Doug Jensen

+1

Yes, I looked at your portfolio and I believe you. You should feel lucky that you have earned that much. 🙂

Most customers want to buy finished footage that has already been competently color graded and corrected to broadcast standards. You don't say which Sony camera you are using or what codec you are shooting with, but if it is not 10-bit 4:2:2 then you absolutely need to shoot as close to a finished image as you can on-board the camera. If you are attempting to shoot neutral 8-bit 4:2:0 footage and grade in post, you will not have success. 10-bit 4:2:2 is better suited to grading. BTW, I looked at your portfolio and the most important improvement you could make is to to start using

One thing I have learned is that you cannot come to any meaningful conclusions based on the performance of a few cherry-picked images.

If taking photos is what makes you happy, that is all the reason you need. That's exactly the same reason I only shoot video. And if all you have is a phone, you are wise to say away from video because you will not have success. Better to stick with photos, as you have said you decided to do. And if income doesn't matter to you, then I assume you must also get joy, happiness, and fulfillment from creating the metadata and submitting those photos to Shutterstock. If that is the case, good for you. But I do not enjoy that process or get any happiness from it, so that's the point whe

Judging by the posts on this thread, I think it is fair to say that the RPD for most people's photos is less than $.50. My RPD for videos is almost $30.00 -- 60 times more income per download. So, my question is, does it take 60x more effort to create and submit a video? Will a photo get 60x more downloads?

Actually, the last time I watched the clock, it was only taking me an average 4 minutes per 4K clip to ingest, trim, color grade, export, and add the necessary keywords and descriptions for each clip into my master spreadsheet. But I continue to use 5 minutes as my number, just to be conservative. Of course, that speed is only possible when I'm batch processing dozens of clips at the same time (not necessarily of the same subject matter, however) and can move from clip to clip quickly and efficiently.

Well, as you know, gross income doesn't really tell the wholestory, either. If someone spends 100 hours creating their portfolio and earns $1000, that is not as good as someone who spends 10 hours and earns $500. By my calculations, I've put 747.8 hours into creating my portfolio, which makes my hourly income so far $247.89 -- just at Shutterstock alone. So I do feel like my venture into stock footage has been well worth the effort, even if other people are making more money. Good for them. I don't envy them, I strive to be like them.

Yeah, but a lot of those contributors have high overhead, employees, model fees, and incur other expenses to produce those images. I spend $0 and put very little effort into it. My highest grossing image has earned $8344 and I have several that are over $5K, so I know that four digit returns are possible if someone focuses only on posting their very best work. I'll admit that I upload a lot crap that might sell only once, or maybe never at all, and that brings my overall RPI down -- but ultimately it brings my overall income up. I'd rather have a higher gross income than a higher RPI,

$38 is a great return! Congratulations. I'm sure never hit that number no matter how long I hang around. Like you , however, my true RPI is a little higher than what I wrote because I have made tens of thousands of dollars from the same images at Adobe and P5. Not as much as at Shutterstock, but still significant.

I first joined Shutterstock in June 2012, so a little over nine years now of sales.

$185,275 divided by 6204 downloads = $29.86 per download. Thus proving once again, how much more lucrative footage is vs. photos. A more useful figure is -- average earnings per image in your portfolio -- because that directly impacts how much you've earned vs. the work you have put into it. My clips have earned an average of $20.64 per image. ($185,275 divided by 8974 clips) How does that number compare to others?

The four clips in your portfolio that were accepted look severely underexposed and I'm surprised they were accepted. If your other drone clips look similar that could be the problem right there. Are you exposing correctly on the drone? Are monitoring the video correctly in post? Do you know how to read Premiere's scopes to ensure levels are correct? BTW, you should try using Resolve for grading and export. It is far more powerful, easier, and foolproof for processing stock -- plus it is free.

🙂 Changed my mind about replying.

You always have the freedom to go someplace else where you will be treated fairly. BTW, I like the look of the animations in your portfolio but it does not surprise me that you don't get very many sales. I find it hard to imagine how an editor would use them in an actual production. For example, when you create something like the following graphic, who do you think will buy it and how do you think they will use it? Can it be customized by the end user? https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-1019590174-successful-business-concept-strategy-economic-growth-cost