Stock contributor

Pay in the destination countries

Monthly, in US dollars. Each country is an Imora admission package — open one for that route's fees, language requirement and deadline.

What does the day look like?

You work as an independent contractor with no set hours. Only about 20% of the day is the glamorous part: setting up Godox, Profoto or Broncolor strobes, softboxes and reflectors, staging a clean commercial shot at ISO 100 to 400, with zero shake and zero logos or brand marks in frame.

The other ~80% is desk work. About 15% is trend research in Shutterstock Shot List, Getty Images VisualGPS, Adobe Stock Contributor Insights and Google Trends, plus props, locations and signed Model Release and Property Release forms. About 35% is post-processing in Adobe Lightroom Classic, Adobe Photoshop, Capture One Pro and Affinity Photo: RAW conversion, color grading and cloning out trademarks at 100% zoom. About 25% is keywording in Adobe Bridge, Xpiks or StockSubmitter: an English title of at least 5 words and 25 to 50 English keywords per file, uploaded as JPEG of at least 4 megapixels, typically 24 to 50 megapixels. About 5% is admin: rejections, IRS Form W-8BEN and royalty tracking. There are no night shifts, but Christmas images are shot in August and September.

Where does this lead?