Should you give away your photos for free? Unsplash & Pexels Experiment

[@jamespolk5428]

Thanks!

[@jamespolk5428]

Seems the revenue is less feasible, but the exposure for your work is good for your spirit! Sometimes opportunity will find you. Hope you and the family are doing wel

[@tilldaling]

That's a big gesture, James! Thank you so much my friend, like really! Still in search of our little farm, but otherwise great! :)

[@DanaBphotog]

This has probably been the most in depth, honest review I've seen so far. I never heard of any of these free stock sites until recently, and I do have some of my work available for sale on picfair, but I know not all of the many photos I take will make a sale. Making money from our photography is nice, but the one thing that slows us down the most is simply getting the exposure. No one will know to buy from you if they don't even know you exist. We post good work on social media all the time, why not put it on a free stock site where we can be seen by way more people that what Facebook's algorithm allows? I just made an unsplash account, but I don't really have much to post there. I will try my luck and see how far it takes me. Thanks for the review!

[@tilldaling]

Thank you so much, mate! Did you have any success with picfair? The experience online isn't really clear about it. If it's just about exposure unsplash is doing pretty well!

[@DanaBphotog]

@@tilldaling so far I’ve made one sale, but I’ve also only had my site for a couple weeks. I don’t expect things to start rolling right away, but I’m hopeful that the more I travel and take photos, I’ll have more to add in the future. I’ve only had my unsplash about a week and I’ve gotten over 1k views so that’s something I suppose. I want to shoot images I can post in both places and let the exposure come along with it.

[@brimstoneclub]

I had a discussion about this with a photographer buddy of mine, and the main concern is intellectual property. He always watermarks his photos so he can claim them, but in actuality, you lose all control of them the moment they're uploaded on a search engine.

[@tilldaling]

I agree with the latter... And could never get it over me to put a watermark that's actually destroying the viewing experience :(

[@StreetPhotographyChina]

Really enjoyed your video on Unsplash / Pixel as well as your presenting style. I'm trying to monetize my photography hobby but for the reasons you mentioned, I think I will give these free platforms a try. I also think it will make me think more about some photos I take in the future. Keep up the good work!

[@tilldaling]

I'm sure it's a good thing to keep in mind what would be great stock while shooting :)

[@zanetka28]

your last question is right. If you are someone who just wants to be seemed, it's ok But if you will put good pictures in good quality for free, the work of all the photographers around (also those who needs money for paying bills and the only thing they are doing is photography), then you are doing this WORK / JOB worthless. Unfortunately today money is the tool to show you the value of your job, because you will get nothing for free and if there are millions great photos for free, then.... who will pay you for your work and why he/she should. A little bit sad. Nobody gave me anything for free in my life, especially not the product of his work, but photographers are doing that and that's why also stock agencies like shutterstock can pay you for GREAT HIGH QUALITY picture 0.1 cent. How sad, what a pity.

[@Viaquer]

Would be interesting to see how it works as a promoting tool. Use it more as social media advertisement?

[@tilldaling]

I would not count on it to be honest..

[@charlieitan]

Thanks really interesting, and u r n amazing photographer

[@tilldaling]

I'm glad you enjoy it :)

[@jona3797]

Happy to report I had a similar experience with pexels. I received a donation of $7 😄 in the 2 years of uploading

[@tilldaling]

It definitely isn't for the money :D

[@MrFirstdance2000]

Question, do you somehow hide your initials somewhere (with great stealth) in every photo so as to be able to point out, should it receive some great exposure,...that's mine?

[@tilldaling]

Hei! No I don't. I've seen this more as a contribution to a community I got value from :)

[@MrFirstdance2000]

@@tilldaling Sure but, only you would be wise to such...esspecially if someone else claimed your work

[@velocity.motion]

now how musch revenue you get ? just for motivation to post

[@tilldaling]

No revenue, it ain't got that, only views :)

[@davidfitcher2953]

I really don't know how thet decide wich photo is Unsplash+

[@larryglatt2548]

Interesting experiment, thank you for sharing, but did you get any assignment work from the exposure? These sites may be good for photographers looking for exposure, if and only if you can obtain paid work for all the effort of uploading the images.

[@tilldaling]

No assignments :) The only thing is recognition and features on different blogs :)

[@larryglatt2548]

@@tilldalingThanks for the very quick honest reply. From a marketing point of view it is good for name recognition, but that's it. 20 years ago I started donating my services to an important group here in Washington, D.C (for 5 years) I met a lot of great business, government, & others, but not one assignment. The leader once suggested to me that I must be getting assignments & when I told her not a she was very apologetic, but she never hired me for a paying job either, and it cost me $350/yr to be a member; insult to injury. BTW, I had a client list of 50 corporations, P.R. agencies, & associations with a mailing list of 2800 monthly. One of the positive things was I could use some of the photographs from those sessions for promos in my monthly newsletter. Take from this what you may. I am 86 now & retired in 2011 after over 35 years; I built that biz, social events as well from scratch with a wife & 3 school age children at home. And yes, I am proud of what I accomplished, but giving it away is not always a winner, pick your spots. Ciao

[@rarawirastuti1404]

My husband and I just uploaded photos about street culinary, we added some essential information and the location about the photo's object. I am a book designer (the cover and layout), and I found it was hard to get some free picture about street culinary in my country, Indonesia. That was the reason we made an unsplash account. We hope someday our photos can help many people to find free picture and the information of our culinary. These photos might be not aesthetic and hi-res but they provide information that might be needed. About the donation, yeah we think it's "untung-untungan" in bahasa Indonesia, we dont really think how much we will get. We just hope that we can keep going to explore our culinary more and more through unsplash. Thank you for sharing your thought and review about unsplash!

[@abdulmuizkhan6485]

how much you earn from unsplash and pexels finally

[@tilldaling]

Not much direct earning/donations! 20-30$ or so but got my work featured in quite some places

[@abdulmuizkhan6485]

@@tilldaling i upload photos on unsplash..plz sir take a look on my photos and give some advice to me..and i am very very thankful to you for reply to me..

[@abdulmuizkhan6485]

You can search me on unsplash by my name...plz sir take a look on my photos and give me some advice

[@knightofchess6900]

Great!

[@tilldaling]

Glad you like it!

[@knightofchess6900]

@@tilldaling I'm a contributer on Pexels for 2 months. And I'm curious to know how much we can earn from people who kindly support us by donating.

[@careywaibel284]

𝕡𝕣𝕠𝕞𝕠𝕤𝕞 😣