Ever take a nice outdoor photo or landscape and wonder, “Gee what happened to that nice blue sky there was on that day?”  Well, a lot of time depending on the direction of the light and your exposure, the sky will become blown out.  You might lose a lot of cloud detail, and a lot of the deep blue color you remembered from that day.  Check out this quick and easy Photoshop technique using simple selections and an addition sky images, for “digital Photoshoptic surgery”.

Blown out skies ruin a lot of good photos – don’t worry, they’re very easy to fix in Photoshop in under 5 minutes.

The dodge tool set to “highlights” is mind blowingly helpful when it comes to shooting white seamless, or objects over white.  It’s always better to get it right in the camera or in the studio, but sometimes that doesn’t always happen. Here is an older Photoshop tutorial I thought I’d resurrect from the dead today.  It shows you how you can quickly and easily clean up your photos shot over white or light gray by using the dodge tool in Adobe Photoshop. This allows you to avoid having to tweak levels, make an actual selection or use masking.

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.

Celebs see a lot of cameras in their daily lives.  Usually they’re getting chased around by paparazzi or getting blinded by flashes going off at movie premieres, parties and charity events.  Ever since I started see Ashton Kutcher in the Nikon TV commercials, it made me wonder which celebrities actually know their way around a dslr?

Which super stars enjoy photography as a hobby?  Which prefer getting behind the camera it and not just being in front of it all the time?  Here are a list of all the celebrities (who are also photographers) that I could track down.

#1 Tyra Banks

Tyra Banks is not only one of the world’s greatest supermodels and talk show hosts, but she can also handle her own with a Hasselblad!  You can see her on her show America’s Next Top Model (ANTM) frequently shooting some of the contestants.  Now does she know how to set everything up in the camera settings and lighting?  Who knows, and who cares – she probably just has to worry about pointing and shooting.  Being around the modeling  business for so many years, she has probably absorbed so much photographic knowledge that it just comes naturally to her.  Think about it, don’t most actors usually move towards directing later in their careers?  It seems to be a common trend in models and actors.

#2 Vanessa Hudgens

Vanessa Hudgens told MovieFone in an interview that photography is her favorite hobby. “I think it’s a lot of fun … savoring the moment.  I get to go to all these beautiful places, so it’s nice being able to take pictures of it.”

#3 Drew Carey

Yes sir, Mr. Price is Right himself also shoots sports!  This surprized me a lot.  I’ve always liked Drew Carey as an actor/comedian, now I like him even more.  Drew shoots for the U.S. National soccer team on occasion, and he sells his images under the pseudonym “Brooks Parkenridge”.

#4 Jerry Bruckheimer

We all know Jerry as the fantastic film and tv producer, but he actually started out as a photographer.  His interest in film got him to where he is today, but that’s not to say that the art of photography didn’t help him along on his career path.

#5 Brad Pitt

You might be sick of hearing about Brangelina gossip on shows like TMZ and Extra, but here is an interesting tidbit.  This dude is so much of a photo geek that it has been said that he drives his wife Angelina Jolie insane with it.  Angelina said her hubby Brad Pitt  “has become obsessed with photography and ruminates for hours on how to improve his art”.  Supposedly Brad really geeks out and studies everything about the art and science of photography and imaging.  Hey, I have to give him some credit.  He isn’t pulling the “rich doctor” syndrome.  You know, when highly wealth people buy a Canon 1ds MkIII even though they have no clue what they’re doing with it.  In that case, it’s like they’re walking around with $8000 necklaces.  Brad seems like the type that really geeks out, and for that I have to give him props.  You can read more about his obsession here.

I highly that Ashton was into photography before Nikon decided to use him as their post child.  Hey, I’m not knocking him – I think he’s great as an actor.  Heck, one of my dogs is named after his character on That 70s Show.  I could be wrong, but I can’t find any evidence that he’s a real life photographer aside from his Nikon commercials.

Did I miss anyone?  If you know of any other famous musicians, actors, actresses, athletes, or other celebrities that also love photography, please post them in the comments below! To learn more about top celebs and their other hobbies, check out this great post at NotSoBoringLife.com

Another Photoshop video tutorial by Robert Mizerek.   This is a good one for this time of year.  Here Bob illustrates how to use an adjustment layer to turn a green tree into a “fall” looking tree with bright autumn foliage.  Right now in New England the trees have all peaked, and the leaves are falling.  If you have shots of trees or landscapes from the summer, you can still make them look bright and amazing.   The Miz’s photoshop video tutorials are always a great resource to all photographers, graphic designers, and Photoshop users alike.

Author: Robert Mizerek

I just found this portrait I had laying in my “to do” folder.  This is an example of what you can do when you go wide, and get close.  The face gets distorted near the edges, creating a funky effect.  This shot was 18mm and I had my wife crouch down so I could get this higher angle.  The DOF was a tad bit on the shallow side, and the window lighting wasn’t perfect, but you get the idea.  Give it a try, next time you’re shooting people. 

http://blogs.photopreneur.com/photographers-and-designers

A great read on the photopreneur blog about photographers, designers, and the spill over.  I have always found that photography spills into design.  I can’t think of one of my graphic design friends that hasn’t tinked around with photography in some way, shape, or form.  It also touches on how those that think they’re going to get everything right in the camera without any post processing knowledge are going to have a rough road in this business.

Recently I read a story on a forum about how someone noted an artist selling a print (a copy of the print) for a very large price.  He then examined the fact that he was selling his own work at a fraction of that price, and began to wonder.  Public galleries are definitely a way you can market your photos, if you want to do all of the work.  Make the prints up, book a gallery, spend time promoting the heck out of the event, hire a caterer.  In the end, how much are you really making?  You can’t make gallery sales all over the world, any time of day or night – even while you’re asleep. Sure, there are buyers for that type of thing – prints, or even RM licenses. 

Just the fact that a product is priced higher, many times that will make it more desirable to a potential buyer.  Sometimes when products cost more, people think they’re getting a superior product or service when in actuality they might be getting the same thing Joe Smith down the street sells at 1/10th of the cost. 

Is this luxury sports coupe any more functional or reliable than a car that costs half the price?  Sometimes expensive sportscars like these even share the same exact engines as other “economy” cars, but at a much higher cost.

In the end, you can’t look at microstock as 38 cents here, 50 cents there.  You need to look at your income as a whole.  People moan about how they don’t want to sell EL’s just to get $20-$30 after their cut.  Some feel they are giving away too much.  Someone buys an enhance license, slaps it on a T shirt or a large print run of a book cover, and makes thousands while the artist is left with a measly $20-30.  This is how I see it.  If I sell 5-10 a month there’s my electricity and phone bill paid for.   I look at any type of sales as progress, or earnings toward my gross combined sales.

I personally look at Alamy as my “gallery” site.  Every few months I might make a larger sale or two and that, to me, equates to the same thing as taking the time to set up a gallery exhibition to market my work at a higher price.  What it all comes down to, is are you able to create images that buyers need in this market?  If not, you might want to corner another segment of this huge creative market.  Stock is a very small part of the big picture.  Some can do it full time, others like the extra side income, and then others just want to keep it as a hobby.  There’s nothing wrong with that at all, whatsoever.  Some hobbyists might take home more in revenues than those that exhibit their artwork in public galleries constantly.  Someone else might make money in their gallery sales selling 10 images a year than someone with thousands of images on a microstock site could take home.

In the end, which is the best route?  That is for you to decide.  If you don’t take a chance, then you’ll never know.  Test the waters!

Have any experiences with marketing your own work in different ways that you’d like to share?  Successes?  Failures?  We’d all love to hear them – feel free to post your comments.

I just feel like ranting this fine morning.

Has microstock devalued the industry? Sure it has. What once was a $500 photo sale has now turned into a $5 or even 50 cent photo sale.  But in general, the internet as well as digital photography have devalued the industry.  There are even websites being set up where people are posting links to our images, to download for free. One idiot buys them, and then shares them with the rest of the dishonest people that actually take part in the plundering and looting.  There’s really no stopping it, either.  There are contributors that can live comfortably off of a microstock income in many countries around the world.  Do you think these ones give a crap about devaluing the stock industry? Definitely not; they’re probably making a better living than they ever could before.

Traditional and old school photographers can sit around and whine about how much it sucks, or they can adapt to market trends.  Or, stay out of stock altogether.  Sure there’s still a market for macro stock, mid-stock, and rights managed. I personally dabble in a little of each.  Yes it’s nice when I make a photo sale for $400, but honestly if I relied just on those types of sales I wouldn’t be making enough to pay the bills.  Those sales for myself are few and far in between, compared to microstock sales, which are steady and in general, pretty reliable. Overall, the numbers for the rights managed and macro stocks are on the decline.  Getty was smart to acquire istockphoto (and they even recently bought stockxpert from Jupiter) so obviously they are trying to gain back their market share whatever ways possible.

Stock is only just one tiny corner of this incredible industry.  I started as a graphic designer, and even in that field it’s the same way.  You can focus on all sorts of corners of the creative industry…just pick one you enjoy doing the most, and obviously one you can pay the bills with.  If you can juggle a variety of things without trying to heat 6 pans on 4 burners, then go for it.  There are a lot of ways to make money in this business.  We can’t change how the market is, but we can fortunately pick and choose which areas we want to try and compete in.

It never ceases to amaze me…lately whenever I’m traveling every soccer mom, teenager, and senior citizen is rocking a DSLR of some sort.  If not a DSLR, then a state of the art point and shoot.  The technology is here, and it’s getting cheaper.  It’s so available, there is going to be a lot of competition in the future.  Thankfully for us there is a heck of a lot more to know in this business than just buying a camera and pressing the shutter.  BUT then comes the internet and google…where you can learn anything you want in a matter of minutes.  Maybe we’re all screwed

How long do you personally feel this microstock wave will last? A lot changes have happened in this business.  Agencies have come and gone, and there have been some buyouts and mergers.  I’ve been selling microstock for just 4 years now, and there have been changes galore.  The question is…how long will this microstock wave last? Will it continue the way it is for years to come, or will it eventually get to the point where it’s not even worth the time?  What do you guys think?  If anyone is reading this – I’d love to hear your predictions.

So, you wonder if you can make any money selling your images online.  I wondered the same thing, back when I was a full time graphic designer.  I was purchasing hundreds of stock photos for use in my designs. Then I thought, “Hey – why can’t I sell my own photos?”. Professional stock photo collections can cost anywhere from $200-$500 per disc, with single shots costing anywhere from $80-$200 themselves. It’s thrilling to find places online where you can purchase high-res, professional quality images at a fraction of that price. Recently there has been a boom in the micropayment stock photography business. The concept for photographers is this: instead of selling one image at $200-$300 once, why not sell it for $1-20 multiple times under a royalty free license? In the long-run, the profit margin can even be much larger than simply selling it at a larger, fixed price.  Are you looking to supplement your income with your hobby of shooting photography, video footage or illustration?  Then by all means, read on.

How much can you really make?

As much as you want…it depends on many factors.  How much time do you have?  How much commercial value do your images have?  Are you shooting unique niche images or mainsteam type images that are easily duplicated by the next microstock contributor?  Can you really make any money off of selling images for fifty cents each? Well, if you make just ten dollars a day (ie: by selling 20 images on one site or multiple sites at .50 per photo sale) you will be raking in an extra $300 a month. That should cover a few of those bills, maybe even all of your car payment! This is not an impossible feat, either.  The best part about it is, once you do the initial work of editing your images, keywording them, and uploading – you’re done.  At that point you can sit on your butt and let your images work for you.  There are all times that we get too busy...I have gone several months without being able uploading anything new.  What happened?  The sales kept on rolling in.  All of the past work I had done continues to pay off.  I know many that are even able to do this full time and the income they make from it pays all of their bills (they don’t all live in third world countries, either.)  There are even a lot of people that are making 4, 5, even 6 figures from stock photography monthly.  That’s right, I said monthly.  The sky is the limit.  Recently I have joined the ranks of “full timers” because I am personally tired for working stressful graphic design positions in the corporate world.  I’d much rather do my own thing, and be able to work from my home office in my boxer shorts.  Having more time to invest into stock is helping my sales tremendously. Don’t be fooled – things will cool down if you stop submitting new content (images, stock footage, vectors) regularly.  Don’t think that it’s easy to make a lot of money selling stock images, because it’s really not.  There are a lot more that make very little money than those that make a lot. 

“But wait…” you think to yourself; “I have a decent digital camera. Why can’t I sell some of my nice shots? “  Sure enough, people probably will buy them – they bought mine, back when I reasoned this same way. Whether it was a picture of my feet at the beach, a shot of a tricked-out sports car or even a background I created in Adobe Photoshop; people bought them. I didn’t start as a highly experienced professional photographer and you don’t have to either, in order to make money doing this. It helps to have some novice or amateur experience with a camera, and if you know your Photoshop you are going to be even more advantaged.  Upload to the microstock agencies when you get slow, and then you’ll be making extra money while you’re busy.  Graphic designers – both seasoned pros and students in training: you have an advantage.  Being a designer helps you know what types of images and artwork us wacky design gurus are looking for, and find most useful.  If you have both graphic design and photography experience, that gives you an even bigger advantage. I have been working in this industry for over four years, and I’d like to share with you my experience.

How does it work?

First, you obviously need to sign up for an account at one of the sites listed below. After that, you should make sure the images you are planning on uploading are of good enough quality to get accepted by the approvers on the site. After a while, you will get the hang of knowing what they will approve, and what they won’t. Your pics should need to be shot from at least a 4 megapixel camera (although some sites allow as low as 3) and should be corrected for proper color. If you are scanning in old film negatives, make sure you do so at a high enough resolution.  If there is noise in the image, you are going to have to remove it.  The best way to do this, is to shoot at a low ISO setting.  Most stock photographers rarely go above ISO 200.  A nice little photoshop add-on that works great for removing noise is NeatImage. There is another call Noise Ninja.  They both work great in cleaning up the graininess you might have in certain areas. Once you make sure everything is in tip-top shape with your image, you next need to upload it to the microstock website. Once it’s up there, you need to add keywords, so that designers can find your image through a normal search. You also have to give it a name, brief description, and a title. If the image has a recognizable person in it, you will also need to attach a scan of a signed model release.  Each agency has different image categories. After choosing the best categories for your image, your image is ready to be pushed into the site’s “approval cue”. Once accepted or denied, you receive a confirmation email. That’s it. Now you sit back, relax, and wait for the sales to come in.

What if you had your same small collection of images spread across many different stock photo websites? I thought this to myself, and decided to try it for ha-ha’s. Sure enough, my sales multiplied. Start off with one site at first. Once you get the hang of it, you can upload your titled / keyworded images to the other sites easily, then simply categorize and submit.

TIP: The trick is to keyword your images with an IPTC / EXIF editor either in Adobe Photoshop, or just download the free program called IrfanView www.irfanview.com Doing this saves you a lot of time, since you won’t have to keep typing in lists of words with every website you submit to.  It’s also way easier than copying and pasting things repeatedly. Also remember that when keywording, try using as many relevant words as you can. That will get you the most views/sales on your image. 

How do you get paid?

They can either send you a paypal transfer, or even a check. I prefer paypal, because it’s quick and easy.  Many sites also offer Moneybookers, which is similar to paypal.  Upon receiving electronic payments, simply transfer the funds from there over to your bank/checking account, and you are ready to spend that hard earned cash on groceries, the rent, even high-priced gasoline for your car.  Once you hit the site’s minimum payout limit (usually from $30-$100), then you can get a payment sent.

Which stock photo sites will earn the most money?
Trying to see which site sells more images than the next is tricky.  There are a lot of elements involved, and it seems like sales figures fluctuate from month to month amongst the micro sites.  Factors like portfolio size, photo types, site search engines, and even categorization all play a part.  All I can do is give you my best sites – the ones that I personally think are worth my time to upload to. Below are the links to my top-selling sites – sign up, and try them out. Then you can make your own conclusions.

What types of images sell the best?
This is definitely a fully loaded question.  Anyone starting out in stock asks this – it’s only normal.  I can personally tell you that what sells sometimes even still (after 4 years doing this) blows my mind.  Many times what you think is incredibly awesome and will sell like hotcakes sells the least.  Other times you are right on your judgement.  You really have to ask yourself the “who what where why when and how” about each photos.  Who could possibly find a use for this image?  Where could it be used?  Why would someone want to use it?  How could it be used?  You’d be surprised.  Look on the micros and check out the top selling images, if you absolutely have no clue what subjects to sell.  Generally…sports, medical, business/finance, people, and graphics shots are some of the top selling image subjects.  They always have been, and they probably always will be.

Shutterstock: My number one top seller. Shutterstock offers subscriptions to its users, so people on there are looking to grab their maximum limit of 25 images a day. If you have nice looking images, you’ll most definitely get tons of downloads. They have a very convenient ftp upload process as well, which saves a lot of time.  Shutterstock pays $.30-.38 per image, but that adds up so much faster than any of the other micropayment sites. Once you pass $75 in sales before the end of each month, you can qualify for a check or paypal payout. If you don’t surpass that, it rolls over to the next month.  I personally earn the most on this site.  Be careful, though – since they are a bit pickier when it comes to accepting images, be sure that your original 10 photos that you submit with your photographer’s applicaton are top-notch.  You might want to sign up for SS after you’ve uploaded at least 20-30 good pics to dreamstime, featurepics, and bigstockphoto (read about those sites below). If Shutterstock rejects your “BEST 10″ photo application, you’ll have to wait another month before you can re-apply.  Be careful, because that would be rough.  My suggestion is not to sign up them as your first micro site.  Sign up on the others, and then take the best 10 of your portfolios to upload for your Shutterstock application once you get the hang of this stock stuff.

iStockPhoto: This has a great earner for me, fairly consistently, with a minute fraction of the amount of images I have approved on the other sites.  These guys have been the leaders at the micropayment game for years now.  What I have found personally, is that the images that do get accepted-some sell like hotcakes – others not so hot.  I have an extremely small portfolio, and yet that is enough to beat many other sites’ earnings some months.  They are pretty tough on photos – at least mine.  It took me a few tries to get my application accepted, personally.  Bring your “A” game when you sign up.  The majority of my images are custom-photoshopped textures and backgrounds.  They seem to like real photos better.  I’m going to try to upload more of my stuff, as soon as I can find the time.  Don’t let the smaller image payout amounts fool you; they really do add up fast like with Shutterstock.  As much as I really think the upload process for iStock is more cumbersome, and a lot more work than uploading to the other micros – I still recommended doing it.  It’s definitely worth the extra effort.  Getty Images () now owns iStockphoto, and we all know that Getty is one of the biggest names in stock photography. 

BigStockPhoto: I’ve sold tons of images on this site. It’s a great site if you’re a first timer, since they are very lenient.  My personal approval rating (precentage of images accepted out of your total uploads) is the best on BigStock. This site is in my top 5 for sales. They have ftp upload as well.  You make $.50 or $1.00 per image on this site.  There are many other Extended licensing options that will make you even more than that.

Dreamstime: This site site ranks among my top 5 for sales. I get plenty of regular sales from DT. They now have ftp upload support – and ftp upload makes life a heck of a lot easier / much faster.  $.50 and up per image on this site, depending on the size of the photo purchased.

StockXpert: This site has been the latest breakout hit.  The good thing about StockXpert is that you can make sales ranging from .50-5.00 depending on the size of the photo that the user purchase.  I’d put this site in my top 5 for sure.  Whenever someone searches the free site StockXchange (www.sxc.hu) many times StockXpert search results show up near the bottom of the screen.  What a great way to market them.  Sign up for this one for sure.  They don’t even require you to categorize the photos, unless you want to.  They feature FTP bulk upload.

Fotolia: These guys have ftp upload as well.  Excellent income on this site.  Fotolia is in my top 5 best sellers.  Sales have been ever-increasing as fotolia continues with their own marketing.  On fotolia a low-res photo sale pays you $.33 up to larger sizes, which will get you over $1.00.   Once you achieve higher downloads, your status goes up -and your pay does also. The next level up gives you $.37 per credit sale. Recently rejection levels have been high, but sales have been growing also. I definitely would still recommend this site, as it is one of the “BIG 6″ for sales.

123 Royalty Free: Here the minimum payout is $50.  The sales come in fairly slow like BigStock, but very regular.  123RF is definitely worth uploading your portfolio to.  All you have to do, is upload your images that have the IPTC data/keywords embedded, and then wait for your review.  That’s it.  No categorizing, no more work.  You will generally make .22-.44 cents for each photo sold.  123RF is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Inmagine Corp LLC.

CanStockPhoto: This place has done pretty well for me also. They have a nice java applet that allows you to upload an entire folder full of images, or you can use their ftp feature.  The payouts on this site vary on whether a subscription member, or guest purchases the photo – and also on the size they buy.  It ranges from $.20 to over $1.00  Minimum payout is $50. Sales seem much better lately, way more enhanced license sale than there used to be.  This is due to a recent partnership / affiliation with the image search website Fotosearch.

Featurepics: I do sell images regularly here, and I get more per image the way I price them.  It’s worth submitting to, but in 2009 sales have definitely been on the decline, for myself at least.

Crestock: I really didn’t have much faith in Crestock at first.  I left a small batch of 50 or so images up on there, and surprisingly over a year or so they started increasing in sales every now and then.  So, I figured that I would upload the rest of my stuff.  Their upload process is simple and easy, and the sales have been picking up steadily as time goes on.  Definitely worth uploading to if you’re patient.  I’ve only hit a few payouts so far with them, but I hope to hit many more now that the minimum payout limit has been lowered to just $50.  Sales have been definitely picking up over here in recent months.  They reject A LOT of really good images, but that is just their philosophy.  Don’t get offended if they reject the majority of your images.  They probably reject the most out of any other micro.

PantherMedia: This is a German stock photo site that recently has been translated in English as well.   I just began to upload my photos to these guys several months ago, and already have had a handful of sales.  The earning here are a lot higher, as they are more of a midstock agency.  You get paid in Euros, which convert nicely into USD, seeing that the Euro is worth a lot more than the dollar.  Definitely jump through the extra hoops to try and sell your stuff here, if you can.  I’d say it’s definitely worth it. 

MostPhotos: This is a new site where there are NO REVIEWS!!  I am loving this – it’s a really fun community where you can comment on other images, rate them, chat with fellow photographers, and much more.  Try this one out.  You get paid in Euros, which convert nicely into USD, seeing that the Euro is worth a lot more than the dollar – and probably will be for a while.

Veer Marketplace: This stock photo agency sounds promising, as it’s owned by Corbis.  I’ve known the Veer name forever.  Every graphic design knows them – It’s recently been announced that Snapvillage is now going to be turning into Veer Marketplace, just in case you were wondering what happened to Snap.

Alamy: Not exactly a microstock site, but you can sell RF and RM as well as editorial images here.  You have the option to set your images as RF, RM, or RP.  I am opting to stick to the RF model, so that I can still sell my same images elsewhere on other agencies.  You have to upsize your images to 48M (not 48mb, for further info google upsizing for Alamy) which is just an extra step before uploading them.  You won’t get sales right away with this site, but once they come – they come in large amounts.  I sold my first image for exactly 1000 times more  money than I would normally make on a microstock site.  Not bad, eh?  

YAYmicro: This is a newer site that has been around since 2008.  They have a very easy FTP upload system.  I am enjoying the ease of the site a lot, and reviews are very fair.  Sale are slower than other microstock agencies, but they are definitely on the rise in recent months. Definitely give them a shot.

Fotomind: I’ve been with this place for a while now, and sales are very very slow.  A+ for ease of use so far.  Kind of hoped to see some more sales here, but it’s still a new site.  Might want to save this one for a rainy day, because honestly there’s not much action here.

ScanStockPhoto: I’ve recently signed  up with Scandanavian Stock Photo because I have heard of some sales when you have a larger sized portfolio.  If you’re just starting out, you might want to put this one on hold until you have a portfolio sized in the thousands.  Sales are there if you have a huge portfolio in the thousands, but they’re but very slow.

Cutcaster: This is a newer startup agency with a very unique concept.  The buyer can actually haggle with a seller over pricing. John Griffin, the founder of the site is very pro-active in the launch and marketing of the site, and I wish him the best.  He is a hard working guy, and has been busting his hump to market Cutcaster and drive up sales. So far I’ve sold a handful of images, and made my first payout.  The minimum here is just $20, unlike other newer sites which are set to $50-100.  Here you can price the images any way you want, just like on Featurepics.

TIP: FTP uploading makes life so much easier, since most images are over 1 megabyte, and if you’re on a broadband connection you can upload all of your keyworded images at once. Once they’re uploaded, you complete them by categorizing them and submitting. You can use a free program on your pc called FTP Surfer or if you’re on a mac with OSX you can download Fetch.

I’m not a member of all of the micropayment sites, but a good place to find more help and to find more sites is www.talkmicro.com It’s a nice place to have an “unbiased” discussion about all the micro stes.  Another great forum like this is www.microstockgroup.com

This microstock game can become very addicting, once your sales start coming in. It might be a little slow for you at first, but that will soon change if you put forth a lot of time and effort. Obviously you will get more sales with both higher quality and a higher quantity of images. I’ve spent a solid four years in this stock game to get to where I am now, and most of that was part time.   If you’re a graphic designer and want to stick only to “designing” check out those links above anyway. They all offer really great stock photos at ridiculously cheap prices. What I like about this  stock stuff is that I also get to keep and use all of the great stock photos that I create! You can never have too many images in your collection. Most importantly, have fun!  Stock isn’t for everyone.  Some people really hate keywording – they can’t be bothered because it can be tedious work.  You always have to put forth some kind of effort in order to make money.  Like I said, this is a job that takes work. Let me tell you – this is NO get rich quick scheme. . You’ll  really enjoy selling stock once the sales start rolling in.  There’s nothing more thrilling than your first image sale. If you want to make money doing this, you’re going to have to work your tail off.   You can work at it part time, and eventually be earning a really nice side income.  Everyone creates different types of art, and some of it is very marketable.  Some has high commercial value, while a lot does not.  It might look great, and you might want to make a print of it for your grandmother, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to make enough money to make a living.  How do you know how well you’ll do?  You have to try it for yourself.  Then make your own conclusions.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog at the upper right of this page.  I’m a man of many words! If you are interested in one-on-one consulting regarding your microstock efforts, contact me for further info.