There has been a lot of negative press surrounding iStockphoto over the past year. First, they lowered some photographer’s commissions. Then, a few months later, Getty Images (iStock’s parent company) flooded iStock with photos from Getty. With a portfolio of 900 images, I saw my iStock earnings drop about 20% year over year. I became depressed about iStock’s future and reigned in my efforts as a contributor. Then, this spring, my istock portfolio took a real turn around. I started to get more downloads and my income went up. This turn of events was completely inexplicable. I hadn’t been uploading much to iStock. If anything my earnings should have been dropping. What was happening? Maybe it was a best match change or maybe the economy is turning around. No matter, I was inspired to redouble my microstock efforts.
With a fire in my belly I decided it was time to modernize my approach to iStock. My workflow was full of inefficiencies. It was time to ditch old habits and embrace some better practices. After years of procastinating I finally learned how to best use Adobe Bridge and I also started using DeepMeta (the wonderful and free iStock upload software).
In the spirit of kicking off the rust and learning some best iStock practices I came up with this list of ways to improve your istock performance. Some of these tips discuss time savings and efficient workflow while others show you the practices I’ve used over the years to build a profitable portfolio. So here it is… my ten ways to increase your istock photo earnings. As always, if you can think of anything I left out please leave a comment
1. Get Efficient with Bridge
I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I only recently taught myself how to use Adobe Bridge. Up until I learned Bridge I had been using Windows file viewer and the old drag and drop into Photoshop method. OMG, I can’t believe how many hours I must have wasted over the years. Bridge is an awesome tool for keeping your images organized. For example, I now use the Bridge star rating system when I first review a batch of photos. Then, when I have time to edit, I simply open mini Bridge and sort by star rating. There are all my best photos ready to edit — no more time wasted digging through the folder to find favorites. That’s just one aspect of Bridge that I find useful. Head over to YouTube if you want to learn Bridge. There are a bunch of excellent tutorials.
2. Stay Organized
My wife will tell you what a disaster my side of the closet is. In normal life I am a pretty messy guy, but when it comes to my photos I have a system to keep everything organized. It’s important to have an easy to understand system of organizing your photos. Otherwise, over the years it will become more and more difficult for you to keep a handle on your growing collection of images. Staying organized is essential for stock photographers. If you can’t find your images quickly there is a good chance they won’t get uploaded to iStock.
It’s up to you to develop your own organizational structure. Mine is pretty basic. I create a folder for each month and then inside that folder I create sub-folders with names I can easily search for. For example, this month’s folder is called June 2012. Inside the June 2012 folder I have subfolders called “Point Lobos Hike With Grandma”, “Santa Cruz Boardwalk”, “iPhone Pics and Videos” ect… When it comes time to archive my pics I can create easy checklists with months and years to make sure I don’t miss anything.
3. Use DeepMeta
Are you tired of iStock’s clunky upload interface? I was — so I downloaded DeepMeta. Using DeepMeta my uploading and keywording process takes half as long as it used to. This gives me more time to go out and shoot pictures and less time on my computer. DeepMeta is completely free. You should definitely check it. It takes an hour or so to figure out how to use DeepMeta, but once you have it figured out you won’t go back to uploading the old fashion way.
4. Take more photos
This tip is pretty obvious. The more pictures you take and upload the better your chances to make money at iStock. Of course, you don’t want to waste your time uploading garbage, but it is important that you always have an eye out for useful stock photos.
Two quick stories…
I took this picture of corn while switching drivers on a country road. My wife was tired of driving and we pulled over next to a cornfield to swap seats. On the way around the car I noticed that the corn would make a perfect stock photo. I reached back into the car and pulled my camera off the backseat. My wife thought I was nuts to waste time taking a picture of a cornfield. But, the 30 seconds spent capturing this photo has so far earned $550 in iStock royalties. Always bring your camera and always take lots of pictures.
This picture of the State Capital Building in Madison, Wisconsin is another big earner for me. We were in town visiting family and went out for lunch. Like always, I had my camera along — just in case. Our search for a restaurant took us past the capitol building. The light was perfect and the early summer flowers were in bloom. This picture is now a constant seller and has so far earned $530 for me. Not bad, I’m glad I took my camera to lunch that day.
5. Learn Photoshop
If you want to do iStock you need Photoshop, period. You also need to become efficient at Photoshop. If your Photoshop skills are weak I suggest hitting the books. The time you invest learning Photoshop pays healthy dividends in increased iStock earnings. Here are some of my favorite Photoshop Books:
6. Add Variety (He who has the widest net catches the most fish)
Most photographers have a specialty. Maybe you are a landscape photographer, or maybe your specialty is portraits or sports. That’s great. At iStock you want to go with your strengths. However, you also want make sure your portfolio is full of variety. The more wide ranging your subject matter the better your chances of finding a buyer for your pictures. My portfolio has everything from wilderness scenes to photos to government offices in downtown Washington DC. Some of my most successful images are not photos I would have taken for my own enjoyment. If you see something that looks like it would be good stock, take a picture and upload it!
7. Don’t Fear the Rejections
I hate used to hate iStock rejections. Now, I don’t care. I upload everything that I think is good. If they want to reject it I move on.
This is the photo that changed my opinion regarding rejections. Do you see anything in this pic that would get it rejected? How about the fact that half the frame is completely overexposed white area? I really debated uploading this picture because I was certain it would get the standard “overall lighting and composition” rejection. But, I liked the picture so much that in the end I decided to upload it anyways. Guess what? It made it through the inspection process. Someone at iStock actually has taste. And now, two years later this picture has earned me $420 dollars and it is still getting downloaded regularly. I could repeat this story for several HDR photos I have on iStock and a couple extreme edits. Who cares about rejection. Two pics that I was certain would be rejected are now in the iStock Vetta Collection. Upload and see what will happen. If you get rejected just forget about it and keep truckin.
8. Use Camera RAW to Reduce Artifacts
As long as we are talking about rejection, let’s discuss artifacting. Artifacts used to be my number one cause of rejection. In fact, it was so bad for me that I ended up developing a convoluted method to remove artifacts in Photoshop without losing details. I was really proud of my process and had much success using it, but now things have changed. Photoshop has evolved and getting rid of noise in photos is no longer a black art.
These days, just about the only noise reduction I use on my pictures is the noise reduction sliders within the Camera RAW converter. Starting with CS5, Adobe added the (almost magic) luminance noise reduction slider to the detail tab in ACR. This Photoshop innovation completely changed my workflow. My old method of noise reduction used to take 5-10 minutes per photo. Now, I can get better results in just a couple seconds via Camera RAW. If you are an iStock photographer, do yourself a favor and get a version of Photoshop that is CS5 or higher.
9. Create Image Sets
Another way to increase image views and potential sales at iStock is to create photo sets that can be displayed in the image description field of your istock photos.
For example, I have a bunch of house photos in my istock portfolio. I created a linked set of home photos that I can display inside the description box of all my individual home photos. When a potential costumer is searching for house photos and clicks on one of my images, they automatically see thumbnails of my best house photos. Maybe they will see something they like, maybe they will make multiple purchases.
Above is a set of stock photos of homes and neighborhoods. These are some of my better home photos. I attach this set of thumbnails to each house photo in my istock portfolio. On iStock each of the thumbnails links to the associated image. My blog isn’t that sophisticated yet. You’ll have to click on the link to see how the linked images work over at iStock.
Creating linked images easy. Simply use this UBB generator. Decide which photos you’d like to put in your set and then copy their image ID number into the UBB generator. Hit the “Go” button and then paste the resulting code into the description box for each photo you’d like to see display your newly created linked set.
10. Manage Your Time
For many of us iStock started as a hobby and isn’t our primary source of income. This can lead to kind of a lazy attitude towards iStock. That’s fine too if you don’t want iStock to ever move past the hobby stage. However, if you want to start earning serios dollars you have to start thinking like a business owner. The old addage “time is money” really applies to iStock. Always be on the lookout for how you can best leverage your time. It could be as simple as turning off your WiFi (so you don’t get distracted) while you finish processing a batch of photos for uploads. Or, it could be creative, like finding three extra photos on a location that you spent a lot of time traveling to. The beauty of iStock is you can turn your free time into dollars — use your time wisely.
*David is a California Photographer . You can order prints of the photos featured on this blog by clicking on the image or visit our website at photos4u2c.com Support this site by using one of my links to Amazon.com
. Thanks!
