Stock photography

Stock Photography has grown hugely in popularity over the years with many stock libraries offering in some cases tens of million images for you to view and buy.

Enter a keyword however random and a ton of photographs will appear some all of the same subject just photographed from every angle possible.

If you sign up for a photo library they will normally require a series of photographs sent to them for them to review, what they will be checking for is the quality of work you can produce and also to make sure the camera you are using is up for the job.

If you get rejected don’t fear it doesn’t mean you cannot resend but some have a 6 month wait before you can send again. If accepted you will have the ability to send in your photographs online, caption and keyword you images to give them the best chance of being seen by picture buyers.

Libraries will then pay you on either monthly, quarterly, yearly or on your request once you have passed their set amount for application of your money.

If you are thinking of a career in stock photography it offers you a fantastic opportunity to start the business without quitting you day job as sales to start with will be painfully slow but with hard work and a huge amount of determination you can eventually succeed.

 When uploading your files it is probably best specialising to start as you will find if you have strength in numbers when it comes to a certain subject. Also you could even get the most valuable asset – picture buyers trust, Picture buyers are notoriously busy and if they know exactly where they can get quality images for the subject they are trying to illustrate they will have it saved in their favourites list.

Try leaving space around some image’s but more importantly try and understand what images sell and why. By leaving space around an image gives copywriters to add text in or even a title to a magazine.

It is without doubt there is a huge amount of competition in this industry but if you are making eye-catching images or offering something unique you will go far.

Don’t just enter photographs that appeal to you, you do not know the purpose or the reason behind a picture buyer and your image may be just what their looking for, saying that a good technical ability is a minimum requirement and even the slightest of imperfections and your image will be rejected.

 Think carefully when picking you’re subject to photograph, is it a popular subject? Is the market flooded with images? is there a gap in the market? A rising market in any industry is always a good starting point – take SEO for example SEO [search engine optimisation] is set to rise in popularity until at least 2014 so professional business style images will always go down well.

What I suggest is take a good look around a stock library site, check their images and study what seams to work. The libraries themselves will offer great tips advice and support because at the end of the day if you are good they will want you on their side, also when you make a sale they take a cut of it.