Photography Tips Guide

Posts Tagged ‘Stock Photography’

I remember back in the early 90s when my brother John called me up on the phone one day and explained that he had found a niche in digitally manipulated photography.  He said he was poised to make a good deal of money with it, but he couldn’t find any good help.  He knew that I had been into computers and thought maybe he could get me to work for him helping him digitally manipulate his photography.

John was a professional photographer doing mainly stock photography, and had discovered some new software called Adobe Photoshop.  John found that he could use Photoshop to fix problems with photos taken at an expensive photo shoot that would have had to been re-shot.  He also found that he could use the software to create photographs that just could not be shot in real life.  This was a great thing for his stock photography business.

At the time I had just had a business fail, and I was supporting my family as an injection molding press operator, earning near minimum wage working the graveyard shift.  John lived in San Francisco at the time and his studio was located where AT&T stadium is now. I was living in Stockton California, a good hour and a half commute each way.

Well John offered me $50.00 an hour to come work for him in his studio in S.F., and I asked him what time he wanted me to report for work in the morning!

For the next 5 years I worked for my brother doing digital manipulation for stock photography, digital retouching, and lots of digital art and photography for advertising agencies.  I remember one of my first projects was to put an egret’s wings onto a pig for a stock photo of flying pigs. 

Another time I brought my pet three-foot-long iguana to the studio and we photographed him. In those days we used film, and after developing the film we would use a drum scanner to digitize the photo, and then use either Photoshop or Live Picture to manipulate the photos.  We turned the iguana into a fire-breathing dragon.

One job we did for Mother Jones magazine involved replacing Madame Chiang Kai-shek’s head with Hillary Clinton’s head in a photo of Madame Chiang Kai-shek chatting with Eleanor Roosevelt in the rose garden at the White House.  We were later told that Hillary had it framed and put on her desk.  We also heard that she was at first confused because she did not recognize the outfit she was wearing in the photo.  Go figure.

We specialized in “conceptual” stock photography, producing images such as money trees, time flies – (a watch with wings),  an image of the earth in space but made of currency, dollar bills flying out the window, and that kind of thing.  We also did photo-shoots for fortune 500 companies and used digital techniques to produce advertising images.  John acquired an incredible reputation for producing the best stock photography of its kind, and all of the ad agencies knew him well. He was a huge success. He created a line of images he called “Animal Antics” using images of animals doing odd things like skateboarding and riding bikes.  The images were the basis for a highly successful line of greeting cards.

I finally grew tired of the commute and of sitting in front of a computer all day with an art-director telling me what to do. I went back to being an inventor, and John capitalized very well on his pioneering venture into digital stock photography, digital manipulation and funny pictures of animals.

Back then John was the first and for some-time the only stock photographer using digital manipulation to produce stock photos. There was no internet, and stock photography was pretty much limited to ad agencies with big budgets.

In those days he sold stock photography through Tony Stone Images, and The Stock Market.  Now Tony Stone is gone as is The Stock Market and Getty Images and number of other large stock agencies have replaced them.  Royalty free photography, widespread use of digital manipulation, and the internet are changing the face of the industry. Times have changed and John recently told me that the future of stock photography was online.

Mom and Pop business’s are going on the internet to find stock photos for their newsletters, advertising both online and hard copy, brochures, trade show booths, etc.  He feels the future of stock photography is online catering to the masses with low cost stock photography. There is a huge market for all types of photos for everything from photos for websites to pictures for brochures, to pictures for printed merchandise like cups and baseball caps.  Most people now searching for stock photos don’t even know what a stock photo is. They search for “pictures of pigs” or “shark pictures”.

To take advantage of this burgeoning new market for stock photos, today’s upcoming photographers (and the old ones too) need to get their work online where it can be found and purchased.

Once again John is on the leading edge of his field.  John has now launched a new website to address the blossoming online small business stock photo market.  Somewhere on his website there are photos of fire-breathing dragons in a world where pigs do indeed fly.

There are many ways to make money online with photography, but a popular and fairly new way is through Micro Stock Photography websites.
Micro stock photography is simply stock photography that’s sold at deep discounts. Clients are able to license stock photos for just $1 or $2, and photographers earn money each time a client chooses one of their photos.
Micro stock photography is considered to be still in it’s infancy, and some people feel it’s wrong to sell photography at such low prices. Particularly since many professional photographers invest a lot of time and money on equipment, learning, and photo shoots.
For the beginning photographer though, micro stock photography agencies can be ideal places to start. Since entry requirements are not overly restrictive, many hobby photographers with inexpensive cameras have already started making a nice second income from their pictures.
How Does It Work?
The process of making money from your photography through micro stock agencies is fairly simple.
1. Research popular micro stock photography agencies online. There are quite a few of them, but you’ll want to start with just one or two until you get the hang of things.
2. Choose your absolute best pictures to submit. Some agencies require you to submit 10 pictures for review when you apply for an account with them, while others only require three the first time. Most don’t have minimum requirements though, and you can start by submitting just one.
3. Your pictures will be reviewed by humans, and accepted or rejected into the micro stock photography site. If they’re accepted, they’ll be available for clients to “buy”.
Technically they’re not fully buying your pictures though. They’re simply licensing the pictures for specific use. Usually micro stock photography is used in websites, though sometimes it’s used in advertisements, brochures and other marketing materials. The photographer always retains full copyrights to their photos though, and is normally able to sell the same photos over and over again to additional clients.
And this is the beauty of stock photography. Once you’ve taken a great picture and had it accepted into a stock photography portfolio, that one picture can continue earning you money month after month… sometimes year after year.
Most micro stock photography agencies pay $0.20 – $0.50 per picture license, or download. This may not seem like much, however a good photographer with several hundred pictures for sale could make a nice second income over time, because it all adds up!
There’s a lot more to the stock photography business, which we don’t have room to cover in just one article. You’ll find expanded details about making money with stock photography in this article though: “Can Photographers Make Money With Stock Photography?” found at: http://www.stocktography.com/Making-Money.php

Photography is a hobby that takes you closer to your creative side. It is not as simple as aiming and shooting. There are several things to consider to ensure that you get a quality photograph. The photography tips mentioned below are sure to make your hobby a more fulfilling one.
The first important thing is to carefully go through the literature accompanying your camera. This is something that most people overlook, however it will help you understand your camera and its different features better so that you may use it to its best capacity. While earlier cameras had some basic features only, the newer more advanced ones require in depth knowledge before you can take good pictures.
A true photography enthusiast will take care of all aspects to ensure that the picture turns out to their satisfaction. Relying to a large extent on digital enhancements only takes the pleasure out of photography. A photography tip that will enhance your enjoyment is to suitably hone your skills before you go about clicking pictures.
A very important tip is to ensure proper exposure. Underexposed photographs do not have the desirable colour quality. Similarly, overexposure makes the picture too bright, which gives an artificial tone to it. This leads to details, highlights and the natural look getting lost. However, experts would give you the tip that in photography underexposure is preferred to over exposure because in the former the details are intact and can be corrected. Heed the photography tip of learning to understand the exposure warning lights.
Focus is another important aspect of photography. Always keep in mind the photography tip of focusing on the subject and not objects around it. Also remember that a close up will have lesser depth of field than a subject that is far away. An essential photography tip is not to be unduly worried about being out of focus, or about the sharpness and clarity of the picture.
A good photographer would always prepare beforehand. Think and visualize the subject, the exposure and all other relevant issues before you finally shoot.
Any photography tip would emphasize on concentrating more on the human endeavour than the mechanical part. So, if you have the creativity, give it a free hand. Also learning the fundamentals from a professional photographer is not a bad idea if you find it difficult to enhance your photography skills on your own.
Finally, a photography tip that holds good in many different fields too. Practice makes perfect. Go out and click photographs to your hearts content, keeping in mind the basic photography tips. With every picture that you shoot you are sure to develop a better understanding of focus, light, composition and so on.
Photography is a hobby that provides great satisfaction and at the same time helps connect with nature as you take in the colours, light and shadow effects and the wonders of creation. These photography tips can help an amateur take their passion of photography to new heights.

Someday there will be an ‘e-bay” of photography where consumers and businesses, designers and art directors, agencies and photo buyers will all go to find and license image for their disparate needs.  A student will look for images to complete a homework assignment…and an Art Director for a major ad agency will find an image for a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal.  The student might pay twenty-five cents while the Art Director might pay $10,000.00.  The popularity of an image, in conjunction with the use, will determine the price that will be paid.  The best photographers will make more money than they ever have before…and photographers who are sound business people will find a way to make good money too.  Those of us who are less creative, less diligent and less motivated will fall further and further behind.  I guess that is one thing that won’t really change in the business of stock photography!  Those who “get it” will thrive…as they always have while those who remain stuck in the past will slowly (or quickly) fade away.

As professional photographers who sell their images to the advertising, design and editorial communities, many of us have lost sight, or perhaps have never seen the tremendous buying power of the “consumer”.  My eyes were opened to that when I began to sell my Animal Antics images…pictures of  funny animals in anthropomorphic poses and situations, as greeting cards.  Sure, I only make a few cents per card…but when the public is buying over a hundred thousand cards a month those pennies can really add up!

Even with sales like that most people who I talk to about my greeting cards have never seen the cards for sale!  So I conclude that sales of a hundred thousand cards-a-month represents only a small fraction of the total possible number of sales.  The potential income from selling images to the public, to the consumer, is staggering.  Especially if you consider that images, for the most part, are a universal language.

So how do we, the photographers, tap into that market?  Well, obviously greeting cards portraying funny animal pictures is one way to do that.  But that really isn’t a very efficient way to do it.  The internet is the way to do it…but perhaps not yet.  That above mentioned “e-bay” for photographs…or some similar mechanism to marry the elements of consumer, photographs and transactions, needs to come in to place.  The need is there…I bet the technology is too…the rest is simply a matter of time…and preparation. 

For me that means having a website that is reasonably functional in getting my images in front of the public…and having content that the public wants.  That content can be anything from pictures that consumers can download and print (and that they WANT to download and print), to images they can license for their small business or images they can use to spice up their social networking site.  I am attempting to offer such content to the consumer by linking up with Café Press for products such as coffee mugs, calendars, handbags, T-shirts and the like…to ImageKind for fine art prints, to the various stock photo agencies that license my photographs for more traditional advertising and promotional uses.  Currently I use Blend Images for ethnic lifestyle and conceptual imagery, Getty Images for most of my conceptual and business images, Corbis also for concept images, and Kimball Stock for the licensing of my anthropomorphic animal pictures.  I also continue to sell greeting cards through the Portal brand that is published and distributed by the Marian Heath greeting card company.

Any investment counselor will tell you that the first thing to do in investing is to diversify.  That is of particular importance in time of uncertainty…and I think these times qualify for that label. As photographers we need to follow that same advice.  How do we diversify? For me that means a multi-pronged approach.  I diversify in my content, in my target market, and in my distribution.

I create images for the traditional advertising, design, corporate and editorial markets.  Within those markets I create lifestyle images, business images, and conceptual images.  Here I am diversifying the content within the category of traditional stock photography.  Next, I create images for the consumer…that is images that in them selves are or can be product.  That means everything from photo imprinted coffee mugs to photos for checks, photos for screensavers…you get the picture.  I also, once a year, take a trip specifically to shoot travel images.  Again…further diversification of my content.

To diversify my distribution I utilize both those traditional “powerhouse” stock photo agencies like Getty and Corbis, and niche agencies like Blend Images (for ethnically diverse lifestyle and business imagery) and Kimball Stock (for funny animal pictures).  Further diversification of my distribution is achieved by selling greeting cards through Marian Heath greeting cards and hiring a licensing agent to sell and distribute other “consumer” images for such wide-ranging applications as vet reminder cards, gift books and even figurines and picture frames! 

And finally, I have my website which I am fine-tuning as a vehicle to make my photographs available to anyone who might be interested in them, and in guiding them to the appropriate distributor for their needs.  I believe that those of us who establish such websites now and learn from that process, will have a huge head-start when that new paradigm lands on us…as it surely will!  When that wave hits I want to be experiencing the thrill of riding it rather than the pain of being crushed beneath it.