- Answered by
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Yuri
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- May 2, 2012
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- No one likes this yet
Hi Florus. I really hate to be negative, but as things are looking right now in the industry, I have to say "not much". Today you would have to be so lucky as to know someone like me or be accepted into a program similar to my boot camp program, or simply just have an extremely rich uncle. In order to produce images that sell very well, you will often (and as a general rule, but not necessarily always) need great models, a well-organized shoot and great post-production. And these things can be quite expensive.
With a rich uncle or by being a part of a larger team who share expenses, you will be able to get your hands on some nice gear and you will be able to shoot a lot more.
The photographers in my company have access to all kinds of stuff, and this helps them to become better photographers. The few freelancers we employ receive an up-front payment and thus do not have to wait 1-2 years before they actually earn back all the money they spent on creating an image.
As a new photographer, you will inevitably do lots of shoots that will not go very well before you figure out how things work and what sells. The problem today is that if you want to step into the market, you have to be quite good from the beginning, because otherwise you'll just lose money. You might do 1 shoot at first that will go really well, and you will earn back the money you spent on the production, but if the second or third shoot doesn't go as well, you won't break even, and it might take you 3 years to earn back the money wasted on those shoots.
The photographers who want to do microstock on a professional level will often have to spend 1-200,000 USD over a period of 2-3 years, and they'll just have to hope for the best. If the images they spent time and money creating don't sell, it's just tough luck. After 2-3 years they will most likely have learned what sells and what doesn't, and then they can start shooting what they should have been shooting from the start.
I'd recommend people who want to start out with microstock that they apply for a job as an assistant to a photographer or in some way get a mentor. Or just find a very rich uncle who believes in them and is willing to pay pretty much the whole thing those first years until they get a hang of it.
This doesn't mean that there aren't any people within the industry doing quite well. There are. But most of these are productions houses that have funding and experience from earlier days when entering the market was easier. There are very few single photographers who have entered the market and done well during the last few years, and the ones I've see... Well, their names definitely ring a bell, and most of them can be found in the records of my earlier boot camps. :)
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