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Sell Your Photos Online as Reference Packs for Artists

Every photographer has them: the 400 frames you never post. The side of the building. The ground under the bridge. The same wall from five positions. On social media, nobody wants them. For a concept artist, a game designer or a 3D modeler, they are exactly what is missing.

Fotoref is a marketplace where photographers sell those complete sets as reference packs. If you want to sell your photos online to people who will really use them, this is how it works.

Why artists pay for the photos you skip

Artists rarely need one beautiful image. They need to understand a place or an object well enough to rebuild it. Fotoref was founded on that problem. You can find a beautiful view of a mountain online, but what about the rocks, the boulders and what the formation is made of? You can find a photo of an object, but not the other side.

A reference pack answers those questions. It covers one subject in dozens or hundreds of photos, so an artist can paint it, model it or design a level from it.

How much you earn

You earn 80% of each sale. For example, if your pack is priced at $9.99, you receive $7.99 every time someone buys it.

Today the catalog has 1,000+ packs from 50+ contributors.

What to shoot

A good pack does not need a one-of-a-kind subject. What matters is being comprehensive: as much detail as possible.

Two examples from our contributor page:

  • Old winding streets can help a game designer build a level.
  • A detailed set of vintage clocks in a local museum can inspire a concept artist to design a steampunk vehicle.

Good starting points:

  • An interesting natural feature near where you live.
  • A historical site you can visit more than once.
  • A trip to a place few artists can reach.
  • Access to a special collection: machinery, vehicles, tools, vintage objects.

How to shoot a set that sells

  1. Cover the whole subject. Walk around it. Shoot wide, then each section, then close-ups of materials and details.
  2. Keep the light consistent. Overcast days are best for surfaces. If you also shoot in sun, keep the two sessions in separate folders.
  3. Include the boring parts. Ground, wall bases, joints, cables, the backs of things. Artists need them.
  4. Record the facts. Note the location and the camera. Buyers see these on the product page, and they trust packs that state them.

You do not need expensive equipment

Our contributors use everything from full-frame cameras to phones. What sells is coverage.

  • DroneRef combines a Sony A7C with a small DJI Mini 2 drone. The Spanish Colonial Fortress pack covers a fortress built in 1571 in Manila in 543 photos: thick walls, moats and dungeon cells, plus drone views for an overview.
  • UnderwaterRef shoots reefs and wrecks on a compact Olympus TG-6. For Overlit Coral, 260 photos in the Philippines, they added a fisheye dome, two 6500-lumen lights and a red filter. Their Small Coral Forest is 51 photos on a GoPro 7 Silver, priced at $3.99.
  • AOnis works with an iPhone 14 Pro and a DJI Mini 3 Pro. Overgrown Industrial Bulldozers documents abandoned industrial machines left in a field in Cebu, in 120 photos.

Some contributors also document how people build and live in difficult conditions. DroneRef's Tall Concrete River Slums Town records a dense informal settlement in a narrow valley on Luzon in 363 photos. Residents built tall homes with the resources they had: a concrete frame, with each floor designed by its occupants. Sets like this need care and respect for the people who live there. Photos with identifiable people go in a separate Editorial folder.

How to start

  1. Create a contributor account on the Fotoref contributor portal.
  2. Prepare your set. Choose one subject, sort the photos into clear folders and write a short description of the place.
  3. Upload your pack with its location and equipment details.
  4. Earn 80% of each sale.

To see how strong packs present themselves, look at a few product pages, or download one of the free reference photo packs. Our page on location, camera and photographer data shows what buyers expect to see.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a professional camera to sell reference packs?

No. Packs in the catalog were shot on phones, compact cameras, action cameras and drones as well as full-frame cameras. Sharp, well-exposed photos and full coverage matter more than the brand of camera.

How many photos should a pack have?

Enough to cover the subject completely. Packs in the catalog range from small sets of a few dozen photos to more than 900. A small subject, like one vehicle, might need 40. A whole town might need several hundred.

Can I include photos with people in them?

Yes, but photos with identifiable people, vehicles or buildings go in a separate Editorial folder. Buyers can use them as reference, but not in advertising or on products for resale.

What subjects do artists look for?

Usually places and objects they cannot easily visit or photograph themselves. The largest collections in the catalog show the range: Nature, Historical, Urban, Transport and Military. The more complete the set, the more useful it is.