Can you sell photographs online?

juno_first

juno_first

juno_first

Soldato
Joined
18 Apr 2003
Posts
2,684
Location
England
I took some digital photographs & think they look ok. I was wondering if any money can be made by selling them or finance me being able to take more pics (can barely afford go work lol).

I recently used a cheapo 10mp compact camera + red filter to take the pics in the link below. I dont know if they're any good or even worth anything for the full high res versions?

Does anyone have any info or weblinks etc. thanks :)

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/wayne.chell/gallery.htm
 
of course you can sell photo's online....how you go about is the key though, along with photos people want or need. try looking into site where you submit your photos and they handle the selling otherwise you will find it costly to set your own up and still make some money if you're short of cash right now

can't think of a site that will help you much other than deviantart - I'm sure someone will pop up and help though :-)
 
The thing with letting an agency deal with your photo's they have to be absolutely top notch, you can process them slightly in photoshop but most (if not all) don't take photo's that have been sharpened in processing, this (i think) counts Jpeg shots out as the camera processes jpegs which includes sharpening to a point. Therefore you have to shoot in RAW and most companies expect a file size of 50mb for an image, i think that's a tiff file @ 300dpi, i'm sure somebody else will clarify.

Also, these companies are VERY picky over what they let you upload, i've seen some fantastic images get refused, and at the same time, i've seen what imo is not very good be accepted.

Take a look at alamo for starters.

Another route you may wish to choose, though i don't know how successful it would be, is to use ebay as your market and offer canvas prints of your images for sale, after all, an image is down to taste, what some would like, others would think is rubbish and vice versa.

Yet another option would be to contact magazines / postcard companies etc and show them your images, but you need to be shooting what they would be looking for, i.e a horse / equestrian magazine would only be interested in images of horses etc etc. This i believe is a lot harder though, and i'm not saying the other options are easy, it's a tough market to conquer, and many fail, only a few succeed.
 
Another option that i intend to look at is getting a freel ance guide and do as wez130 suggested selling to mags/postcards/websites etc..
 
Thanks for the tips everyone, I'll try a few things as suggested.
I love taking these kinds of pics & my dream job would be to travel the country or world taking these photographs, ahhh...

300 DPI 50mb TIFF image, ouch...
Recon thats medium format scanned from the negative or something.
I used to use a Bronica setup when I assisted with weddings, great quality, although being new to digital its nice to proof the image before taking rather than bracket as much.

Most of my digital images have had post processing done (oh well), although back in the day when I had 35mm film scanned to disc, there was rarely a need to be retouched as the below example shows (apart a spec of dust in the water at time of scanning lol).

Taken on my beloved Canon A1 in 1998:
Agfa 50 ISO (which had great colour saturation), 30 seconds / F22 / standard Canon lens (great lens), during winter at sunset.
I was just learning then & only took 1 shot from this angle & kinda guessed the exposure adding 2 stops for reciprocity law failure & the neg was perfect :)

IMG0004.jpg
 
Fuji S2 RAW file - converted to TIFF with nothing done to it will be about 105mb, so 50mb isnt that big a file. Can your camera do RAW pictures?

I have not sold any online, never tried, but do weddings and use RAW/JPEG and find RAW are the ones with most potential for getting good results.

Let me know how you get on...
 
I know quite a few people on the FredMiranda forums who use Smugmug, you can basically subscribe and sell photos, it does everything, looks pretty good to, not too expensive either.

Or you could try Alamy?
 
My camera is a cheap Technika sh-a366 10mp & it dont do raw :(
I have an old Nikon f601 35mm film, but its std Nikon lens yields poor quality.
 
if you really like photography, why not invest in a dSLR, even used, i was in my local camera shop today and they had a used canon 350D (body only) for £160, add a kit lens for £35 and a memory card and you've got a system you can build up on for ~ £200.
 
Hmm yer I'd like get back into phography & am still learning about digital (am still film at heart).

A DSLR that takes AA batteries be good, with full manual control & fixed focal length lenses :)
 
juno_first said:
My camera is a cheap Technika sh-a366 10mp & it dont do raw :(
I have an old Nikon f601 35mm film, but its std Nikon lens yields poor quality.
Click to expand...

Buy a 50mm f/1.8 prime for < 100 bucks. Professional standard IQ.

I don't know how much the scanning costs though.


Otherwise, look for a 2nd hand DSLR, like a Nikon D70 or Canon 350D. Buy a 50mm prime for starters. IF you want to do landscape work then the Sigma 10-20mm is the business, not too cheap but affordable. Wildlife photography is expensive, you cold try a 2nd hand 70-300mm VR/IS
 
juno_first said:
Hmm yer I'd like get back into phography & am still learning about digital (am still film at heart).

A DSLR that takes AA batteries be good, with full manual control & fixed focal length lenses :)
Click to expand...

No DSLR takes AA batteries (they all come with a good Li-ion and charger and will do hundreds of shots). They all have full manual control, just the higher models have more functionality.

Prime lenses are still the balls but zoom lenses can be just as good these days.
 
Hmm a 2nd hand DSLR sounds interesting.
I was put off by weird sized batteries as my f601 took a now obsolete battery that only lasted for 3 rolls of film & cost £10.
I've always found a standard lens ok for landscapes & the unknown hyperfocal distances/lesser IQ of a zoom off-putting, though maybe todays zooms are better & I could always make a note of the hyperfocal distances. I dont know if todays CCD's are sensitive enough to worry about shooting with the aperture closed down either.
 
with the canon battery, you'll get between 300 and 500ish shots to a single battery charge depending on flash and weather etc, which is already more than a couple of AA's can offer, then the fact it's rechargeable is a big bonus, and canon have been producing the BP-511 (i think) for a long time now and i wouldn't imagine it plans to change this anytime soon as it's its 'industry standard'.

Most lenses operate at a 'sweet spot', this is usually around F/11ish where it's sharpest and clearest, though invest in a better lens and they are sharp from wide open and stopped down too, though you'll naturally get some 'diffraction' (is that the right term?) if you stop right down.
 
Yer the optimum aperture of my old Canon lens was f5.6, Id of proffered f11 tho.
Think I'll join the f64 club, dont have worry about lenses then lol
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom