If you're relatively new to the world of stock photography and trying to figure out the best way to make money, then I might just have the answer for you. With creativity, you can produce work that fills a need and earns income. In this article, I aim to provide some methods that will help give you an edge.
What Are Textures?
Textures are essentially images of different surfaces. Every surface tends to have a certain look, feel, or texture and images of them can be very useful for other photographers and designers. Sourcing new textures has been made really easy because of stock photography and they remain one of the more popular types of images being sold on stock websites. Their popularity is obviously very beneficial for photographers who wish to sell stock images. Images of wooden surfaces can be very popular too as they have many uses. Wooden textures give a natural rustic feel and designers can use them in a variety of different ways. Another very popular type of texture image is of white textured surfaces. The color white is extremely popular due to its versatility. Many stock websites tend to actually request these types of images regularly. Images of textures need to be very simple, less is without a doubt more.
Where to Find and Shoot Textures?
This is actually one of the easiest kinds of images to produce and can be done right in your home too. Most of the surfaces in your home can be used for stock photography. For example, walls, table tops, floorboards, carpets, drywall, brickwork, and strangely enough, even pets.
My pet cat
The number of available surfaces in your home gives you plenty of options and lots of potential images. You can also shoot the same surface to create multiple texture images. For example, one shot can be done with a 50mm lens and another can be a really close up of the surface with a macro lens. Once you've exhausted all of the available options in your home a simple walk down the street can offer a huge variety of options. Options like photographing a fence, the sidewalk, shop walls and so on. During a casual walk around my city, I was comfortably able to produce approximately 50 images in less than an hour.
Types of Surfaces to Look Out for
Generally speaking, walls are super easy surfaces to photograph and also find. Walking around almost any city or town will offer you a plethora of options. Sure, you may look a little odd photographing a blank wall but if it makes you money who cares right? Surfaces with flaws are generally what offer the best textures. For example, metal sheets that are rusting slightly can offer a very interesting surface.
Once again white surfaces or lighter colors tend to be more popular and it makes sense to build a large library of those images. A great way to build that library quickly is to photograph the same surface multiple times. For example, an individual wall will have lots of different sections that are slightly different. It's important to make sure that each image is different enough to offer a different texture.
How to Shoot Textures for Stock
To photograph textures, the kind of gear you need doesn't need to be super expensive. Personally, I think a 50mm lens is a good choice. There are occasions when I will use a macro lens although those situations are relatively few in comparison. Even with an entry level lens like the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 you can comfortably produce exactly the results that you need for this kind of photography. It's generally not a good idea to shoot wide open, therefore, even a kit lens like the 18-55mm f/3.5-f/5.6 is going to be more than effective.
Camera Settings
As mentioned above, shooting wide open is probably not a good idea because you need the depth of field of a smaller aperture. If you shoot wide open and you haven't perfectly aligned the surface to your camera you may have certain areas of the image out of focus. I recommend around f/5.6 in most situations. It's also not a good idea to shoot in low light because you'll want to keep your ISO as low as possible. The maximum I tend to shoot is at ISO 400; anything above that can risk the images having visible noise which may lead to them being rejected. For the shutter speed, obviously, the higher the better, motion blur is another thing you'll want to avoid. Textures need to remain as sharp and as detailed as possible.
Megapixels Matter
Most cameras these days tend to have enough megapixels. There are several entry-level cameras that are 24mp in resolution and for the most part, this is more than enough. Of course, if you do have a 50mp camera or even higher, this can help increase your potential for income, although it's not a major factor.
Method
For this type of photography, the best way to shoot is with a one-point perspective. Try and get the camera as parallel to the surface as possible. This will help eliminate any potential issues with depth of field. Once again stopping down the lens is advisable and around f/5.6 is what I recommend. Generally speaking, lenses tend to be sharpest around that aperture. Always take more than one shot for the same image and this is to ensure you have a number of options available when selecting which image you edit. Make sure to fill the frame as much as you possibly can so that you're not having to crop and lose resolution. If you're shooting a brick wall, avoid shooting too close; this way you can have a much larger section in the frame. Shooting too close to the subject will also increase the risk of missing focus. Even if you move slightly at the minimum focus, you risk your image being out of focus. Although you can shoot with a tripod, it does increase the amount of time you spend per image, making the process less practical. So, I recommend shooting with a high shutter speed handheld. Textures that are sold for stock are mostly about volume.
Bonus Tips
Brick walls are very popular as textures. However, they can be the trickiest types of images to produce. The reason for this is you need to have your camera aligned properly. Keep the vertical and horizontal lines straight in camera. You may be able to straighten the image in post but, but it's better to get it correctly in the camera.
Having a polarizer at hand can be extremely useful. Many interesting surfaces that could work as textures may be quite reflective. Having a polarizer can prevent any unwanted reflections that can affect the image. For example, the image below is of a wooden surface and the reflections are negatively affecting the image.
Finally, I recommend having a ColorChecker Passport or a gray card at hand too. This is just to help in post if you want to ensure you have correct white balance. It's not extremely important or vital to have these at hand, I simply recommend it based on my own experience of shooting stock.
How to Maximize your Income
Stock photography has one aim and that is to provide an income. The great thing about textures is that the time required per image is relatively low and the income potential is relatively high. This genre of photography is all about volume and the number of high-quality images you have uploaded increases your income potential.
Consistency
This is quite possibly the most important thing that will determine your income. This needs to be a long-term project that you do regularly. Most people will more than likely see meaningful results after a year of consistently shooting stock and uploading them regularly to the website. Consistency is probably the one thing that will determine whether you're successful or not.
Estimated Income
Based on some crude calculations, I estimate that the kind of income you can expect to see is about $40 a month per 1,000 images. Uploading 1,000 is also not that great of a feat and can be done relatively quickly. Once you start reaching numbers of around 10,000+ you will more than likely start to notice a more meaningful income. This is a passive source of income that can continue even if you stop uploading images for a period of time. The stock image library that you produce will require effort to begin with, but, if you remain consistent and understand that it is a longer-term project, it can even potentially provide a full-time income. Textures are a high turnover low margin business and the great thing is that each image does not need to require significant amounts of effort. Selling textures on Adobe stock has the potential for a significant and regular income. The aim is to produce and upload as many images as you can regularly and consistently.
For more information on how to submit your photos, check out the Adobe Stock Contributor Guide.
Usman Dawood wrote: “Soccer moms are people who have every right to enter this market. You have no right to tell them otherwise.”
I agree with your soccer mom reply that they, too, can contribute stock photographs; I never said otherwise. Your reply comments are non-sequitur. I’ve provided a sound business alternative to submitting images to Adobe Stock and others who retain most all of the licensing fees collected. I’ll reiterate: ‘Adobe is the real winner…’
I like Adobe, been using their products since mid 1990's, never was interested in utilizing their stock image side for selling, but reading "$40 a month per 1,000 images" seems like there are better options for beginners out there other than Adobe Stock for this Texture selling avenue.
I saw this article last night, and immediately thought to call a friend who sells 'textures' / texture downloads on Etsy. She's a stay at home mother, she is by no means a professional photographer, just a hobby she likes. Doesn't care about licenses, just looks to sell. She makes a good passive income with image downloads from her Etsy shop. She has 405 individual textures for download, and then she has some 'texture packs' as well, in 2018 her sales for textures alone were $3,800.00. Quick math says that's over $300.00 a month for last year. Sounds far better passive income than "$40 a month per 1,000 images". Plus, the added benefit of not having to wait on a review, or have it not accepted. She shoots it, cleans it up, and posts it.
And we most likely will never see an article covering your point because Etsy will not pay to have such an article written.
That also brings up another point I would be interested to know people's thoughts on. The majority of posts here on Fstoppers are written/filmed by others which Fstoppers then reposts. This has been explained by numerous comments by Fstoppers staff saying that the site curates articles from all around the internet thus providing folks with one location to get their photography news. That being said how likely is it that Fstoppers would chose to not post an article for fear of upsetting one of their advertising partners, in this case Adobe, even if it would be more advantageous to sell your stock elsewhere? Does that then question the veracity of any article that has "sponsored" in small text near the authors name? Am i being too suspicious? Too naive?
Too suspicious.
You’re forgetting the huge number of completely original articles that we produce on fstoppers. There aren’t many websites that produce as many original articles as we do. In fact are there any, genuinely asking?
https://fstoppers.com/originals
The act of curating other content is done by pretty much every photography site. The difference on fstoppers is that we choose not to write up a full article with it because that prevents the need to watch the video or click on the link.
Also a sponsored article is not the same as an advertiser that funds the website. We’ve written plenty of sponsored posts from companies that are directly competing with Adobe.
Just because a post is sponsored doesn’t mean that it negates our values, if anything it needs to accommodate our values.
I appreciate you taking the time to respond. My confusion might be in the understanding of the origin of a sponsored article. Using this article as an example, did Adobe come to you (or Fstoppers) and request an article on Adobe stock be written or was this article fleshed out beforehand and then offered to Adobe as a sponsored article? I don't ask about the specific compensation details and understand that may be confidential information. More what makes an article "sponsored".
I found the information in the article very useful, if one day, I feel the urge to take thousands of pictures of texture, which I very much doubt. The money is certainly no incentive! However, if one day, I am bored out of my mind, or desperate for a dollar, or feel like playing with my camera and perhaps even get paid for it, then... I might just try. By all means, if you have a better source of income, don't rely on stock photography. But if you feel like playing and make a bit of money on the side, then, why not?
Is stock "really" worth the bother? Shooting, Description, Title and key wording, All this takes an immense amount of time and the rewards are "peanuts"!
I have images on Getty iStock, my accumulated balance since 2017 - the grand sum of $28. Adobe is even worse, my balance, just under $3! With a commission rate of 99 Cents per sale or license, I ask myself why bother?
There are claims, "I am earning a four figure income from my stock*"???? I have yet to see the proof of this but nobody is prepared to show same. I don't think they are lying but it is just their wishful thinking.
Only when I see for myself these incomes are actually attained will I believe same. BTW, not forgetting, I, and many others have to pay tax on these earnings. Not in the US for those not taxable in the US, but in the country where I reside. So after tax, the renumeration is less than peanuts.
I will say this, since I upgraded my camera from 24MP to 42MP my images are being accepted quicker, as a rule in less than 24 hours.
*I did hear one requires at least 8000 stock images online in oder to create any volume of sales,
Thanks for the well-written article. My interest in textures stems from my love of design and all forms of photography. Making a few bucks doing something I love would be a bonus. Keep up the good work.
Thank you so much, Cheryl, much appreciated.