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How to Sell Scenery Photos

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Are you a skilled photographer who loves taking landscape shots? If so, you may be wondering how you can turn your beautiful photographs into a profitable source of income. 

Selling landscape photos is not easy, as many competitors in the photography market are ready to fight for profits and customers. However, if you create a unique portfolio and exciting photographs and approach marketing correctly, you can achieve the desired results.

This article will explore some tips and tricks for selling your landscaping stock photos online. By following these simple guidelines, you can start generating extra income from your photographic skills!

Why Do You Need to Sell Your Photos at All?

 Why Do You Need to Sell Your Photos at All

As a professional landscape photographer, you're in the business of selling your photos. Whether you're shooting for a client or yourself, you need to be able to sell your photos to make a living.

There are a few different ways that you can go about selling your landscaping stock photos. You can sell them directly to clients through stock photography websites or print-on-demand services.

Each of these has its advantages and disadvantages, so it's essential to choose the option that's right for you:

  • Selling Directly to Clients. The advantage of selling directly to clients is that you can keep 100% of the profits from each sale. You also have more control over pricing and can offer custom packages and discounts. 

The downside of selling landscape photos directly to clients is that finding and contacting potential buyers can be time-consuming. You'll also need to invest in marketing and promotion to ensure the right people see your photos.

  • Stock Photography Websites. Stock photography websites are an excellent option for professional landscape photographers who want to reach a wider audience. When you sell through a stock website, your photos will be available for anyone to purchase.

The advantage of this is that you don't have to do any marketing or promotion yourself - the website will take care of that for you. The downside is that you'll only receive a small percentage of the sale price, typically around 20-30%.

  • Print-on-Demand Services. Print-on-demand services are an excellent option for professional landscape photographers who want to sell their photos as prints or products. With this option, you can upload your photos to the service, which will handle all the printing, packaging, and shipping.

The advantage of using a print-on-demand service is that you don't have to worry about inventory or fulfilment. The downside is that you'll likely need to pay a monthly fee to use the service, and you'll only receive a small percentage of each sale.

Whatever your choice, selling your landscape stock photos can be a great way to make money from your passion. Just be sure to do your research and pick the option that's right for you.

How to Estimate Your Photos?

How to Estimate Your Photos

As a professional landscape photographer, one of the most important things you can do is estimate your photos' value. Doing so will help you determine how much to charge for your services and give you a good idea of what your photos are worth in the marketplace.

To estimate the value of your landscape photos, consider the following factors:

  • The quality of the photo: Is it well-composed and focused? Does it have good lighting and interesting subject matter?
  • The marketability of the photo: Will people be interested in purchasing this photo?
  • The demand for the photo: How many other photographers are selling similar photos?
  • The rarity of the photo: Is this a typical landscaping stock photo, or is it a rare and unique shot?

Once you've considered all these factors, you can begin assigning a value to your photos. For example, if you have a high-quality, marketable photo of a rare landscape, you can charge more than you would for a similar photo of a common landscape.

If you're not sure what your photos are worth, consider contacting a professional photography organization or gallery for advice. They can help you determine fair prices for your photos based on the current market conditions.

How to Protect Your Photos?

How to Protect Your Photos

In the modern world of digital technologies, the concept of theft on the Internet is too vague and punishing an attacker is sometimes harder than punishing an official for crimes. This is due to the fact that the Internet still retains some kind of independence and can provide online anonymity even though the authorities are trying to control it.

When an attacker steals a photo, profits from it and goes unpunished, the authors may feel overwhelmed and helpless because of the situation. To avoid this or minimize the risks, you can do the following:

  • Use a watermark. To do this, you can use your corporate signature, your brand name, or anything that can be placed as a label on your photo and prevent an attacker from enjoying it.
  • Add your data to the landscaping stock photo's metadata. This is a great way to protect your photo, as the photo's metadata is like evidence you can use to prove you're right.
  • Crop part of the photo. If an attacker steals your photo and you notice it, you will be able to prove in court that the photo is yours, since only you will have the original full size photo.
  • Keep originals and old versions of photos. Another great proof is that you will have other versions of the same photo, its references, photos from the same photo session and other things that combine them and prove that you are the owner of the stolen photo. It is unlikely that the attacker has all this, because it was not on the network.
  • Disable right click if you have your personal photo site. This approach will save you from downloading your work and you will be able to monetize your blog without problems. However, this method is not the most reliable as it can be bypassed.
  • Patent your work. You can also go to the patent office and buy a patent for your work. Unfortunately, this method is expensive and not every author can afford it. However, with a patent, any dispute will be resolved instantly in your favor.

How Much Money Can You Make on Photos?

How Much Money Can You Make on Photos

Professional landscape photographers make an average of $17.21 per hour. The highest-earning 10 per cent of professional photographers made more than $66.31 per hour, while the lowest-paid 10 per cent earned less than $9.68 per hour.

Landscape photography is one of the most popular genres, and there are many ways to make money from selling your photos. You can sell them as: 

  • Stock photos
  • Fine art prints
  • Digital products like eBooks and tutorials and others

If you're a professional photographer, you can also make money by teaching workshops and courses on landscape photography.

So, how much money can you make from selling landscape photos? It depends on your option, but there are many ways to make money from this popular genre of photography.

How to Sell Photos Correctly?

How to Sell Photos Correctly

As professional landscape photographers, we're always looking for new ways to market and sell our photos. And with the advent of the internet, there are now more options than ever before.

One of the best ways to sell your landscape photos is through stock photography websites. These sites allow you to upload your landscaping stock images and then set a price for them. When someone buys one of your photos, you'll receive a commission.

There are a few things to keep in mind when selling your photos through a stock photography website:

  • Make sure that your photos are high quality and well-composed. People aren't going to want to buy blurry or poorly-taken photos.
  • Take a variety of different types of landscape photos. This will give potential buyers more choices and increase your chances of making a sale.
  • Make sure that your photos are properly tagged and categorized. This will make it easier for people to find them when searching for specific types of landscaping stock images.

Selling your landscape photos can be a great way to earn some extra money. Remember to take high-quality photos and properly tag and categorize them for the best results. Now let’s get closer to selling ways.

Sell Them as Stock Photos

You can make money by selling your landscape photos as stock photos. This is a good option if you have a large portfolio of high-quality landscaping stock images.

Many websites allow you to sell your photos as stock, and each has its own payout structure. For example, iStockphoto pays between 15 and 45 per cent of the sale price, depending on your membership level. Shutterstock pays between 25 and 38 per cent for each photo sold.

However, unfortunately, not all photo stocks can offer excellent loyalty to photo authors. So for example, Shutterstock has a strict verification procedure. The artist must pass the exam by uploading some of the best works given certain conditions and wait for the photo to be judged. 

After successfully passing the exam, the author can upload landscape photography for sale. If you fail the exam, you must wait from a week to a month to retake it. Even though this stock is quite strict with its authors, you can earn quite a lot on it since once you get on the platform, you will be considered one of the best authors.

Sell Them as Fine Art Prints

Another option is to sell your landscape photos as fine art prints. This can be done through an online print shop like Fine Art America or Redbubble.

The average price for a landscape print is $50, but this will vary depending on the size and quality of the print.

In the case of fine art, you will not be limited to specific themes or conditions. In this case, you will be able to create paintings in any style with any parameters, and the liked paintings will be bought. However, this method is best in combination with another method of selling, as fine art may not bring you much money and is not stable.

Sell Them as Digital Products

You can also put landscape photographs for sale as digital products, like eBooks and tutorials. This is a great option if you have a lot of knowledge about landscape photography and can create helpful resources for other photographers.

For example, you could create an eBook with tips on taking better landscape photos or a tutorial video showing the best techniques for processing landscape photos.

In addition, electronic products such as NFTs, special sticker packs and other digital content are selling well in modern times. Unfortunately, the NFT system is built so that you must buy the ability to put landscape photographs for sale, so here you need to be creative and stand out from the crowd to get noticed, and your investment will pay off.

Teach Workshops and Courses

If you're a professional photographer, you can make money by teaching workshops and courses on landscape photography. This is a great way to share your knowledge with others and help them improve their photography skills.

The average price for a landscape photography workshop is $200, but this will vary depending on the length and content of the workshop.

Create Your Course

This may be one of the most challenging ways to put landscape photographs for sale, but it is worth the effort, money and time spent. So, you need to create a course that will teach something. This method is best suited for those authors who already have a large audience that is ready to donate to your work.

You need to create a package of services, video tutorials, or other educational materials that you will share for a monetary reward from subscribers. You must beautifully "package" your online course, choose the right advertiser if you have few subscribers and wait for a feedback from the public. If you reach the right audience and build your course the right way, you are sure to make money from it.

Create TikTok Account

Even though TikTok is a video distribution platform, appropriately tailored native ads for your art to the video format will play into your hands. So, build a strategy and think about how you will advertise your products.

So, you can do short tutorials on how to process landscape photos in Photoshop and thus integrate your work into videos. At the same time, you will advertise your work and show useful instructions for editing with Photoshop or another photo editor.

You can also show the routine of a landscape photographer through a video. You can capture on video how you look for locations, set the shot and demonstrate it all from the side.

In any case, the more social media activity you have, the greater the chance you will be noticed and buy your landscape photos on stock or in some other way.

Start Your Instagram

This is perhaps the most popular way for professional landscape photographers promotion. Although Instagram was initially created as a platform for authors to share their photos, it has now become a key media space. If you find the right approach, you can quickly and efficiently attract the target audience to your blog.

So, on Instagram, you can publish photos from life, talk about working as a photographer and show examples of work from the creation process and develop yourself not as an author but also as a person. Perhaps your donators will be interested in your photos and in you as a person.

The main thing is to be sincere, not to lie to your audience and not to engage in quick promotion with dubious methods since all this can lead to a quick loss of the audience.

Behind the Scenes and Exclusive Content Donates

If you're a photographer with a large audience and fan support, you can put landscape photographs for sale on services like Booty or Patreon. So, on these platforms, you can post exclusive blog content and give your fans access to small donations.

This method is trendy in the days of bloggers and content makers. This way you can give fans exclusive content and get a little financial help for it.

You can choose from several different strategies for receiving donations. So, you can make some content completely inaccessible on other platforms and available only to donation subscribers. However, to avoid crossing the line and losing your fan base, you should also use a delayed loading strategy. 

To do this, you must prepare material that will be posted both on free platforms and for donators. However, the content will be published at different times. For example, for supporters, a few days earlier, and for ordinary users, according to the usual schedule.

Bottom Line

In conclusion, professional landscape photographers should put landscape photographs for sale through stock photography websites. This is a great way to make extra money and reach a larger audience. Remember to take high-quality photos and properly tag and categorize them for the best results. 

However, for clients to work with you and pay high fees, you must create a high-quality portfolio that will be your calling card for working and attracting new clients.

Take the time to take a few weeks to create a portfolio and include only the best work of the highest quality.

FAQ

Are there any special considerations when selling landscaping stock photos?

When selling landscaping stock photos, it's vital to ensure that the photos you're selling are of high quality and resolution. It's also crucial to have model releases for any people featured in the photos.

What is the best website to sell photos on?

There is no one "best" website to sell photos on. Several websites offer landscape photography for sale, so it's essential to do your research to find the one that best suits your needs. You may want to consider the quality of the prints or digital downloads, the payment options, and the customer service.

How much can landscape photographers earn?

Income for professional landscape photographers can vary greatly, depending on factors such as the quality of their work, the popularity of their work, and the prices they charge. Some landscape photographers may only earn a few hundred dollars per year, while others may earn tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Where can I find landscape photography for sale?

You can look for landscape photography for sale in several places, including online stock photo agencies, print shops, and even some online retailers. It's essential to do your research to find a reputable source that offers high-quality prints or digital downloads.

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