2010 Photographer Income Survey Results

By Jim Pickerell Posted: 7/13/2010 0 Credits 1981 words Printable Version Comments (0)

We received 251 individual responses to the online survey, posted in May, that was designed to measure photographer income trends. 81% of the respondents were from the U.S. and Canada. Almost 6% were from the United Kingdom. No other country had more than 5 respondents.

For 133 of the 251, revenue was down more than 5% in 2009 than in 2008 (probably in most cases a lot more than 5%).  For 56, revenue was in the plus or minus 5% range and for the remaining 62 revenue was up more than 5%.  Forty-one of the 62 were in the early stages of their careers (1 to 4 years) when revenue can be expected to grow.

Before reading further you may want to consider Zave Smith’s comment concerning the survey design as it may affect how you view the results.

I just took your survey and I have one big issue with your questions.  You ask if your income in 2009 was 5% greater or lesser than 2008 and then you ask again if 2010 income was 5% higher, lower or the same.

I think that by just looking at a 5% variance, I believe that you are is missing the profound changes we had last year.  For myself my income in 09 was much greater than a 5% loss and again in 2010 it is a much larger change upward than 5%.  In fact I believe after running a photo business for 20 years that a 5% variance is normal from year to year.  In fact, people I know are went through 30-50% change from year to year.
Most photographers can suffer a 5% change but have a real hard time handling a 50% change.  The other interesting but unknown issue; how much have people bounced back?  If you suffered a 50% loss in 09 and are only experiencing a 5% return in 2010, you are still in deep do-do. But if your 2010 bounce is 30-50% then you might be ok.

Of the 133 who were down in 2009 compared to 2008, 59 are seeing a continued decline of more than 5% in 2010 compared to 2009. Forty-two say their income is about the same this year as in 2009 and for the remaining 32 report that sales are trending upward more than 5% compared to 2009.

Overall 2010 revenue is down more than 5% compared to 2009 for 92, about the same for 88 and trending up more than 5% for 71.

We asked respondents to only list their income from providing photographic services of one type or another. Fifty-four, or 21%, of the respondents had no income at all from licensing stock images. For another 54 less than 20% of their photographic income came from licensing rights to stock images. This would tend to indicate that these people are either doing assignment work, or possibly working in some type of staff photographer position.

Fifty-seven, or 23% of those who responded to the survey earned more than 90% of their income from stock. Of this group sales for 35 (68% of them) were down more than 5% in 2009 compared to 2008 and 6 reported that sales were about the same. Only 16 of those who focus exclusively on producing and selling stock saw sales rise more than 5% in 2009 and most of these were relatively new to the stock photo business. Only 4 of those who saw sales grow earned in excess of $75,000 and the individual with the highest gross sales in this group is a microstock shooter. As for 2010 24 of the 57 continue to see declines compared to 2009. Twenty-three are seeing a leveling and 10 are seeing upward movement in excess of 5%, but that still may not be enough to get them back to 2008 levels.

Top Earners

Respondents were asked to supply the range in which their 2009 gross income fell with the highest range being $300,000 or more and the lowest being $0 to $10,000. Twenty of those who responded, or almost 8% earned more than $300,000. This number was surprising considering the responses to our surveys in 2006, 2007 and 2008. We changed the format in this survey in hopes of getting a better response rate so the numbers are not directly comparable, but in 2007 only 5 out of 238 responses earned more than $500,000 and in 2008 only 5 out of 136 responses earned more than that amount.

Four of these 20 are based in the UK, one in Belgium, one in Germany and the rest in the U.S.  Of those who earned more than $300,000 sales were down in 2009 by more than 5% for 14, up by more than 5% for 4 and about the same for 2 when compared to 2008. So far in 2010 sales for 8 or this group are down more than 5%; they are about the same for another 8 and up more than 5% for 4. For nine of these 20 top earners more than 90% of their income came from stock licensing. The rest earned significant portions of their photographic income from doing other types of photography.

Earnings

Earnings for the median person on the list were between $30,001 and $50,000. Thirty-nine or 15% of the respondents fall into this category. In previous surveys we have determined that expenses for most stock photographers are in the range of 40% of gross revenue if all expenses related to that part of the business are taken into account. Thus, someone who has $50,000 in sales will have a net profit of about $30,000 before taxes. Expenses can vary greatly from photographer to photographer depending on the type of work being done.

A total of 56 had over $100,000 in gross revenue. It is interesting to compare this number with the analysis I did last week of iStockphoto’s leading sellers. In the iStock analysis we found that at least 28 contributors and possibly as many as 42 had more than 45,000 downloads in 14 months. Extrapolate for 12 months and that works out to about 39,000 downloads in a year. We believe non-exclusive contributors (most of this group) earn an average return-per-download of about $1.30 and exclusive contributors earn an average of $2.60 from the main collection. However, exclusive contributors now have the opportunity to earn even more when their images are licensed from the Exclusive or Vetta collecions or for Extended Licenses. Therefore, iStock exclusive contributors who are licensing many fewer than 39,000 downloads a year may be earning more than $100,000 annually.

Low Earners

On the other end of the spectrum 107, or 43% of the total respondents to the survey earned less than $30,000.  Fifty-nine, or 24% of respondents earned less than $10,000. Only 24 of the 107 were relatively new to the business and had been selling images for less than 4 years. All the rest had been in the business for 4 years or more.

We had a fairly even spread in terms of the number of years the respondents have been in the photography business with a slight emphasis toward the more experienced. Thirty-four have been in the business 1 to 3 years; 48, 4 to 6 years; 52, 7 to 15 years; 50, 16 to 25 years and 67 more than 25 years.

UK Income Figures

Coincidentally, the British Photographic Council has just released its 2010 Industry Survey of Photographers. A whopping 1,698 photographers contributed information to the survey. (Respondents who indicated they were amateurs were excluded when calculating the results.) The full results for calendar year 2009 are available here.

The average (mean) freelance photographer profit was £18,821 (approximately $27,000) compared with a mean staff salary of £34,535 (approximately $51,000). Only 19% of freelance respondents said they made a profit of £30,000 ($44,000) or more compared with 35% of the staff photographers who said they earned a salary over this figure.

41% of staff photographers said they were paid between £20,000 and £30,000. Only 15% of freelancers reported earnings in this range. 29% of freelancers said their profit was between £1 and £10,000 and 16% said they did not make a profit in 2009.

Only one-third of the respondents said they had spent 91% or more of their working life as a photographer.

50% of respondents said their turnover had fallen in 2009 compared to 2008 while 31% said theirs had fallen and 19% said theirs was roughly the same as 2008. 29% described their 2009 turnover compared to 2008 as “significantly lower”.

One respondent said, “With everyone owning a camera of some sorts, most people do not recognize the skill required in producing a good picture. I can see photography as a profession slowly dying – apart from a few customers who do appreciate quality and are prepared to pay for it.”

Another added, “I feel this next six months is critical to my survival. I have been a successful photographer for 10 years…but now competition is so fierce and prices on the slide its getting very hard to see its worthwhile continuing as a full time photographer.”

Questions

Vic Moss posted this question on LinkedIn. “I don't see it in the article, but it may be nice to know the revenue trend of those who are established (more than 10 years) to see where their income is headed. Mine, so for this year, is slowly getting better. However, slowly getting better from "sucky" still isn't gaining a lot of ground back from where we were three years ago. Last year's income was just under 25% of what my high year was, just two years previous.
(Part of the reason he was down so much was that the majority of his income was from Home Building clients. Thus, he got hit with a double whammy from not only the drop in ad budgets overall, but the fact that many of his clients simply ceased to exist.) It seems to be gaining at around 10% this year, but still not great!”

Good Question. Here’s the way it breaks down.

Of the 251 20 earned more than $300,000; 36 earned between $100,001 and $300,000; 96 earned between $30,001 and $100,000; 40 earned between $10,001 and $30,000 and 59 earned less than $10,000. Keep in mind that this is gross earnings. It doesn’t take into account expenses in any way.

There were 144 who said they had been working in the business for more than 10 years.
17 earned more than $300,000; 31 earned between $100,001 and $300,000; 62 earned between $30,001 and $100,000; 21 earned between $10,001 and $30,000 and 13 earned less than $10,000. Obviously, a number of these are taking pictures as a part time endeavor and are earning part of their support from other activities. This is not particularly surprising because a lot of those who are selling pictures have always been doing it part time rather than as a full time career.

Thirteen of the 17 with revenue over $300,000 were down more than 5% in 2009 and 5 of them are down even more in 2010. One hundred of the 144 were down more than 5% in 2009 and only 15 were up. 63 are down this year compared to what they were in 2009 and 29 are trending up from 2009.

What this tells me is that those who have been in the business 10 years or more may have started out a little higher than the average in the survey as a result of the business they were able to build in the early part of the past decade, but they are suffering just as bad, or maybe even worse. One of the big problems is that they probably got used to spending both personally and in terms of operating their businesses and when revenue drops it may be harder for them to adjust than it is for someone starting out who is used to living modestly, or for whom photography is just a supplement to other income, not a sole source of income.

Copyright © 2010 Jim Pickerell. The above article may not be copied, reproduced, excerpted or distributed in any manner without written permission from the author. All requests should be submitted to PhotoLicensingOptions at 112 Frederick Avenue, Suite H, Rockville, MD 20850, phone 301-251-0720, fax 301-309-0941, e-mail: jim@scphotos.com

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Jim Pickerell is founder and a regular contributor to www.selling-stock.com, a online newsletter that publishes daily. He is also available for personal telephone consultations on pricing and other matters related to stock photography. Fees for the consulting service are $2.50 per minute. He occasionally acts as an expert witness on matters related to stock photography. For his current curriculum vitae go to: http://www.jimpickerell.com/cv.asp.  and he can be reached at: 112 Frederick Avenue, Suite H, Rockville, MD 20850, phone 301-251-0720, fax 301-309-0941, e-mail: jim@scphotos.com.