When I first started in stock photography, I spent a lot of time taking pictures that I thought would sell well.  These were not pictures that I ordinarily would have taken, but were instead taken solely for the purpose of profit.  Here’s an example of one of these shots.

This is not a particularly interesting picture, but could be of use to someone who needed a picture of a pile of saffron, which numerous people have needed.  This particular shot has sold decently, but certainly is nothing to brag about.  What I would find out from doing shots like this though, changed my entire philosophy about stock.

I began to spend a lot of time taking very similar shots – or in general shots of very mundane subjects.  I spent a lot of time learning isolation techniques when the microstock sites started to become more stringent.  I eventually learned how to do correct isolation and started submitting pictures.  The problem that occurred was I spent a lot of time on these types of shots – both in taking the original shots and preparing them in Photoshop.  I began to spend less time taking shots that I felt improved my technique, and more time taking shots that improved my sales.

What naturally occurred was a number of these shots were rejected, and a number of the accepted shots sold poorly.  So after all of the time spent taking these shots, I received very little in return.  My skills did not improve, my wallet did not grow, and my shots were boring.

Several months ago I made a new resolution to only take shots that I liked, and to pick from those shots the ones to submit.  Therefore I began to spend my time actually improving my photography – learning new techniques and studying the works of others.  Since then, I believe I have improved as a photographer.  Interestingly, the shots I do submit sell rather well.  Sure, none of my insect shots are big sellers – but I enjoy taking them and if I can make a few dollars off a shot that I enjoyed taking, I see that as a bonus.

I recommend this technique for the vast majority of us who are just looking to make a little cash with stock photography.  There are photographers that go out there and find subjects they know will sell well, but they do stock photography as a living, not as a hobby.  For those of us just looking for some cash to enable us to purchase new equipment, focus on improving your work as a photographer, then use microstock as a kind of ‘critique’ to see what others think of your hard work.  Using stock photography in this way enables me to use it as a tool rather than as a hindrance.  When a picture is rejected, I look into how I could have improved the shot to get it accepted.  This improves the quality of my work as a whole. In particular agencies such as IStockPhoto give very good feedback about individual shots.

Using this technique also hardens me towards rejection.  If a shot is rejected, I am not heart broken as I took it for myself, not for profit.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.