In the early days (well at least a couple of years ago!), one of the default settings on Dreamstime was that you would offer to sell the rights for your image at a predefined price of $250, of which you would get $125. As this was the default, I left it like that for many of my early images. The site has changed now, and you need to specifically select this option – which I don’t. I was advised yesterday...
I recently sold the rights to an image, and one of the conditions is that I need to remove the picture from all other stock sites, personal sites and exhibitions. Removing it from all the stock sites I submit to was not an easy process, as I had to find out, for each site, exactly how to do it! Rather than forget and have to learn it all again, here is a summary of how to delete individual images from...
Well, time to dust off the camera and get shooting again! June was not a good month for sales with the total not even hitting the $600 mark, ending at $595. The reasons were pretty clear as I looked at the various sites. Although the number of downloads was pretty similar from month to month, there was a distinct lack of any enhanced or higher value sales. In previous months, I was seeing several $28 sales on Shutterstock and occasional...
I spent Saturday at the Maryland Barn Storming event near Frederick where you get to visit eight historic barns in the area, including a fantastic home created out of an old barn. This event happens every year, and is well worth supporting if you are in the area. For me, this was also a great opportunity to try out my new Promote remote control for real. I took my tripod, used the 18-40mm lens for wide angle shots in small...
I have always known that Dreamstime have the unique approach of boosting the cost of an image as it become more popular, and so after 50 downloads, an image moves into the highest price category (Level 5.) I have one of those: This one sells well on a number of sites, and as there appears to be no end to the foreclosures in the US, I hope it will continue to sell. The photo is OK, but not great, technically,...
Don’t get too excited – I haven’t suddenly come across the alchemist’s dream of a way to turn a boring snapshot into a million dollar stock image. But I did come across a very interesting site aimed at explaining the ins and outs of the stock business. The site is professionally put together and focuses more on stock buyers than contributing photographers, but it does give us all a chance to get into the mind set of the buyer –...
Blur, or camera shake, occurs when there is some movement of the camera (or the subject) when the image is being captured. In this post, we will ignore the subject movement and concentrate on avoiding blur in the camera. I have only tested this on my Canon camera/lenses, so I am not 100% sure if it is an issue with other makes. Back in December, I was taking images of our newly decorated Christmas tree with all its lights and...
Well, the results are in, and… Not too shabby, but not as good as the last 2 months that had set a roaring pace with quite a number of high priced downloads. Most of the sites performed to the normal levels, with a little growth. I added around 70 images in the month to each of the sites – a little less than normal as I was focused on writing my eBook! Here is the graph showing month by month...
After almost four years in the business, I have spent the past few months creating a “how to do it” book for aspiring stock photographers. This is now available for purchase using Paypal or credit cards. I’ve also posted User Reviews as I notice them. Here is the introduction and table of contents from the book to give you an idea of the coverage: Introduction Thanks for buying this eBook! You will find all the learning I have gained...
I use Adobe Lightroom every day in handling stock images and adding keywords etc., and I noticed that the program is on sale at Amazon for $149 instead of $299. I’m not sure how long this will last, so snap it up before it goes!!
