In our modern world, most people have a smartphone with them at all times, which means there’s always an opportunity to get a good photograph no matter where you are. Whether you are a pro mobile photographer, or you just enjoy taking photos in your spare time, there’s some good money to be made in the field of mobile photography.
This article aims to highlight all of the best ways mobile photographers can make some good money. We will also provide you with some mobile photography tips so that you can truly get the most out of taking pictures with your cell phone.
How do Mobile Photographers Make Money?
There are a number of ways in which mobile photographers can make good money. Below is a list of the three best ways to make money as a mobile photographer:
- Sell your stock photographs
- Influencer marketing
- Sell prints of your photographs
Below we will go into a little bit of detail about each of these different money-making ways and the best ways to go about each one.
1. Sell Your Stock Photographs
As a mobile photographer, you can earn some extra money or even start a completely new career by simply selling your photographs online. Various businesses, large corporations, designers, marketers, and even bloggers will pay to use photographs online on a regular basis. These photographs can come from people with carious skill levels and the demand for photographs of these types is currently higher than ever.
What Type of Photos Sell the Best?
The best types of photos are those used by businesses and bloggers for their websites and articles. The most popular styles of images include the following:
- Portraits of people – This can include images of children, adults, teenagers, and everyone in between from all different countries, cultures, and backgrounds
- People working – Images of people working are extremely popular to businesses. They usually want pictures of people working on laptops, sat at desks, writing, speaking in a meeting, and basically anything else that could be used as a work or business image
- People doing things – People doing basically anything are popular among bloggers. This can include people riding a bike, attending an event, visiting a fairground, playing games, driving, and basically anything else that us humans get up to on a daily basis
- Travel – Images from around the world are always in high demand. It’s as simple as taking a few pictures on your phone wherever you go
- Nature – It’s always fun shooting things in nature and, depending where you go, you can capture some amazing nature pictures on your phone. These types of images are always in high demand
- Cities – Pictures of buildings, people commuting, traffic, and skyline images are always particularly popular
- Food – A good tip is to always take a picture of your food before you eat it. Any food of any time could end up being a good selling stock picture
- Tools – Any type of tools could work as a good potential seller for a range of businesses. Gears, nuts, bolts, hammers, screws – any types of tools may work
Best Places to Sell Your Mobile Photographs Online
There are a huge number of great places where you can sell your mobile photographs online. Below is a list of some amazing websites in which you can list your photos online for sale as stock images:
Adobe Stock
Adobe stock is an marketplace for stock images by the creator of some of the most popular photo editing software solutions including both Photoshop and Lightroom. It is a very popular photo marketplace and a great place to start your mobile photography selling business.
One of the main benefits of Adobe Stock is that the image royalties are higher than the majority of other photo selling websites. Contributors to Adobe Stock can make anywhere between 20%-60% and also provide you with the benefit of not forcing you into any exclusive selling rights. This means that you can list your photographs elsewhere as well as having them listed on Adobe Stock.
Shutterstock
Shutterstock is another very popular stock image site that has been around for a long time. According to their website, Shutterstock contributors have made over $500 million worldwide.
The site allows you to keep your copyrights protected, so you have control over the rights on your images. Shutterstock also gives credit to every single image owner, which is great for protecting your content and growing your brand.
As a contributor, you can earn between 20% – 30% of whatever the photo sells for. You can start earning money right away and will earn money every single time someone purchases and downloads the images that you’ve submitted.
Shutterstock, similar to Adobe Stock, will not force you to exclusively sell your content with them. This means that you can list your photographs on various websites and maximize your earning potential.
Twenty20
Twenty20 is a collection of large community of mobile photographers who earn money from their mobile photographs. Twenty20 is a free mobile app that you can join as a photographer to submit your photographs. You can also submit photographs on their website.
Photographers can earn a huge 80% commission on photos that are purchased. A single photo on Twenty20 can sell for $20, $40, or $80, depending on the size of the photograph being purchased. You receive 80% of every single photo that sells.
Twenty20 also offers fun challenges for the community. Every day there is a new photography challenge posted about specific themes. You can also submit your photos to signature collections. These are photographs that have been nominated by the community with a final selection decided by the editors. Twenty20 offers a fun way to make money from your mobile photography.
Foap
Foap is a very simple way to sell photographs right from your cell phone. It is a simple smartphone app that’s very easy to use. List your photographs on Foap where businesses will be able to access your images and purchase them for their use.
The pay outs on Foap isn’t terrific compared to other photo listing services. You make $5 for every photograph that sells. However, those dollars can really add up if you contribute images regularly. One of the benefits of Foap is that you can sell the same photograph numerous times.
Foap offers “Foap missions” where they will use specific topics to encourage contributors to fulfil images based on those specific topics. You can also create a portfolio of all of your best photographs which offers better exposure to image buyers. You can download the Foap app from your smartphone’s app store.
2. Instagram Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is one of the newest and most successful forms of marketing and it’s a great way to make some extra cash with your mobile photography.
What Is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing is a variety of social media marketing that involves product promotions and endorsements from influencers. These are individuals that have a dedicated social following and are seen as being experts in their specific niche. If you develop a specific niche of mobile photography you can easily grow a large following on photo sharing apps such as Instagram.
Influencer marketing works due to the trust that is built between the influencer and their followers. The recommendations that influencers make are a form of social proof that provides a kind of validity to prospective customers and clients.
Influencer can make a lot of money depending on the size of their audience. Followers love good content, and if you can provide good photography content, then you can easily build up a swarm of followers that will engage with your pictures on a daily basis. The most important part of becoming an influencer is to upload regular content that your followers will enjoy.
How Can You Make Money on Instagram?
The amount of money you can make doing influencer marketing varies greatly depending on the amount of followers you have and your engagement rate. The more followers you have and the more people respond to your posts, the more money you can make.
The first step to marking money on Instagram is to grow your audience. You can do this by uploading content on a regular basis. This means that you need to be taking pictures regularly so that you always have new content to upload. Keep an eye out for the type of posts that perform the best and focus on taking more pictures in that style – you want to make your followers happy so that they continue following and engaging with your content. This is the best way to grow your audience.
Once you have grown a few thousand loyal followers on your Instagram account, you begin to start making money from your account. Below is a list of some of the best ways in which you can make money using your Instagram account:
Sponsored Posts
One of the most popular types of influencer marketing is sponsored posts. This involves brands and businesses paying you to promote their brand or products in a social media post. These posts may be entirely about the product or may involve you using or wearing the product. You can even feature several products at once. You may involve a review of the brand or product or you may simply just feature the product within the post.
Brand Reps
You can earn money on Instagram by becoming a brand representative. This involves creating a partnership with a brand that usually lasts a few months or even years. As a brand representative, you would get free products and sometimes payment from the brand in exchange for social media promotions on your account. You may also earn commission on the number of sales that arise directly from your promotions.
Affiliate Marketing
Another great way to earn money from your Instagram mobile photography uploads is to make use of affiliate marketing. This involves promoting products from a particular brand or website and earning a percentage of every sale that comes from your unique link. The amount you earn from affiliate marketing will vary form site to site. You should advertise products that relate to your audience’s interests.
3. Sell Prints of Your Photographs
You can sell prints of your best mobile photographs on your own website or on social media. If your photos are good quality, you could make a lot of money selling prints of them. These can be general photograph prints, poster prints, tapestry prints, or even prints onto clothing or other forms of merchandise.
Why Should You Sell Your Photography as Prints?
Selling prints of your photography can be a very rewarding experience. It’s a great way to make some extra money but it’s also a great way to get your name out there. As more and more of your work sells, people will start to recognise your style when they see your photographs and this can help to provide you with some level of respect.
Word of mouth is a great marketing technique for mobile photographers. As more people start to know your work, you will be able to sell more prints. You’ll earn more money and your photography will become much more valuable.
This is especially true if each of the pieces you sell is a one-off piece. People value items that are rare and a one-off photograph sale can become a rare and valuable thing. The more prints you begin to sell, the more you will be able to charge for future prints.
Should You Handle It Yourself or Outsource?
If you have the materials at home to produce good quality prints then you can, of course, take on the role of printing yourself. If you don’t have the appropriate materials at home to create good prints, however, then you may need to find a print manufacturer to produce the prints on your behalf. You will then purchase these prints and sell them on to your customers.
As your business grows, you may find that producing the prints yourself can become quite a daunting task and so it would be better to outsource the printing at this point. However, you choose to handle the printing will depend a lot on how many prints you are selling each month, whether you have the right materials available to do the printing yourself, and how much time you have to put into the printing side of things.
What Type of Photographs Are Best for Print?
When you think about the best types of photography for prints, you need to think about what people generally use prints for. If you are printing onto posters or canvasses, these are most likely to be hung in people’s homes or offices, so you need to think about the types of pictures that people would enjoy looking at in these spaces.
Similarly, if you are printing onto clothing or other merchandise, you need to think about the types of photographs that people would want to see on those items.
Below is a list of some image types that work great for prints:
- Unique places
- Travel pictures
- City pictures
- Architecture
- Tasteful pictures of people
- Pictures of the ocean
- Sunsets
You need to think about things that people would like to see. It’s unlikely that someone would want to hang a large selfie of you on their wall, however, go out and take a great picture of a sunset and someone may want to buy that for their décor. Keep your customers in mind at all times and take photographs that reflect your style and their taste and you’ll be more likely to sell more prints.
Mobile Photography Tips
Mobile photography is a great way to make some extra income or even start a new career, but how do you take good mobile photography shots? Below are some tips on how to get that perfect shot using nothing but your cell phone:
Set the Focus on Your Camera
Most modern cell phone cameras focus on whatever is in the foreground of your frame, however, you may not want every single photograph to focus on the foreground. To adjust the area in which you want your phone to focus on, you need to open up your camera app and then tap the area of the screen that you want to focus on the most. This will sharpen the view of that particular area or object.
If you are taking a picture of something that is moving it can be quite difficult to get your phone to focus on that subject and refocus when needed. Tap the screen of your phone before snapping the image so that the object in motion has as much focus as possible.
If possible, you can also set your phone camera to “burst” most which means that it will take a number of shots in quick succession so you can choose the one that looks best. This is a great tool to take advantage of for motion shots.
Focus on One Particular Object
Many good photographs include one subject that is the main focus of the photo. So when you’re taking a picture with your phone, take some time to analyse the frame and choose something that is most interesting to put the focus on.
A good rule for thumb for photography is to have one third of the frame focussed on the subject and then leave two thirds of blank space around that subject. This helps the main subject stand out much more.
Be sure to tap your phone screen to ensure that the main subject is in focus. This will also ensure that the lighting is optimized for the subject in question.
Once you’ve taken your photograph, many smartphones have the option to edit your image right from the camera app. So you can edit the lighting and colours on your photo so that it looks the best it possibly can.
Make Use of the Gridlines
One of the best and easiest ways to get good shots on your phone is to make use of the camera gridlines. This is a setting that you can turn on in the camera settings. This brings up a series of lines on your phone screen that are based on that rule of thirds as mentioned above. If you line up the image within these thirds, your photo will be very well balanced and makes it easier for viewers of the image to see everything much more naturally.
Embrace the Empty Space
The empty space is classed as the areas of the image that are surrounding the main subject. If you include a lot of empty space around the main subject, then it will stand out much more. The empty space can include things such as the open sky, the ocean, a large wall, or an empty field.
Play Around with Reflections
Reflections look great in photography. When looking at a picture, our eyes tend to focus on reflections and so you can create some great photographs by making use of any reflections you can. Look out for puddles on the floors, mirrors within architecture, or reflections on windows.
Try to Use Different Perspectives
Taking a photograph with a unique distinct perspective can make them really stand out. Most pictures taken on a cell phone are usually form a straight angle or a selfie angle. So if you can mix up the way in which you take pictures, it can make them even more memorable.
Try taking a picture on a tilted angle, or try looking up and taking an image upwards. Using the sky as your empty space is a great idea. If something looks a little bit different to a normal photograph, then people are going to remember it so much more.
Look Out for Opportunities of Symmetry
Pictures that make use of symmetry can be very aesthetically pleasing, so look out for areas where you can make use of this. A good rule of thumb when looking to create an image with good symmetry is to look at the image and see if it could be divided into two equal parts that mirror each other. Be sure to make use of the gridlines as mentioned earlier to ensure that everything lines up perfectly.
Look out for Repeating Patterns
Patterns that repeat can be very pleasing to look at and so make for great photographs. This includes anything that has strong graphic elements that repeat over and over. Things such as lines, shapes and colours can look great if they are repeated.
Patterns such as this can have a very strong visual impact and can make beautiful images. Something as simple as a tiled floor with a repeating pattern can look great. Another example is a line of buildings that look very similar.
Avoid Cropping Images
When taking photographs with your mobile, it may be tempting to crop your images so that the main focus of the subject becomes larger. However, cropping images can make them appear blurry, pixelated, or grainy. It’s always best to try to get the perfect picture straight away. Move closer to the subject when taking your pictures to avoid the need for any future trimming.
Look Out for Small Details
Sometimes it’s the little things that make the best pictures. Close up images that capture intricate details can make an extremely aesthetically pleasing image. Look out for textures in things such as a gravelled road, a tiled table top, or peeling paint. Anything that shows small details that people may not notice straight away can make great images.
Use Natural Lighting
Using flash on a phone can make a picture look overexposed and can have a negative effect on the colours within the picture. It’s much better to take advantage of natural lighting wherever possible. Even at night, try to make use of natural lighting as much as possible instead of using the flash. Once you’ve taken the picture, you can use your camera’s editing features to make the lighting look much better.
Try to be Unique
Nobody wants to see the same pictures over and over again. If you really want to make money from your mobile photography, you need your images to stand out from the crowd. With so many smartphones today, everyone is taking pictures all the time, so you need your pictures to stand out above everyone else’s.
Think of something unique that you can do that perhaps no-one has thought to do before to ensure that people remember your pictures over everyone else’s.
Final Thoughts
We have highlighted some of the best ways to make money with mobile photography and have provided you with some of the best tips to get stunning photos using just your cell phone.
As you can see, there are some great ways to make money by doing mobile photography. If you have an interest in photography, why not take advantage of your smartphone and start to earn money from your pictures? It’s a great way to earn a passive income or may even become your new career!