Dear readers,
waiting has been long but finally I can give you a glimpse of what’s keeping me busy

welcome http://www.purplelash.com

I can’t say much more at this point. Go have a look and soon there will be more to come!

Enjoy,
Luis

Dear readers, things have been pretty quiet around here. I haven’t forgetten you, but I’m working on a super secret undercover i’d-have-to-kill-you-if-I-told-you project and that is consuming most of my time.

However, rest assured. I will continue posting once in a while when I have good quality material to post, videos, lighting schemes, and such. And of course, as soon as the project is launched, you will be the first to know!

Design by www.magixillusions.com

I admit, the title of this blog post is a bit oversized. There has been a lot written about how to produce images that sell. The list is of websites and books offering information on this topic is long. However, I think there is one point of advice which I want to emphasize and share with you.

You can reduce this advice to asking yourself these two simple questions:

Who are your customers?

What do your customers want?

It is really important that you think about these questions. Producing stock photography is not about producing nice, beautiful images. It is about producing images people want. In order to answer the two questions above, here is a three step process which I follow myself every few months:

How are your images being used?
Have you seen your images in action? Collect all your images in action and try to observe how designers used your images. Spend time analysing the designs and ask yourself what attributes of your images are important in those designs. Is it the copy space you added? Or perhaps the interesting tight crop? Is it the expression of your models? Is it the concept which works well? iStockphoto offers you the option to see some of the designs with your pictures. Use that option!

This will teach you what designers do with your images and let you identify your strengths and weaknesses.

Analyse designs in your segment
What segment of photography are you specialised in? Is it Fashion? Glamour? Landscape photography? Go out there and buy magazines regularly, surf the web, look at adverts, and try to understand how images in your photography segment are being used within designs. What is it that you see often? What trends can you spot?

This will teach you what designers are looking for and allow you to focus on that.

How is your competition doing?
Every stock agency has its heavy weight photographers. Find those photographers in your area of specialisation and look at their pictures. Learn from them. What pictures sell most? Do you see a relationship with your findings regarding design’s? It is not about copying ideas, it is about identifying trends. Design trends change every few years (ever heard of Web 2.0?) and you have to adapt.

What strategy do you follow to improve your sales?

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For those of you who do not know it, Seen.by is a platform where international photographers showcase their portfolios. It’s an amazing collection with beautiful photos, and many of them can be purchased in print size to decorate your room space.

I am often asked if it is worth to upload photos there and sell them; is it possible to make money there?

I joined Seen.by fairly early, and was invited to offer pictures for sale. Back then, only three of my pictures were available for purchase, but since, almost all my pictures have been made available.

I don’t want to dissapoint you but my income at the page has been very low. Below 100EUR in the time I have been there. I can only speculate why this is so, but I believe the main reason is that my pictures are not well suited for printing and using as decoration. I have not spoken to other photographers on Seen.by and cannot offer you any comparisons.

Nevertheless, Seen.by enjoys one of the best collections around with top photographers contributing. The selection process is rigurous but once you are in it is a great place to show off your pictures. So I think everyone should give it a try.

Are you already on Seen.by? How have sales been for you?

After a nice holiday break, here my most recently published article on iStockphoto.com! Let me know what you think and please share your ring flash pics!

I’m back from excellent vacations in Asia! Japan and Thailand are really great places to be. A big thanks to David, one of my blog readers in Tokyo, to take the time to meet me. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to meet more of you during my next travels. Anybody from Brisbane? That’s where I will be next.

Due to my holidays I was not able to post my April statistics on time, so here you have them with some delay. The month of April was weaker and did not continue the upwards trend of the previous months. When compared to 2008 the dip in April appears to be normal. In 2009 April stayed flat with regards to March. So no need to worry with the April 2010 numbers.

The months before summer are usually weak and it is a great time to shoot and get ready for the post-summer large volume sales!

Getty royalties are exactly the same as they were a year ago. These are the numbers for March 2010 (the April numbers are coming out next week). I am happy with that considering the more expensive Getty collections are struggling to keep up with the changes in the stock market.

Royalty per Image slightly down on iStockphoto. At Getty Images slightly up for March.

How has your business been going? Did your April see a peak too? Are you preparing your portfolio for post-summer sales?

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Dear readers,

I’m away for two weeks travelling to Japan and Thailand. Do not expect any posts during that time. As soon as I’m back I’ll be fresh with new ideas!

Take care and keep shooting

Luis

I know what it’s like to get an image rejected: it’s terrible and if you put effort into your image you feel bitter.

But iStockphoto.com is the leading stock agency today and with the various increase in prices last year it is important for them to ensure that customers get the quality they pay for. That’s good for the buyer, it’s good for iStockphoto and it’s good for you. That of course means, that we contributors have to go through a more rigurous acceptance process.

This blog is mainly about glamour and studio photography and I want to share with you 8 tricks which work well for me. If you follow them chances are you will reduce your rejection rate considerably.

Reducing your rejection rate requires the highest quality at all 3 stages:

• -During shooting preparation
• -During the photo shooting itself
• -During the post-processing

Tip 1: Avoid all possible logos
Logos and brand names are a no-go for stock photography. When buying the clothes ensure there are no logos. If there are logos, identify them all before the shoot. It will help you choose angles and lighting. If you work with a stylist make sure they are aware of this requirement.

Tip 2: Pay a lot of attention to exposure
Many rejections arise directly or indirectly because of bad exposure. Bad exposure has various problems: blown-out highlights, pitch black shadows, dull images. On top of that, when you post-process your images, badly exposed images will cause you to brighten them up or make them darker increasing your chances of creating artifacts. Your exposure has to always be perfect!

Double or tripple check your histogram while you are shooting and/or verify your images on the computer often during the photo session.

Tip 3: Keep an eye on the model’s hair
When photographing in studio hair is difficult to control but if you do not pay special attention to your model’s hair then you are increasing the chances that you will have to post-process the images to improve the appearance of the hair. This post-processing is complicated and increases your images of making mistakes and getting the images rejected.

Typical problems are that small hairs arise wildly in all directions. Or that the hair falls or moves in an unaesthetic way. Speak to your hair stylist about this and have them keep an eye on the hair while you are shooting.

Tip 4: Keep an eye on the model’s clothes

Keep your eye attentive to the model’s clothes. You have the same situation as with the hair. When the model moves you might have creases in the clothes or the clothes might appear unfavorable to the model in certain areas. Maybe the bra or the underwear suddenly become visible. This might cause you to you Photoshop to correct the clothing problems increasing your chances of making mistakes and getting your images rejected.

Speak to your stylist and/or speak to the model, and tell them to pay careful attention to such things. And of course, you too!

Tip 5: Produce sharp images
Images have to be sharp! They do not have to sharp all over, but they have to be dead sharp where it counts. And they have to be sharp straight out of the camera. If you are working with studio strobes then choose a shutter spead between 1/160 and 1/200. If your camera can synchronize with higher speeds, then use even faster shutter speeds.

Make sure you use your best lenses. If you don’t have one then buy or rent one. It is worth the investment

Tip 6: Fill out your model releases very carefully
Every model release must be filled out with extreme care. Make sure that the dates on the release match the dates in your photo’s EXIF file. Make sure the model fills out all fields correctly. Make sure you have a correct and clear description of the shooting. Rejections because of model release problems are frustrating because you cannot always get the model to fill a new one.

And of course you should have one model release for EVERYBODY in the image, no matter how little one can see them.

Tip 7: Only select the very best images for processing
Selecting your best images after your photo session is time consuming but essential. Only choose your very best images. Not only the best ones from a creative point of view, but also the best ones from a technical point of view. They should be dead sharp and have no serious problems with them.

I know how difficult it is when one of your favorite pictures is slightly unsharp. Well, be hard with yourself! And reject that image straight away before you invest time in it and get it rejected by an iStockphoto inspector.

Tip 8: Post-process with care
Photoshop is a marvelous piece of software but can also be the source of lots of rejections. Pay special attention to not creating artefacts when saturating, when brightening or darkenning and image. If you decide to blur the background of your picture do not forget to add 0,1 noise to remove the banding. Speak to other photographers and ask them for photoshop advice.

For the type of photography I do, these are the most essential tips I can give you. Have I forgotten anything for studio and glamour photography? Do you have any questions?

How do you minimize your rejection rates!?

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Back in January I posted two lighting setups involving only one beauty dish with a grid. You can read them here and here. Last Sunday I used the beauty dish again and mixed it with a snoot to illuminate the background.

I am always surprised how different images can be even when using the same light former. In this setup the beauty dish is above the camera and throws light directly at the model. I have a black background and two black gobos on the left and right to ensure strong shadows and good contrast.

The beauty dish and the grid produce a very focused but smooth light. You can appreciate it on the photo by seeing how nice the model’s skin is even as the light drops strongs shadows.

I use the snoot to make a nice spot on the background. Black backgrounds tend to appear very flat on a photo. If you illuminate them slightly you can create more depth in your photo. There are many ways to illuminate a background and the snoot is one of the simplest yet most effective.

Do you use a beauty dish? Or do you prefer the softbox? Show me some of your lighting setups using a beauty dish. I’d be interested in seeing what other variations are possible!

Early January I laid out my goals for 2010. They were ambitious but important to develop my photography. The first quarter 2010 has passed and it is time to have a look back and review progress.

Goal 1: Increase Production by 25%

In the past three months production has been close to zero. In total I produced 9 pictures. If I want to achieve my goal of increase yearly production by 25% I should have produced 34 images. Thats about 75% under-goal.

Goal 2: Sell Exclusively on iStockphoto

All nine pictures are available on iStockphoto. So that goal has been achieved! However my side goal of getting 15% in the Vetta collection was not achieved. None of the nine made it.

Goal 3: Reduce Production Costs by 25%

Due to the lack of photography productions my costs have been zero. This is positive, but expected if I do not produce. Let us see how the remaining quarters evolve.

Goal 4: 50% of my Images will be Produced On Location Outside the Studio

Due to the lack of of productions this goal cannot be measured. I will mark it as not achieved.

Goal 5: Produce Two Photography Workshops in the Area of Glamour Lighting

On the 10th and 11th of April my first Glamour Workshop took place. Preparation for the workshop kept me busy through the whole quarter. So happily this goal has been achieved!

Summary First Quarter 2010

Goal 1: Not achieved

Goal 2: Achieved

Goal 3: Not achieved

Goal 4: Not achieved

Goal 5: Achieved

So let’s keep working!! How is your year going? Are you progressing and improving?