3 Creative Stock Photography Ideas That You Could do Today

3 Creative Stock Photo Ideas That You Could Do Today

These entrepreneurial iStockPhoto photographers are laughing all the way to the bank.

The first (below) – A construction site photograph with 5200 downloads. That’s right. 5200 people downloaded (that means they paid) to use this photo for their project (brochure, catalog, website, book, whatever)

So if the photog is making a bare minimum of $1.00 per download then that’s $5200.00, passive income. Not too bad for a simple photograph of a construction site. (Nice photo by the way).

But really… could you do something like that?

Highrise Construction Site – $5200.00

creative stock photography ideas construction site

And here’s more classic, out-of-the-box “unframed” thinking.

A Retro Revival Old Gold Frame.

6600 people downloaded (paid) to use a photo of a picture frame.

If that is not smart passive income from your photography, then what is?

Retro Revival Old Gold Frame – $6600.00

creative stock photography ideas gold frame

Of course we don’t know exactly how much the photog or contributor makes from each uploaded image. But we do know…

iStock pays contributors a base royalty rate of 15% for each file downloaded. If you are an Exclusive contributor you can earn up to 45%. To become an exclusive photographer or illustrator, you must have 250 downloads and a minimum 50% approval rating, or 500 downloads.

And these are not super technical photographs we’re talking about here.

That my friend, is a well framed, simple photograph of a frame for a photograph, if you get my drift.

Sure, you may have to do a little Photoshop editing to perfect it. But still…

House Welcome Mat – $?

A simple house welcome mat.

Photographed with a bit of thought and creativity.

This is all it takes sometimes… With a digital camera you could take 100 snaps until you get the right one.

creative stock photography ideas simple welcome mat

Stock Photo Takeaways (Mind Food)

— Invest time into a stock photo project that is a needed theme (see below)
— Look at iStockPhoto What is popular? What gets huge downloads?
— What do you have in your local area / home / environment you could use?
— Practice makes perfect
— What do you LOVE to photograph? What would you photograph all day?
— Get the right gear to shoot with (Larger is often better)
— Get feedback on the shots you take and improve / work on them

Stock Photo Subjects Needed

iStock has millions of images. There are subjects that we always need more variety in, and others that have been picked clean. Search iStock and explore what’s been done before in great detail. If you’re tackling a common subject, approach it in a different fashion and with your own style. Better yet, look for missing items in the collection and fill them in.

Here’s the type of images iStockPhoto are looking for:

  • Corporate shots / modern business
  • Concepts and Visual Metaphors (explain something in a new way)
  • Food and Beverages / Global Cuisines
  • Groups & Teams / People working together
  • Holiday & Seasonal Themes / local festivals and customs
  • Non-Business Jobs (mechanics, laborers, gardeners, etc)
  • People Interacting
  • Religion and Spirituality
  • Science and Technology / knowledge
  • Social Issues
  • Sports / team sports

 

Others go to bed with their mistresses; I with my ideas. РJos̩ Marti, 1890

 

Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions? What do you think?