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Is There Hidden Treasure in Your Digital Outtakes?
In the days when I shot only slide film, the number of photos I shot was limited by how much film I was willing to carry and how much money I was able to spend on film and processing. Even if a client...
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Four Elements of Stock Photos That Sell
I have a photographer friend who couldn’t get out of the habit of snapping pictures of anything and everything on her photo excursions — then, after all the work was done, trying to figure out which...
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Goodbye (and Good Riddance) to the Pro Stock Photographer
It is not really the photo industry that is in danger of extinction, but rather a weird and strange animal that appeared about 50 to 60 years ago out of pure greed. Let me explain: When photography...
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The Google Way — and How It Devalues Photography
Robert Thomson, managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, recently said something that was spot on in describing Google’s impact on photography. “Google devalues everything it touches,” Thomson...
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The Stock Industry May Be in Freefall, But Assignment Photography Lives On
As recently as 10 years ago, I thought making photos on assignment was like putting money in a retirement account. “My stock is my retirement,” I told people then. Times change. Stock photography, as...
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If All You Have Is a Hammer, Everything Looks Like a Nail
Lens, the photojournalism blog of The New York Times, took a fresh look this week at the Chris Usher case. The case has garnered new attention because Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the Supreme Court nominee,...
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Microstock Is a Great Deal — for Buyers
Recently, I visited the forum of a modeling Web site where a photographer boasted about his microstock image being used on the cover of Time Magazine. He was proud that Time had purchased the image —...
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18 Tips for Being a Photography Original
The future of photography is in original, exclusive content. That’s harder to achieve today than it used to be. When photography was still film, print and slide, no one could really copy you, as they...
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A Photo Credit Doesn’t Pay the Rent
In the belt-tightening world of editorial photography, many media outlets now offer a photo credit, rather than monetary compensation, for the use of your photo. “It will be great advertising for your...
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Five Ways to Make Money in a Popular Photography Niche
I’ve read articles by a number of photography business gurus arguing that if you want to make decent money from stock photos or prints, you need to find a niche that isn’t already saturated with...
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Put Your Images in Hotels with Farmboy Fine Arts
(The following is excerpted from 99 Ways to Make Money from Your Photos, by the editors of Photopreneur.) Stock companies serve newspapers and magazines, ad companies and Web sites. But they aren’t...
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Supply Science Pictures for Photo Researchers
(The following is excerpted from 99 Ways to Make Money from Your Photos, by the editors of Photopreneur.) Photo Researchers is a highly specialized niche stock site that has been offering scientific...
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Why Some Customers Will Pay More for Stock Photography
One of the key things to understand about stock photography is why some customers are willing to pay more than others to use an image. Most photographers want to believe customers will pay more when...
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Let’s Create a Two-Tier Pricing System for Stock Photography
If stock photography as a profession is going to survive, we’re going to have to find a way to develop a two-tier pricing system. One tier would be for commercial use of images and the other for...
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Do One-Dollar Stock Photos Really Exist?
I am tired of seeing rights-managed sellers refer to microstock as $1 images. That is not what most people are paying, particularly those personal users who buy very few pictures. Actual prices are...
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It’s Time to Set a Price Floor for Rights-Managed Photography
Is it time to institute a system of floor prices for the use of rights-managed images for editorial purposes? Is there any price so low — $50, $30 or $20 — that the image creator would prefer not to...
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Don’t Give Up Hope Against Photography’s Dark Forces
Time Inc., the biggest publisher of magazines in the world, recently made an agreement with the AP, Reuters and Getty Images to license any and all non-exclusive images at a flat rate of $50,...
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There Are No Shortcuts to Success in Microstock
A Russian photographer recently asked me what subjects he should shoot for microstock in order to maximize his earnings. He said: “I’m thinking cosmetics, photos of girls putting on makeup, girls and...
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Exactly How Many Images Are Available Online?
What does the competition look like in terms of the number of images available online? Among photo-sharing sites, ImageShack had 20 billion images and Facebook had about 15 billion as of last year. In...
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Has Demand for Microstock Photography Peaked?
In May 2009, I began following the sales of 198 of iStockphoto’s top contributors. According to iStockcharts data, these 198 ranked in the top 250 image sellers among the microstock site’s more than...
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