|
Can you imagine anyone paying you good money for your photos? No? You know, I had all those photos from a recent trip to Rome, Italy, laying around and I thought it should be possible to make a few bucks off of them. First, I couldn't think of a way to market or sell those images but then I discovered micro stock sites.
I met a designer at a party this weekend. He says he buys a lot of stock photography…and always at iStockphoto. This brings up for me a continuing concern. By not being in the Microstock world, there are a ton of buyers who are not seeing my images.
You can license images as Rights Managed, Royalty Free or Micro Stock. When deciding whether to choose an image from one or another of these categories of stock agencies there are several factors to take into consideration.
I firmly believe that now is the most exciting time ever to be a photographer, and to be shooting stock. There are more tools and more opportunities than ever before. The playing field has been leveled. The demand for images, and consequently stock photography, is exploding.
With the huge influx of amateur stock photographers, and the ease-of-use of the newer digital cameras and software, can the professional stock photographer survive, and even prosper? The author provides his insights and opinions on this hot topic.
I am not cut out for producing large quantities of images. My love is for producing highly Photoshop-manipulated concept stock photos. I am guessing that eliminates me from Micro stock…so if anyone reading this has experience that would suggest otherwise, I'd love to hear from you!
Stock photography agencies or picture libraries can be a great way to market and sell your photography. The following information is advice on how to get the best from using image agencies.
I hope you found this stock photography report useful in helping you to buy digital stock photos more intelligently in the future. I would suggest that you search for more information about photo buyers and digital stock images so that your photo buying job will be much more productive.
This process of making the web work for your stock photography business can be a long and arduous one. I started my serious efforts eight months ago, and while I have seen results, they aren't as impressive as I hoped for. But I am not discouraged, far from it.
Many of the images you see everyday in magazines, direct mail materials, and commercials are filled with digital stock photographs. Stock photographs are those taken by professional photographers and then distributed to users for a fee.
If you want to make money with stock photography you'll have to follow some basic guidelines, no matter if you shoot for a micro stock site or a traditional stock photography agency.
I came up with what I thought was a great idea, a kind of positive spin on the old half-full, half empty glass theme. My idea was for a photograph of a hand holding up a glass with a rainbow in the background creating the illusion that the rainbow was pouring into the glass. A timeless concept stock photo illustrating success, optimism, positive thinking, and the way forward.
I am now offering free jpeg images of funny cat photos on my web site. I never thought I would be saying that! These are not images well suited to advertising, though I imagine I can make a least some advertising sales. They are really best for exactly what they were designed for, greeting cards.
At the User Generated Content Expo there was one common theme that kept coming through no matter who the speaker was. That theme was that quality content is key to success. I believe this is an especially important point for stock photographers. Further, that is true whether you are shooting for Rights Managed, Royalty Free or Microstock.
A good example of the approach I am currently taking to my stock photography can be seen in a recent shoot based around a Sumo wrestler. The idea originated from a shoot I did a few years ago. I had photographed flying trapeze artists to illustrate concepts such as teamwork, risk and skill.
The cobra swayed ever so slightly as he twisted his head from side to side eyeing us cautiously. Camera glued to my eye, I edged a bit closer, snapping off frames, playing with the composition. The snake struck the side of my face before I even knew what was happening. I fell backward, away from the blow, my heart pounding. Even though I knew that the de-fanged snake was harmless, adrenaline was coursing through my veins!
A “Siggy”, “Sig”, Sig Tag” or SigTag” is an image used as a signature in forums and on emails. Closely related are “Tubes” (a tube is the removal of the background, while still leaving the main subject of the artwork intact). There is an entire internet culture based around the creation and use of siggies, tags and tubes.
To succeed at selling stock you need three things: Ideas, execution, and distribution. We will save getting distribution channels for another time, but in the following I will outline my step by step approach to coming up with ideas, determining if they are appropriate for my stock efforts, for and insuring that I get the ideas done and off to the distributors.
The number of stock photos, free and otherwise, is burgeoning and is only going to increase. Flicker has, for example, at the time of this writing, over 2 billion images. Stock photographers need to think carefully about how best to market their images.
I often ask myself â''what is the most valuable thing I can do right now for my business success?â'' As a stock photographer my immediate answer is: â''Create more images!â'' But I donâ''t think that is really the correct answer. In my particular situation, and possibly yours too, the answer is to get my work in front of more potential buyers.
|
