Selling photos online: stock agencies, licences and releases

Selling photos online usually means selling not individual shots but licences: companies, the media and designers buy the right to use a photo, not the photo itself. Intermediaries – stock photo agencies – collect the money and pass part of it on to the author.

This part of the guide covers how much the big agencies pay the author, how licences differ, when the consent of the person photographed or of the property owner is required, and where images generated by artificial intelligence can be uploaded.

How stock photo agencies work

1. You register as a contributor and upload photos.
2. For each photo you write a title and keywords – usually in English, because buyers search by them.
3. The agency checks technical quality and legal matters: whether there are trade marks, whether releases are attached.
4. An approved photo appears in the catalogue. The buyer purchases a licence – individually or under a subscription.
5. You receive a share of the amount the agency received for the licence.

The same photo can be sold an unlimited number of times. However, earnings per download under a subscription are small, so income is determined by the size of the portfolio and by whether the photos match what buyers need.

How much the big agencies pay

The percentages are calculated on the amount the agency received for a specific licence, not on the publicly displayed price. A Shutterstock example: if a customer buys a 10-image subscription for 49 USD per month, the price of one image is 4.90 USD – and the author's share is calculated on that.

Exclusive or non-exclusive contributor

Most contributors start as non-exclusive – they upload the same photos to several agencies. Exclusivity with one agency raises the percentage but closes off other channels. The decision is worth making only once you have seen at which agency your photos actually sell.

Types of licences

Adobe Stock offers customers standard, extended and enhanced licences. The exact limits of each are set by the agency's rules – the most important thing for a contributor to know is that a lack of releases narrows the possible use, or the photo is not accepted at all.

Releases: people and property

A property release is needed when the shot contains recognisable private property or certain well-known objects. The release forms are provided by the agencies themselves – use theirs, because a free-form document may not be accepted.

Practical rules when shooting:

• have the release signed on the day of the photo shoot, not a month later;
• remove logos, trade marks, car number plates and screen content from the shot;
• other people's works of art – paintings, sculptures, graffiti – are also protected by copyright;
• photos of people with releases are more valuable than those without, because they are suitable for advertising.

AI-generated images

Adobe Stock's requirements for AI content:

• it is mandatory to tick “Created using generative AI tools” – this applies to all content created with generative tools;
• if the image contains a fictional person or property, “People and Property are fictional” must be ticked;
• prompts, titles and keywords must not contain the names of artists, real people or fictional characters, references to copyrighted works or third-party intellectual property, or the names of government agencies;
• the description must not create the impression that a real news event is depicted;
• if the image is based on a real person (for example, their photo was uploaded as a prompt), a model release is needed;
• you have to make sure that the terms of the AI tool used allow the generated content to be submitted for commercial licensing.

What photos buyers look for

Buyers are not photography fans but people who need to illustrate a text, an ad or a presentation. So a clear, tidy everyday scene is more often useful to them than a spectacular sunset.

• Work and business: real people in real workplaces, not staged handshakes.
• Everyday life: family, food, home, health, learning.
• Local context: Lithuanian cities, nature, traditions, seasons – foreign contributors will not photograph that.
• Space for text: shots with empty space where a designer can place a headline.
• Series: the same scene horizontally, vertically, in close-up and in a wide shot.

Other routes: selling directly

Agencies are not the only way. Photos can be licensed directly to companies or publications, sold as prints on your own website, or as digital files on marketplaces. When you sell directly the whole price stays with you, but you look for buyers yourself and write the licence terms yourself: where, for how long and in what print run the photo can be used.

Taxes

Agency payouts are taxable income that has to be declared, even if it comes from abroad. Once sales become regular, the activity has to be made official. Which form suits you is explained in the ACS.lt article “Self-employment: registration certificate or business certificate”.

Checklist before uploading your first batch of photos

Frequently asked questions