Make Money With Your Digital Camera

Is digital camera your passion? Have you been clicking away happily at everything or anything? Have you been impressed with all your photos? Consider making your digital camera and hobby into a money making opportunity. Your passion can make money for you. Give Freelance Digital Photography or Stock Photography a shot! You need no expensive photography equipment, no special printers, no special photography training or diplomas for stock photography.

What is stock photography? Your photographs are bought by a company and stored in a database. These photographs are then licensed to publishers, advertising agencies, and other companies for their use. There are a lot of people out there willing to pay for your hobby like magazines, newspaper, book publishers. Websites , the travel industry ,stock photography sites and postcard printers.

All you do need is a-

• Digital camera (minimum of 4 mega pixels) with 3X zoom.

• Access to the internet.

• A Light box. (A homemade light box tutorial here)

That's it!

You upload your digital photos to stock photo sites and you will earn money whenever someone downloads your photo by paying royalty to you. You can submit your images to more than one stock agency site and will earn with the same photographs all your lifetime. You will be allowed to sell the same photo a 'number of times'. Yes, every time a person purchases, your royalty will earn money for you.

Tips to sell photos successfully:

1. Enrol in Stock Photo Sites:

Register in a stock photography site which will act as an agent to market and sell your photo. Sign-up in at least 3 stock sites and earn from many stock sites at the same time.

2. Master your Digital Camera:

Read and understand the user manual of your camera. Try different modes and techniques with your digital cameras. Many professional photographers use simple Point and Click cameras to shoot close-up, macro photos. Set your camera to shoot the highest quality and largest size photos.

3. Learn about selling your photos:

You should research what sells and take those kinds of pictures. Learn how to sell and where to sell. Make sure you're sending in quality photos. Photographs with people are the highest selling stock photos.

Tips before sending in your photos to photo stock sites:

• Do not provide exclusive rights to anyone.

• Refer to the Terms and Conditions of the photo stock agencies.

• Get a Model Release signed from people who pose for your photos ,which is a no-objection certificate for using the photos commercially.

• All your pictures will be watermarked so no one can steal.

• Make sure that your image is original and truly copyrighted by you.

Don’t be disappointed if you are rejected in your early days due to poor quality, blur or not having commercial value. Don’t quit! Don’t give up! Keep practising! You will be successful in stock photography in no time!

Good luck and start earning!

Copyright © 2008 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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Top Stock Photography Sites

Your digital camera doesn't use film right? So, you can snap,click and shoot away as many pictures as you want till you get the right ones! In due course you will learn about lighting, backgrounds and staging your digital photos for better effect.

Few Pointers to be aware of before you submit your photos to photo stock sites:

• When you submit your application, you will have to submit a few sample images. Your photos will be gauged for quality.

• Shoot some sample images with bright light and preferably inside a photo light box.

• Always, always upload only the best images.

• Use relevant keywords. No matter how good your image is, if the keywords are bad, your image will not sell or be seen.

• Learn about the most in-demand image subjects and avoid wasting your time uploading the least requested photos.

The 5 top stock photography sites where you can exhibit your photography skill are:

1.Fotolia
Fotolia demand a minimum of 1600 x 1200 pixels for web use and 2272 x 1704 pixels or greater for print use. The ideal files should be at least 2000 x 3000 pixels.

2. Dreamstime

Dreamstime entail that the image be at least 3MP in size or more, it must in RGB JPG format only.

3. BigStockPhoto

They require you to take a Photographer Test after studying their Tutorial pages. If you pass you, then you can upload photos, which will be reviewed by the editors.

4. iStockPhoto

iStockPhoto stipulate that the images be in RGB JPG format and a large file. 300 dpi 5″ x 7″ is optimal. All files should be 1200 x 1600 pixels minimum - anything smaller will be automatically discarded.

5. ShutterStock

This site has a referral program that users can also earn from. Images must be at least 2.5 megapixel to be accepted. But new photographers’ minimum size is 4.0MP.

Two other great websites to consider are crestock.com and StockAndPrints.com.

When customers purchase and download your photos, you earn about 50% to 80%per photo as royalty.Payments are usually made via bank check, Paypal, and MoneyBookers.

Before submitting your photographs , improve their quality by using a good photo-editing program. You can crop. color, sharpen and so on, to tweak your images. Photoshop and Photoshop Elements are good programs for editing photos. GIMP is also a really good free software, which is compactable with both Windows and Mac.

Remember that your digital camera is a money making machine.

Good luck to your creative skill in the world of stock photography and reap in the money!

Copyright © 2008 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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