In December 2024 we retired the Stockimo app, but we’re still accepting Smartphone photos. You can read the latest update here. If you’re looking to upload your mobile phone photos to 64you can sign up here.
This blog article from 2018 has been kept live for archival purposes.
Stockimo was developed by 64to appeal to a new photography enthusiast, the creative mobile photographer, allowing them to cash in on photos lying dormant in their camera rolls. It’s been around for just over 4 years so you should have heard of it by now, but if not, here’s a small overview.
Stockimo is an app that’s plugged into Alamy, so photos that are accepted are priced and sold alongside 64uploaded images, but that’s pretty much the only link between the two platforms. There are some similarities between the two but there are also many differences, one of the main ones being Quality Control, more on that later.
Uploading to Stockimo:
The upload process is quick and simple, just choose your best photos from your phone, give them an appropriate caption and a couple tags and you’re already halfway there. You’ll need to specify things like number of people and property and if you have any model/property releases, but no need to worry if you don’t have them, we can still sell your photos for editorial uses.
When choosing photos to upload let your creativity flow, try to experiment, find an interesting angle, use the advantages of less intrusive mobile shooting (authentic real life), use a filter (but be wary, sometimes less is more) there are now a multitude of editing apps out there; for more information on some of our favourites, check out this blog.
What we’re looking for is the more creative visionary photography than more traditional editorial stock, another difference is that Stockimo only allows one photo to be uploaded at a time therefore avoiding the batch process that 64uses. So try to focus and edit down your camera roll and pick the best of your collection to upload.
One of the great features within the app is the Customer Likes tab which gives you a real time feed of what’s trending with 64customers. This allows you to get a true insight into the industry and what stock photography customers are searching for and buying. This can be used as inspiration for what to go out and shoot with your mobile, or find already sitting on your camera roll.
Quality Control:
Similarly to Alamy, Stockimo reviews your images to see if they’re suitable for the app/website but this is where Stockimo works very differently to Alamy. With 64as long as you have a decent enough camera and can shoot images without any technical faults, we leave it up to you on what to upload.
Conversely with Stockimo, we’re looking for photos shot on mobile, but that’s pretty much it on the technical side. What Stockimo looks at is purely based on the aesthetics of the photo and this is done by the Rating Team.
The Rating Team is made up of people from the photo industry, including buyers and sellers of photography and volunteers from the Stockimo community who’ve reached Rater Status. Each photo uploaded needs to be reviewed by three different members of the team. Each person will score your photo out of 4, an average is taken and anything rated over 2 will be accepted. The Team score photos based on: emotive response, creativity and saleability and whilst there’s an element of subjectivity, taking an average across three different people provides a conclusive rating.
Stockimo News Mode:
Within the app you can also opt into StockimoNews; this mode allows you to submit breaking news photos taken in the last 24 hours to the 64Live News Feed. The 64Live News Team are looking for interesting newsworthy photos, but this doesn’t always have to be doom and gloom disasters and scandals. You’ll need to Caption live news photos slightly differently than your creative stock photos, you can find more info on captioning here. For inspiration on what to shoot for StockimoNews try looking at the news feed and also newspapers.
If your news photos are accepted, they’ll be available to news picture editors across the globe and after 48 hours they are moved to the stock collection. You can opt in and out of StockimoNews at any time via your account.
Sales:
Stockimo photos are sold on the Stockimo Marketplace, the main site being 64where they’re sold alongside 64uploaded images at the same price points and licence options. Just because the photos have been shot on mobile it doesn’t mean they are worth any less to the contributor or to a potential customer. Obviously there will be some limitations over what the photos can be used for due to the sensor and lens size, so it’s unlikely to sell for big billboards. That said, Stockimo photos have sold for thousands in the past with sales ranging from $1,154 to $3,574.
Inspiration:
If we think your work really stands out then we could even feature you on our Twitter/Instagram via our weekly “Grid of Greatness” that involves the best 64 images that have been recently uploaded. Beyond that you could have your very own “Stocklight” mention that highlights a whole range of your work.
If you need anymore inspiration you can check out our best photos featured within our Curated Collection which is updated weekly, or you could check out Stockimo’s and to see daily posts from the team.
Conclusion:
If you’re into taking creative photography with your mobile phone, then you’ve probably got a camera roll full of photos you’re currently not doing anything with. It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or a professional, Stockimo provides a fun and creative community for you to experiment and make the most out of your phone photography. With potential photos on your phone that customers would pay money for, why not cash in on your camera roll?
Currently Stockimo is only available as an iPhone app from the , with plans to hopefully develop for other platforms in the future.