Stock Photography 101

1. Get model releases early

Asking for a model release before the shoot will make your life much easier, and your model will have more opportunity to clarify how he or she would like the photos to be used.

2. Take time to keyword your photos

I’m still new to this, so I have made a lot of mistakes in key wording. To help me and fellow photographers, our editors put together a list of handy tips on how to keyword your photos. The key to key wording is to think like a buyer. Whether they look for emotions (bonding, happiness, empathy) or traits (individuality, simplicity, beauty), try to extract what words your photo can express. According to some experts, the ideal number of keywords is 20-25, but they have to be relevant. Spam keywords can actually hurt your photos.

3. Photographers are their own worst editors

I have noticed it before, and it is even more relevant when trying to get into stock photography: photographers are usually their own worst editors. In the past, the photos that I hated got picked for a full spread in magazines, but photos that I loved got rejected altogether. The key takeaway is to upload more photos, both good and bad, because what you may think is bad could be perfect for the editor or creative director.

4. Be the supply to the demand

As a photographer, you market your photos to buyers. So in order to be successful, it’s important to sell what’s in demand. It doesn't mean going against the grain and shooting something you don’t believe in, but lack of supply in areas of high demand is a lost opportunity. There is a lot of research of what’s in demand in stock photography (authentic imagery, filtered photos à la Instagram, texture patterns, breathtaking landscapes), so you can be in sync with the market. r. 

5. Be aware of brands and logos

I learned this one a bit too late, so it cost me a few hours of work in Photoshop. For commercially licensed photos, make sure your photos don’t have brands, trademarks or related graphics in them. For example, my photo of a model in a shopping mall was rejected because there was an Adidas Store in the background. Same goes for swoosh logos, famous fruit logos and so on. Interestingly enough, some brands will add their logos in post production!

6. Be a thought leader

To be successful in selling stock photography it’s important to market yourself. Every single photographer who makes five to six digits a year selling stock photography invests heavily in marketing. While spending money on ads might be one way of promoting yourself, marketing your particular area of expertise is a better way to achieve a good following and sales. Write about your photo shoots, travel, tips and tricks that you have learned doing what you love.  So by writing this blog post, I’m promoting myself, also.

7. Master your domain

While you can submit all the photos you want, being a master in just a few domains can help. Create your own style, and art directors will be forever grateful. They are always on a lookout for fresh, authentic imagery, so having photography that stands out is a key to a successful sale.

8. Keep the bar high

Sometimes I like to make photos a bit more grungy, by adding excessive vignetting or simulated film grain. While it looks great on my profile or in print, I found my photos to be rejected because of this. Now I keep a separate copy of the same photo that is as clean and noise-free as possible to submit for licensing. 

9. Save some space

When I shoot landscapes, a lot of composition rules apply to composing or cropping the shot. By positioning key aspects of a landscape on points of a geometric shape you can help create a balanced composition. Perhaps the most common and easiest way to do this is to use a ‘triangle’ shape between objects in an image with three objects in a frame positioned with one to each side and one more central.

10. Go out and shoot more!

Lastly, the only way to get better at taking photos is to go out and take more photos, to try new techniques and to go to meetups with fellow photographers. Photos nowadays get dated very quickly, so to keep myself in shape I get out regularly!

What is Stock Photography

Stock photography is the supply of photographs, which are often licensed for specific uses. It is used to fulfill the needs of creative assignments instead of hiring a photographer, often for a lower cost. Images can be presented in searchable online databases.  You have such sites such as: shutterstock, fotolia, istockphoto, shutterstock, Getty Images, and Corbis that sell your images and give you a percentage of the image that was purchased through their site, something like 20%.  There are many more sites by photographers like myself that are offering stock images that you can either use for your personal use and not in any commercial products advertising unless it is licensed by us to do so in the agreement. They can be purchased and delivered online in digital format (JPEG) or in printed format with various sizes, frames and textures such as acrylic, wood, metal and canvas. All images should be copyright by each photographer to prevent from someone else stealing and using your work and getting paid for it. This way if you find out you can take the to court for fraud and and other charges the courts may see fit to file the perpertrator. Selling your own stock photography can be very lucrative to those that find the right company that want to license the particular photo or photos for some commercial advertisement or maybe even a cover of a magazine such as cosmopolitan, black enterprise, and other big named publications. The name of the game is to produce excellent work and market yourself.