stock photo images for Alamy patient and disciplined photographers can use their hobby to make money but it is not a "get rich quick" scheme

Any photographer wanting to make money should first master the technical aspects. With stock libraries, such as Alamy, that do not edit the photographer is wasting their own time if they submit technically poor images – they will either not pass quality control or sales will not reward the effort of preparing submissions.

Photographs are not sold but licensed for use; an important point as successful stock photography requires multiple sales to maximise income. Alamy takes perhaps the smallest commission (40%) and charges of any library that actively markets stock images.

Registration and Acceptance by Alamy

After initial registration, photographers are required to submit four sample images for checks on their technical quality. If these meet strict criteria detailed on the contributor page of the Alamy site the photographer can then upload images whenever ready.

Alamy requires images to be at least 48Mbytes, more than 16megapixels. As only top-end cameras will produce such files Alamy allows interpolation to 48-55Mbytes (16-18megapixels). To achieve that a camera of even 8megapixel is marginal and requires good technique both in-camera and post-production.

Have a Reliable Workflow for the Post-production Work on Photographs

An ideal work flow is to shoot RAW in camera, process (and resize if possible) to a 16bit TIF file, do final adjustments, clean dust marks (essential) save and then create submission files as high-quality (10-12) JPG files. JPG files lose information so it pays to work in a lossless format, such as TIF, until the final stage. Each edit and save of JPG will lose quality so shooting JPG requires exemplary camera technique as there is less opportunity to correct mistakes on the computer. The files submitted to Alamy should also not be sharpened as it should be done by the client.

Strict Quality Control with Zero-tolerance for Failure

Accepted contributors’ submissions are only sampled for technical quality but with a “zero tolerance” approach: if any image fails quality control then all images in the photographer’s submission queue will be rejected. So it is important to get it right and if a batch fails every image should be rechecked before resubmitting.

Accurate Keywords are Essential to Achieve a High Ranking for Good Sales

Assuming photographs are at least competent then keywording and captioning is the most important factor in achieving consistent sales. Apart from allowing clients to find images it also impacts the photographer’s Alamy Rank which determines where a photographers pictures appear in the many pages a search returns. Two main factors influence the ranking:

• Sales
• Click-Through Rate (CTR) – what percentage of a photographer’s pictures are clicked on to see a larger image.

To maximise ranking great pictures that meet clients needs are necessary for a sale. To help them be seen they should have:

• Comprehensive but tight keywords:
  • Complete so they are found by searches but moods and concepts should be included as well as the visible
  • Only include relevant keywords - marginal terms will generate spurious search hits and lower CTR
• Keep similar images to a minimum to reduce views without zooms which lower CTR and rank.

Accurate captions are important as many Alamy sales are for editorial use and captions will be needed. Add text data before submission as online tools are time consuming and it is better that the photographer's own copy has the caption and keywords for their own use.

Not a Way to Get Rich Quick: Sales Should Build Over Time so Patience Is Needed

Stock photography is for the patient and hard working. Sales take many months to become income and most stock images will never be licensed. The successful stock photographers thinks about client needs and shoots accordingly. They work hard to provide a consistent flow of new material because as well as patience it is also about numbers.

Stock Photography Advice and Membership Support Is Available

There is plenty of guidance on the Alamy web site with a step by step process and member services provide good support.

There are also forums where advice can be sought but it is strongly recommended that a newcomer with questions first search the forums and the Alamy site as most questions will have already been answered many times! Repeating such questions when a bit of work would have found the answer tests the patience of regulars who are otherwise free with good advice.

The copyright of the article Make Money. How To Use Alamy To Sell Photographs in Photography is owned by Martin P Wilson. Permission to republish Make Money. How To Use Alamy To Sell Photographs in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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