PHOTOGRAPHER JOBS, GRAPHIC DESIGN JOBS, VIDEO AND AUDIO JOBS ...... SAMPLE IMAGES.

Would you like to see what type of images and photos sell better in stock?

The photographs that we are going to show on this page are a summary of the topics that can be expected to sell in the stock business. All of these images are copyright protected by the author of this website, who is also the photographer of all of these images.

 

CORPORATE IMAGES: People in the contexts of work, business, offices, commercial details, finance, economy, globalization

 

CONCEPTS: Any idea that you want to transmit, as long as it is well represented and transmits the message by itself.

 

FAMILY AND CHILDREN: In daily situations, children, games, relationships, costumes, activities, lifestyles.

 

FOOD: There are many ways to see a tomato, an apple, a peanut; if you give it your vision and it is unique it has to work.

 

PEOPLE, FASHION, BEAUTY, FREE TIME: There are no limits, only those you put on your imagination; use as many situations and characters as life itself offers you.

 

NATURE: Animals, plants, natural life, landscapes, themes that have been done a million times, but you can always represent them with a new look, why not?

 

TEXTURES AND BACKGROUNDS: Treatments and abstract effects, or day to day textures, the world is full of them, you just need to step back and observe and then get up close.

 

 

OTHER THEMES AND IDEAS THAT “WORK WELL”:

Besides the examples we've given, there are hundreds of themes that work well, with time each photographer and artist learns which of all the images and photos end up working better. There is always a theme that in the jargon is called “niche”, where each photographer or artist finds their best profitability, it is a good idea to investigate along the way into where there are supply gaps from other photographers to find themes that aren't overly saturated and have a certain demand, then you've found your niche. Nonetheless this cannot be learned except from personal experience and time.

 

However, there are other known themes that have remarkable demand and we will go into detail: groups of people and teams, any type of sport, rarities and unique things, holiday motifs, sign and symbols, etc…

 

IMAGES THAT “DON'T WORK”, TECHNICAL AND CONCEPTUAL ASPECTS: There is another series of aspects that we should review, not so much for graphics, illustrations and vectors which are generally produced by programs and therefore almost always have good results. In photography, however, there are a series of things to keep in mind. If you don't want to have a high percentage of rejected photos, keep this in mind:

 

NOISE OR GRAIN: Stock and microstocks hate grain and noise in pictures, so we should avoid shooting with sensitivity lower than ISO 200, use good light, and avoid dark areas which tend to have high noise levels even with good light. Many stock or microstock photos are rejected because of this. When you can't avoid it, discretely retouch the photos with a filter trying not to lose the sharpness and focus of the photo. Many photos that have noise are better not presented.

FOCUS: Our photos should be in perfect focus. We can improve focus with tools or filters when we retouch our photos, but we must have perfect focus. Many photos for stock or microstock are destined to be cropped or silhouetted to use them later for publicity ads, if the photos are not perfectly focused they won't be able to be used and the editors will reject them.

COMPOSITION: The composition of our photos for stock or microstock should be pleasant, easy and direct; at first glance the photos should communicate their message. If we leave an open space in our photos, designers or graphic designers to apply their copy, text, logo or message. Therefore we should leave space in our pictures so the element can be cut out “whole” without cutting a leg, or a part of an arm…photos that are missing a piece sell less because they have limited uses.

QUALITY AND THEME: There is a term used in stocks and microstocks which is “snapshot”, it could be defined as quick photos, those that anyone can do with a regular camera…these photos sell less and have a lesser ratio of being accepted. Therefore, for your photos, use the best camera you can afford, without going overboard, and try to avoid the “grandma's photo album” aspect in your pictures, all due respect to your grandma or your aunt, but don't use these photos for your work, they are automatically rejected.

CROPPING AND ISOLATION: Many photos get their value from being cropped and placed on a white background, but the cropping has to be done impeccably. In the Istock, Shutterstock, Fotolia and Dreamstime forums there is a lot of information about how to properly crop photos, it's very important if we want our cropped photos to be accepted for stock or microstock.

WHITE BALANCE: Our pictures for stock or microstock should have good white balance, be pictures without dominant colors, whites should be clean and not tend to pick up other colors, and neutral colors should be used for backgrounds.

LIGHT: A light that is as even as possible can help our photos be accepted to stocks or microstocks, very notable shadows, although they can be very creative and give character to our photos, markedly restrict the amount of uses for the picture and the editors might reject these photos, although not always.

COPYRIGHT: Logos, company information from other publications, legible names, texts, registered brands, and works of art are all elements that can be subject to copyright. We should eliminate them from our photos for the stocks or microstocks. For commercial use, photos cannot have copyrighted elements in them.

INTEREST: Our photos will be interesting to the stocks or microstocks if when you visualize them, you can quickly imagine a commercial use for them, if it doesn't take much imagination to come up with a good use, they will surely be better selling photos, or, possibly the editors will reject them.

BACKGROUNDS: Many photos can be used for their backgrounds if they are sufficiently discreet so as to place a subject in the foreground, the graphic artists can appreciate that the main subject, when added, is not overwhelmed by the background. For example, flower photos tend to have many shadow areas, etc. Not all backgrounds and textures work for stock or microstock backgrounds; we should imagine their use and decide whether or not to include these photos in our stock or microstock collections.

ARTISTIC AND MANIPULATED PHOTOS: When we talk about photos for stock or microstock, one good quote comes to mind “The best artistic photos with the most appreciation in art galleries do not work for stock or microstock. In the same way, the 10 most sold photos in stock or microstock would be difficult to sell in the art photography world.” This phrase says it all, so if we are photographers who also work for editorials or art galleries, we can synchronize all our different facets, as long as in the photos for stocks or microstocks we avoid creative un focusing, noise, excessive manipulation of photos…for stock or microstock, if you think about the fact that the client who buys our photos has enough knowledge to manipulate the photos themselves for their own purposes, a photo with hardly any digital manipulation and that is well focused, not grainy and with a free composition for silhouettes, it can satisfy hundreds of future clients, while the same subject with our own personal touch can satisfy many less future clients. That is how stock or microstock works.

 

Visit these websites, register and start submitting your photos and illustrations, don't hesitate to try your luck in this business with stock or microstock!