Shooting Stock: The Art of Stock Photography and how to Make Money with it Online

Stock photography in itself is not new, as so many photographers starting their careers believe, but online stock photo agencies certainly are. Stock agencies of yesteryear simply consisted of an image bank of hundreds of thousands of slides/negatives and prints, from which a buyer had to manually select his perfect image, the difference being almost the same as that of a conventional library of books as compared to an online one. The rules and methods of catering to a stock photo agency remain the same, as do the agreement terms ‘royalty paid’ and ‘royalty free’ , both of which will be discussed in more detail later in this article.

The business of buying and selling stock photographs online can certainly be a tricky one, as it is not always the ‘pretty picture’ that gets selected for a sale, as one learns with a bit of experience. Any beginning photographer learns from his ‘guru’ or from experience, to show the client the final image created for them , not the five or so he rejected before he was satisfied he’d captured the right effect, but this doesn’t apply to stock photography , as there is no one particular client in question. The saying goes "one man’s meat is another’s poison" and it is just as true that what one stock photography client wants will be nothing like what another is looking for, sometimes a photo YOU would have rejected is just the one someone else loves!

The beginner needs to understand the terms 'royalty free’ and ‘royalty paid’. Just as implies, the term ‘royalty paid’ means that whenever an image sells, the photographer gets a percentage. For example, if it is sold for the use of a book or magazine publishing, the photographer gets paid a ‘royalty’ every time a book is sold. On the other hand, the term ‘royalty free’ implies that the photographer has given total rights to the publisher, for the specified usage, and gets no commission on every sale of the publishing. It is wrong to generalise that one kind of agreement is ‘better’ than the other. A royalty paid agreement may or may NOT give long term returns, whereas a royalty free image will give a high initial income. There really is no rule of thumb about this , and it is only by experience and preference that you will find out what works for you.
As a side note, it's always a good idea to check the reputation of the publishing house when making a royalty paid agreement.

Now, some more on the nature of images suitable for stock photography. When shooting for stock sales, remember to get every possible angle and every possible lighting effect, all permutations and combinations. When offering a set of images, offer every one that you shot. Try and look from the publishers’ point of view, and understand that something as seemingly trivial as a pen or a glass of water may be required by an advertising company across the globe, who would really hate their time wasted on setting up a photoshoot specially for that. Also, remember that we live in a globalized world today, and the more diverse the people are in your photographs, the better the chances of one of them being sold.

Micro payment agencies have sprung up of late, which allow the buyer to download and use an image for several dollars, royalty free! Shocking as this may sound, photographers who market their work this way CAN make a steady income – where they lose on higher payments , they make up in number of sales. But some leading stock agencies refuse to market photographers who cater to micro payment agencies, and understandably so.

The beauty of mastering the shooting and sales of stock photography is, that they allows the photographer to live life more or less according to his or her terms, up to a point. Some pioneering stock photographers travel as they please, uploading their images to stock agencies, and getting paid online!

George Ryan works for HeyGeek! Inc, administrating and managing several websites including http://www.ebooks.cc and the wildly successful stock photo marketplace http://www.greatstockphoto.com, where photographers get $0.95 per download.

Is It Still Called Stock Photography

Keeping up with the times...

Is It Still Called Stock Photography?

A century ago, magazines featured mostly text. Graphics were secondary. Today, it's reversed. If you include advertisements, our periodicals today feature more graphics than text. The new "automated" stock photo services (with Royalty-free photos that offer lower prices for photos), are providing quality generic images to publishers who previously couldn't afford photography as an option. As a result, new markets are now opening up for photographers who produce generic images.

The stock photo industry has finally come around to recognizing a previously largely neglected major marketing principle (one that we actually have been espousing here at PhotoSource International since our beginning). To wit: there's a vast market of photobuyers who are not interested in high-fee, RP ("rights-protected") photos. They simply want an image they can temporarily use, one-time, in one of their low-circulation, limited-readership, publications.

Let me backtrack.

In the 1950's, there were few stock photo agencies. When I returned from a trip through Africa in 1958, I sought out an agency from the few listed in the Manhattan telephone directory. My photos landed at Photo Researchers, then a two-person, New York City hole-in-the-wall on 42nd Street. Photo Researchers is still there today.

The dozen or so "managed-rights" photo agencies of the '60's have increased to several hundred agencies today. In the late 80's this "managed-rights" stock industry was at its peak. Today it's still thriving, with a major impetus being the emergence of the massive corporate digital agency (Corbis, Getty, Jupiter Media, Index Stock Imagery, etc.). The smaller stock photo agencies are folding or being absorbed in mergers, or have resorted to specializing.

THE TRANSFORMATION

The Digital Era has transformed other major industries: communications, transportation, banking, plus the military and government. It was bound to transform our stock photo industry, and it has.

In the past, traditional "managed rights" stock agencies demanded very high fees for their images, and why not? They had the market all to themselves. There was no "Kmart" counter in the stock photo industry.

The formation of micro digital stock agencies has changed all this. These new companies are able to reach out to markets that couldn't afford the traditional high stock fees of the past. Using "volume" as their guide, rather than "managed exclusivity," these digital agencies have proved that there was a sleeping market for their inexpensive on-line offerings.

This movement has opened a whole new market area for individual photographers whose files are filled with generic photos that, up to this point, have been going nowhere. Today, by using the power of automation, digital photo corporations are selling "Royalty-free generic images for very low fees: $35, $15, and $1.

Do these lower fees deflate the market? We have seen in other industries that they do not. The textbook progression is that after a leveling out period, thanks to lower fees, the market actually expands. If you have an automated volume product at a lower fee, the bottom line usually improves. The consumer benefits, and so does the corporation. It's called free enterprise.

This marketing approach, of course, is what we have been espousing here at PhotoSource International since 1976 when we introduced our first marketletter, The PHOTOLETTER--still in existence today. Back then we observed there were thousands of small graphic houses, regional publishers, denominational houses, and small book publishers, whose budgets would not allow the use of $200, $300, or $3,000 images.

Many of our subscriber members, by concentrating on only a few specialized markets among these lower-budget buyers, found they could earn healthy incomes by selling to these markets in volume. Back in the 70's, these photographers in effect automated their selling methods and reduced administrative costs, much the way corporate digital stock houses have learned to do today.

The theme of my first book, Sell & ReSell Your Photos, emphasizes this approach. If the picture is good, more than one photobuyer is going to want to use it, when there's no cross-readership conflict and the price is within their budget. The early stock photography pioneers found it was a lot less stressful selling a photo 10 times at $75 to these lower budget editorial markets, than selling one picture at $750 in the high-pressure commercial arena.

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WHAT IS EDITORIAL STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY?

You know what photography is, and you know what stock photography is -- yes?

Take another look. During the past couple of decades, an aspect of photography has been growing to where it is now planted firmly on the scene as a photographic division in its own right: editorial stock photography.

These are the photos of everyday slices-of-life, the insights into the human condition, the events and vignettes and moments you spot -- and then dive for your camera. Editorial stock photos show people involved, doing things; they feature specific geographical locations; they give a "real" look at every aspect of human activity and the world of nature. As legendary Magnum photographer Elliot Erwitt has said, "[Photos] have got to tell you something that you haven't seen, or touch you in some way emotionally..." As to his personal preference, he says, "With regard to photography that I respect, my view is fairly narrow. I like things that have to do with what is real, elegant, well-presented and without excessive style. In other words, just fine observation."

Editorial stock photos are in contrast to commercial stock photos, the latter being the slick scenic and product shots, the gorgeous sunset, the healthy senior citizen couple bike-riding through autumn leaves, that we see in advertisements and commercial promotions.

Commercial stock photos have to conform to "what sells." The commercial photographer must engineer the photos to fit into commercial clients' needs, trends in the industry, and to appeal to a wide, general audience. The resulting photos are often called generic images because they can fit a variety of uses.

Editorial stock photos are produced by a different approach. Rather than appeal to the commercial needs of a client, the editorial stock photographer follows his or her own interest areas, and targets certain segments of life and culture that they enjoy photographing. Examples: medicine and health, sports, social issues, travel, etc. The photographer then sells these photos to markets that use images in those specific subject areas.

Buyers in the commercial field include designers at graphic houses, corporate art directors, and ad agency creative directors. There's much turnover in these positions, so developing consistent working relationships with these markets is frustrating and difficult.

In the editorial field, the buyers range from photo editors at books and magazines, to photo researchers -- the people who are hired by publishers and art directors to seek out highly specific pictures. There's less turnover and more longevity with editorial buyers, and editorial stock photographers can enjoy strong long-term working relationships with their buyers, which translates to more consistent sales.

Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of PhotoStockNotes. Pine Lake Farm, 1910 35th Road, Osceola, WI 54020 USA. Telephone: 1 800 624 0266 Fax: 1 715 248 7394. Web site: http://www.photosource.com/products

How to Choose Stock Photography for Your Ebook Covers

Choosing the right images for your ebook is important to convey the message you want. Stock photography is an effective tool for your ebook covers.

Here are some tips to help you find and choose stock photos.

1. Photography agencies have many selections. Stock photography is more cost effective than custom photography and will work for most ebook covers.

2. Be flexible. Don't expect to find the exact image you want. For example, if you provide information about home schooling, you may want to find an image of a women with a child. The images you'll find may not be the size, color, or position you're looking for and the child may not be the right age for your topic. Determine what message you want to convey. Then search for an image that conveys that message. If you don't find the right image, you may want to take your own pictures with a digital camera or hire a photographer.

3. Use a free comp image to try out the image. Most stock agencies offer a free comp image for position only so that you can try it and see if it's going to work for your purpose.

4. Buy the size and resolution you need. Don't pay more than you need to. So don't pay for 300 dpi resolution when you only need 72 dpi resolution for an ebook cover image.

5. If you don't find what you need, contact the web site. They may have images that are not featured on the site.

6. Know how to search. Try different keywords. If you are looking for a women in the woods, try keywords like "women woods, women trees, women forest."

7. Consider combining two or more images. Sometimes you have to put two or more images on top of each other to create the image you want. You can use a graphic program to do this. In the example above, you may find a great image of a forest without a women. You may want to put a picture of a women on top of the forest image.

8. Check the "Terms of Use." Some sites only allow you to use their images for personal use, while others allow commercial use (which is what you will want for your ebook that you are selling). Other sites let each contributor of the images determine what kinds of usage will be allowed. If you're using the image for an extended period of time, you may have to pay every year.

Adding a quality ebook image representing your book or software topic is one of the easiest ways to instantly increase your credibility and sales.

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