advice on stock

[leonardobarreto.com]

I have to adjust my plans here in Bolivia since I will not get a permit to work (my wife is head of UN here) so my plan B) is to work with in my studio to develop images for stock. I have not done it in the past so any advice I receive from you guys will be appreciated.

How is it in economic terms?
How to deal with models?
What images have more demand?

And any other question/suggestion

Thanks

 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

I have to adjust my plans here in Bolivia since I will not get a permit to work (my wife is head of UN here) so my plan B) is to work with in my studio to develop images for stock. I have not done it in the past so any advice I receive from you guys will be appreciated.

IMHO, shooting for stock requires a different mindset. One is required to anticipate the derived use of ones image, including space for text placement (usually in a magazine/portrait orientation, or a double page spread).

How is it in economic terms?
How to deal with models?
What images have more demand?

I'm exploring the field myself, so no definitive answers yet, but Model releases would make sense.

Bart

 

[leonardobarreto.com]

I appreciate all advice on this, I know is not going to be easy, but so is every field of photography, for example, editorial or commercial, some do well some don't.

I have no overhead since the studio is at home and I have all the equipment (just got my MacPro quad in NY this year), a digital back and time, so why not...

Anyone her doing micro stock and, what is the difference of all the "formats"?

thanks

 

[janet Smith]

IMHO, shooting for stock requires a different mindset. One is required to anticipate the derived use of ones image, including space for text placement (usually in a magazine/portrait orientation, or a double page spread

I have over 1700 images now with Alamy and have gone through phases of thinking why am I sticking with this..... It's a bit of a numbers game, the more images you have online, the more sales you get....

It's hard to say what sells, interestingly most of mine that have sold have been landscape format and yes I often think of leaving room for text somewhere in the image.

Like Leonardo I am home based, no overheads, and am lucky that I have time on my side to work steadily at building up my stock. Gradually I see my sales increasing month on month, for me it's been very worthwhile, encouraged by a steady stream of sales I intend to continue....

 

[leonardobarreto.com]

janet,

I found out that you can search images on Istockphoto.com and you can see how a simple landscape -with lots of sky space and a few trees has been downloaded about 5k times !, this could be the way to get a sense of the things that are needed not to copy them, but to take in to account needs of the market such as what you mentioned of thinking in terms of design lay out and usability.

I would like to have a few multi thousand download images : ) ...

 

[Alain Briot]

I found out that you can search images on Istockphoto.com and you can see how a simple landscape -with lots of sky space and a few trees has been downloaded about 5k times!

A simple approach would be to create a series of landscapes with lots of sky space and a few trees, upload them to istockphoto, and see how they sell ;-)

It may be that simple.

Or again it may be far more complicated than that.

ALain

 

[janet Smith]

I found out that you can search images on Istockphoto.com and you can see how a simple landscape -with lots of sky space and a few trees has been downloaded about 5k times......
I would like to have a few multi thousand download images : ) ...

Hi Leonardo

Hmmm interesting, but I have reservations about selling for such a low price, but there again it makes you wonder what the chances are of selling one image so many times, might be worth putting some on there and giving it a chance, thanks for the idea, as they say "nothing ventured, nothing gained"

Good luck, let me know how it goes.....

 

[leonardobarreto.com]

Yeap, simple hand shake: 3417 downloads, hand holding a small model of a house: 3,821; man in a meeting looking at camera: 5,324 times downloaded... i wonder how much you get for one "download", but if it is a Dollar, then you made $5k, but how they say in Mexico: "it isn't difficult, but there is nothing easy about it"

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_sea...ableLoupe=1&order=Downloads&perPage=&within=4

 

[Tim Armes]

Hi Leonardo,

My own thoughts on stock are confused.

1) To be very successful with stock you need a very large collection of images.

2) Most stock images are, to my eyes, quite bland. Buyers rarely want "fine art" type images, they prefer unadulerated standard images that can be easily used in a book etc. without looking out of place.

I know of a very successful Alamy stock photographer who lives off her stock sales. She's happy to go out and "shoot stock". Personally I can't motivate myself for this style of photography - I need to be more involved in the creating the image.

3) There are of course some fantastic stock images out there that have clearly been "created" - Getty's full of them, but when I see them I find it hard to believe that the photographer's put in so much time, money and effort to create an image that may or may not sell. I'd like to really know where these images come from.

Perhaps they're unused images from a commissioned shoot?

4) This is sort of the approach I take. My example my personal "Artisans" project consists of a selection of images that have received my own style of post production, which include playing with the colours. I'll probably use many of the "brut" images of documentary shots and sell them as stock. In this respect the investment is essentially free (other than keywordking, uploading, etc).

5) The whole microstock/real stock wars wear me down. It ruins the experience for me.

Tim

 

[leonardobarreto.com]

interesting thoughts, Tim

Hi Leonardo,

My own thoughts on stock are confused.

1) To be very successful with stock you need a very large collection of images

I think this is logic thinking, but the definition of successful is a moving target, for example, in my case I would be initially happy if I get any income since my life's options are restricted by being in a foreign country with no work permit. The idea of being able to "export" images from anywhere I happened to be in the world to the stock market is what attracts me so I'm doing my homework of researching it and consider it my everyday work --and thanks again for helping me with this research--

2) Most stock images are, to my eyes, quite bland. Buyers rarely want "fine art" type images, they prefer unadulerated standard images that can be easily used in a book etc. without looking out of place.

When I had a commercial studio most of the work was to do "quite bland" photography --relatively well paid-- and a friend of mine that makes table top advertising photography in New York shoots "quite bland" imagery most of the time. My previous work practice in New York was to document art work for galleries in West Chelsea and that was "quite bland" photography too (interesting in the sense that I lived inside the center of the world's art world), so, don't know if you follow my point...

I know of a very successful Alamy stock photographer who lives off her stock sales. She's happy to go out and "shoot stock". Personally I can't motivate myself for this style of photography - I need to be more involved in the creating the image.

That is an interesting point, I don't know if I will be shooting stock every day, but that is my plan. On the other side, I think you can do salable (how do you spell that word? I think that way means salty, no?) in a creative way, in the same way you shoot a Coca Cola can for an Ad. that is just plain shoot-for-money.

3) There are of course some fantastic stock images out there that have clearly been "created" - Getty's full of them, but when I see them I find it hard to believe that the photographer's put in so much time, money and effort to create an image that may or may not sell. I'd like to really know where these images come from.

That is something for me to find out, for example, I want to use my Phase One Digital back and prime lenses, thousands of Watts of light etc etc, what is the best way to connect with users that want to consume that quality as opposed to images done with a Digital Rebel and 28-200mm zoom? OR I'm dreaming !

Perhaps they're unused images from a commissioned shoot?

4) This is sort of the approach I take. My example my personal "Artisans" project consists of a selection of images that have received my own style of post production, which include playing with the colours. I'll probably use many of the "brut" images of documentary shots and sell them as stock. In this respect the investment is essentially free (other than keywordking, uploading, etc).

5) The whole microstock/real stock wars wear me down. It ruins the experience for me.

Microstock is part of the free market, so it can't be good/bad. If you sell 4,000 times an image cheap is similar as selling it one time at $1k... nobody is forcing any photographer to relinquish their images for $1 at gun point...

 

[Tim Armes]

I think this is logic thinking, but the definition of successful is a moving target, for example, in my case I would be initially happy if I get any income since my life's options are restricted by being in a foreign country with no work permit. The idea of being able to "export" images from anywhere I happened to be in the world to the stock market is what attracts me so I'm doing my homework of researching it and consider it my everyday work --and thanks again for helping me with this research--

I can understand this. I'd like to think that the day I decide to bite the bullet and do this full time I'll be able to spend my 'empty' days shooting stock.

In reality I fear that my stream of good stock ideas will dry up and I'll just end up wandering around aimlessly taking mundane photos. Clearly this is a personal concern - there are many photographers who don't seem to suffer from this.

Of course stock isn't just about documentary shots. Lifestyle images are a big part of the stock market. I still don't understand how so many great photographers warrant the time that is clearly put into some of the incredible images I see on Getty, but they do and I assume it works for them. I'd love to invest time here.

That is an interesting point, I don't know if I will be shooting stock every day, but that is my plan. On the other side, I think you can do salable (how do you spell that word? I think that way means salty, no?) in a creative way, in the same way you shoot a Coca Cola can for an Ad. that is just plain shoot-for-money.

Well, that's not the experience I have had. I discovered that my more creative stuff wasn't a good choice for stock, presumably because:

• A client looking for an creative look probably wants individuality, which stock does not often provide.
• Creating masterful pieces takes time. Investing time in images that may take years to sell isn't easy. Of course, you don't have that limitation at the moment

That is something for me to find out, for example, I want to use my Phase One Digital back and prime lenses, thousands of Watts of light etc etc, what is the best way to connect with users that want to consume that quality as opposed to images done with a Digital Rebel and 28-200mm zoom? OR I'm dreaming !

Now you're coming round to my way of thinking - I hope you don't find that the images you want to take are not those that sell well through stock.

Tim

 

[leonardobarreto.com]

I shot this yesterday with my SINAR and P25. I was able to shoot with plenty of swings tilts and shifts. This is a plus in small-object table top photography since you manipulate your depth of fiels so that it falls on all the flowers. The lens is a Fujiono 180mm so I gan get the effect of compression (the "normal" for this back is less than 80mm, so this wild be like a 135mm in 35mm equivalent??)

The image is one of four that I am submiting --as I type-- to ALAMY for their QC to be aproved or not. In case there is a proble with one of the four, then I would have to re-submit from scratch.

They don't see content, only QC, and they have a long and spesific list of QC issues ... so I will post here when I get a result ... and then > to uploade more or back to the studio !