Earn Money Online with Photography: Tips & Equipment
Lots of people take photos these days. Most of the photos are created by taking photos with a smartphone. Right? You probably also take photos very often with the camera on your smartphone. Or?
But, do you know how you can make money from these photos?
Now you’re sure to say: “Sure thing, that’s a simple question. I just became a photographer. Because every photographer earns his money by photographing people or selling his photos to newspapers or magazines or for advertising.”
True, you’re right. But that’s not what we meant by this question.
We meant the following with our question: Do you know how you can earn money with your photos without being a professional photographer?
We’re guessing you’re not aware of this. And we also guess that you are unaware of how you can make money online with photography. Or? Good, because on this page “Earn money online through photography” you will learn from us how you can earn money online through photography.
Furthermore; Even if you don’t want to make money from photography yourself, you will need good photos in almost every online space. Of course, you can also take these photos from photo databases. There, however, it is never entirely certain whether you will then have copyright problems with these photos. For this reason, it is better if you can take and design your photos yourself. After all, you want to earn money while traveling and thus have the opportunity to be on the road forever.
See Also: How to Earn Money with YouTube
Make money online with photography
The digitization that we are currently experiencing is giving us enormous opportunities. Making money wherever you are has never been easier. And that is too often independent of the time.
While a photographer was able to earn his money almost exclusively on-site or offline up to the year 2000, he can still earn his money online without any problems today. However, many photographers have not yet recognized this opportunity.
That’s good because you have the opportunity to do exactly that and we explain to you here on this page “Earn money online through photography” how you can earn money while traveling. Because that’s exactly what we do: earn money with photography on the go.
What you need to make money online with photography
To be able to make money online from photography; For this, you need a few prerequisites.
Surely you are now saying: “Hey, I’m already taking photos with my smartphone, which I also post online on Facebook and Instagram.”
We agree with you. But did you notice anything on Facebook and Instagram? 80 percent of the photos there are snapshots. To document his experiences on and from a trip with it … the quality is sufficient for that. Breathtaking and emotional for strangers who have no connection to these photos…but they aren’t.
Do you want to be in the 80 percent with the more or less boring or perfectly normal photos, or would you rather be in the 20 percent of those who present breathtaking and fascinating photos on their Facebook or Instagram profiles?
Do you know how to use your smartphone to compose an image in such a way that it becomes truly breathtaking?
How to take stunning photos
We didn’t know this until a while ago either. But then we learned how to take pictures, especially Tom with his iPhone correctly through the “iPhone photo course“, which is an online course, he learned how to properly take photos with his iPhone.
Which photo equipment we can recommend to you
If you understand the basics of photography, you can capture excellent photos with a smartphone. However, the challenges arise in low light conditions, when the subject is far away, or if you want to take very creative shots. In these situations, a digital SLR camera is the better choice.
As mentioned in the “Earn money online” overview on our “Earn money while traveling” website, the Nikon D5100 camera with the Nikon 18-105mm kit lens was our first SLR camera. Tom bought it in 2013 for his first vacation with his now-wife, Nicki. He later reviewed the Nikon D5100 camera on his website.
Recommended Camera and Lens for Travelers
If you don’t have an SLR camera yet, we recommend the latest camera from the Nikon 5xxx series, the Nikon D5600. This camera is light, compact, and capable of taking photos even in challenging situations. Its portability makes it ideal for traveling, aligning with our website’s focus on earning money while on the go.
For the Nikon D5600 camera, we recommend the Nikon 18-105mm kit lens. But what is a kit lens? Simply put, if you buy a lens simultaneously with a camera body, it costs less than if you bought it separately. You then get a kit comprising a camera and lens at an attractive price.
However, not every lens is offered as a kit lens by retailers or camera manufacturers. Tom also wrote a detailed review of the Nikon 18-105mm lens on his Camera Tester website, showcasing the wonderful photos we captured with this affordable lens.
Sometimes, it’s worth buying a camera body without a kit lens and opting for a high-quality lens instead. While a kit lens is usually good, many high-quality lenses offer superior performance. These lenses often have a larger maximum aperture, allowing for more creative photos and better performance in low-light conditions.
Have you seen those pictures where the subject is crystal clear, and everything else is beautifully blurred? This effect is only achievable with the right lens, typically one with the widest possible aperture.
Read Also: Product Photography Tips to Make You Look Like a Professional Photographer
What photographic equipment do we take with us when we travel
In addition to my Nikon D5100 and D5200 cameras and our smartphones, we usually take the following lenses with us when we travel:
- Nikon 35mm 1.8 lens *, because it is nice and small and therefore compact
- Nikon 50mm 1.8 lens, *, because it is very well suited for portrait photography and is still quite small
- Kit lens Nikon 18-105mm * because it is very flexible in terms of focal length and I can use it to take landscape photos with a focal length of 18mm as well as animal photos with a focal length of 105mm in bright conditions
- Sigma 18-35mm 1.8 lens *, because it has a continuously maximum open aperture of f1.8 from 18mm to 35mm and we can use it to photograph the starry sky or landscapes with a starry sky very well at night
- Sigma 105mm 2.8 macros*, because with a focal length of 105mm, we can photograph animals as well as people or head portraits very well, and because macro photography is possible with it
- Walimex Fisheye Lens*, because extraordinary shots are possible with this lens
- Nikon 55-300mm lens*, because with this lens we can primarily photograph very distant subjects, such as the blood moon during a lunar eclipse
- Tripod to be able to make long exposures or to be able to take pictures in the dark
- Gray filter to be able to make long exposures
- Remote trigger * to be able to release the camera for a long exposure without blurring
- Bellows and microfiber cloth to clean the camera
Which photo equipment do we recommend for on-the-go
If you want to take photos on the go and earn money while traveling, then we can recommend the following camera equipment for on-the-go.
It is always important that you see how much luggage you can and want to take with you. Since we travel the world or Europe with a van, our focus is of course on traveling with a van or something similar.
If you are traveling with a van
If you’re traveling with a van, mobile home, or caravan, you can bring ample photo equipment within the vehicle’s weight limit. We travel with our pets in a van, providing us with plenty of space for all our photo equipment.
This allows us to photograph diverse subjects, expanding our opportunities to earn money online and while traveling.
So if, like us, you are traveling with a van with a mobile home, or with a caravan … then we recommend that you always take all your photo equipment with you. Another tip from us: please ensure your photo equipment is well. We may not have had any of our photo gear stolen since 2013…but you never know.
When you’re traveling without a van
Not everyone travels in a van like we do and can therefore take the photo equipment we mentioned above with them when traveling.
For example, if you are a backpacker with only one backpack, then you do not have much space for a camera in your backpack. So your camera has to be as compact as possible and light at the same time.
In this case, we would recommend the Nikon D5600 camera plus the Nikon 35mm 1.8 lens. Why? Quite simply, the Nikon D5600 camera body is quite compact and lightweight.
The Nikon 35mm 1.8 lens is also very compact and very light. In addition, the Nikon 35mm 1.8 lens is very bright due to its maximum open aperture of f1.8 and is very well suited for creative photography.
The downside of this lens; as a lens, it only has a fixed focal length and is therefore not a zoom lens. However, its advantages such as great compactness and large maximum open aperture outweigh this.
If it is an even more compact camera than the digital SLR camera we have mentioned, then we can recommend one of the following mirrorless cameras or system cameras.
- Sony Alpha A6000
- Fujifilm X-T20
- Olympus OM-D E-M5
But no matter which camera you choose for traveling with small luggage, you should not do without a gray filter on one high-quality tripod. Because without a tripod, it is tough to take decent photos in dark lighting conditions. And without an ND filter, you can’t take spectacular long-exposure photos during the day.
How you can make money with photography online or while traveling
You can use photography to make money online while on the go in several ways. The most important requirement for this, however, is that you can photograph properly. To make money online or while traveling with photography, mastering the basics is essential.
It’s crucial to read the upper part of “Earn money online with photography” on this page first. If you haven’t read it yet, go through the top of this page NOW.
How you can earn money with photography online or when traveling through image databases
Do you know image databases like FOTOLIA or PIXABAY? If so, then you surely know how you can earn money online through photography with the help of these image databases. If you are not familiar with such image databases, we would now like to explain them to you. We also want to explain to you how you can earn money with their help while traveling or online with your photography.
What is an image database?
As with a normal database, data is stored in an image database. Except that in this case it is not data from text or numbers, but data from images such as photos or graphics or illustrations.
If you save images on your smartphone on your computer on an external hard drive or online in a cloud; then you already have an image database.
Fotolia and Pixabay are image databases that are based on a cloud on the web and to which hundreds of thousands of people have access every day. And that online.
Now that we have explained to you what an image database is; we want to explain to you how you can earn money with such image databases
Earn money online with photography on Fotolia
Like Pixabay, Fotolia is a database of images. You upload an image or several images to Fotolia and specify how much money you would like a user to use your image for and how they can use the image at what price.
After you have uploaded an image to Fotolia, it will be viewed. The people at Fotolia pay very close attention to the very good quality of the photos. I’ll put it this way; you don’t stand a chance there with snapshots.
Later, when your photo makes it through quality control, your photo will be approved and users can then purchase the rights to use your image. A certain percentage of the price goes to Fotolia.
We hardly ever use Fotolia to make money online with photography. But we prefer to use Pixabay.
Make money online with photography on Pixabay
After explaining how to make money online from photography on Fotolia, we now want to show you how we make money with photography on Pixabay.
While Pixabay is built similarly to Fotolia, it operates quite differently. Pixabay is simpler and clearer, and the quality check is not as strict as on Fotolia. On Pixabay, you give up the rights to your picture completely, making it free for use. As a result, you don’t necessarily get paid for your images on Pixabay.
Why don’t you get paid on Pixabay? That’s just how the platform is structured. Pixabay is designed as a place where you can upload your images and release them for full use free of charge. It also allows you to use images from other photographers without any payment. For instance, if you have a website or blog that requires many photos, Pixabay is a great resource for free images, simplifying your work.
Earning Money on Pixabay: An Unconventional Approach
Can you make money on Pixabay? Not in the traditional sense. However, you can still earn money through donations. When you create a profile on Pixabay, you can receive donations to your PayPal account via a coffee fund. While this won’t make you rich, it’s possible to earn around 500 euros per month if you’re good at what you do. We don’t make that much ourselves, but a friend of ours does, and he’s the one who introduced Tom to Pixabay.
To maximize donations and earn more money on Pixabay with your photography, you have two options:
Take high-quality and extraordinary photos.
Focus on quantity by taking a lot of photos, even if they aren’t all exceptional since Pixabay’s photo requirements aren’t very high.
For our photos on Pixabay, we focus on quantity while still striving for the highest quality possible. We aim to produce many photos because what we consider high quality and exceptional might not be viewed the same way by others.
Pixabay also functions as a community, almost like a social media platform. Speaking of social media, you can use the images you take for Pixabay on your Instagram account as well. Here, you can learn how to make money with Instagram while traveling.
So, let’s wrap things up with Pixabay.
How to make money with your photography website
Earning money online with our photos on Pixabay is the easiest and preferred way for us to earn money with our photos while traveling. You can create a website to offer your photos for a fee or sell them individually.
However, this option is also the most difficult way to make money online with photography while traveling.
Our final word on the topic “Earn money online with photography”
Even if earning money online with photography may not be for you, we still recommend that you learn how to take photos. Because if you are very good at photography, then you have the following additional options to indirectly use the photography you have learned profitably:
- You can also earn money offline with photography while traveling.
- If you create your website or blog, you can use your photos.
- You can build up a super good Instagram account of yourself with your photos.
