Photos – Mixx

Posts Tagged ‘Micro Stock’

If you have got on with the bandwagon and started taking stock photos for micro stock agencies then you are taking low cost digital stock photos. These photos pay you around twenty five cents every time they are downloaded. May not seem like a lot but if your photograph is highly desired and downloaded you can earn a lot of money simply making money off photos you already took.

Taking stock photos like this will probably mean you may have to start off with a very low budget. You probably won’t be able to afford expensive lighting kits or model agency hired models that look perfect even before being Photo-shopped.

There are many low cost lighting kits and other photographic tools that you can use to take stock photos that are high quality. The technical tools and equipment you use must be good quality but doesn’t necessarily mean it must be expensive. The equipment you have will give you more creative freedom but won’t give you more skills. You need to work on your skills through practice and experimentation to take better photos.

Stock photos can be taken very cheaply with a digital camera only. You can set up your studio outside and use the suns lighting as the illumination. Set up some reflectors and a diffuser over the head of the models and you got an extremely cheap studio set up that can take some great photos.

Just because you use cheap techniques does not mean you will try to skimp out on photographic technical aspects. Be sure your photo is properly focused and as sharp as possible. Make sure there is as little noise as possible. Try to make your photo as perfect as possible. Remember, although you only earn twenty five cents per download if you take a great photo it could get downloaded several times a day for years!

Many photographers that submit photos to stock photo agencies try to take as many pictures as possible. They hear that more photos will mean more money and try taking thousands of pictures. Taking pictures fast and trying to build up quantity can lead to some really ugly and awful photos that nobody will buy and probably won’t even get accepted by the stock photo agencies.

When taking low cost digital photos that you submit to stock photo agencies don’t treat the actual photo taking as if it were low cost and cheap. Using cheap equipment does not mean you have the excuse to just click auto focus and auto exposure. Make your photo flawless and you will be rewarded.

Photography is getting easier.  A lot easier!  Being a stock photographer is getting easier too, perhaps even to a greater degree than getting “good” pictures.  The result is a tremendous pressure on “pros” that make a living at stock to be able to continue making that living.  So what’s a pro to do?  The answer lies in using your whole brain, not just the left or the right hemispheres.  You need to use the left part for creativity and right for practicality, or pragmatism or whatever you want to call common sense.

As digital cameras continue to evolve and drop in price, and as Micro sites and online communities offer every greater degrees of education for would be stock producers, creating technically competent images becomes easier and more feasible for the masses.  Too, the masses are to an ever greater extent being made aware of the possibility of “making a few bucks” off of their hobby, and of the very real possibility (real but exceedingly elusive) of making that hobby into their profession.  Indeed, after a few hours of viewing Microstock forums it seems as if every amateur photographer out there is bent on becoming a professional stock photographer! The competition is increasing.

This brings us back to that increasingly important question, just how is a professional stock photographer going to thrive, or even survive, in this new environment?  I firmly believe that despite the “democratization” and “commoditization” of the stock photo industry, there will always be more reward for great images.  By great I mean images that fill a need and do it superbly.  A quick analysis of downloads at the current Mecca of Micro stock sites, iStockphoto, shows clearly that the best of the best images do return rather significant amounts to the photographer. There is still, and always will be plenty of money to be made.

Continued success is very simple really.  Make great images that fill a specific need.  To make those great images you need the left half of your brain; you need to be creative.  To make images that fill a need you have to use the right half of your brain.  You need to stay abreast of the images that are already out there, of what businesses need what kinds of images, and of what your competition is.  You need to have knowledge. I usually do a search on the major stock sites before I commit to creating an image just to make sure I am not re-inventing the wheel.  I am always amazed at what hasn’t been done, or hasn’t been done well.  In many cases the images that exist for a given need haven’t been updated in years, sometimes in many, many years!

While no one can know what the future will bring, I can see with my own eyes that it is still possible, at the time of this writing, to make huge amounts of money in stock photography.  Photographers are doing it in Rights Managed, photographers are doing it in Royalty Free, and yes, photographers are doing it in Micro stock. There is no magic bullet here.  There is simply putting the time and intention into coming up with creative ideas, putting the time and effort into researching the market, and having the gumption to actually do it. So what are you waiting for!

Careful What You Wish For

 

I am sure I am not the only old time stock photographer who has harbored a secret desire to have Tony Stone, the man behind the “Stone” brand and the precursor to Getty Images, come back to stock and save us all. 

 

Well, he is back…and has joined with Vivozoom to help propel that micro stock agency to the forefront (read the article at Microstockdiaries).  Careful what you wish for!

 

Focus on Quality and Make Relevant Photos

 

When Tony was asked what advice he would give to us traditional stock shooters he replied, “Focus on quality, and before you fund a shoot examine hundreds of stock images in print and online, and then imagine real uses for your own images. Here’s your mantra: “Relevance, relevance, relevance.”  This approach will focus your shooting, reduce your costs and boost your sales.”

 

 What Is Relevant?

 

So how the heck do you know what is relevant? There are several questions you need to ask to determine relevance. It is also important to remember that determining the relevance of an image is more of an art than a science.  The first question to ask is who is going to use this image?

 

The second question is why would they use this image rather than another one? The more likely your image is to be used than another, the more relevant it is. So you have to factor in the competition. The more competition there is the less relevant the image. The more relevant the image the greater investment is warranted in creating the image.

 

An Art, Not a Science

 

Other factors to take into consideration include the projected lifespan of the image, and distribution variables; is the image better suited for commercial stock photography, blogs, imprinted merchandise or fine art prints…and do you have suitable distribution for its intended categories?

 

Of course, as I mentioned earlier, determining the relevance of an image is as much an art as a science. A great example of the difficulties of determining an image’s relevance can be seen in an image I made of a man with a blue face and shaved head with his head on fire.

 

After making the image I sat on it for quite some time. I just couldn’t figure out who would use it for what. Finally I sent the image in to Getty anyway. My art director/editor at the time told me she didn’t want it. What the heck, I decided, I had nothing to lose so I sent it to Corbis. They loved it! The first sale it made was for $17,000.00! It has sold many, many times since. And I almost didn’t send it in at all!

 

 

Compelling Images, Art Directors and Creativity

 

Sometimes, even if you can’t answer the question of who would use the image and why, if the image is compelling enough, art directors and designers can and will use their creativity to come up with uses. I am guessing, but I think that such images would be better suited to Rights Managed where infrequent uses can be offset by higher licensing fees.

 

Instincts, Risk, and a Lot of Cents….

 

Sometimes you have to go with your instincts, but if you can answer who will buy your image, and what for, you certainly have a leg up on succeeding in stock photography. If you take the time to see how much competition there is for your photos, so much the better.

 

But don’t forget to stretch yourself, take the occasional risk, and allow room for those crazy images that don’t always make perfect sense…they may end up making a lot of cents!