Stock Photography Tips
Written by admin // July 26, 2008 // Stock Photography // No comments
If you want to sell your photos on stock photography sites, you need to know what the sites are looking for. Here are some tips to getting your photography sold with ease.
Fresh Content
Much of the stock photos that sites get are the same old pictures of flowers and rainbows. Content sites are desperate for fresh content that contains the unusual.
The number one need of most content sites is photos of multicultural (non-white and non-black) children. These photos should be of these types of children doing everyday things such as brushing their teeth, playing outside, and going to school in modern settings.
Pictures of seniors, healthcare, and modern technology is also greatly needed. Studies by Photoshelter.com noted that these were one of the greatest needs in stock photography.
Legalities
If you are shooting people, you always need to get a signed model release. Stock photography companies will not take on your photos unless you have a model release. You can read more about model releases here.
File Size
File size is very important to stock sites because they want high quality images that clients can enlarge. Files should be around 11MB up to 125MB uncompressed (common sizes for a 4-megapixel camera) in JPG, JPEG, TIFF, and TIF formats.
Lighting
Good lighting is very important in stock. To get the best light when shooting outside, avoid the harsh light during the hours between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Indoors, you will need to bounce light to avoid shadows. To learn more about bouncing light see this blog.
Photo Editing
It may be tempting to “fix” your photo by sharpening it, adding contrast, upping the color saturation, etc., but that is a quick way to ruin your photo for stock usage. For example, sharpening is done by the in-house art department of magazines and ad companies because they have different sharpness needs. If the photographer does this before the sale, the image may have the wrong type of sharpness for the company that wants to buy the image. The best stock images are great without having to do anything to them.