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How to sell your pictures on Getty Images with EyeEm

Becoming a Getty Images contributor is very difficult, but with EyeEm, it’s possible to do it. Find out if this Microstock agency is worth your time.

how to sell your pictures on eyeem with getty images

NEWS: Eyeem has been bought by Freepik after filing for bankruptcy. Here more info

Selling your pictures is a very interesting idea to make money for those who want to become full-time photographers and those who want to be digital nomads. But it’s also a good option if you want to make extra monthly money and already have a full-time job.

Unfortunately, most photographers who approach the world of microstock through sites such as Shutterstock, Dreamstime, or Adobe Stock have the wrong expectations, get discouraged, and quit after a short time.

Some people expect to make a lot of money quickly, but, as I have explained, this is not possible. Other people approach the microstock with little humility, considering themselves the best photographers in the world because they won some online photo contests. Microstock agencies have very different standards, and the result is that after a brief period of enthusiasm, they quit as well.

That being said, some time ago, I talked about a site that offered a different approach to the traditional Microstock agencies: Imagebrief. Instead of uploading thousands of photos, Imagebrief allowed you to receive customer requests directly via email. Despite the very good initial premise (50% commission and extremely high sales prices for the photos), Imagebrief unfortunately failed and went bankrupt.

Another agency I’m following with interest is EyeEm. I say with interest because in this case, the premises are more than good: commissions of 50% and the possibility of selling your pictures on Getty Images (as well as on Alamy).

It seems like a very good agency, but is it that good? Is it worth trying it? Here are my opinions based on my experience with this agency.

Selling pictures on EyeEm: how does it work?

sell picture on getty images

EyeEm wasn’t originally developed to work as a classic microstock website but was born as an App to sell pictures taken with a smartphone. It’s now possible to sell pictures taken with a regular camera by uploading them to their website.

EyeEm is a mix of social media and a stock agency. You can take photos through the phone, edit them using the filters provided by the app, and share them with your followers to get some likes (though, as far as I understand, they are completely useless for increasing your sales). EyeEm defines itself as a network of professional photographers or, in other words, people who want to make money by selling their pictures.

There are three ways to sell your pictures with EyeEm:

vendere foto su getty images

There are some briefs or “Missions” where the customer asks for specific images he needs.

vendere foto con getty images

There is a “Market” just like any other microstock agency where the customers can look for a picture by browsing among the thousands of images in EyeEm’s database.

recensione a eyeem

Finally, there is the opportunity that perhaps most photographers are most interested in selling your pictures on Getty Images. To be completely clear, you won’t be able to upload your pictures directly to the Getty Images website, but EyeEm will upload your approved images to Getty for you.

It works in this way: once you upload your batch to EyeEm, the curators will choose the photos they think are most suitable, and then they will send you an email with the list of selected photos approved to be uploaded on Getty. Then, if Getty approves them, they appear on the Getty market after a while. To summarize, the steps are these:

  • Upload your pictures on EyeEm
  • Specify if you want to sell your images on Getty
  • After a while, you’ll get an email with a list of approved photos ready to be proposed to Getty
  • If Getty approves your pictures, they will appear on their market (after an undisclosed, and sometimes a long time)

Selling your pictures on EyeEm: is it worth it?

market eyeem

As I said before, the premises seem very good, and it could seem that selling photos with EyeEm is a good opportunity. But is it really like that? Here are some things you should keep in mind:

  • There are several “missions”, but to be honest, I’ve never participated in any. So I don’t know if this is a good opportunity or not. If you have any more information, let me know, and I will be happy to add it to the post
  • After opening the Market, EyeEm worked very hard to increase the number of pictures in their database, and I was able to sell quite a few pictures, so at least compared to Imagebrief, I’d say that my impression of the EyeEm Market is more than positive
  • Interestingly, you can now upload your pictures using various Cloud services such as Google Drive and Dropbox. If you regularly back up your files in the cloud, uploading hundreds of photos to EyeEm takes a few seconds. For now, the limit for every batch of pictures uploaded is 50 photos. Once the photos are imported, the website automatically suggests keywords that might suit the photo. Unfortunately, as you can often imagine, keywords are not very accurate, so I suggest you create them manually. I’m still curious to see how this technology will develop in the next few years
  • The last aspect is, in my opinion, the most controversial. EyeEm promises to sell the photos on Getty and give you 50% of the sales. This is true, but one important detail needs to be clarified: you’ll receive 50% of what Getty will pay EyeEm, and usually, Getty Images pays its contributors 20% of the sale price. How much does EyeEm get from Getty Images for each photo sold? Is it more than the regular 20%? Unfortunately, there is no way to tell. I asked them for this info, but they didn’t answer. So, assuming that the percentage Getty pays EyeEm is 20% (I honestly have no reason to believe otherwise), you will earn 10% of the sale price on Getty Images. Some might think that 10% is not much, but it is still not too bad since sales prices are often hundreds of dollars on Getty. I’m sorry to tell you that this is not the case: the prices you see on the websites are usually a marketing move since Getty Images often gives as much as a 90% discount to its regular customers. This being said, it’s possible to earn money by selling your pictures on Getty via EyeEm, which I imagine is what you are interested in. Just don’t expect to get rich.
sell your pictures on internet

To conclude, is selling photos with EyeEm a new opportunity or a waste of time?

Based on my experience, I would say that it could be a new opportunity, but I’ve heard very mixed reports from different photographers. The most successful ones are those who upload model-released pictures. If you plan to upload some landscape images, don’t expect too much. You might be better off selling directly on Alamy.

But I’d also like to hear from you. Please leave your feedback in the comments.

If you want to know the best microstock agencies, check out this page.

11 thoughts on “How to sell your pictures on Getty Images with EyeEm”

  1. paula

    EyeEm are currently not paying contributors, I have had a payment due since November 2022. I have contacted them several times, with the same generic apology email etc.. – is it possible to warn current and new contributors of this issue – I am gradually removing photos from the site, as feel EyeEm are taking advantage (& money) from everyone.

  2. Rocio Ferrin

    hello since november they are not paying me when requested, they say they are going through some problemas, etc but they owned me more usd 100

      1. paula

        Snap – really really bad at the moment

  3. Antony Robinson

    In reality you earn between $049 and $0.01 per image. It’s hardly worth bothering.

    I upload to Getty and EyeEm. Same images, some get rejected by Getty but then sell through EyeEm to Getty.

    1. Fabio Nodari

      Yea. It’s getting worse by the month honestly.

    2. Idoko Rose Ochanya

      How do I sign in?

  4. javier romero

    I have this question where how does it work when you upload picture to Eyeem and Getty at the same time. Of course im uploading the same pictures that sometimes get elected for Eyeem partner with Getty. So I wonder if I shouldn´t upload the same. But the information about it is not clear. Now I wonder.

    1. Good question. Recently there has been a wave of accounts on Eyeem being closed because of this very same issue you are mentioning. So I guess is not a good idea to upload the same pictures twice.

    2. Michael Tagoe

      Good question Romero, if you are uploading to EyeEm, don’t upload the same pictures on Gettyimages, because it will be duplicate there, and Gettyimages is for exclusive, which means you can’t upload it on other sites except Gettyimages only, which will lead you into high commission.

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