The glamour workshop is just around the corner and all is ready to begin. For those of you who cannot attend, don’t worry, I will share with you some behind the scenes pictures and video on as soon as available. You will also get to see the first processed pictures.

But before the workshop starts it is important to define the themes the photographers will be confronted with. Last week I sat down with stylist Jennifer Hahn and went through all the details.

Day 1: Studio 67

Theme 1:

Models Mandy, Katya and Kathrin will be dressed up in maritime colors, navy blue, whites and reds. Lighting will be strong and sunny on a white or gray background.

Theme 2:

Models Aljona and Johann will be styled in khaki green and gold jewelery.Lighting will be dramatic on a dark background

Theme 3:

Models Jule’s and Lady Marmelade’s style will be inspired from japanese mangas. Expect colorful clothes. Lighting will be bright and flashy on a colored background

Day 2: Hotel Pension Funk

We have three large bedrooms for this day. Each one of them with it’s own individual style. On this day all models will be styled with lingerie and photographers will have the creative freedom to develop their ideas. I expect very interesting pictures on this day!

Microstock has been around for a while and yet professional photographers still have mixed feelings about it. Some observe it with curiosity from a distance, others abhor it and some just decide to ignore it. In the past years various professional photographers have approached me asking for advice.

And if I sum up their fears I can boil it down to two:

• Isn’t it perverse to sell my photos for so cheap?
• What will people think of me if they see me on a microstock site?

Those are valid fears but the benefits professionals can reap from microstock really outstrip those fears. Here are the most common questions I get from professional photographers:

Question:
Is there really any potential in the microstock business to earn money?

Answer:
Yes, of course! Especially if you are a professional! You will stand out immediately from the hordes of hobby photographers. Making money on microstock requires you have a medium to large size portfolio (over 500 images). As a professional photographer you are in a situation to produce more and at a higher quality. You should be able to reach 500 images within a year. And considering your easier access to models, make up and studio equipment, your imagery will market itself much better right from the beginning.

Question:
Can I earn a quick buck?

Answer:
No, certainly not. No matter how good your pictures, it takes time until your portfolio is big enough to be found easily by people. And with time people will even bookmark you and keep coming for new pictures. So do not expect to be a superstar from day one! If you enter microstock do it for the long run, that’s when you reap the highest rewards.

Question:
Should I consider exclusivity?

Answer
This is a difficult question to answer. My recommendation is that you start contributing at various microstock agencies. Once you see how much work that costs you and how much rewards it gives you, you can then consider what is best for you, whether to stick to all agencies or go exclusive with one and gain from your trust in them. For me exclusivity works best, but other bloggers have written differing opinions.

Yury Arcurs has an article giving some insights into the issue of exclusivity and a comparison of different microstock agencies.

Question:
How do you finance your productions? How do you involve other people? Models? Make Up Artists?

Answer:
At the beginning you will have to finance all your productions by yourself. At one point you will start making enough money to reinvest it into new productions. With every business there is a risk and with microstock it is no different.

I would recommend you find a team which is happy working with you on stock productions. You should pay them a fix amount per production. Paying them a percentage of future earnings might sound attractive but is a nightmare to manage once you start working with lots of different people. So stick to paying a fixed amount and take all the risk yourself.

Microstock photography does not require professional models, so you can find many models which would be very pleased to work with a professional photographer for no money in return. Take advantage of your position as a professional!

Question:
Am I not doing a disservice to other professional photographers?

Answer:
Microstock is here to stay and will not disappear. There is no doubt that it has had a negative impact on professional photographers, but staying out of microstock is not going to change that, because someone else will take your place.

As a professional you are in a better position to benefit from this movement and you should jump into it right now. Selling a picture for 5EUR is not much, but if you sell it one thousand times, then it’s a different story!

Question:
Do I have to produce boring business photos?

Answer:
Not at all! My advice is that you focus on the field you like most and produce all your images in that style and area. Focus and become the expert, earn a good reputation and soon buyers will be coming to you to get that type of pictures. Every style has its potential in microstock so use your creativity to have fun and enjoy what you are doing!

And by the way… you don’t have to use your real name to sell microstock. So don’t worry about others finding you

So what do you think? Should professionals join the microstock movement? Should hobby photographers worry about them?

Organising for the Glamour Workshop on the 10th of April has continued. All tickets have been sold already! Here are the remaining models which will help the attendants make great photos! I’m still working on one or two more models. I’ll keep you posted.

Celia

Julie



Johann

Lady Marmelade

Julie

Konstantin

Competition is fierce in the stock market and if you want to stand out you have to invest. Long gone are the days where your holiday pictures or nice shots from your cousin’s newborn were enough to earn a comfortable pocket money. For the past two years I have watched the quality of pictures on iStockphoto increase constantly and after discussion with many other successful stock photographers quickly decided that the only way forward is to invest: invest  in reasearch, invest in quality.

This has worked well for me. A good photoshooting will cost anywhere between 700EUR and 2000EUR (mainly model, make up, wardrobe and location). Recently I spoke to a stock photographer friend of mine and enjoyed hearing he had spent careful time researching a topic and then investing on producing the idea in the best possible way. Numbers are working for him.

All this time however, I had had no proper means of measuring how successful my investments were. I knew my shooting costs but I could not measure precisely the point where my investment broke even. And this was always a problem.

The goal is that a photoshooting breaks even within 6 months. That means that the series should generate 16% of your costs each month. How do you measure that?

It was only just recently, about 3 weeks ago, that I had a deeper look into LookStat.com, and was surprised to finally discover a tool to help me improve measuring return on investment (ROI). In LookStat you can set up a collection of pictures (suitably the results of one photo session) and LookStat will tell you how much money those pictures have generated. You have different viewing options and charts, making it easy to understand.

I am still missing some important features which make measuring ROI easier, and so I wrote Rahul Pathak, the founder of LookStat, with some suggestions and was pleased to hear that they are already working in that direction! I’ll keep you up to date on any evolution and how you can use it for your pictures.

Thanks to LookStat here are some examples of my measurements, good and bad (click on the picture for the complete series):

	Earned 61% of investment in 4 months
	Earned 8% of investment in 4 months
	Earned 1200% of investment in 13 months
	Earned 221% of investment in 9 months
	Earned 67% of investment in 8 months
	Earned 585% of investment in 20 months
	Earned 13% of investment in 9 months

How do you measure return on investment? How important is it for you? I would be interested in learning about your workflow and number keeping

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Tickets for the Glamour Workshop are officially on sale! The workshop is currently only open for iStockphoto members.

If you are interested in buying tickets but have not yet applied on the iStockphoto forums, then please send me an email with your iStockphoto member name and I will send you a message with all the necessary information.

Numbers are out for iStockphoto and Getty Images. iStockphoto has produced very strong results in February 2010. I doubled my February 2008 earnings and achieved one of my best ever months. 2010 is being very profitable on iStockphoto.com!  Here the chart.

Downloads on the other hand remain constant. My portfolio has not grown which explains the low fluctuation in downloads.

At Getty Images no surprises. January 2010 was good but stays within the normal revenue range.

Comparison

When we look at the complete evolution of my iStockphoto and Getty Images portfolios, the trend remains: iStockphoto revenue increases while Getty Images remains constant.

And most interestingly, the revenue per image on both agencies continue their convergeance.

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