If you’re talented at taking photos then you may be able to earn a little bit of money from your photography skills. Selling stock photos online is one way to do it.
People will pay in order to use your work under license. Here are some ideas to help you maximise your revenue.
Learn The Rules Before You Break Them
Every profession depends on the skills you obtain and the mental and physical resources you put in. There are good reading materials out there on stock photography. You can learn new things and even put new ideas to use. Your best bet before starting off your career would be to understand the trade, learn the requirements, and start shooting.
Concept-Selling
Stock photography isn’t rocket science and it’s easily learnable. If you keep your pictures simple and to the purpose, your career graph will immediately look up. It’s important to remember that you have to give what designers want, and anything abstract won’t really sell. In order to improve your sales, understand what buyers would be interested in.
Volume Matters
Your gadget is going to be your primary investment in stock photography and after that everything depends on your talent and acquired skills. Sharp and clean pictures with emphasis on a theme definitely sell; you’ll want to take as many pictures as you can so that your chances of selling pictures increase. It’s a probability game and as long as you keep clicking, you’re sure to gain fame.
Use Your Home
It’s impossible for you to go to exotic locations and shoot nature, waterfalls, and wildlife every week. Your city offers a wide scope for photography, and a strategically shot traffic signal could prove to be better than the picture of a waterfall.
Avoid Cliché’s
Just because you think that somebody else’s photo of the Niagara is impressive, you shouldn’t try to get the same angle – it’s your creativity and skill that’s going to sell a good picture, not your ability to replicate. Think out of the box, try new angles, and it doesn’t matter if you shoot the trite things, but your style and touch should be able to add a visual appeal to it.
Colour and Aesthetics
It’s not surprising that only colourful and attractive pictures sell – the aesthetics of the picture and the visual effects are the most important components of a picture. Nobody wants to see the things the way they are; your photos should represent the things in colour and glory as one would find them in Utopia.
It’s About How Hard You Get Hit And Keep Going
Not every photography site accepts your picture, but it doesn’t mean that all sites will reject it. It’s important to learn the norms of the site and cater to them. Your rejected picture from one site could sell like hot pancakes in another site. As long as you don’t take rejection personally and keep going with your trade, success will find you.
Keywords Matter
It’s important to understand that just because your picture is perfect and a lot of sites accept it, it’s not going to sell. The visibility of the picture is the most important thing, and for people to be able to find what they’re looking for amidst a myriad of other photos, its’ imperative to add a description, a bunch of keywords, and synonyms of keywords appertaining to the picture.
Photoshop Helps
You may be brilliant at your art, but the final touches and colour shading are important. If you know Photoshop, there’s nothing like it. It’s important to invest some money in a good editing application, learn it, and use it to add life and beauty to the pictures.
Never Stop Learning
There’s no such entity as a know-it-all; even if you’re an expert, there’s nothing wrong in pursuing a course in stock photography and reading books so that you can have an indefinitely good learning experience.
You have to work towards building your portfolio, it’s a hard profession, and you can’t make a quick buck, but once you make your mark, it can lead to good money and a maybe even tiny bit of fame. Most of all; enjoy it. The rest will come with time.
Keep researching and working hard and it will pay off. Being part of communities such as the large Dreamstime one can also help as you can learn from others who are also active in the same arena trying to do what you are trying to do.
