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Make money through stock photography
Techniques
24 October 2007 12:58
Making a success of selling photographs through a stock image library requires a rethink of the things you shoot as an enthusiast. However, the good news is many of the skills you’ve learned and use to take your photographs will hold you in good stead to step up a gear and start selling your images.
Stock libraries hold many different types of pictures, from landscapes and wildlife photographs to portraits. Many of the more successful images (in financial terms) are those that interpret a theme. For example, that derelict building you stumbled across and photographed could be used to illustrate an article about neglect or ageing. But for more reliable sales you’ll need to increase the chances by actually setting out to shoot pictures that can be representative of a specific theme.
Shooting conceptual images is much easier than you’d imagine – you just need to sit down and plan what you’re going to do. Here are four steps to interpreting a theme and coming up with pictures that people will pay for.
1. Choose a theme and research your market. Just pick one to start with – something with universal appeal, such as happiness, health and fitness, new beginnings, security, cleanliness or crime. Once you’ve decided on your theme (perhaps health) start looking and thinking about potential clients such as health and fitness magazines, daily newspapers, health leaflets and design agencies.
2. Thumb through some of these and study the style of images being used. This will give you a good lead on what kind of look the designers and editors like. It’s also worth spending some time looking at what’s already held by some of the online stock libraries. This might spark a few ideas and perhaps inspire you to shoot something better and more targeted. Online, simply type in your keyword (in our case ‘health’) on the library’s search engine, and see what images it throws up. Look at how these images have been captioned, as this will prove an important part of the process once the picture has been taken and uploaded. Remember, the more relevant keywords you can think of for your picture, the better.
3. Write down your ideas. Although photography is a visual art you need to write your ideas down as they occur to you. It doesn’t need to be detailed, just brief notes to aid the thought process. We brainstormed what ‘health’ brings to mind, scribbling down our thoughts as we went. We soon built up a number of potential picture ideas to fit our theme, including fruit and vegetables, cycling and vitamin pills. Of course, these ideas are just the start of the process to help focus your energies.
4. Make sketches. When you’ve finally decided on an approach, a few simple sketches will help you visualise your final image. You don’t need to be Picasso because even the most basic stick drawing will help you to consider composition.
5. Start shooting! Don’t always be too literal with your interpretations and be prepared to try something more abstract. Arranging the cod liver oil capsules like this on top of a red card reminded us broadly of blood cells. The strong colours were a bonus that might catch the eye of an image-buyer. On another shot, with a red background, some coloured vitamin tubs and a shallow depth-of-field it immediately came to life.
6. It’s always worthwhile leaving space for text to be added. Try to think how graphic artists and picture editors could use your pictures. On the photograph we took of the vitamin container, the key is the words on the tub. By shooting with a wide aperture the focus is only on the front few vitamins and the words ‘suggested daily intake’. This could be the perfect illustration for an article in a health magazine talking about how many vitamins it’s safe to take as part of a normal diet.