Stock Photography Diary - My Start
I started in MicroStock photography on ShutterStock & iStockphoto(see LINKS>>>) using a point-&-shoot Panasonic Lumix FZ15 (4.0mp), in August 2006. I quickly learned all about digital noise, artifacting, & many other quality issues. It seemed like everything was getting rejected, & that I’d never make it. I didn’t fully understand exposure (aperture, shutter speed, and ISO) & lighting (what’s White Balance?) & good composition (Rule of Thirds?), though I took good photos – probably by chance.
I tried to learn from my rejections, correct the mistakes I made (NoiseNinja helped!), & resubmit the images. In the process I got better, because I hate post-processing images so I wanted to “get it right in the camera” not in the computer. And all those trademarks & logos everywhere had to be cloned out. But once images were online sales started to come in & I was able to see a payoff to my hard work. I simply wanted to make $150-$200 a month, & it seemed like I could. (I make over 3x the high end now!).
My photos were taken with a basic camera, downloaded as a jpeg, cleaned up in NoiseNinja, trademarks cloned out in Photo Impressions, shadows/brightness/contrast adjusted in MS Photo Editor, & saved in my Workflow folder. I used 4 different stages to process an image – no wonder I got artifacts. But once I got PhotoShop Elements 5 (for $75) – I was able to do all those things & convert RAW images in one program. It was a life-saver.
Anyways, I persevered from a very poor starting position. Learned all I could about basic exposure & technical quality, & resubmitted every single image. Many were accepted. But sales always seemed to pick up with each new batch I submitted. It was starting to payoff. So…..
YOU CAN DO THIS. You can get started at ShutterStock & iStockphoto (and the others) by clicking on their LINKS to the right (towards the top of the page). See my Flickr profile page for a list of Tips & Hints for MAKING MONEY in Stock: by clicking this blog’s title.
*** Good Luck and Happy Shuttering – Chad ***
I tried to learn from my rejections, correct the mistakes I made (NoiseNinja helped!), & resubmit the images. In the process I got better, because I hate post-processing images so I wanted to “get it right in the camera” not in the computer. And all those trademarks & logos everywhere had to be cloned out. But once images were online sales started to come in & I was able to see a payoff to my hard work. I simply wanted to make $150-$200 a month, & it seemed like I could. (I make over 3x the high end now!).
My photos were taken with a basic camera, downloaded as a jpeg, cleaned up in NoiseNinja, trademarks cloned out in Photo Impressions, shadows/brightness/contrast adjusted in MS Photo Editor, & saved in my Workflow folder. I used 4 different stages to process an image – no wonder I got artifacts. But once I got PhotoShop Elements 5 (for $75) – I was able to do all those things & convert RAW images in one program. It was a life-saver.
Anyways, I persevered from a very poor starting position. Learned all I could about basic exposure & technical quality, & resubmitted every single image. Many were accepted. But sales always seemed to pick up with each new batch I submitted. It was starting to payoff. So…..
YOU CAN DO THIS. You can get started at ShutterStock & iStockphoto (and the others) by clicking on their LINKS to the right (towards the top of the page). See my Flickr profile page for a list of Tips & Hints for MAKING MONEY in Stock: by clicking this blog’s title.
*** Good Luck and Happy Shuttering – Chad ***
posted by Chad McDermott at 11:00 AM
2 Comments:
This is so inspiring! I've been really wanting to get into micro stock as well... Do you have any tips for me? I saw that you commented on my Seattle photo, can I sell that as stock? I thought there was some sort of rule about famous landmarks that you have to have permission to sell photos of them. Any way, I think I'll Flickr Mail you. Great Blog post!
Thanks for the tip you left in your comment on my Flickr stream. Like you say, I also want to get the image right "in the camera", without making changes afterwards with the computer. I'm not looking to earn something with photography; it's just for fun.
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