Selling images online: Is my camera good enough?

If you don't already own a decent SLR camera, get one as soon as you can and consider it a wise investment in your business! It is possible to sell photos taken with a digital 5-megapixel camera (as I did in the beginning?) but the time what you will waste for retouching these photos in Photoshop should convince you that time is money, and it is better to invest in a good quality SLR camera. If not, you risk to be spending hours cleaning artifacts in your photos, or having to downsize your images to get them accepted by stock photo agencies. One of the mistakes I made when I started to submit my photos to microstock sites was not buying an SLR camera at once. I was still not sure if the investment would worth it, but as soon as I did, my earnings doubled immediately.

The new camera has allowed me to shoot 10-megapixel images and get good quality without spending too much time for editing them in Photoshop, and eventually to upload at least 3 times more images every week than with a 5-megapixel digital camera. Even if my equipment is still not professional and there is a loooooot of room for improvement and upgrading (I own Canon Digital Rebel XTi camera and a Sigma DC 17-70mm lens), it is quite enough for a beginner to start a career in microstock business and earn a decent income which will eventually allow you to upgrade your equipment and get everything necessary to shoot good commercial photos.