Stock Photography Month 2 - February 2024

Mar 20

Adobe’s weird, rejected images & how I set my stock targets.

Interested in Stock Photography? Well, you’ve come to the right place for monthly stock photography reports. I discuss not only how much I make as a new stock photographer, but also my contributor experience on the 5 stock photography platforms I use: Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, DepositPhotos, Pond5 and Alamy. Pepper in some random lessons I’m learning along the way, and you’ve got a breadcrumb trail you can follow if you’re interested in becoming a stock photographer yourself in 2024! (Or, if you’re from the future, I’m sure most of it will still be good for a couple of years. Hopefully it’ll age like fine wine rather than stinky cheese. lol )

FEBRUARY 2024 STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY UPDATE

The point of these monthly updates is that I’ve loved watching (and reading about) other photographers’ monthly stock reports, it’s been helpful and motivating - and I wanted to both join in that conversation, but also take you guys along with me - so if you come across these video’s + blog posts now as we’re doing this live, together in March of 2024 - you can join in this little experiment and we can figure this out together - or, if you find this series and it’s some time other than March of 2024… I’m hoping it’ll be a great step-by-step of what you’re in for!

This month I’m chatting about Adobe’s weirdness as a brand new contributor, what images I’ve had rejected across all sites, did I hit my February targets, what are my goals for March (and how do I set my stock photography upload targets anyway??), and last but not least - my sales for month 2.

ADOBE STOCK AS A NEW CONTRIBUTOR IS A STRANGE PLACE

For reference: I’m currently submitting *photography only * - so, no videos or illustrations or AI or design work - to Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, DepositPhotos, Pond5 and Alamy - and it’s one portfolio across all 5 sites. So, not every photo is accepted by every agency - but I’m uploading all the exact same photos to all of the sites.

Right. So - Adobe. Adobe is “that” site.

It can take AGES to get your submissions reviewed, they’re a bit pickier than the other agencies generally speaking, I’ve got 11 photos that I submitted in January, still sitting waiting to be reviewed - but the stuff I put through on the last day of February was reviewed in less than a week… go figure!

That means, even though technically I can have 51 images submitted at any one time - 11 of those are sort of stuffed at the bottom and not getting reviewed, which means I can only submit 40 at a time… which is frustrating. Especially when I wait till the very last day of the month to hit my upload target for the month and then can only upload half of them.

So just to make that clear - for every image they review - whether they’re accepted or rejected - it frees up a spot to put in a new photo for review. It’s like a bucket of 51 - if they tip some out, you can refill it. You’re not stuck waiting to get back to an empty bucket to then start submitting again.

Anyway… they do seem to be reviewing my newer uploads faster - I don’t know if that’s because they’ve caught up from maybe a backlog over staff taking Christmas / New Year’s holidays perhaps? Or simply dumb luck. So I don’t want to give anyone false information that the process somehow speeds up over time if it, in fact, was just the timing of when I personally started.

REJECTED IMAGES

As I’ve alluded to, Adobe is the hardest to please.

Truthfully, I’m testing the waters to see what I can and can’t get away with - because obviously, I don’t want to be wasting time when I start photographing images for the specific purpose of submitting. Currently I’m going through the past 5 and a half years worth of photos since I first picked up a DSLR - so all of the images submitted so far are just ones I had sitting on my hard drive.

Moving forward I’ll be actively creating opportunities to photograph - with the sole intent of submitting to stock agencies - so this is a great way to see some of the reasons for rejection so I can be more intentional with my shoots.

I’ve given a full in-depth review of my rejected images over on my youtube to go with this blog post - so head over there for all the specifics.

FEBRUARY’S GOALS & DID I HIT THEM?

As I’ve mentioned previously - I set my targets based on what I can control - which in this case, is UPLOADS. I can’t control what does and doesn’t get accepted.

I also aim for a “good, better, best” system - so depending on how busy each month is, I can adjust accordingly. Like, if you’ve got kids, you know how unpredictable they can be. Between inconsiderately getting sick, to last minute “oh yea Mum, I need you to bake like 3000 cupcakes for tomorrow, even though my teacher told me about this like 6 months ago”….right? (Thankfully we home-school now - but I remember the days!! lol)

So I find that this method is a good way of being kinder to yourself so you don’t just give up on your goals cos you constantly feel like you’re failing, while still challenging yourself if the kids happen to be considerate of you that month and don’t go licking all the other children and get sick or ask you to bake 3000 cupcakes.

So February’s goals were: good - 150 total images uploaded, better was 200, and best was 300 total assets uploaded to each stock site. Don’t forget, these are the same assets - same photos, 5 websites.

I hit: Good. My total portfolio to the end of February was 152 images - which was just over a hundred images loaded up last month. And I’ll be completely honest - a very large proportion of those were being loaded up on February 29th - so thank goodness for a leap year and an extra day in the month!

And just a reminder - all of these images came from photos I’d already taken over the years, these were not photos I specifically took for stock.

MARCH’S TARGETS & HOW I SET MY STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY UPLOAD GOALS

The very first target I’m aiming for here is 200 uploads. That’ll be my “good” target. Better will be 250, and best will be 300.

I’m basing my “good” target on the next round hundred number - in this case I’ve got 152 so I’m aiming for 200, and the “best” target is 300 - which would make my uploads average 100 per month.

This year my ultimate target is 1200 uploads - which is 100 per month. I’ve decided on this number based on other stock photographers I’ve watched on YouTube and the results they’re getting - and I feel that with everything else happening in my life - kids, homeschooling, client work, YouTube uploads, fixing my health, etc, that it’s a stretch for me, but it’s accomplishable if I stay focused.

I also decided on this number because I feel that it will give me the best “barometer reading “ by the end of the 12 months. So instead of just blindly, constantly falling forward, I’ll have some solid data to base my decision on whether to continue with stock photography in 2025 - or not. And that will be a mix of actual income numbers vs the time I’ve put into it. I’ve seen other stock photographers on YouTube who have loaded images and not recieved sales from them for 6 months or more - so I think 12 months is a good time frame for this experiment and to gain numbers worth basing decisions on.

SALES + INCOME FOR FEBRUARY 2024 (and why I keep doing this)

If you watched last month's video - my January Stock Report - you’ll already know my sales and income for February - as I only got 1 sale and made 10 whole cents at the beginning of last month! Now, I’ve already got some sales for March, but I’ll save that big number for next month’s update!

Now for the big question: So Tracy, if you’re only making cents per month, why keep going? Aren’t you discouraged?

Short answer: I’m crazy and no, I’m not discouraged in the least.

So many of the people I watch on YouTube or read about in blogs, have 10,000 assets or more. A portfolio of 150 completely random images is a drop in the bucket. It’s not that hard to achieve 1000 images in a year - it works out to only 3-4 images a day. One stock tutor I watched says it takes him about an hour and a half each day. He figures it out in the morning (takes him about 10 minutes), photographs or creates the images during the day (don’t forget, he’s only looking for 3-4 images or video of the same thing) - and then edits and uploads them in the evening - and that’s probably about another 20 minutes to finish keywording them and uploading them to the sites. So I want to emphasize that this doesn’t have to be a huge time commitment in your every day life to grow a large portfolio over time. You could do it daily, or devote a day to it each week. If you get into good habits and routines you’ll know where to look for inspiration, you’ll be able to come up with ideas quickly, and then executing them and uploading them will be streamlined.

Everything new always takes longer to do, and learn, and figuring out your personal preferences with it. So expect that as you get going, you’ll become more efficient at it. Don’t let the overwhelm of new things stop you from finding your groove. Cos you’ll get there.

ANY QUESTIONS?

If you’ve got any questions or want me to talk about anything specifically to do with stock - make sure to drop it below. There is ALWAYS room in the stock landscape for more contributors and if I can help you on your journey, PLEASE let me know in the comments.