ARENACREATIVE.COM BLOG » Microstock Photography

I Am a Parasite

arenacreative — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:16:58 +0000

I just got called a “parasite of the stock industry” and I was told to “wake up”. Well, isn’t that special? I’ll just go back to making my living now…

It’s still hard for me to believe how many bitter feelings are still being held about microstock by those who have been in the stock business for decades. I’m not sure the Rights Managed photobanks will ever forgive it. Microstock strikes a very painful nerve with most rights managed photographers. I can understand where they’re coming from, but it’s been a good 6 years that microstock has been in the limelight. I don’t think rights managed will ever go away totally, but its definitely on the decline. But don’t blame microstock – blame technology and it’s advancement. You can get an 8mp DSLR used for $200 right now in the US. That’s less than the cost of an ipod or iphone, and we all know how many of those are in people’s pockets.

A lot of credit has to be given to those traditional stock shooters that have either embraced microstock, or at least given it some respect and consideration. Guys like Jack Hollingsworth and John Lund. Not everyone is a hater, thankfully. Check out their amazing blogs.

Heck, if I could license all of my work at prices ranging from $100-10,000 per license, I most definitely would. Unfortunately, I had my start in microstock, and I’ve been playing the “bulk sales” game ever since. If you’re a rights managed stock photographer and are still maintaining your sales, that’s incredible – keep up the good work. All the best to you. I’m not knocking that side of the business at all.

All I’m saying… is that the creative fields change yearly, if not monthly. If you can’t roll with the punches, and the changes of the market (the same as in any other field) then you’re going to be left behind. Just because some of us choose to sell micro, doesn’t mean we’re giving stuff away for free. The prices of microstock are, in many case on the increase. The price wars will continue to go on between the newer and upcoming agencies. But you can trust me on this: you will never see my giving my work away for free. It’s one thing to give stuff away. We all do it, you almost have to nowadays just to get hits to your website. Free advice, free tutorials, etc. It helps one another out, and one hand washes the other as in all things.

Different strokes for different folks, is all I’m saying. I’m done ranting, time for me to get back to work. Happy shooting!

My Own Worst Enemy

arenacreative — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 02:01:35 +0000

Do you ever feel like your work is never good enough? Do you get praise from others about your creations, but deep down inside you don’t feel the same way? Maybe you feel like you just served up a pile of trash. To be honest, I feel this way about my own work a lot. I recently did a few photoshoots and nothing I shot really wow-ed me. This type of thing happens other creatives I have spoken to, as well.

I Am My Own Worst Critic
I’m definitely my own worst enemy when it comes to criticism. I see the flaws in my work. Even if they are minor, almost untraceable to others, I still manage to find them. Am I just being over critical? Am I bored with what I’m doing? Is it just because I’m being overly anal? What’s wrong with me? I want to be happy with what I’m doing. I am definitely enjoying it, but I don’t think I’ll ever be 100% proud of where I’m at creatively. I think we all want to have our own “style” but this is easier said than done. I’m still trying to figure out what it is, and probably will continue to do so for a very long time.

Transform
Last year Atlanta Georgia based editorial photographer Zack Arias made a video like no other. It described a personal struggle that a creative has and lives through. I don’t care if you’re a graphic designer, a hairdresser, a chef, a contractor, a sculptor, or even a basket weaver… if you create on a daily basis, watch this video. It’s a must see, and I am pretty sure you will be able to highly relate to it. Any creative professional should see this.

Getting In and Out of Creative Rutts
We all get in the same creative patterns sometimes, and many times we might not even notice it. As a designer I would find myself using a lot of the same typefaces, or laying thing out with the same compositions all the time. In photography, I might find myself framing a lot of headshots in the same way. Or, I might continue shooting the same themes and subjects with different models. What do you do when you realize you’re in a rutt? You do whatever you can to get the heck out of it. Don’t wait around for someone else to tell you what to do. Mess around and get crazy the next time you get to work. Change things up surprisingly. Look elsewhere for inspiration, if you need some. Try something new (maybe a different subject, theme, or style) that you might have passed up before. I personally find that when I get out of my comfort zone and try something new, I get a lot more satisfaction out of my successes. You will also realize whether or not your new experiments are for you or not, and just might step back into your comfort zone. Even still, you’re going to be a lot more well rounded of a creative than before.

It’s Okay…
Being your own worst creative enemy is not necessarily a bad thing… be worried when the opposite is true. Then, you might have a problem. Heck, maybe it’s healthy. It’s nice to have a constant semi-dissatisfaction with your work, in a way, so that you can use that to drive you onward to the next level. I talked to my mom about this topic recently (she’s a hairdresser that’s been in the business for over 30 years). We agreed that sometimes you just have to keep doing what you know you have to to please your clients and pay the bills. Feeling completely satisfied with where you are as an artist or craftsman might be a lifelong quest… just try not to beat yourself up so much along the way.

Graphic Leftovers Launches First Stock Image Website for the New Apple iPad

arenacreative — Thu, 27 May 2010 12:57:37 +0000

ST. LOUIS (May 26, 2010) – Graphic Leftovers (GL) has launched GL4iPad, the internet’s premier iPad-dedicated stock graphics and images website. With the launch of this site, GL becomes the only stock image resource on the web where iPad users can purchase and download graphics and images directly to their photos folder. iPad users now have an abundant resource for affordable, royalty-free JPEG images for use in their Keynote, Pages and other apps.

In developing the site, GL created features that iPad users will love; right-hand navigation, large high-definition thumbnails, one-click favorite tracking, one-page search results that can be browsed with a flick of the finger and a pay-as-you-go purchase platform. Anyone can access GraphicLeftovers.com to purchase images online, but only iPad users can experience the new GL4iPad site, which includes over 30 free iPad wallpapers.

GL co-founders Kelly Jay and Daniel Errante were able to accomplish the rapid launch of the new GL4iPad site by initially developing GraphicLeftovers.com on an open-source, non-flash platform with a scalable database architecture and search functionality. The creation of this new iPad-only site was a natural evolutionary step forward for GL.

“We create everything on a Mac, we love the brand and are huge fans of the new iPad platform. We knew the development of business productivity apps would create demand for users needing high quality graphics and images,” said Jay.

“We intentionally built GraphicLeftovers.com using leading technologies so we could efficiently evolve the site to work with the exploding mobile market. We kept Graphic Leftovers.com simple and it paid off by using HTML5 and CSS3 for the launch of our new GL4iPad site,” said Errante.

Steve Jobs said it best in his recent open letter “Thoughts on Flash” posted on Apple’s website; “Our motivation is simple – we want to provide the most advanced and innovative platform to our developers, and we want them to stand directly on the shoulders of this platform and create the best apps the world has ever seen.” GL heard Jobs loud and clear and launched the only stock image site for iPad users.

GraphicLeftovers.com is the leading equitable stock image marketplace for both contributors and buyers on the internet. The company is an innovative provider of high quality, royalty-free graphics and images serving creative professionals around the world. With thousands of images added weekly, GraphicLeftovers.com is the only provider of downloadable graphics and images specifically built for Apple’s new iPad.

Get That Finger Out of Your Nose!

arenacreative — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:44:02 +0000

This is the perfect example of why you should never sell a stock image where you’re doing anything embarrassing. Here I am, digging for gold, featured at a busy international tradeshow blown up at poster size. Yeah, my mother would be proud.

Gigabyte, a Taiwan based notebook company, used myself as well as a few others in an ad campaign geared towards their dockable notebooks. The point was supposed to be that it gets better once you “stick it in” to its dock. I can’t say that I think it’s the best marketing concept, but I definitely got a huge laugh out of it

When you post an image up for sale that you don’t think will be used, chances are… someone just might find a way!

I still think I had the best technique in the series

It’s April 15th – Don’t Forget to File Your Income Tax Return

arenacreative — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:55:18 +0000

Just a friendly reminder to those living in the US (not sure about the other states)… be sure to mail or efile your tax return before midnight tonight!

Click here for more tax related stock photos.

Wow… 3 blog posts on the same day. What’s wrong with me? It must have been all the coffee I sucked down today.

Dropbox – Free and Easy File Sharing

The History of iStock

arenacreative — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:00:20 +0000

http://istock10.com/

Congratulations to iStock on it’s 10th year anniversary! Check this out to learn more about the history of the company, and the story behind the evolution of microstock (micropayment stock photography). They did a really amazing job on this site.

FeaturePics Site Redesign

arenacreative — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 13:12:34 +0000

Shortly after we’ve seen Bigstock and 123rf redesign their websites, here is the next one to do a little bit of “spring cleaning”, so to speak. It’s very clean, and much improved. I didn’t have anything against the older logo, but that has been updated as well. Upward and onward!

The Future of Publishing

arenacreative — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:10:35 +0000

This youtube video by a UK branch of Dorling Kindersley Books really makes some good points about society in general when it comes to publishing, and predicts which way things are headed in the industry. Watch it halfway through, I promise it gets better at that point.

Daily Inspiration: Aaron Goodman

arenacreative — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:56:22 +0000

Aaron Goodman is the man. I’m blown away by his stuff. He knows his gear, his lighting, and (even more importantly) his Photoshop; and he’s not afraid to use all of these skills in unison. His concepts are mind blowingly creative – enough to knock your socks off. Some of them are so simple, yet effective, that you think to yourself, “gee why didn’t I think of that?”. The SAT’s with the pencil girl is one of my favorites. I want to try and think of more of these types of conceptual images, to add to my stock photography portfolio; as long as I can afford to spend the amount of time on them that they will obviously need. In the past I’ve spent hours and hours on images that have a very low return, so obviously when it comes to selling images like these through microstock outlets, you have to use your own good judgement and planning.

Can You Really Make a Living Selling Microstock Photography?

arenacreative — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:52:43 +0000

I hear this a lot from those looking into microstock to earn a full time living. Questions like this come up frequently on microstock forums. How many images will I need? What can I make hourly? Is building up a sizable microstock portfolio even worth the effort?

Now this article is not an article just to try and discourage people from giving it a shot, or attempting to discourage breeding my own new competition. There are bazillion other blogs online where you can learn “How to make a living selling stock photography” and obviously there are already hundreds of thousands of contributors worldwide. No one stock photographer or illustrator is alike, considering that everyone has their own style, their own work ethic, their own methods – to each his own. Who am I to give my opinion? I’m nobody special, just your average creatively minded computer geek. I have been making a full time living for 2 solid years now. My 2 years full time was built upon 2.5 prior years selling stock part time (approx 5-10 hrs a week) while working full time at a graphic design dayjob; the field I actually have my BA in. So I’ve been in this stock business a solid 4.5 years… that’s not a very long time, but then again this biz is still very young. 4.5 years isn’t much less time than some of the top selling microstockers, either (ie: Yuri Arcurs and Andres Rodriguez to name a few of the top dogs). In this short period of time, I’ve first handedly learned and experienced more in this business than I can even put into words in a Tuesday morning blog post. With just a little over 5000 stock images, I still just consider myself a small fish in a big pond.

Here is my take on getting started in the business – straight up, no chaser.

If you’re just starting out right now… in 2010, I honestly think you’re going to need a prayer to initiate your momentum and to start earning enough images to make a living. I started back in late 05, early 06 – I was paying my mortgage by mid 07 and then went all out full time with the loss of my full time dayjob in mid 2008. If I waited until now, and transitioned from part time in stock to full time, I don’t think that I would make it. Things were much different back then, too. It was much less difficult to get images approved (if you can’t get past that hurdle, you aren’t going to be able to sell them obviously) and it was much easier to get lots of downloads on simple subjects. It seems like every few years in stock it’s more of an uphill battle. In 06 you could submit a pile of crap, and still sell it like hotcakes. Technically imperfect photos, even. Now you’d better have your skills sharp and be able to hang with the rest of your competition just to get sales.

If you consider yourself an amateur and just want to make $100 a month just uploading a couple of new images each week, sure that’s definitely possible. If you’re looking to make $1000+ a month on a newer portfolio, you’re going to need to have a long road ahead of you, unless your work fills some sort of crazy un-touched niche with high commercial demand. Can you live off $1000 a month? Maybe if you live in India or Asia. I wish I could. In the US that won’t even pay the average mortgage or rent for the month.

Saying you want to sell stock is one thing – doing it and actually continually maintaining momentum in it is another. Putting up with the submission process, keywording, uploading (all the tedious parts) is another thing that stops 99% of people in their tracks. They realize all of the work in it, and are either too lazy or just get discouraged from lack of sales. When it comes to stock – you either “get it”, or you just don’t. Some grasp at straws taking pics of churches, shooting fruit over white or zoo animals all day, while others create useful, commercial imagery. This is going to be the largest hurdle for most contributors, used to producing nice prints for their living room walls.

So here is what you need to make it:

- Self motivation (Are you a motivated self-starter? Can you stay on task without getting distracted while working alone from home? If not you might as well not even bother with microstock)
– Creativity… enough to choke a cow
– Business sense! At least as much if not more than creativity
– Quality gear to accomplish whatever it is you’re shooting the most, I’d say an initial investment of $2000-4000 at minimum to cover most of your bases – computers/cameras/lenses/studio gear (don’t even waste your time with consumer point and shoots, unless you like getting over 50% of your images rejected for technical quality)
– Technical skills both in camera and off (Photoshop knowledge can make or break you in this business. If you’re lacking, you’d better hit the books or don’t bother uploading at all)
– Tons of regular uploads. Take whatever you think is a lot to produce each week, and add 50 to that number.
– Good keywording skills (something that takes a lot of time to develop, for most)
– Ability to set and reach hourly / daily / monthly / yearly goals
– Lots of quality and variety
– Quantity quantity quantity in addition to high quality (a portfolio of 3000 images is the “new” 1000 – but 3000 crap images has the sales potential as a portfolio of 300 excellent ones)
– Patience, persistence, and a backup income before you get the stock ball rolling

Us full time microstockers are in the minority – I’d estimate there are probably under 500 in the world. Who knows? I wish I knew the actual figures, but that would be a tricky statistic to pin down. I’m not talking RM/ traditional stock sellers, but those that are strictly making their income with microstock, exclusively, whether they are working for one agency and an exclusive artist or they are using multiple agencies to sell their work. We are a rare breed, and a lot of us are probably crazy for even attempting this feat One thing you can’t expect from this business is to get rich off of it. Gone are the days of making money from the snapshots laying around on your hard drive (heck, I myself even claimed that back in 2006 – because that was truly the case back then – but not anymore). If you’re the type of individual that wants to earn a higher than average income, then you’re definitely barking up the wrong tree here. It’s taken the seasoned pros years just to develop a portfolio strong enough, large enough, and good enough to consistently earn them a steady monthly income. Don’t expect for this to be a quickly profitable start-up business without any sacrifice or years of “paying your dues”.

If you’re going to attempt this, you need to treat it like a start-up business. 40-60 hrs a week, working diligently and taking a stab at it. After a few months you should then evaluate your time & cost vs earnings ration. Time is money, so if you are seeing a decent return for all of your hard work right off the bat, then there is your answer whether or not you might be able to make it as a full time microstock contributor. Otherwise, you might conclude that stock is a rainy day side hobby to dabble in whenever you’re bored or needing some extra cash for new gear or to take your wife out to dinner. If you haven’t noticed, I don’t blog super regularly. My blogging is highly intermittent. I’m sorry, that’s just pretty much due to the fact that I’m too busy working, as a one-man operation. I limit myself to a 40 hour work week, because money isn’t everything to me. I work to live; I don’t live to work. When you work for yourself you have to limit yourself; unless of course you want to be a burnt out workaholic that doesn’t have a happy family, spiritual, or any type of other life. I digress.

Do you already consider yourself a pro photographer, because you’re making a living in the wedding or portrait business? Sorry to burst your bubble, but micro is an entirely different animal. Please try not to go into it thinking you’re going to be all set and that it’s going to be a piece of cake for you, just because you’ve been a seasoned pro photog for years and years. I’ve heard many stories of this happening. You’re still going to have just as much learning curve as the amateurs will, just as any of us did back when we started. The harsh reality of the nazi-ish microstock quality standards are enough to turn even the best of photographers away from this business.

Timing is everything, so I can understand why there are so many blog posts online explaining how the ship as sailed to be able to have a full time microstock living. I respectfully disagree with that for those microstock contributors who already have their foot in the door with a large collection of images, established and already selling. Given the continual move of buyers away from RM and more to budget RF images, as well as the continual movement towards digital media of all types in our daily lives. If you are currently sell microstock part or full time, and are making a decent living, consider yourself a rare breed. I wish everyone success in whatever creative field you’re involved in, and hope that my honest evaluation of the business in this article has helped those considering microstock as a career choice. I’m tired of all of the nay-sayers and doom and gloom discussed about this business. Remember too that there are a thousand ways to make a living in any creative field; it just depends what you want to set your mind to, and focus on in your own business. If the microstock market tanks and us full time contributors can’t continue getting by, being forced to explore other avenues of income, then it is what it is. Only time will tell. In the meantime, happy selling!

StockXpert Bites the Dust

arenacreative — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:06:23 +0000

Getty just put the axe on Stockxpert.com

We’ve heard that Stockxpert was a slowly sinking ship, but this week it has finally sunk. It all began when stock image giant Getty recently bought out Jupiter, who had recently acquired Stockxpert from Haap Media, a Hungarian based company that owned both StockXchange as well as StockXpert. It’s like a big square dance in this business… swing your parter round and round, with all of the buyouts. It was announced a few days back that StockXpert will be no more. What does this mean for stock contributors? Well it means some of our images (not all) are now going to be listed on the new subscription based site Thinkstock.com and whatever revenues we were making at StockXpert are basically history. Can we say pay cut?

I really don’t understand this move, killing a well established brand such as Stockxpert. What does this mean for stock photo contributors? All we can hope is that the existing Stockxpert buyers move to the other agencies, and that the sales balance out. Stockxpert was about 8% (a pretty big chunk of change) of my total microstock income, and that’s now gone. Never a dull moment in the stock photography world! What irks me is that Stockxpert had around 4300 of my images, where istock has just under 600. This is due to their higher rejection rates, and the fact that I can only submit 20 new images each week as a non-exclusive contributor. The pressure to go exclusive is ever-increasing. This is the exact reason why you shouldn’t put all of your eggs in any one basket in this biz.

Microstock – Evil and Devaluing to Photographers?

The Amazing Human Eye

arenacreative — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:24:23 +0000

I was thinking today about how incredible it would be to own a DSLR that was even 1/2 as good as our own human eyes are. Certainly cameras are just imitations of God’s wonderful creation and design, but have you ever really noticed how quick you can focus on any object? Talk about mind blowing; it’s practically instant. You don’t notice a delay, like you will on even the fastest digital cameras. They are getting better and better in time, but we can really appreciate how good we have it. Nature definitely did have it first.

I’m So Sick of Winter!

arenacreative — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:44:21 +0000

Are you as sick of these cold winter months as I am? Brr…

Just me goofing around, but maybe I’m good enough to be used on an HVAC direct mail piece or web banner ad or something? Ha!

No related posts.

Where do my stock photos end up getting used?

arenacreative — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:11:18 +0000

That’s a question a lot of stock photographers and illustrators ask themselves. People ask me how my images get used, and I usually just say, “in advertising and marketing materials”, just to keep myself from babbling and boring them with a long story (like I’m known to do with my flapping jabber jaw). It’s even tough to explain to a normal person what a graphic designer does, and somehow people still end up thinking its CAD or something totally unrelated like that.

Anyways, back when I was a traditional graphic designer, I would horde as many stock images as I could whenever I had a stock photo subscription somewhere such as Photos.com or Shutterstock. That way, anything I had a feeling I might be able to use in the future I would be able to save on my hard drive and then use at a later date. This is something that happens a lot; so basically if you sell stock images, a lot of them are probably laying dormant somewhere on an image buyer’s hard drive. When you have a design position you begin to get a feel for which image themes and what type of imagery you go through the most, and obviously you can’t keep on using the same pics over and over again (unless you want to be a boring designer). I worked at a company that went through tons of sports, fitness, and medical related images in the custom magazines we produced for our clients. I honestly think at least half of my image sales aren’t ever even used – but who knows?

How can you find some of the images you sell in use? Go to amazon and search for your name or username/that you go by on the micros. Also try google book search in addition to plain old google. Lots of books online even have previews, and sure enough you will find your name credited in at least a couple if some of your images were used. Here are some recent finds my wife and I discovered.

Our beagle is pretty famous (he earns his Pedigree dog food, that’s for sure). Try searching for your own images if you haven’t already, and start a collection of tear sheets. You will only find a small random percentage of images actually in use, because obviously not everyone will credit your name in searchable text in each instance of use. If you don’t sell stock, but you do buy it – make a microstocker’s day by emailing them a link, or dropping them an email about how you were able to use their image! It only takes a minute, and you will no doubt put a huge smile on their face

Adobe Photoshop CS4 Hand Tool Flick Panning

arenacreative — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:46:39 +0000

Here’s my first impression on flick panning, a new feature added to CS4. When you click, drag, and release, the image glides and slides all over the place. ME NO LIKEY OKAY!?

I found the answer already, after I recorded the screencast, of course. It’s so easy – just go to: Edit->Preferences->General and then uncheck “Enable Flick Panning”

Photoshop CS4 Settings Tweaks and Cleaning

arenacreative — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 04:53:29 +0000

A great video tutorial by Deke McClelland on how to use the reset and purge functions in Photoshop CS4 to increase the performance. Clean out Photoshop’s plumbing when things get clogged up: Reset and purge.

When Life Gives You Lemons…

arenacreative — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:00:22 +0000

When life gives you lemons, as the the old saying goes…you make lemonade. Make the best of a bad situation, and turn it around to be something better than it ever was.

I can highly relate to the experiences shared by these people…getting laid off in a slow economy during a time of recession back in early 2008. It’s nice to know I wasn’t the only one going through this. Share this with a fellow creative who lost their job, I think they’ll appreciate it. This is a trailer for a film that I think is going to huge hit in the creative world.

Did you turn around your layoff and turn it into something better? Maybe you made it full time as a photographer, painter, or freelance graphic designer. I’d love to hear your story – feel free to comment below.

Canon 7D vs the 5d2 – What to do?

arenacreative — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:25:13 +0000

I thought I was pretty sure I was going to get the 7D as my next camera body. Right now I shoot with an older Canon 20D which I love, but is starting to show its age. I was originally decided on the 5D2, but when the 7D came out I was amazed my much of the response it was getting on the forums. Here are the benefits of the 7D I’ve learned about from all of my hours of research:

- the AF is superior to the 5d2, more focus points, better servo mode than the 5d mkii

- it has pop-up flash (comes in handy once in a great while for fill or to trigger strobes) will mount EF-S lenses (I only own one, the rest in my kit are EF mount because I have been planning on going full frame for a while now).

- it has wireless flash controls built in, if you own other Canon speedlights (I don’t have any yet – only Alien Bees B800’s)

- dual digic 4 processors (5d2 only has one)

- shoots video same as the 5d2

- very low noise up to iso 800, where the 5d2 then takes over

- a few more bells and whistles that the 5d2 doesn’t have like on-screen leveling

All of that is fine and dandy, but when it comes down to pixel peeping, I’ve been seeing a lot of softness from the 7D in the samples online. Not just studio stuff – real world conditions.

This review scares me a little. http://darwinwiggett.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/the-canon-7d/
I think we have to wait until Adobe updates ACR and Lightroom more the handle the Raw conversion a bit better, in order to come to the proper conclusions. Right now the 7D is looking softer than everything, at 100% native resolution. Sure, you can sharpen, but if there’s a little ISO 200 or 400 noise that low noise camera suddenly turns into worse noise than ISO 1600.

The 7D also out-resolves the glass you mount to it, much more than a 5d2. That means softer images, seeing that the glass can’t provide enough. There is a great explanation of what that means in this thread http://submit.shutterstock.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=73591 by my friend David Rehner.

In the end, either camera bodies are a world of a difference over my old 20D. I’m going to wait and see, at least until Spring of 2010, before I start whipping out my credit card. I’m waiting until I am absolutely 100% sure about this. I think I just might have to rent one of each for a week to do my own tests. I’m in the same boat as many other photographers, with the 20D or 30D. No doubt the 7D is 1000 times better in more than one way, but if I can make my daily photo editing a few steps easier by spending the extra grand on the 5d2 I think it might be worth it. Downsizing is fine, unless you shoot stock and want to utilize the maximum resolution that you possibly can, in order to make the most money from your images. If I’m going to drop even $1700 on a camera, it had better produce good enough sharpness and clarity at 100% at the fullest resolution. If not, I might as well spend the extra cash on the full frame.

The Liquify Tool – Photoshop Video Tutorial

arenacreative — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:37:13 +0000

I came across a great Photoshop video tutorial today demonstrating how to properly use the liquify filter to enhance images of people. This guy does a great job of showing a little about what each tool does, and how simple it is to use it. I’ve stuck to the basics up until now, but this tut has helped me learn a lot. You really can do anything to people with this tool…make their butt larger or smaller, their boobs, their arms and legs, eyes, face, twist their head, even. Yes you can become a digital plastic surgeon! Now, obviously we don’t all have this much time to invest into perfecting every single image. In stock, buyers want what’s real as well, not just perfection. Keep that in mind, but have fun playing with this sweet tool.

Video by imaging expert and award-winning author Deke McClelland

Below are a few other videos demonstrating how far you can go with the liquify filter.

Shooting Stock Is No Cakewalk

arenacreative — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:44:48 +0000

What Should I Shoot? That right there is the million dollar question. Even seasoned stock contributors find themselves asking this at times. The world of stock is a mindset, and even once you’re in it, it’s easy to get to the point where you wonder, “Okay, what should I try and shoot now”? If you really struggle with coming up with ideas on what to shoot, then you need to start opening your eyes to the world around you. I don’t care where you are, what you’re looking at right now – inspiration can be smack dab in the front of your fat head. Sometimes it’s there and we don’t even realize it. Open your eyes, and don’t just see, but try to truly observe. Reflecting on the who what, when, where, why, and how of everything around you is an easy way to come up with stock concepts. Try to write things down when you think of them. This applies in the graphic design world, as well. Rip out that cool magazine ad you saw in the latest issue of your wife’s Elle magazine (I wasn’t looking at it, I swear…I was just sitting next to her on the couch at the time). Save that piece of junk mail with the interesting modeling pose. I tend to note things a lot, but I forget to follow through. Make a little notebook or scrapbook of the things you’d like to try, the things that look are cool, and the things you think would appeal to a buyer, especially.

Getting Organized One of the toughest parts about stock photography is all the organization that goes into planning and properly executing a shoot of any given topic. It’s a lot of work and effort. Sure, there are times you might wing it and come up with a nice variety of different themes, but if I find that if I’m always trying to “wing it” my time isn’t used the most effectively. If you’re going to be shooting models, you need to orchestrate the entire shoot with them. Then, you need to decide on a location, wardrobe (what to tell them to wear) props, ideas and themes to try. You want to make the shoot effective for the short amount of time you’ll be working together, for me it’s usually 1-2 hours tops. Making sure you have your model release ready for them to sign, and not forgetting to have them actually sign them is even a chore. Then there is the scanning and uploading of the releases to each and every agency you’re submitting those images to.

Shooting Subjects That Can’t Talk Back If you want to shoot food there is the purchasing of the ingredients, the prep and cooking time, the presentation of it all on the plate and table setting. Food could sometimes be easier to work with than models, depending on the model. Sometimes models can decide to cancel last minute, then what do you do with your time slot? It’s very similar to any other business where you have to make appointments for your clientele, such as dentistry or a beauty salon. There also is no “extra work” later on when shooting subjects other than people. You don’t even have to edit the entire shoot unless you want to, and there is no mailing of a disk required. You save on your time and money shipping a disk out to them. Maybe you’re not interested in food. Well, maybe you could shoot other objects over white. Please don’t bother with apples, unless it’s done in a truly creative way. Stock sites’ reviewers have seen enough of those and they’re be extra eager to slap that “reject” button as quick and hard as they possibly can.

Motivation This is the part where you come in. If you can’t get yourself motivated, nothing creative is ever going to happen. Working from home, and being your own boss, can especially be challenging. Maybe there isn’t a boss looking over your shoulder, and asking you whether or not you’re going to make the deadline. You need to make your own deadlines for yourself. Without having weekly, daily, even hourly goals, your time is going to be wasted. I’m living it right now – some days I spend way too much time doing social networking on twitter or facebook. Other days I spend too much time editing older, similar images that probably should have just been backed up and tucked away. If you are having a rough time staying on task, don’t think you’re the only one. Stay tuned, as one of my future posts here will address this topic. There are things you can do to minimize distractions, and stick to your workflow. Speaking of which, I think it’s time for me to stop blogging and start keywording my images!