Digital Camera World » Sell Your Work

Stock photography tips: how to shoot and edit stock photos that sell

jmeyer — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 11:30:36 +0000

Tired of your stock photography endeavours going to waste? Start making some money from your photography; use these stock photography tips to start setting up your shoots and editing photos in a more commercially minded way.

Stock photography went through a revolution as the microstock market established itself using the internet as a platform, and today there are a huge number of sites through which you can make a little extra income from your hobby.

However, the bottom line still remains – stock photography needs to contain a strong commercial subject and concept, while being useful to designers. It’s unlikely you’ll make much of a success from pictures of your kids, pets or garden flowers because these areas have been comprehensively covered.

Likewise, applying multi-filtered effects or creative crops will have a negative effect on your sales because buyers will find limited potential when put in context with their specific projects.

Our original shot

The path to success is simple – plan and arrange a strong concept shoot, compose your images with plenty of room for potential titles and/or copy, and edit your Raw files in a sympathetic manner that enhances the photo while minimising any further effects of compression artifacting.

Shooting in a Raw format is generally advisable because this allows some flexibility when running your initial processing.

Bundled along with Photoshop, Adobe Camera Raw provides some basic editing tools that can often provide the fundamentals needed to get your images virtually up to standard, assuming your photography skills are reasonably strong. Try to avoid burning out highlights or blacking out the shadows because these can never be salvaged.

Although it’s basic, Camera Raw provides some effective tools that are all too often overlooked because many consider the tool to be a simple Raw conversion tool.

Take some time to understand at least the most basic contrast and colour correction tools because processing at this stage substantially reduces the amount of artifacting introduced in the later Photoshop processing stage.

Once you have your images in Photoshop, keep all of your edits as basic as possible so as to simply enhance the original photograph.

Remember that your image will be an asset within a bigger design, most commonly for online or print use, and designers putting together such material may want to further edit them to match a house style.

If you impose a texture or make generous use of post-processed effects such as cross-processing, then these edits may make your image unusable to many potential buyers.

One of the most important elements to consider is an image’s contrast, so use Levels to set your black and white points. Colour temperature or white balance adjustment is much simplified using a simple slider in Camera Raw.

Some diligent use of the Spot Healing tools is good for removing any sensor spots or unnoticed logos, and finally, some simple straightening or compositional cropping might be beneficial.

Once you’re happy with your edits, save your file first as an uncompressed TIFF, should subsequent work be necessary (following a rejection for an overlooked logo, for example) and finally as a JPEG at the highest setting possible, making sure not to upsample because this only degrades quality unnecessarily.

How to edit stock photos that sell

01 Camera Raw adjustments
Study and master the controls within Camera Raw and you’ll find the majority of your processing can be done before you fine-tune things in Photoshop.

02 Photoshop edits
With Camera Raw taking care of the essentials, you can polish things up in Photoshop with the Healing Brush tool and Blend Modes, or you could apply advanced colour retouching.

03 Saving your file
Always use the highest settings when saving your final image. Set image compression to None for TIFFs and put the slider all the way up to 12 for JPEGs.

Final Tip
Many stock sites import EXIF data, so save time by embedding pertinent keywords in Adobe Bridge.

Is it legal to take pictures of buildings? Photography law questions and answers

jmeyer — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:00:44 +0000

Reports of photographers being harassed for taking pictures in public places are becoming increasingly common, particularly among photographers taking pictures of buildings – both public and private. Reading these reports you can be forgiven for wondering, ‘Is it legal to take pictures of buildings anymore?’

Rest assured, it is. Learning the fine points of photo composition and how to use your camera, is one thing. But something the guide books often don’t tell you about are photographers’ rights.

It’s important, therefore, that we know exactly what we can and can’t photograph, and where. In this new series we aim to answer many of the common questions about photography law and look into the legality of taking pictures of different subjects and situations.

In this first post, we look at some of the common photography law questions around taking pictures of buildings. In subsequent posts each week we’ll explore the legality of taking pictures of people, animals, landscapes and even other people’s art.

All of the responses are provided by our legal consultant who is an expert in intellectual property and photography law. All responses are given according to UK law.

Is it legal to take pictures… of buildings without getting a building release form?

Image by Ben Birchall

It’s not strictly correct to say that ‘buildings can’t be copyrighted’. Buildings may well be protected by copyright, although any copyright would have expired in many old buildings.

However, section 62 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 expressly permits certain copying in relation to buildings, and also to sculptures and works of artistic craftsmanship that are permanently situated in a public place or in premises open to the public.

Section 62 provides that copyright in such a work will not be infringed by making a graphic representation of it (that is, a drawing or a painting) or by making a photograph or film of it, or by making a broadcast of a visual representation of it.

Nor would copyright be infringed by what the Act refers to as the ‘issue to the public of copies, or the communication to the public, of anything whose making was, by virtue of this section, not an infringement of the copyright’.

This means that photographs of buildings can be sold or otherwise published without infringing copyright.

But there are other reasons than copyright for obtaining a property release, depending on how the image will be used. If the photograph is to be used in advertising, the British Code of Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing (the CAP Code) states that marketers should obtain written permission before portraying members of the public or their identifiable possessions.

The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld complaints when photographs of private residences have been used in advertising without the owner’s permission. In addition, certain uses of a photograph of a building may amount to passing off, or may infringe a trademark, though there have not as yet been any cases of this in the UK.

PAGE 1: Building release forms
PAGE 2: Shooting courtooms
PAGE 3: Industrial and commercial buildings
PAGE 4: Overseas buildings, charity work and taking pictures of houses

Photo Exhibitions: a first-timer’s guide to selling photos and raising your profile

jmeyer — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 11:00:59 +0000

Photo exhibitions are a great way to sell your photos and raise your profile as a photographer at the same time. These tips from professional photographers will help get you started for launching your first photo exhibition.

Image copyright VisitBritain

Photo exhibitions take a lot of time, cash, organization and hard work, but are an effective sales tool. You’ll also get a real buzz from displaying work in a public space.

Top galleries won’t take first-timers for photo exhibitions, but a smaller gallery may display one or two prints. Venues such as hotels, cafes, libraries and bars are also good places. Make sure you’re happy with any terms and conditions. Galleries usually demand a commission, sometimes up to 50%.

The next step is to decide on a theme – random subjects and styles will rarely succeed. Generic themes can work well, but specific ones like ‘autumn’ or ‘asylum seekers’ will attract more attention.

Print quality must be exceptional, so consider printing your images at a commercial lab. Mount, frame and caption images in exactly the same way using simple yet stylish frames.

The next step is to tell people about your photo exhibition. Send out formal invitations as well as press releases to the local media.

On the night your photo exhibition opens, keep the refreshments flowing, your business cards at the ready and employ a second pair of hands to handle sales or answer queries when you’re busy.

Tips for organising your first photo exhibition

Print quality is paramount, but it’s also important to consider the print size. A3 will probably be the minimum for most venues, but for larger walls you may need to print at A2 or even A1.

Ensure that all your prints are consistent in terms of size, mounts, frames and captions. A slick presentation could pay dividends in terms of sales.

Sending out amateurish invitations and press releases is likely to do more harm than good. If in doubt, have them designed and written professionally.

Offering limited edition prints is a good way to give your work a more exclusive, desirable feel. Consider charging between 15 and 20 percent extra for limited edition prints.

On your opening night,employ a co-host who knows your work and can take orders / answer questions while you’re busy with any other guests.

Sell Photos Online: edit your pictures to make money through microstock

jmeyer — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:30:28 +0000

As one improves as a photographer, you might find yourself asking less about photography tips and techniques and instead how to make money from photography. One popular method is to sell photos online via one of the numerous microstock libraries.

In our post below we’ll show you how to prepare and edit your pictures so that when you go to sell photos online through a microstock library you stand the best chance of making money.

You may have printed and framed a few of your favourite shots or shared them via online galleries such as Flickr, but the majority of your images are probably just occupying space on your hard drive. Why not shake the digital dust off of your collection and sell photos online with a microstock library?

In these financially tight times, art editors can’t always afford to commission a photographer to shoot specific images to illustrate a book cover or magazine feature. Instead, they’re likely to turn to one of the many online stock photography sites, such as iStockphoto or Shutterstock, where they can download cheaper images.

The microstock library will take the biggest share of the money, but if your images aren’t already making you cash, then you have nothing to lose trying to sell photos online. You can spend any money you earn on accessories for your kit bag!

Having a large collection of photos to sell online isn’t an immediate licence to print money. Although stock photos are relatively cheap, the client will want images that have a sharp focus point,a healthy range of tones and vibrant, correctly balanced colours.

Sell photos online: our original image

For this reason, stock photography sites will subject every photo you submit to extreme scrutiny, and will reject any shots that don’t come up to scratch.

Here we’ll show you how to edit a photo in Adobe Camera Raw and the Photoshop Elements editor so that it stands a better chance of getting a thumbs-up from quality-control inspectors at the major microstock libraries.

01 Open image
Open your image in Adobe Camera Raw. At first glance this image looks like a decent shot,but the eagle-eyes of a microstock photography inspector could find reasons for rejecting it. For starters, the colour temperature is a little cold. To warm up the scene, drag the Temperature slider to 5600.

02 Improve exposure
To give the shot more impact, we can brighten it up a little, but we need to make sure that we don’t clip (or over-expose) the highlights. Press O to turn on the highlight clipping warning. Drag the Exposure up to +0.35. To remove any red clipping warning patches, drag the Recovery up to 18.

03 Darken shadows
The contrast is a little flat due to the scene’s high-key lighting. Drag Blacks to 10 to darken the shadows. By pressing U you can see any clipped shadows as patches of blue. Clipped pixels will print with no detail, which is a common reason for rejection by a stock agency.

04 Bring out shadow detail
The high-key lighting has filled in most of the shadows on the child’s face. You can bring out more detail in the remaining shadows by dragging the Clarity slider up to +16. This subtle and gentle change in mid-tone contrast helps emphasise the shape and contours of the child’s face.

05 Crop in
To remove the edge of the studio backdrop, hold down the mouse button over the Crop tool and tick Show Overlay. Drag the mouse to select the entire image, then hold Shift and drag a corner handle to tighten the crop. The Overlay helps keep the child’s face at the centre of the image.

06 Discover artifacts
Click Open Image to continue editing the shot in the standard Photoshop Elements editor. Select the Zoom tool and click 1:1. Hold down the space bar to activate the Hand tool and drag the mouse to view all of the background at 100% magnification. There’s a subtle spot above the child’s foot.

07 Remove blemishes
Select the Spot Healing Brush tool from the Tools palette. Set Size to 150 pixels. Spray the brush tip over the sensor spot to remove it. Reduce Size to 25 pixels and spray over the shiny snot on the subject’s nose (and the drool from his mouth) to make him look a little more presentable.

08 Reduce noise
Stock inspectors will reject shots featuring picture noise. Noise is most noticeable in this image in the mid-tones at the base of the backdrop. You could try using Filter>Noise>Reduce Noise to remove it, but this runs the risk of blurring sharp details. Use the Blur tool to target and soften the problem areas.

09 Darken highlights
The skin’s brightest highlights could have a little more detail. A quick way to tweak a shot’s tones is to choose Enhance>Adjust Color>Color Curves. In the Select a Style section click Darken Highlights. This causes the highlight area of the curve to dip down a little. Click OK to proceed.

NEXT PAGE: How to edit your pictures to make money through microstock – Steps 10-16

How to make money from photography, part 5: shoot property for estate agents

jmeyer — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 02:00:08 +0000

Over the past five weeks we’ve been introducing you to new ways to make money from photography. We’ve looked at selling photos via stock photo agencies, running photography workshops and more.

Click here to read the full series on How to make money from photography

This week, in our final instalment of the series, we speak to photographer John Durrant, who turns a profit from photographing property. Via his Property Photographer website, John shoots houses and buildings on behalf of estate agents.

We spoke to John about how approaches these firms, how much he charges and how much you can expect to earn.

Estate agents seem happy to advertise properties snapped on  a compact – why is that?

The only explanation I can come  up with is that a lot of agents don’t realise they’re in the marketing business. A few photographers knocking on their doors might enlighten some of them!

So is ‘knocking on their doors’  the best way to get business?

There’s no substitute for seeing an agent face to face. Take prints to a meeting to show them your work, although a good website is also an important marketing tool.

How much can you charge?

At the lower end of the property market you might be charging £30-£50 for a job that might take an hour or two, while properties over £1m are likely to involve advanced techniques and additional time in Photoshop. At that level you’ll need to charge £350-£700 per day.

How busy could you be?

The peak selling season is spring, and this year I was flat out, working every day for almost two months. That kind of stress and effort is not for the faint-hearted, but it would typically be followed by a less busy period over the summer.

How to make money from photography, part 4: a new idea to make cash on holiday

jmeyer — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 02:00:56 +0000

So far in our series on how to make money from photography we’ve told you how to submit to stock photo agencies, run a workshop and even teach a night class on photography. In our penultimate installment we suggest a new idea for making cash from your holidays.

There’s nothing like going on holiday and taking pictures of exciting new places, but while you’ve got your camera with you, why not take advantage of the opportunity to recoup some of the costs?

While you could set up a specialist photo holiday and ask others to pay to join you in a photogenic location, the holiday/work bias will obviously be shifted towards the latter as you take on the role of tutor-come-host.

However, you can still potentially make some money and have a ‘proper’ holiday if you think a little more laterally.

For example, when you booked your holiday, it was most likely pictures of hotels, campsites and destinations that helped you decide.

Brochures and websites get updated regularly so, while you’re away, why not shoot some pictures with a view to marketing them to the place you stayed when you get back?

Making £20 for a shot of a campsite would pay for a night, perhaps.

Speculate too…
Similarly, consider shooting images for stock libraries, competitions and magazines – not just photography publications, but travel and holiday magazines as well.

It’s speculative work, but thinking about where you are, who might use pictures of it and, most importantly, contacting them when you get back could cover the cost of more than a few of the meals you had under the summer sky.

Remember…
As in the UK, be wary of including official installations in your shots. Some buildings, such as police stations, army bases or transport terminal are restricted areas and you’ll need to check with officials before shooting (and publishing) them.

How to make money from photography, part 3: teach an evening class

jmeyer — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 03:00:05 +0000

Teaching an evening class won’t get you out of your day job, but it’s a great way make money from photography, sharing your experience with like-minded people and perhaps even learning something from them too.

However, before you can start you need to do a bit of homework yourself.

First off, you need to identify learning centres that run part-time evening classes (although not necessarily in photography).

It might sound obvious, but try and keep them local – you’ll be getting paid an hourly rate that won’t include your commute.

Pitch it right
Take a look at the ‘competition’. Colleges that already run part-time photography courses will obviously have one or more tutors, so you need to approach them with something different – there’s no point proposing a beginner’s photography class if they already run one.

Think your course through and write down exactly what you’ll be teaching on a week-to-week basis and, most importantly, what the students will learn from you (the ‘learning outcomes’).

Once you’ve got your course  plan together, it’s time to make  your ‘pitch’, which means arranging a face-to-face meeting with the course co-ordinator.

This is basically a job interview, so make sure you sell yourself and your course – all going well, you’ll be well on your way to the front of the class and a fulfilling future career.

How to make money from photography: selling via stock photo agencies
How to make money from photography: run a workshop
How to get your photos published in magazines
The right way to submit to stock photo agencies

How to make money from photography, part 2: run a workshop

jmeyer — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 02:00:29 +0000

Last week, in the first installment of our new series on the many ways to make money from photography, we told you about how to sell your photos online via stock photo agencies. This week we’ll leave the internet behind and look at one of the more traditional ways of making money from photography: running a workshop.

Planning and hosting a workshop is a lot of hard work, but it can be one of the most fulfilling things you do as a photographer. What better way to find out more about workshops than to ask someone who does it regularly.

We talked to photographer Chris Weston about his own experience, having walked away from his nine-to-five to pursue a career as  a wildlife photographer and running workshops to share his passion.

What advice would you give to anyone looking to start running  a photography workshop?

There’s intense competition,  so you need to find a niche. And  you must be confident that you know what you’re talking about. Being published in magazines or authoring books, for example, will help you gain credibility.

What would you recommend as the maximum number of students for a workshop?

Numbers can be limited by logistics – the number of seats in your transport, for example – and the level of tuition; the higher the level, the fewer people attending.

What’s the best way to advertise your workshop?

Like any business, you need to explore multiple channels such as magazines, online and a website. Social networking sites are also becoming popular because they give people the chance to get to know you and your style before they commit to spending money.

How much should you charge?

You need to work out the per person cost to run it, including fees to outside contractors, travel, advertising and so on, and set it against your desired profit.

How to make money from photography: new series on Digital Camera World

jmeyer — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 02:00:31 +0000

If you’ve been shooting for a few years, there’s every chance your hard drive is bursting with images of far-flung destinations, local landscapes or the flowers in your back garden. Regardless of the subject, all of your shots have one thing in common – they’ve got the potential to be transformed from pixels into money in the bank. In the first of a new weekly series here on Digital Camera World, we’ll introduce you to simple ways to make money from photography.

Before we begin any discussion about how to make money from photography, you need to ask yourself one simple question: do you want to sell photos directly, or do you want to have someone else do it for you?

If you go down the self-selling route, there’s one huge benefit – you can set whatever fees you like and, as long as someone’s willing to pay, you get every penny.

Sounds good, yes?  It is, but it’s not quite that simple.  For a start, you need to find people to buy your pictures and, even with the slickest website, it’s going to take a lot of work finding people who will spend their money on your shots.

If you do, then you’ve got to enter the minefield of rights negotiation and contracts, which can quickly take more time and effort than you necessarily want or need to devote to it.

PAGE 1: How do you want to sell photos?
PAGE 2: Sell photos via stock photo agencies
PAGE 3: Do’s and Don’ts of stock photography
PAGE 4: Stock photos that sell

How to get your photos published in magazines

jmeyer — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 12:33:42 +0000

Don’t assume that only professional photographers stand a chance of getting published in magazines. Editors are constantly looking for new, inventive and fresh photography, and it may just be that your particular vision coincides perfectly with theirs.

However, don’t go to the other extreme and assume that as soon as they see your work editors will be fighting to get to you first. There are any number of great photographers out there and you’re just one of them – no matter what you might think about the quality of your images (for more tips like these, check out our 50 photography tips from jobbing pros to famous photographers).

Brilliance and style are important, but patience, persistence and willingness to study the needs of the magazines you’re approaching are what really count. Don’t send editors a huge collection of images in the hope that there might be one or two that strike a chord.

What actually happens is any really good images that might be in there will be obscured by a fog of mediocrity. That’s assuming the editor even gets as far as looking at them all.

Any editor will have a glance at six photos, might be losing interest at 12 and if faced with dozens may not even bother to start.

In the following pages we’ll take you through the best way to get your photos published in magazines. We’ll tell you how to make the right approach, offer tips to improve your chances, identify some common mistakes and, finally, answer the all-important question of ‘what will I be paid’?

PAGE 1: Practice Patience
PAGE 2: Making the right approach to editors
PAGE 3: Improve your chances of getting photos published
PAGE 4: Common mistakes when trying to get photos published
PAGE 5: What will you be paid?