Good job, Raul. The agencies have found people willing to work for crumbs as well as people who have other sources of income and are hungrier for 'likes' (what they think of as validation) than for a fair deal. Agencies will continue to squeeze people like lemons as long as contributors are content to view themselves as the main ingredient of a lemonade that makes others money and don't care enough to own their lemonade stand. If you don't value your work and virtually give it away, why should others be any different? If you are willing to believe that you can make money on volume (think working 24 hours a day for 1/3 the wage instead of 8 and arguing they are equivalent) rather than by each submission being fairly valued, and are willing to act accordingly, why would anybody try to stop you and not benefit from your misplaced generosity? While agencies are part of the problem, contributors' behaviors are certainly the main enablers of the situation. Again, good job
Thanks Dario! Neighborhood kids making lemonade are most assuredly earning a higher RPD than most stockers these days.🤣 Unfortunately, we are our own worst enemy!😤
Sr. Rodriguez, estamos en la misma trinchera, disparando con pocas balas debajo de un bombardeo. Me encanta su preciso diagnóstico de la enfermedad que estamos padeciendo en contra de nuestra voluntad. Al igual que ud. trato de hacer resistencia a toda costa por el amor que le tenemos a lo que hacemos, sin importar el desprecio que nos hacen constantemente las agencias y los bancos de imágenes. Estoy tratando de re orientar mi carrera para no depender de los caprichos bursátiles de los de arriba. Es triste lo que nos viene encima pero dejaremos de lado lo que forma parte de nuestra vida creativa. Un saludo, Chuyn
Raul, excellent analysis of how you see the market. I could relate to your views and felt your thoughts and ideas encapsulated a lot of what I am thinking about as a “Rookie”. I contribute to 3 agencies and Shutterstock which seems to pay the least gives me the most downloads. It’s too early to tell whether this will become a viable source of alternative income to me but my projections indicate that if I grow my portfolio it may do so. I agree the agencies models will adapt and change and it’s hard to project how as contributors we will be affected, but I feel as along as we stay abreast with changing technologies we have a chance I.e. your mention of drone photography. To sum up, for me right now, stock photography is just one aspect of my passion for photography and on a recent visit to the UK, I happily snapped away and looking forward to uploading some of my best images. By the way 3 years ago I visited my father in a historical town in the UK. I had my Fuji xt1 with my prime 27 ml lens only. Of all the photos I uploaded, only one never sold, two of them have sold around a combined 60 plus times and continue to sell. This gives me confidence. Thanks for a great article.
Thank you Mark! Sounds like you are enjoying the experience - for me that’s what really counts. Wishing you lots of luck with plenty of great shots! Check out some of my stock tips videos for potential ideas to help grow your portfolio and sales potential 👍😊
This man have really quality content always love to see this man talking about stock photography 💛 Hello sir, Can you make a video on how much you earned through stock photography in 14 years and what is your highest profitable year and which year was Lowest in earning from stock photography...
Well thought out Raul. I don't disagree, although i would call the bottom of your pyramid 'hobbyists' rather than rookies. There are lots of people that are pretty good at microstock (i.e not rookies) but won't move up into the 'higher levels' simply because we do this as a hobby and aren't looking for more. It will be interesting how things look in a few years that's for sure.
Thant is a great video. I appreciate the effort you put into it. I am honestly very discouraged to upload since sales decreases so much and even when I get a sale it is so low. I don't have a big portfolio but still. I have to admit though, I am a rookie based on the pyramid. My photos are not bad but they are not great yet.
What has helped me tremendously is the diversification of my portfolio. I’ve shot many stock categories that help deliver consistent sales. I have the advantage of having a relatively large portfolio. Unfortunately, as a rookie you don’t have that advantage, particularly if the portfolio is limited to a specialized category. Therefore you will feel the reduction in commissions even more.
@@photographybyraul true! I am trying to upload more regardless of trends or topics. Maybe that is not so good but it is what i am doing at the moment. Thank you for your help.
Good stuff Raul!.....defintiely food for thought and it will be ihnteresting to see how stock companies can maintain by lowering creator comissions. :)
Excellent analysis. I have been a Stock contributor for 10 years now and the last few years’ downloads amounting to 00.2 cents or less are very discouraging. Is it worth the time to capture, edit, upload, keyword, etc.?
Thank you John. There is still money to be made with stock as long as the content is of high quality and a high number of downloads are required for it to become cost beneficial. It’s purely a numbers game given the current commission structure in the industry. Veteran contributors with large and relatively high quality portfolios can still generate reliable passive income. However, if you have a low average RPD and very few downloads you would earn higher income waiting tables or flipping burgers. Just my humble opinion. Best of luck! 👍😊
Maybe not completely dead but it's not worth it at all anymore. I had more sales when I started a year ago, I had $5 per month on Shutterstock with around 100 photos uploaded, now with 700 photos I barely get $1. So i stopped uploading, with 1000+ photos I'd probably have less than a dollar so ....
You content is well put together. You organize it well. I was wondering, do you do macro photography? Do you use a macro lens or extension tubes? Diffusers? What time of day is best?
Thank you David. Yes, I shoot macro. I have the Tamron 90 f/2.8 Di Macro lens. Excellent macro lens. I also have extension tubes and a macro rail. As far as time of day it really depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. I’ve shot macro in the studio as well as outdoors with diffusers. The golden hour is always great but you can shoot macro anytime of day as long as you have the right equipment to shape the light.
Thanks David! By the way, I have a video about one of my worst performing stock photography categories, flowers. All the shots from that video were taken with my macro lens. Best wishes!
Great video. I think the Stock market will die out for the contributor (in time). We will be replaced by AI for a lot of photography assignments, especially stock.
Great video as always I was having a look at 'Visual China Group' but I don't see any reviews about it. Do you think it could be good site for contributors to outside of China?
Thanks! I’m not aware of the VCG contributor sign up process. VCG does have a licensing deal with Getty Images to sell their content in those markets. I’m guessing if you’re a Getty contributor you might be able to sell your content through their partner program.
If the licensing deal is through a partner portal you probably wouldn’t see them on VCG. I use Deepmeta for my iStock uploads and I’m seeing lots of sales from China designated as Partner Portal although I can’t confirm these sales are VCG related. IStock would need to confirm.
Okay so I’m a Grinder and proud of it. Yes, I will still be grinding away at this game for a while longer. I’ve gotten to the point that I can make a good extra income for my retirement. It’s a hobby that pays. I think that what dissatisfied stock contributors should remember is the this is a business base on time and volume. One must put in the time and have a large volume of images if they want to make money. For some working pro photographers, they might not have the time to create a volume portfolio for stock site. Their time might be better served working on higher paying gigs. Overall, stock photography is alive; it just might not be for every photographer.
Absolutely agree Felipe my fellow Grinder. Diversification of your portfolio is a must if your content is not of the highest quality just to be able to get a decent amount of passive income. Fortunately, I’ve built up a relatively large portfolio but it’s a whole different story for newcomers to Stock. Many of my younger subscribers are very frustrated and questioning if they should continue. The cream always rises to the top but the good ole days with high RPDs are a distant memory. Make stock what you want it to be.😊
Good question. AI will provide a new sales channel for the agencies that choose to explore the new technologies. Some are beginning to formulate commission structure for the content creators. Stay tuned!
Hola Raul! Srock ph could be very frustated sometimes. I´m a latin contributor for Adobe, Istock and SS and even though my port is about 1k pics the returns just get a few dollars monthly and many times we´re shotting just for pennies. A very weird point for me is the fact that into the webinars and briefs that agencies are offering we are demanded to shoot the most profitabe subject: PEOPLE. The big trend acording to them are: 1- LGTBQ 2- DISABILITIES 3- DIVERSITY/PLUS SIZE WOMEN and 4- ETHNIC... but... looking at certain reviews on youtube I see a variety of landscpae, plenty of common stuff (a can, a book, a piece of paper, etc), textures, pets, simple subjects on white backgrounds, etc, etc, etc.... It´s VERY confused and annoying to put such tremendous effort into this bizz. Salud!
Hola Sol. Entiendo perfectamente su frustración! Es muy difícil en esta época para todos pero especialmente los “Rookies.” Los ganadores del content de los trends son solamente las agencias. En mi opinión diversificación del portfolio es muy importante para mantener el volume de downloads. Enjoy the Ride y buena suerte!
I don't think you understood what people were talking about. Nobody was saying that the agencies are not making money. People were talking about the little money that they were making selling the images. That graph that shows the growth of the market means nothing to the content creators because they are getting less and less each year for their work.
I understand clearly what people are talking about since I'm one of those experiencing the decline in income. That's why I dedicated the second half of the video describing the Contributor pyramid. There are plenty of videos out there outlining contributor sales. This video was focused on the industry from the Agency and Contributor perspective. Did you see the entire video? Did you miss the part where I ask “Is Stock Photography Dead for the Contributor?”
Preproduction: 1 hour; production: 1 hour; post-production: 1 hour. Video sales commission: $1. Sustainable? If only 1 sale, not sustainable. If 1000 sales, very sustainable.
Great video. I still sell stock photography with 3 companies. My images on Shutterstock don't sell well, but iStock/Getty & Adobe are much better
Thanks! Best wishes and best of luck with your stock sales 😊👍
Good job, Raul. The agencies have found people willing to work for crumbs as well as people who have other sources of income and are hungrier for 'likes' (what they think of as validation) than for a fair deal. Agencies will continue to squeeze people like lemons as long as contributors are content to view themselves as the main ingredient of a lemonade that makes others money and don't care enough to own their lemonade stand. If you don't value your work and virtually give it away, why should others be any different? If you are willing to believe that you can make money on volume (think working 24 hours a day for 1/3 the wage instead of 8 and arguing they are equivalent) rather than by each submission being fairly valued, and are willing to act accordingly, why would anybody try to stop you and not benefit from your misplaced generosity? While agencies are part of the problem, contributors' behaviors are certainly the main enablers of the situation. Again, good job
Thanks Dario! Neighborhood kids making lemonade are most assuredly earning a higher RPD than most stockers these days.🤣 Unfortunately, we are our own worst enemy!😤
well state. I have dumped at least five agencies within the last few years due to paying horrible. We all know the agencies that pay a dime or less.
Sr. Rodriguez, estamos en la misma trinchera, disparando con pocas balas debajo de un bombardeo. Me encanta su preciso diagnóstico de la enfermedad que estamos padeciendo en contra de nuestra voluntad. Al igual que ud. trato de hacer resistencia a toda costa por el amor que le tenemos a lo que hacemos, sin importar el desprecio que nos hacen constantemente las agencias y los bancos de imágenes. Estoy tratando de re orientar mi carrera para no depender de los caprichos bursátiles de los de arriba. Es triste lo que nos viene encima pero dejaremos de lado lo que forma parte de nuestra vida creativa. Un saludo, Chuyn
Hola Oscar. Gracias. Si, es muy triste la situación. Lamentablemente el orgullo de los creativos esta falleciendo cada día más! Saludos, Raúl 🙏
the BEST objective view/analysis here in UT ...hands down....thanks for your objectivity!!!
Thank you Herberto! I spent a great deal of time analyzing and have felt first hand the pain of the Contributors. Best wishes 😊👍
Great video Raul! You really captured the essence of the current state of stock photography. I particularly liked your Contributor Pyramid! Great job!
Thank you Joe! 😊👍
Raul, excellent analysis of how you see the market. I could relate to your views and felt your thoughts and ideas encapsulated a lot of what I am thinking about as a “Rookie”.
I contribute to 3 agencies and Shutterstock which seems to pay the least gives me the most downloads. It’s too early to tell whether this will become a viable source of alternative income to me but my projections indicate that if I grow my portfolio it may do so. I agree the agencies models will adapt and change and it’s hard to project how as contributors we will be affected, but I feel as along as we stay abreast with changing technologies we have a chance I.e. your mention of drone photography. To sum up, for me right now, stock photography is just one aspect of my passion for photography and on a recent visit to the UK, I happily snapped away and looking forward to uploading some of my best images. By the way 3 years ago I visited my father in a historical town in the UK. I had my Fuji xt1 with my prime 27 ml lens only. Of all the photos I uploaded, only one never sold, two of them have sold around a combined 60 plus times and continue to sell. This gives me confidence. Thanks for a great article.
Thank you Mark! Sounds like you are enjoying the experience - for me that’s what really counts. Wishing you lots of luck with plenty of great shots! Check out some of my stock tips videos for potential ideas to help grow your portfolio and sales potential 👍😊
Excellent analysis! Thank you for taking the time to make this video.
As for me... I'm still in the "having fun" phase :)
Enjoy your weekend!
Thank you Marta! Keep having fun and enjoy the ride! 😊
This man have really quality content always love to see this man talking about stock photography 💛
Hello sir,
Can you make a video on how much you earned through stock photography in 14 years and what is your highest profitable year and which year was Lowest in earning from stock photography...
Thank you Sachin! 👍😊
Well thought out Raul. I don't disagree, although i would call the bottom of your pyramid 'hobbyists' rather than rookies. There are lots of people that are pretty good at microstock (i.e not rookies) but won't move up into the 'higher levels' simply because we do this as a hobby and aren't looking for more. It will be interesting how things look in a few years that's for sure.
Thanks Jeff! I like the sound of Rookie better since it denotes someone new to the job or venture but I agree with your observation.😊👍
Thant is a great video. I appreciate the effort you put into it. I am honestly very discouraged to upload since sales decreases so much and even when I get a sale it is so low. I don't have a big portfolio but still. I have to admit though, I am a rookie based on the pyramid. My photos are not bad but they are not great yet.
Thank you Dina! Yes, it is very discouraging. Particularly when you know your content is of high quality yet the sales are so low. I understand 🙁
@@photographybyraul @Raul Rodriguez Exactly. The return doesn't reflect the amount of effort I put into it even for a rookie.
What has helped me tremendously is the diversification of my portfolio. I’ve shot many stock categories that help deliver consistent sales. I have the advantage of having a relatively large portfolio. Unfortunately, as a rookie you don’t have that advantage, particularly if the portfolio is limited to a specialized category. Therefore you will feel the reduction in commissions even more.
@@photographybyraul true! I am trying to upload more regardless of trends or topics. Maybe that is not so good but it is what i am doing at the moment. Thank you for your help.
Wishing you the very best Dina! 🤗🙏👍
Good stuff Raul!.....defintiely food for thought and it will be ihnteresting to see how stock companies can maintain by lowering creator comissions. :)
Thank Arthur. Yes it will be interesting. 👍😊
Excellent video Raul, Thank You for good morning coffee time.
Thank you Miro! 😊👍☕️
Thanks for perfect information about this industry 👍👍👍
Thanks 👍😊
Thank you very much for this intelligent analysis of the stock photography market. I'm also a mid-level Grinder as you are.
Thank you Andreas! Wishing you the very best! 👍😊
Thank you!
You're welcome! And thanks for subscribing 😊👍
Great info. Thanks Raul!
Thank you Bakhrom! 😊👍
Interesting video.
Excellent analysis. I have been a Stock contributor for 10 years now and the last few years’ downloads amounting to 00.2 cents or less are very discouraging. Is it worth the time to capture, edit, upload, keyword, etc.?
Thank you John. There is still money to be made with stock as long as the content is of high quality and a high number of downloads are required for it to become cost beneficial. It’s purely a numbers game given the current commission structure in the industry. Veteran contributors with large and relatively high quality portfolios can still generate reliable passive income. However, if you have a low average RPD and very few downloads you would earn higher income waiting tables or flipping burgers. Just my humble opinion. Best of luck! 👍😊
Maybe not completely dead but it's not worth it at all anymore. I had more sales when I started a year ago, I had $5 per month on Shutterstock with around 100 photos uploaded, now with 700 photos I barely get $1. So i stopped uploading, with 1000+ photos I'd probably have less than a dollar so ....
You content is well put together. You organize it well. I was wondering, do you do macro photography? Do you use a macro lens or extension tubes? Diffusers? What time of day is best?
Thank you David. Yes, I shoot macro. I have the Tamron 90 f/2.8 Di Macro lens. Excellent macro lens. I also have extension tubes and a macro rail. As far as time of day it really depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. I’ve shot macro in the studio as well as outdoors with diffusers. The golden hour is always great but you can shoot macro anytime of day as long as you have the right equipment to shape the light.
@@photographybyraul thanks for the info. Keep up the great work!
Thanks David! By the way, I have a video about one of my worst performing stock photography categories, flowers. All the shots from that video were taken with my macro lens. Best wishes!
@@photographybyraul lol, what a coincidence, I'm currently watching that one this instant.
Great video. I think the Stock market will die out for the contributor (in time). We will be replaced by AI for a lot of photography assignments, especially stock.
good analysis 👍
Thank you! 😊
YES
Great video as always I was having a look at 'Visual China Group' but I don't see any reviews about it.
Do you think it could be good site for contributors to outside of China?
Thanks! I’m not aware of the VCG contributor sign up process. VCG does have a licensing deal with Getty Images to sell their content in those markets. I’m guessing if you’re a Getty contributor you might be able to sell your content through their partner program.
@@photographybyraul i have a few on istock but don't see them on VCG
If the licensing deal is through a partner portal you probably wouldn’t see them on VCG. I use Deepmeta for my iStock uploads and I’m seeing lots of sales from China designated as Partner Portal although I can’t confirm these sales are VCG related. IStock would need to confirm.
@@photographybyraul thanks,
Okay so I’m a Grinder and proud of it. Yes, I will still be grinding away at this game for a while longer. I’ve gotten to the point that I can make a good extra income for my retirement. It’s a hobby that pays. I think that what dissatisfied stock contributors should remember is the this is a business base on time and volume. One must put in the time and have a large volume of images if they want to make money. For some working pro photographers, they might not have the time to create a volume portfolio for stock site. Their time might be better served working on higher paying gigs. Overall, stock photography is alive; it just might not be for every photographer.
Absolutely agree Felipe my fellow Grinder. Diversification of your portfolio is a must if your content is not of the highest quality just to be able to get a decent amount of passive income. Fortunately, I’ve built up a relatively large portfolio but it’s a whole different story for newcomers to Stock. Many of my younger subscribers are very frustrated and questioning if they should continue. The cream always rises to the top but the good ole days with high RPDs are a distant memory. Make stock what you want it to be.😊
👏👏👏
Does this analysis still hold true after the latest breakthrough in AI Art (Midjourney, etc.)?
Good question. AI will provide a new sales channel for the agencies that choose to explore the new technologies. Some are beginning to formulate commission structure for the content creators. Stay tuned!
Hola Raul! Srock ph could be very frustated sometimes. I´m a latin contributor for Adobe, Istock and SS and even though my port is about 1k pics the returns just get a few dollars monthly and many times we´re shotting just for pennies. A very weird point for me is the fact that into the webinars and briefs that agencies are offering we are demanded to shoot the most profitabe subject: PEOPLE. The big trend acording to them are: 1- LGTBQ 2- DISABILITIES 3- DIVERSITY/PLUS SIZE WOMEN and 4- ETHNIC... but... looking at certain reviews on youtube I see a variety of landscpae, plenty of common stuff (a can, a book, a piece of paper, etc), textures, pets, simple subjects on white backgrounds, etc, etc, etc.... It´s VERY confused and annoying to put such tremendous effort into this bizz. Salud!
Hola Sol. Entiendo perfectamente su frustración! Es muy difícil en esta época para todos pero especialmente los “Rookies.” Los ganadores del content de los trends son solamente las agencias. En mi opinión diversificación del portfolio es muy importante para mantener el volume de downloads. Enjoy the Ride y buena suerte!
With the amount of stock photos available and the advent of AI I suspect its going to be a hard row for many photographers in the future
It’s definitely an uphill struggle with no relief in sight! 🥴
I don't think you understood what people were talking about.
Nobody was saying that the agencies are not making money. People were talking about the little money that they were making selling the images.
That graph that shows the growth of the market means nothing to the content creators because they are getting less and less each year for their work.
I understand clearly what people are talking about since I'm one of those experiencing the decline in income. That's why I dedicated the second half of the video describing the Contributor pyramid. There are plenty of videos out there outlining contributor sales. This video was focused on the industry from the Agency and Contributor perspective. Did you see the entire video? Did you miss the part where I ask “Is Stock Photography Dead for the Contributor?”
Hi from 2023. AI is here to change the stock photography
🙄👌👍👍👍👍🤔👋👋
Seems to be. Question is: Is stock VIDEOGRAPHY dead?
Preproduction: 1 hour; production: 1 hour; post-production: 1 hour. Video sales commission: $1. Sustainable? If only 1 sale, not sustainable. If 1000 sales, very sustainable.
Thanks for the video but intros are dead in 2023 . No need for that!
Well it’s a good thing it’s a 2022 video! 🤣
I liked the intro