Latest Stock Photos
As I mentioned in the annual review, I did think about committing to a stock photo a day target for 2012, but decided against it – too much of a commitment! Instead, I will post, at least once a week, images that I have uploaded in the past seven days. I’m not saying that all these will be great sellers, but it will perhaps give you some ideas of what to shoot. I often find other photos to be a source of inspiration – not to copy, mind you – just to trigger another thought or direction.
This week I went down to Colonial Williamsburg for a couple of days to see the old town in its xmas finery.
Williamsburg Sunrise
It isn’t 100% clear if the photos taken in Williamsburg are copyrighted or not. I asked at the information center without much success. On uploading, I found that Shutterstock was happy with editorial restrictions, Dreamstime requested that I upload again as RF, CanStock just accepted as RF. As this great resource on releases explains, it is the responsibility of the user of the image to use the photo appropriately, not the photographer or agency. This first image was taken at sunrise down the main street towards the Capitol. An HDR shot from 7 shots taken 1 stop apart and processed in Nik HDR Efex Pro. The next day I decided that the bright sunlight was a good opportunity for a trip to Washington DC to get some shots of the Christmas tree in front of the Capitol. Great plan, but… When I arrived, there was scaffolding and a protective cover around the base of the dome on the Capitol. Not great for a stock shot. So I took some images around the Supreme Court with this one of the backlit flag in front of the shadowed dome of the Capitol nicely avoiding the scaffolding.
Flag in front of Capitol
Capitol from Supreme Court
Then I took a few shots around the columns of the Supreme Court with this one of the Capitol itself framed by the marble columns. This shot is a hand held HDR taken from 3 images two stops apart to get some detail in the shadowed side of the columns but not blowing out the sky. Around sunset on New Year’s Eve is a pretty quiet time in DC!
Thor....
Next up is a studio shot. I took a number of close up and macro shots of this old well used hammer hitting a nail, but thought an action shot would be useful in my portfolio. It has sold once since I uploaded it! Finally, shot number 5 is one I took today. My wife got an Apple Macbook for Christmas and so the clean shiny device seemed like a perfect subject for a few shots. I used one flash in an umbrella as the main light and a second flash with a blue filter onto the keyboard to give it a techy feel. I removed the logo from this isolated image and I included a path in that file as well as I think that sometimes helps sales. I have uploaded them all as normal RF – will wait and see if this full shot needs to be editorial or not.
Silver laptop lit with blue tint
More next week.
I tried the “photo a day last year” and it lasted about ten days, lol. How do you like Nik HDR Efex Pro, I was thinking about getting photomatix or that.
I’ve been doing OK so far. Took another set of images today that are uploaded and I’ll write about them next week. Admittedly it is only the 6th of the first month of the year!
I have got Photomatix as well, but I found it very complex and confusing. I’ve just finished reading a fascinating book called “The HDR Book” where the author goes through numerous examples which he processes in Photoshop, Photomatix and HDR Efex. Almost 90% of the images that he ends up selecting were processed in HDR Efex, which is a good recommendation. His main point is that you should expect to do some finishing of the image in Photoshop whichever HDR system you choose.