Online photo services can give shutterbug lucrative outlet

— -- Brown University medical student Nick Monu supplements his income by selling photographs online.

He uses the "stock" photography service iStockphoto.com, offering generic photos of people and places that can be used in brochures, magazines, websites and billboards.

Monu — known as "nico_blue" on iStockphoto — pulls in a six-figure income from his part-time gig. One photo even earned him $5,000. It's a feel-good image of two senior women, one African American and one white, smiling for the camera.

"This is the best of both worlds," says Monu, 23. "I get to work as an artist, and supplement my income."

Stock photography has exploded on the Web thanks to digital technology, which puts professional-level equipment in non-pros' hands at affordable prices. Stock photography is set to go even more mainstream today, when Flickr, the popular online photo site, joins forces with Getty Images, the world's largest stock photo agency.

Flickr's alliance with Getty, which also owns iStockphoto.com, was announced in July. Getty editors have spent the past few months culling through Flickr's 3 billion images, inviting photographers with stock-quality photos to participate. Some 10,000 photos were selected; most now will show up in a special Flickr Collection section of Getty Images.

Getty Images CEO Jonathan Klein says his clients wanted access to Flickr's wealth of photos, but only if they were cleared for commercial use. Getty Images targets higher-end professional photos for commercial clients, while iStockphoto.com solicits submissions from non-pros for smaller customers.

Flickr members eager to participate will have to be patient: It's an invitation-only process, for now. Klein says editors are constantly going through Flickr looking for quality photographers with salable work.

As long as the picture is posted publicly (Flickr members have the option of password-protected sharing) Getty can find your photo, Flickr general manager Kakul Srivastava says.

"If you decide you're not interested, just say no thanks," she says.

However, there's a huge difference between posting on Flickr a cool sunset image of a Hawaiian hotel, say, or a loving couple walking down the street — and making the image available for stock purchases.

Stock photography is more science than art, says Jon Oringer, CEO of Shutterstock, the No. 2 online stock photo service. You have to have a commercial eye for what will sell, he says. And there are legal hurdles you must clear.

Your couple strolling down the street might work well in a greeting card, for instance, but you must get model releases. Similarly, there might be a market for your street scene of a downtown location, but unless you either crop out or blur the identifiable names of businesses, you can't use it without getting approvals first.

Shooting stock takes effort, Oringer says, but, "There are lots of photographers willing to go the extra mile" — especially in a down economy where every little bit helps.

Real people, real life

Getty CEO Klein says he's looking for locally relevant content that could appeal to ad agencies. The service pays from $200 to $500 a photo.

"There's a huge difference between Venice, Italy, and Venice, Calif.," he says. "We want to see real people in real situations. One of the criticisms of stock photography is that it's too 'set up.' "

Success will depend on how prolific you are, Klein says. "You won't do well with just two or three images."

Lee Torrens, a blogger who runs the Microstock Diaries blog, says Getty's partnership with Flickr isn't so much about quality as quantity.

"Flickr was a major threat, because it has so many photos — more than all the agencies put together," he says. "By joining with Flickr, Getty heads off any competitors getting a deal."

Before the dawn of what Torrens calls "micro stock" — sites such as Shutterstock and iStockphoto.com — it was tough for photographers to enter the stock photo market, he says.

The current recession gives micro stock photos an even brighter future, Torrens says, as agencies look to those sites, and now Flickr, as sources of quality photos at lower prices.