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!!
I came across this simple tip in a magazine, and thought I would pass along. It also will help me remember it as well. This tip works in Photoshop to quickly and easily add some POP to your photographs. Use with caution with iStockPhoto as they don’t tend to like over filtered images, but it certainly adds some mid tone contrast and clarity to the right images. The first photo is the original image after the normal adjustments in Lightroom...
I saw an article in Professional Photographer last month about a new site that is aimed at creating a community of artists displaying and selling their works of art. The team behind it is quite new – it launched in January – but it appears to be very professionally created and organized. The initial membership is free and you can upload and share 2GB of files. Each one is restricted to 15MB. The images are “Right-click” protected, and the terms...
I’ll start this post early, as I have already had two enhanced downloads from Shutterstock. Last month was a record with over $800 in sales and so this month has a hard target to beat. Luckily, these two downloads from Shutterstock at $28 each, have already pushed the earnings from that one site to $110 after 6 days in the month. The first was yesterday, and is a photo of a Buddha statue on a wooden platform in a small...
I have a professional site on Smugmug, which I use to host my best photos at a high resolution, and, although I keyword the images and make them available for search, I had pretty much given up any hope of selling images via the site. I had set the pricing at about 50% more than the cost of the prints, and was extremely pleased to see an order placed this last weekend for $90 worth of prints. Some were simple...
Another record month in April in selling my images on Microstock! The total in the month grew to $836, compared to earnings of $788 in March and $371 in April 2010. It definitely shows that a focus on taking more images and getting them online really pays off. This month I had a great run on Enhanced Downloads on Shutterstock with six of these $28 downloads in April – I’ve updated my post about the best selling images in April...
Although this expo/conference is some way away (it takes place in November 2011), if you are in the Northern Virginia/DC/Maryland area it is well worth a visit. Last year, there were some great juried images on display, friendly vendors, great speakers and an active discussion with some of the leaders of photography workshops based in the area. The expo is all about nature photography and I wrote a short blog for their site outlining how to sell great nature images...
I’ve become interested in taking really close images – I recently uploaded this image of a 1964 dime (the last year that dimes were made from 90% pure silver and these early coins are now worth about $2.50 each), and in the woods in Northern Virginia, I took these lovely images of bluebells with just enough depth of focus to make the shot interesting: I’ve been asked recently how I get a macro shot like these. First a definition –...
Late in 2010, I bought the X-Rite Color Checker Passport and did an initial review of this color management aid. I’ve been carrying this small plastic case around in my camera bag, and I do pull it out and take a photo of the color panels when I’m taking an image in tricky lighting conditions. This past weekend was peak blooming season for Virginia Bluebells and so I hiked into the woods to take some good images. My trusty Color...
I get a lot of satisfaction and some of my enthusiasm from reading well written photography guides – I’ve been known to read a 500 page guide to Photoshop from cover to cover which is not always recommended! I was browsing the web for new photography articles and came across an amazingly comprehensive digital photography e-Book from 123DI. They have a full demo on the site which shows you the way the book behaves on your screen, and gives a...
