Stock Photography – business, technology

Breaking out of the usual Evolvere photo posting, I’ve decided to start adding some posts about my stock projects.  I’ve taken a lengthy break from stock, partly from not having a studio and also for being too busy with weddings and other photo hoo-ha.  Now that I have a studio again(it’s finally up and running), I can get back to my stock work.  I intend to give a little background info on the details of the shots and maybe even include a shot that shows my overall setup(bonus!).

I currently have stock portfolios represented through 4 different stock agencies.  I haven’t uploaded new images to them in quite some time, so my sales have slowed down over the last year.  To do well in stock, it’s really important to have a steady stream of images being uploaded to each site, so that your photos stay towards the top of the pile.  One site that I sell images on has over 8 million photos and if you don’t upload consistently, your images get shuffled to the back, where they get lost in a sea of photos.  It’s also really helpful to have a clear vision of what you want to shoot, what sells, and what’s been overdone.

In the stock photography world, business/technology shots are king.  If you look on any stock site, the most downloaded images are images of “business” type people, doing “business” types of things, with various pieces of technology!  Technology shots have been some of my best sellers and it greatly increases my sales if I add a real live human to my photos.  So, here are some “business” shots that Jenna(my main squeeze and model) and I put together in the studio.  They’re not the most amazing shots I’ve ever produced, but in the stock world, less is more.  It’s important to keep them on the generic side for a greater range of uses.  Stock photo buyers want the image to be super clean, no distractions.  One little distraction in the background can keep your image from selling, so it’s really important to keep a close eye on things.  These shots may be a little deceiving, it took a good deal of thought, to get the framing and lighting right for these shots.  One little side note:  leaving a computer monitor off in stock photos allows the buyer to add their own computer screen stuff to the image, so that’s why we left the screen black.

Okay, enough rambling for one post, here are some of the images…

~ by goodmanphoto on February 3, 2011.