What on earth is that? some of you will say. If you do, or if you have heard the term many times but are not sure what it's all abou,t then read on.

Like many of us you will read the magazines, browse the web, participate in forums and cram your head with as much stuff about photography as possible. Of course in doing all this you will inevitably come across the term "stock photography". You would be forgiven for thinking that it is a term used by photographers to describe the collection of photos they have stored away on their hard disks so they can delve into them at any time and sell them when they are short of a few bob or two. Well, not quite. Stock photography is the practice of taking photos which you know will be used by others for inclusion in magazines, websites, book covers, CD/DVD covers etc. etc and then selling them through what are termed as "microstock sites".

There are several main players in the microstock game. The one I use is iStockPhoto, in fact I am an exclusive artist with them which means that the photos I upload and sell on their site, I do not upload to any other site. In fact, I don't submit to any other site at all. Of course, it's up to you. There are several similar sites out there for you to look at but none are quite so good or big as iStockphoto in my personal opinion. If you submit you photos to more than one site then the level of royalty you will be paid (percentage of what the site charges per download of your photo) will be slightly less than if you are exclusive. Anyway, more of this later, let's get back to the basics.

Getting Started

So, you have been doing great things with your new camera and you are ready to sign up and start submitting photos. Great, go for it! The first thing you will need to do is to open an account with the stock site (or sites) you choose. Some may charge you to join, iStock is free. When signing up as a contributor for iStock there is a procedure to go through which asks you to answer a few questions on stock photography and how the site works and what best practices are etc. This is to weed out those who are really interested and those that are not.

You will probably have to submite some pictures for approval. These images need to be perfect quality. Using what you have learnt fom your own experience and more importantly, what you have learnt by looking at other peoples work (and go close in don't just look at thumbnails) go and take some pictures where the lighting is good, the subject is in perfect focus (use a tripod if you have to!). Try to take them of something interesting and not a photo that has been done a million and one times before. Real effort shows in photography, no effort shows through even more.

What you don't want is for the initial submittal process to take too long. If you get rejection after rejection due to quality, lighting, focus, subject etc then you will become discouraged. Ask a friend if you need to, use a studio to get perfect lighting but make the effort to get the first shots right.

You're in, now what !