One of the challenges of stock photography is to think of that next subject! Sometimes we think that everything that can be photographed, has been photographed, and is available for sale on all the agencies! When I get to that point, it is always good to open a bottle of wine, relax, and remember that every image can be improved in some way, and that there are ways of seeing things that have perhaps not been done before – and,...
Another month goes by, and another set of earnings. August can be a slow month, and this month was no exception. Most of my sites seemed to have struggled to get anywhere near their best earnings, and the month ended below the $2000 bar that I am trying to always better. Final count is around $1960 this month. Shutterstock was one of those slow sites – I thought it was going to be one of the worst months there for...
I’ve mentioned SymbioStock, the network of independent stock illustrators and photographers before, but things have continued to develop. First up – I got my first sale from my own SymbioStock site – BackyardStockPhotos. Now this is nothing to get excited about, but a buyer found my site, found the image they wanted, registered and bought/downloaded the image with no issues or fuss. It was this one: They bought a small version – which I priced at $3. As I said,...
I’m sure this has happened to you – you make an effort to go somewhere to get some fantastic sunset shots, but the weather is just not right – too cloudy, too hot, too misty, you name it, it has happened. One of the wonders of digital cameras is that they can often see an image better than you can, if you spend the time to get the best out of it. A recent trip to Newark (I know, I...
An eye-catching title…but what can we do to increase our earnings potential from images already in our portfolio and online. I was thinking about this recently when looking at some of my better selling images on Shutterstock. One that caught my eye was this one: This is a nice clean bright and colorful image – stands out well in a thumbnail and has space in the sky for text or other copy. How can I maximize my earnings from this...
The end of December is a time for reflection and setting of new targets for the coming year and so I decided to pull out all the stops and do a detailed analysis of how my efforts in the Stock Photography business are going. This is going to be a long posting, so relax and take the information in stages! First, how did December pan out. Not great (although in perspective for the whole of 2012, it was a reasonable...
Lightroom 4 introduced a new (and not well publicized) feature – the ability to edit 32 bit images using the sliders and tools we know so well! So what, you may say! However, a 32 bit image, created by combining the exposure values from a number of shots taken at different exposure levels, contains an enormous amount of information about the dynamic range of the scene, and we can bring out hidden details in the shadows and reduce over-exposed highlights...
Every so often, when I think I have enough good and different images, I create a calendar of a location or country on Zazzle. My early attempts of a calendar about Kauai sold very well, and I keep updating it with a few new images and change the cover page (and dates) each year. It doesn’t take much effort, it sells from time to time (and I can also buy copies myself for Christmas gifts!) I’ve just finished my latest...
For a while I started identifying the images that were downloaded under the $28 enhanced license on Shutterstock, but back in June, those downloads almost dried up, and I stopped publishing them! I’m sure the two things are not related, but it didn’t seem worthwhile publishing a couple of images a month. I’ve started getting a few more in recent months, but one great surprise this month was a $70 download under the Single Download category on Shutterstock. Perhaps this...
A common fear among stock photographers is that it is a “losing” battle – you need to keep uploading images just to keep your earnings where they are. I decided to update an analysis I did a year or so back to see if my uploads to Shutterstock (and to the other sites) were increasing my earnings. First, the methodology. Each month I make a note of the earnings from each site and for most of them, I also note...
