Selling photos online... official MoneySavingExpert.com discussion

darich wrote: »

I’ve never heard of her.
Others may have but I’m wondering how famous she is if I’ve never heard of her. I’m not saying “because I don’t know her she’s not famous” I’m just pointing out that if I’ve not heard of her, then many others will be the same. She may be VERY famous in aviation circles but to the general public she may be relatively unheard of.
Getty or Alamy may get you a large sale because of the market they can reach but I’d imagine unless you have a large market you can reach on your own, you might struggle to sell large quantities of your prints, even if they are limited edition.

I’d also say that to sell the images you talk about you’d need to own the copyright or have permission from the copyright holder to sell them. If you’ve been given or inherited the images from a relative then I suspect you’d be ok to sell them. If, however, you’ve bought the images then it’s completely different. All you would own in that case is the print and would not be licensed to sell copies. Any sales would be breaching copyright, unless you bought that with the prints.

The photos I purchased off a dealer,although he was unaware of the contents.I suppose she is very famous in her field of aviation,but you are of course right in what you say .Many thanks for your advice,maybe I'll be luckier next time !

My aunt was named after Amy Johnson, very famous lady.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Johnson

disney_cjd wrote: »

There was something on the Gadget show about this last night. Anyway remember the websites suggested please?

istockphoto.com, dreamstime.com and fotolia.com.

Get ready for lots of rejections and the excitement of earning approximately 63p that you can't withdraw!

darich wrote: »

I'd be fairly sure that my one sale through a proper agency was for more than your 6 combined. Selling for a few pence is as good as giving them away.

I'll state the obvious what everyone is reading, you presume quite a lot about a person you have no knowledge of.

The images are of a band who tour Europe who for web use I negotiated a price of £16.50 per image at 72dpi to include my watermark. I'm just processing a further 20 for them which will be given free in exchange for when conformation that I'll have exclusivity to a music event in Europe next summer. These images will be used in promotional material ie: posters, cards etc and which value in having my name on each image has more worth than any value they hold.
Although I had a mother and father who met through photography and a sister who is a camerawoman for the BBC photography never floated my boat until last December. Now with two Canon 5d Mk2's and a small collection of L series lenses I'm making my way from not only engaging photography but having it open doors to exclusivity, even if that's my first event on the calender.

To expand on how I got to this point and to those who are interested in stage photography look at your local listings for gigs and festivals. Enquire on who is the promoter and get his/her details. Contact them stating you're a photographer and ask them for 'accreditation', which means free entry and access to the press pit if its big enough to have a press pit. Be aware that press pits only host photographers for the first three songs of each artist and you're booted out, so fill them CF cards with images within these songs. I've bagged an 8GB Extreme 4 card in 3 songs so go prepared! (Kingston 8GB 133x are cheap right now and are fine if your camera body has a good buffer).
Don't think asking for accreditation is lingo that means auto entry. You will be refused 19 out of 20 times, but the one time you do get in make the most of it and bag as much as you can.
When first in a press pit it can become overwhelming looking at those around you under similar intention but do not think what they do is what you should be doing. Do your own thing even if not utilising the whole press pit area because quite often the most dramatic stage images come from the wings when most photographers are centre and just off.

The other level is where your local theatre has live entertainment, the type of place that attracts has been bands and who shouldn't be discounted being an opportunity to grab some stage photography cheap rate. This is also a cheap way of finding out if stage photography is for you. Again contact the promoter but don't talk 'accreditation', instead say you're a photographer interested in the event and would be happy to supply pictures after the event in return for free entry. When you do supply the images wup your watermark right across the middle of the photo and wait for an answer. Some don't even reply although they will give you successive free or discounted entry. Some reply with the obvious but remember its your work free entry or not.

Whatever stage event you get into always contact the artist with samples but reduce them to 72dpi before sending and including your watermark.

As for selling photographs by uploading them to an intermediary it seems to work for the cash hungry......