How to sell your photos online: the complete guide

In this guide, I explain how you can make money selling your pictures and what the differences are between microstock and macrostock.

I want to start this post with a brief but honest analysis of this topic. I wrote the first version of this article many years ago. Since then, many things have changed, none of them for the better for photographers and videomakers that want to monetize their content online. The last nail in the coffin has been the advent of AI, which has allowed anyone to generate photos and videos, most time completely for free.

The technology is not yet fully mature, but in any case, the golden age for stock photographers is over. I say this because, in my opinion, it is correct to give the right expectations to those who are entering this world for the first time. There will always be room for those who create real photos and videos, but it is not as easy as it used to be.

In this article, I will try to explain the pros and cons of selling photos online based on MY experience.

Selling your pictures: what does it mean?

Selling your photos means allowing someone to use your pictures in exchange for money. Remember that even if you allow someone to use your pictures, you still own the images. Where and how the pictures can be used is established by the type of license under which the images are sold.

Not long ago, if you were a photographer and wanted to sell your pictures, you could do it in person or ask an agency to do it for you. Those agencies had physical archives with millions of pictures. Today, things are pretty much the same: you can sell pictures directly or use an agency. The main difference is that there are no physical archives, only web servers with millions of digital files.

Of course, the photographer can sell his or her photos directly to the client, but relying on an agency will help you find the buyers. The downside is that in exchange for a relevant client portfolio, the agency retains a commission every time a photo is sold. Currently, the commissions range from 50 percent to a whopping 85 percent on the sale price.

There are two main categories of agencies: microstock and macrostock.

What is Microstock?

Microstock agencies accept different digital files, including photos, stock footage (short videos), audio, and vector files. These files are usually sold with a Royalty-Free (RF) license.

Royalty-free (RF) licenses allow buyers to pay a one-time fee for unlimited use under specific terms.

You can decide whether to be an exclusive contributor to one agency, and in that case, you’ll earn more but won’t be allowed to sell the same (or similar) images to other agencies. You can also decide to sell only some pictures with an exclusive license and upload the others to different agencies.

Microstock agencies typically offer images at low prices, often $0.25 or less per sale, but their low cost enables the same image to be sold multiple times.

The most important Microstock agencies are:

What is Macrostock?

The other big players are the Macrostock agencies. As you can imagine, these companies usually sell pictures and videos for higher prices, and most of the time, the sale is made with a Royalty Managed (RM) license.

Rights-managed content requires licensing for each use, with fees based on factors like duration, region, and purpose.

This means that the pictures sold can be used only once. If the buyer wants to use the same picture in the future, he must buy it a second time. Now I’m sure you wonder: who would buy from a Macrostock agency if you have to spend more than you would on a Microstock site? The price per sale is usually high, but the picture is only available on that particular agency. Macrostock agencies require exclusivity.

There are a few Macrostock sites left, and some of the most important are:

Selling your photographs: Microstock vs Macrostock

This is one of the sections of this article that I’ve updated most frequently. In the past, I recommended signing up with microstock agencies without hesitation, unless your portfolio was at the National Geographic level. This was because diversification brought several advantages in terms of monetization.

The reality is that, one after another, all agencies have cut the share paid to photographers, and for some agencies, particularly Shutterstock, the collapse has been so drastic that photographers with thousands of photos and thousands of dollars in sales have ended up earning less than $100 per month. Other agencies, like Motion Array, have decided overnight to adopt a commission model based on the number of sales, which resets every month, with higher tiers being practically impossible to achieve.

With the rise of AI, I honestly no longer feel comfortable recommending microstock. In my opinion, these agencies are destined to disappear or radically transform their business model, increasingly focusing on profits shared with photographers from training AI engines, rather than from the direct sale of photos.

The few surviving macrostock agencies, which rely on photographers working exclusively with them, will be able to provide real images created by professionals, for which there will always be some demand.

How about selling your pictures independently?

Another option is selling your pictures directly through your website. This presents some challenges: first, you need a lot of space in your hosting, given that every picture can take up a lot of space.

Then, you have to set up an e-commerce or some system to allow people to find and buy your images, and that’s not easy. Of course, there will be times when some customers will contact you to purchase some of your images even if you don’t have an e-commerce site, but that’s very unusual.

So, what’s the best solution to sell your pictures through your website? Some platforms allow you to create an online portfolio with integrated e-commerce, so you don’t have to think about the technical stuff. These websites usually also keep a percentage of your earnings as a commission.

What are some of the pros and cons of this system?

The last point is the most significant disadvantage. Competing with bigger agencies, which have substantial financial marketing resources, is very hard in the real world.

Can you make lots of money quickly selling your photos online?

The simple answer is: no, it’s not possible. Sorry about it, but there are no legal ways to get rich quickly, and photography is no exception. However, you can make money and travel if you are resolute and methodical! It takes some time, though. How long it will take depends on the time and effort you’ll put into this business.

This is a list of some of the main pros and cons of selling photos on the internet:

Which camera should you get, and which software is the best?

The best camera is the one you can afford. You want to get a camera with at least an APS-C sensor. Smaller sensors will produce images with too much digital noise. That said, any entry-level mirrorless will work just fine. I don’t recommend any specific brand. I use Canon because my first camera was a Canon, not for any other reason. If you can afford it, you might consider getting a drone. Don’t forget to check if you can use it when traveling abroad and need special permits.

There are two main options for post-processing software: Lightroom and Photoshop. Lightroom is the best tool for editing large numbers of pictures quickly. If you often digitally blend your multi-exposure images, I recommend getting Luminar Neo, a very advanced software for photo editing

Which are the best websites to sell your photos?

The landscape of stock agencies changes quickly, and the best agency today can be the worst tomorrow.

If you have to pick one microstock agency, at the moment I recommend Adobestock. The main problem is that it currently does not accept editorial files.

If you want to sell on a macrostock agency, I recommend Amazing Aerial (here you can find the complete review), which is where you can find my content. This agency has a unique approach and charges a monthly fee (10% off if you use my link and the code FABIO-10), which prevents the websites from being flooded with cat pictures and keeps the photographers motivated.

You can find the complete list of the best Microstock and Macrostock Agencies here.

Final thoughts

I tried to keep an honest approach in this article, and I explained how this photography niche works. There are no easy ways to make money selling pictures anymore, and it does require a lot of effort. But it’s still possible to monetize your content if you pick the right agency for your needs.

Here, you can learn how to take better travel photos. Here is my top list of AI tools for every photographer.