The Complete Guide to Becoming a Depositphotos Contributor

You might be an experienced professional or maybe you’re just testing your photography skills with a smartphone – you are more than welcome to register with the site and become a Depositphotos contributor. You can sell your images, videos, or vectors and start earning with your portfolio of work right away.

It is super easy to become a Depositphotos contributor. The process will take you up to 10 minutes and will require a little bit of effort for us to get to know you and your work. We’ll cover the whole process from start to finish to help you join our community of 90,000 creatives.

How to become a Depositphotos contributor

Becoming a contributor at Depositphotos comes in a series of a few steps. You just go to the Depositphotos contributors’ page and fill in a short form with your basic details.

If you’re new to stock photography platforms, you need to know that most stock photography platforms have to evaluate your work and make sure the quality of the content is up to standards.

To increase your chances of becoming a Depositphotos contributor, we advise that you choose the work you are most proud of, that reflects your personal style and aesthetics.

Show us your work in one quick test

Depositphotos is one of the largest stock photography platforms on the market and its key priority is to make sure that all the content uploaded to the library does not contain any abusive, obscene or pornographic scenes. We must also ensure that it does not violate patents, copyrights, and human rights.

The short test (examination) is simple and quick. It is a formal process that shows us your photography style and reflects the quality of your works.

If you are a contributor to any other stock photography platforms, feel free to include links to your existing portfolios. You can also add a link to your Instagram account or personal website.

General requirements for image and video admissions

Choose five best samples of your work that will be evaluated by our content team to make sure they align with all the requirements:

• photos must be in JPEG/JPG format with an RGB color space
• minimum resolution is 3.8 MP (2400 x 1600 pixels)
• Photos may not be larger than 50 MB.

Vector images are also a big part of Depositphotos library and if you plan to upload them in the future, here are some essential things you need to know:

• both AI and EPS vector image formats are accepted
• vector images must be in a ZIP archive with a JPEG/JPG preview. Minimum resolution of JPEG/JPG preview is 3.8 MP (2400 x 1600 pixels);
• each ZIP archive may not be larger than 50 MB.

If you’re a video contributor, you have many more available formats for submission, from ASF to MP4. Get familiar with all the details for videos that can be uploaded to the Depositphotos website in this separate video contributor’s page.

Once you are sure that your works comply with these basic but crucial requirements, you can register with the Depositphotos site.

How to register with the Depositphotos site

Go to the Depositphotos contributor’s page and fill in your contact details. Then, upload the five best works for examination. You don’t need to fill in tags and descriptions at this stage but don’t forget to add links to your existing portfolios. Here’s how your personal Depositphotos account will look like:

Usually, the works are processed from seven to ten business days but our team tries to do this as quickly as possible. When you pass the examination, you receive an email that you’ve passed the examination. From this moment, you’ll have access to all of the features the Depositphotos website has to offer, and you will be able to upload both images and videos for sale.

Note that five works that you have uploaded for the examination don’t automatically go into your portfolio. You have to come back to your account to fill in the description and keywords for your submitted works.

The good news is that there are no limitations on the frequency and amount of content you can upload. Uploading more works and adding the right descriptions and keywords will help you improve the chances of your visuals being discovered and purchased.

Don’t forget about model release forms

If your works include images or videos of people and their faces are easily recognizable, you must submit a completed model release form. A model release form is a written consent from the people in your images or videos to publish and distribute the image. Even if your work is a self-portrait, you still have to supply it with a personally signed model release form for the same permission.

The perks of being a Depositphotos contributor

Get paid

The main advantage of becoming a Depositphotos contributor is that you get royalties with the sales of your works. The amount of rewards you get depends on your contributor level and works in the following way: the higher your contributor’s level, the bigger your royalties.

The royalties you receive vary depending on which subscription the clients use when purchasing your image.

These are the rates for visuals purchased on demand.

These are the rates for visuals purchased via subscription plan.

Possibility of email promotions for our contributors

One of the easiest ways to accelerate the growth of your contributor level is to be featured via emails that we send out to our clients.

The first option is to share a couple of your files for free. Every month our team sends out an email with the free photos, videos, vectors, and editorial. The email has direct download buttons and features the contributor’s name and portfolio. The freebies we share usually get around 5,000 downloads. For contributors, it is an amazing opportunity to jump from level 1 (Green) directly to level 3 (Silver), get bigger royalties.

To get featured in the monthly email with free files, you should send the request to our content team (content-team@depositphotos.com).

We also send out emails with a photo of the month, where your works can be featured.

Interviews

At Depositphotos, we really value those who get on board with our big community and add even more creativity to our library. To feature and promote our best contributors, we do interviews and ask photographers to share their stories experiences.

If all this sounds good, you can register with our website today, upload your files and start earning. Become a part of a great community of 90,000 creative contributors to our library of more than 100 million files.