Photography has become an incredibly popular hobby and profession in the digital age. With high-quality cameras being more accessible and affordable than ever before, millions of people around the world are picking up photography as a creative outlet. However, being a successful photographer involves more than just taking great photos – you also need a way to share and sell your work. This is where photography platforms come in. In this article, we’ll look at some of the top options that photographers can use to display, market, and monetize their photos.
Photo Sharing Sites
One of the easiest ways for photographers to get their work seen is by sharing it on photo hosting and social media sites. Platforms like Flickr, 500px, and Instagram allow you to upload albums of your photos to share with friends or the public. You can also interact with other photographers, join photography groups, and potentially gain new fans and followers of your work. The main downside is that most of these sites don’t directly help you sell your photos – they’re better for simple sharing and exposure.
Flickr
Flickr is one of the oldest and most well-known photo sharing sites, with over 90 million users. Photographers can upload an unlimited number of photos to their account in full resolution, up to 200MB each. There are both free and “Pro” paid account options, with Pro providing unlimited storage space and advanced stats. Flickr has groups, discussion forums, and options to sell prints through third-parties. It’s an ideal platform for amateur photographers looking to share their work and connect with others.
500px
500px focuses on more high-quality curation, with algorithmic sorting and human moderators approving uploads. Photographers build up profiles displaying their best work. There are options to license your photos through 500px and partner platforms, opening up potential royalty earnings. 500px has over 16 million users but remains more niche and geared towards professionals compared to Flickr’s mass-market appeal.
As one of the most popular social networks overall, Instagram offers incredible reach if photographers can build a sizable following. It relies on hashtags and viral scrolling feeds to spread content. Photographers have to optimize their posts for the platform’s style, aiming for stand-out visuals that will grab attention quickly. Paid sponsored posts are possible once you have a lot of followers. But direct photo sales are still very limited on Instagram.
Marketplaces
Specialized photography marketplaces take sharing and turn it into an opportunity to sell your photos. You upload your photo portfolio and set your desired prices. The platform handles marketing to buyers, photography licensing, and payment processing – in exchange for a commission on sales. Some also provide options for direct custom printing.
Shutterstock
One of the largest stock photo sites, Shutterstock offers an enormous marketplace with millions of photos, vectors, illustrations, videos, and music tracks available for license. Photographers can sign up for accounts and submit their photos for review, with acceptance leading to inclusion in the main library. Shutterstock handles all the licensing transactions when someone purchases a license to use your photos. They keep 30% as commission, with the photographer receiving the remaining 70%.
SmugMug
SmugMug provides portfolio hosting, gallery creation tools, site themes and customization options for photographers. You can password protect galleries and enable prints, downloads or digital file sales. They offer options for selling photos as individual prints or digital downloads. Photographers also earn 60% commission on any photos licensed through SmugMug. Plans are available from $5-$40 per month, with additional fees for premium e-commerce features.
Fine Art America
For photographers focused on wall art and print sales, Fine Art America provides a popular platform. Photographers can upload their images and set prices for prints that the site produces on-demand when ordered. There are options for canvas, framed, metal, and acrylic wall art at a range of sizes from small to extra-large. Fine Art America handles printing, order fulfillment and shipping for each order, paying photographers a commission that ranges from 10-20% on each sold print depending on product type and size.
Custom Prints & Merchandise
Some photographers like to sell high-quality custom prints or photo-based merchandise directly to their fans and clients. Dedicated print and merch companies offer on-demand fulfillment with dropshipping, enabling photographers to sell personalized products through their own online stores or galleries at no upfront cost.
Printful
Printful is one of the most popular print-on-demand platforms, working with over 1 million businesses and creators. Photographers can sign up for free accounts to integrate Printful’s catalog of products into a custom online storefront through Shopify, WooCommerce, or another e-commerce solution. When someone places an order, Printful handles printing and shipping the product. They offer t-shirts, canvas prints, mugs, phone cases, wall tapestries, and many other products with optional personalization like custom text.
Printique
Printique specializes in high-quality photographic and fine art printing. Photographers can have their images printed onFujiFlex silver halide paper which is long-lasting and museum-quality. Products include mounted prints, canvas gallery wraps, metal prints, photo albums, and more. Printique handles fulfillment and shipping, while photographers set their own pricing. Commission rates range from 30-35% depending on monthly sales volume.
Imagekind
At Imagekind, photographers upload their photos which customers can then order as prints, cards, wall art, home decor items like pillows and iPhone cases, and apparel like t-shirts and hoodies. Products are all printed on-demand, with flexible customization options. Imagekind currently offers a base 50% commission rate on all items sold, making it a generous platform for showcasing your photos on useful everyday products.
Website Platforms
Your own photography portfolio website gives you full creative control over your online presence. However, building and maintaining a site from scratch requires website development skills. Photography website builders offer easy templates and tools tailored for photographers to make custom sites.
Squarespace
Squarespace is one of the most popular all-in-one website builders, used by over a million sites. They offer professional photography templates with built-in galleries, slideshows, and portfolios designed specifically for visual impact. You can connect your site to e-commerce platforms or payment processors to sell prints, digital downloads and more directly from your Squarespace site if desired.
Format
Geared exclusively towards creatives, Format offers beautifully designed photography website templates that are optimized for portfolio display. Photographers can easily drag and drop galleries, manage projects, integrate a blog, and set up storefronts for prints and downloads. Format also includes lead generation tools to turn website visitors into potential clients.
Wix
Wix is another huge website builder platform with hundreds of designer-made templates. Their Art Photography template provides a customizable portfolio and gallery-focused layout. Wix also has native Wix Stores that you can add for selling prints, merchandise or digital downloads, along with extensive blogging and SEO tools.
Portfolio Hosting Sites
Dedicated photography portfolio platforms offer specialized hosting for showcasing your visual work online. These sites go beyond basic galleries to provide you with powerful presentation options to display your photos in a professional way.
PortfolioBox
PortfolioBox is purpose-built for photographers with customizable portfolio themes, slick galleries, and drag-and-drop layouts. You can sort work into projects, collections and stories with configurable layout and styling options for each set of images. There are also built-in client proofing tools available. PortfolioBox starts at $9 per month for a personal account.
Photoshelter
One of the premium portfolio hosting platforms, Photoshelter enables pro photographers to create highly customized sites with client and print sales capabilities built in. Advanced features include detailed analytics, private client galleries, and e-commerce integrations. Photoshelter requires a minimum commitment of 12 months at $20 per month.
Zenfolio
Zenfolio offers extensive photography website designs tailored for different types of photographers. Sites support multiple languages and currencies for global accessibility. There are also backend business tools like accounting and contracts, mailing lists, social media integration, and workflow processing. Plans start at $5 per month for basic portfolio hosting.
Client Proofing
Proofing platforms create a streamlined process for sharing image previews and gathering feedback from clients during photoshoots. These tools allow photographers to interact with clients directly online while protecting their high-resolution images.
Pic-Time
Pic-Time is designed for client interactions throughout a shoot, with mobile apps so clients can see real-time previews and leave feedback onsite. There are also options for creating branded client galleries, enabling print purchases, and automatically delivering final edited photos at full resolution after approval.
Picanize
With Picanize, photographers can fully customize client galleries while retaining control over images. Clients can view, favorite, compare, and leave comments on photos through a browser-based interface. Photographers set order sizes, print/download pricing, minimum spends, and any desired branding.
ShootProof
As a proofing platform built for volume shoots like weddings and events, ShootProof offers scalable features like batch uploading and processing, multi-gallery management, and bulk actions like print fulfillment. There are also options for setting up client e-commerce portals, price lists, and automated image delivery.
Social Media
Social networks present incredible marketing opportunities for photographers in terms of exposure potential and sheer audience size. But not all platforms work equally well – some are better suited to visual content than others.
With more than 1 billion active users who share over 100 million photos daily, it’s easy to see the visual appeal of Instagram. Photographers can leverage popular hashtags for discovery while potentially gaining loyal followers. But the focus remains on building your brand rather than selling prints or downloads.
Pinterest has over 400 million users actively seeking visual content across topics from food to travel, making it ideal for photographers to pin their photos. You can link Pins back to selling destinations like online stores. Photographers may also partner with brands doing influencer campaigns on Pinterest.
YouTube
As the #2 search engine after Google, YouTube presents huge potential for photographers who create educational tutorial videos or vlogs documenting their shoots. YouTube ads can monetize your channel once you have over 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 public watch hours. The right viral video can massively boost your exposure.
Conclusion
Today’s photographers have an incredible array of platforms and services available to display, market, and sell their visual work online. Photo sharing sites offer ways to build an audience and get exposure. Marketplaces expand your reach to buyers actively looking for photographic content for projects. Turnkey website builders provide personalized portfolios to showcase your style. And print-on-demand fulfillment solutions let you sell customized photographic products from t-shirts to canvas prints without any upfront production costs or inventory overhead. With the right strategies, photographers can tap into these innovative technologies to scale their business and thrive creatively and financially.
