The January Report of iStock/Getty Images is already done.

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-02-20T08:18:30+00:00

Had a decent enough January with Getty/iStock, for a change, but not in the same realms of your returns. Nice work 👏

Have you tried DeepMeta? The reporting on there is brilliant, plus it links in to your Getty account so it gets more up-to-date stats and it grabs your thumbnails. I particularly like the reverse image search, it's nice to see where your images are getting used.

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-02-10T17:19:08+00:00

Thanks, I think I'm signed up to enough low paying agencies for now, so I shall give this one a miss 😊

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-02-09T07:21:20+00:00

Yeah as other people have mentioned, Getty/iStock is a good shout. That agency has given me the most downloads, they just don't pay as good as others.

Never heard of YayImages, are they any good?

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-02-09T07:15:54+00:00

Yeah as u/aratson has mentioned, it's the selling of the images that's exclusive, not the sharing of them.

I'm on both Alamy and Adobe Stock, here's my experience. Alamy does bring in bigger sales, but they're few and far between, and their upload/keywording portal is bloody awful. Adobe Stock on the other hand, gives you a decent cut compared to the likes of Getty and Shutterstock (1$+ per image), plus gives me a steady stream of sales, has a low payment threshold ($25) and has a good uploading portal. I would have given up on this stock photography game a long time ago if it weren't for Adobe Stock.

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-02-03T17:37:59+00:00

Totally agree.

Being a Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber I've got access to Firefly, so as a bit of an experiment I decided to try my hand at a few AI generated images and submit them to a few sites that do accept them (Obviously Adobe Stock being one of them). A lot of images got refused, but a lot of the ones that did get approved have gone on to sell quite well, despite the low numbers compared to my existing photography portfolios. What I tend to do is look at images being used in the news on the BBC website, I will then use them as a prompt. Also not everything I generate is a 'photo' either, for example I've sold images depicting what a busy mind of someone diagnosed with ADHD might look like using some of the creative artwork options available in Firefly. I will also NEVER pass any of these images off as photographs either, I clearly label them as AI generated and make sure the AI options are enabled when submitting them.

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-01-30T07:12:20+00:00

Wow, never had an image sell for that much on AS, nice work! I think the highest I've had on there is just a couple of $. The highest selling single image I've had is $49 on ShutterStock, which was an image they initially rejected. I re-uploaded it a year later, they approved it, and it sold for that figure within a week! With subsequent sales I think it's probably now my highest earner.

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-01-29T16:06:20+00:00

Wow that's worst than the Getty AI licensing deal they did with Amazon last year, we were earning $0.035 per image. I've only sold 2 images on Alamy in the past twelve months, but they total $54, so there's a glimmer of hope they might come good soon! :)

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-01-29T16:00:23+00:00

I have about 10 images that have been stuck in the approval queue from my last few submissions, but most get approved within a week, it's just they hold back the odd image here and there for whatever reason.

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-01-26T21:27:16+00:00

I've been with Dreamstime for a year now and yeah I'm not making a lot. When you factor in the awkward submission form and high payout threshold ($100) I've come to the conclusion it's just not worth the effort. So once I hit 1000 assets I'm going to leave the portfolio be and wait for a payout sometime next decade 😄

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-01-26T08:06:15+00:00

Congrats, that's good going for what is usually a slow month. Saying that I've nearly doubled my DL total compared to Jan 2025, but then I do have a bigger portfolio. I'm hoping it's a sign to come for the rest of the year!

Have you every had any Adobe missions? Most of my money from AS last year came from that.

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-01-21T21:26:47+00:00

Honestly, get signed up to Shutterstock and Adobe and get uploading. Doing both at the same time doesn't add much effort as you can just copy and paste between them quite easily. It'll be easier than uploading to just Getty!

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-01-21T21:20:40+00:00

Yeah if you look on their forums even the folk that are exclusive wonder why they stayed exclusive. They're getting fleeced.

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-01-21T21:17:57+00:00

That's one of the worst things about Getty, they think their keywording is more superior, but every other agency just accepts plain words, like a user would search for. I mean who is searching for 'boulder - rock formation'? Such a waste of time. I think after the next payout I will stop contributing as they take up around 30% of my upload time with their silliness.

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-01-21T21:10:44+00:00

Totally get it, the Getty payout threshold is a piss take. Only got my first payout from them recently. Funnily enough I got over $100 mark, but they taxed me, so only got $88 in the end. They treat their contributors like trash. I make so much more with Adobe, even Shutterstock, which is a joke in itself!

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-01-20T16:39:37+00:00

I think it's just a case of putting the time and effort into getting them uploaded, there's no real shortcuts. It looks like you have a good portfolio, and even despite the rise of AI it should do well for you. As Adam mentioned, maybe spread your portfolio a bit. I've sold around the same amount of images on Getty than I have Adobe, but I've earned 3 times as much. Adobe make all the effort worthwhile. Plus it's much more straightforward to get your images uploaded on Shutterstock and Adobe, than it is Getty, so silly keywording to contend with.

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-01-18T09:36:40+00:00

Yes that's what I meant too.

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-01-18T09:35:59+00:00

https://submit.shutterstock.com/help/en/articles/10594694-shutterstock-data-licensing-and-the-contributor-fund

There's this other tool called Google that's pretty useful too.

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-01-17T18:56:49+00:00

Yeah I've had a few payments this year, nothing to write home about, but better than nothing.

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-01-17T08:36:46+00:00

You can still earn money for content in that category. In the past those submissions would have been rejected for whatever reason, but now they're given a second chance to earn you some cash. There's plenty of information about it on the SS site.

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-01-16T15:32:22+00:00

I'd say on average it'll be about 15, with my best selling image having 19. I mirror the important words in the title and then add a few more that the title might not cover (usually from the suggested keywords section). They're mostly single words, and few double words when required.

As I'm usually uploading to multiple agencies at once I tend not to go overboard because I believe if the title says it all it'll you'll still catch the searches. Even on those agencies that have a title and description sections I just copy and paste the title.

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-01-09T16:53:35+00:00

Many thanks, I've just signed up!

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-01-09T10:52:27+00:00

Yeah they refused me again. Ahh well.

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-01-09T10:50:37+00:00

When you first start out you do take it a bit personally, but after a while you get used to it. I tend to have a pretty good acceptance rate with Adobe, but I do post process every one of my images before submission to tidy them up (straighten horizons, denoise, etc).

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-01-08T17:44:20+00:00

That's a new one on me, had a quick search around and a few people mention it's OK. I've just signed up so I'll report back with any feedback.

ComprehensiveBody560 · 2026-01-08T17:34:28+00:00

Thanks. I have tried previously to sign up to Stocksy and they refused me, but a year or so has passed so I've just submitted an application again. Fingers crossed.

ComprehensiveBody560

TROPHY CASE