8 Tips For People Stock Photography That Sells
There’s no question, there is always a strong demand for quality people images. All the stock photography books and websites will tell you this, so anyone serious about selling photographs online is going to try to add these to their portfolio on a consistent basis. Unfortunately, most photographers do it without really considering the end-user, and as a consequence, most of the people stock photography you see online are never going to sell in a hundred years.
As with many fields of stock photography, if you take a Client-centric view and consider the wishes of your end-user, the photo-buyers, it’s really quite simple to not only shoot more sellable people stock images, but you can increase your output enormously too. Here are some pointers to get you started.
1. Get To Know Your Markets
Think about the demographics of your usual ‘models ‘ and then take some time to look at how stock photos of those groups are used? If you tend to photograph lots of seniors, explore the markets for those images. If you usually work with babies it’s going to be different buyers/buyer-types again, so identify as many of those as you can.
Start a shot list for each of your key markets, so any time you’ve a photo opportunity, you’ll know exactly what you need from it. It’s all about getting clear on who might use the photography you shoot, so you can capture photographs that are optimized for their wants. So that means studying the stock images that are being used to identify what elements are most critical for each buyer-type?
Most photographers are not going to bother, so any effort and time you put into this’ll help you, and your pictures stand proud of the crowd.
2. Tell Stories
There actually is very little demand for posed portraits in stock. If you are photographing people in the hope of selling the images as stock, you have to be making stock images that tell a story or convey a idea or emotion. They don't have to be action shots, but the elements of the image need to convey that there’s more going on than somebody having their photo taken.
You can do this with setting, clothing, props and face expressions, and each component should be congruous with the message of the image. The message itself can be really subtle, as long as everything fits. (In fact subtle photographs regularly work the best as the photograph-buyers can then add their own copy to the photographs to finely tune the message).
3. Focus on the Eyes
People being people, when we take a look at a photograph of a person , our eyes automatically look towards the face to determine what’s going on in the image. I suspect it’s some sort of primitive survival instinct that permits us to evaluate mood from a fast glance and in people stock photographs, the eyes, and the facial expression will usually be both identifiable and clear.
If either of these are obscured, it’s done purposefully to convey another message wholly. In those cases you want to guarantee the other parts of the image are congruous with that and as a consequence, the accidentally obscured shots are rarely going to work.
4. Stay in Front
There is minimal need for rear-end views of people. For commercial work, photo buyers need clear emotion and expressions that they can tie their own message on, and as quickly as you shoot from the rear, you lose any chance of capturing that.
I actually see plenty of shots like this in photographer submissions where they caption the image with some emotionally descriptive phrase … Because that's how they remember the situation … But taking a look at the photo, the viewer wouldn’t know if the model was giggling, frightened or fast asleep.
5. Get in Close
Another problem I see far too often is shots clearly taken secretly from a distance. There really is no value in this. Far better you approach the people in question and simply ask if you can take their photograph. Tell them what you would like to achieve and encourage them to work with you to get the shot.
Sure, some will reject the offer, but just as many will be pleased to try for you. Of course you will have some pocket releases with you, and offer to send them a low-res copy of the image for their own use for a signature and their email!
6. Take Control Of Candid Situations
I believe there’s a certain mythology about some of the great street photographers, in the sense that they fired from the hip and just happened to catch their fantastic images, almost by chance. The plain fact of the matter is, good ‘candid ‘ photography is generally the results of really careful planning and preparation, and a good understanding of the subject’s habits and behavior.
The shots should have been caught in a second but the set up could have taken hours.
Shoot from the hip without that kind of preparation and you will be getting pictures with nil commercial potential. You might get lucky from time to time, but don’t count on it. On the other hand, really get to know your subject so that you can predict behaviors and reactions, and you stand a real chance of catching some great images.
Take it a stage further and plan for ‘candid ‘ situations which tell stories that photo buyers might be well placed to use, and you’ll also be capturing photos with real sales potential.
7. Take Care With Friends & Family
If you’re only ever photographing family members or close friends, capturing sellable stock photos is a tough task. The emotional connection with your model makes it extremely tough for the photographer to work objectively and even tougher for them to evaluate the results, particularly when the photos are shot in the course of a social/family event.
In our library I’ll often spot terrible ‘family ‘ photos from some of talented photographers, and when I check with them, the photographers are absolutely unable to see the flaws, because the emotional memory of the circumstances are so strong.
Having said that , it is a great method to learn and practice, if you do it right. Step one is to treat it as work, and be absolutely clear on the message or story you’re attempting to convey with each frame. Write out a shot list before you start and make sure your model knows what you are trying to do.
Ensure the setting, the clothing, the props all work towards the same end result, and work with your model to make the poses and expressions work also. And when you are done, ensure you’re completely ruthless when reviewing the results!
8. Lighting Considerations
This is less complicated than you could imagine. Outside look for clouded days or find a location away from direct sunlight. You can use reflectors and fill flash as needed, but if you start with a ‘good day ‘ the extras are just refining what’s already there.
Indoors, light your subject any way you like, as long as you do not use on-camera flash. If you’re serious about shooting commercial people stock images, you will need to invest in some extra lighting or flash equipment.
It does not have to be excessively costly or complicated, so long as you can move it and fire it away from your camera. Even a flash you can hold outstretched in one hand, while you hold and fire the camera with the other hand, will be a great improvement over on camera flash.
As with most fields of photography, there are going to be exceptions, and most rules can be ignored from time to time. But as a place to begin, if you keep these in mind whenever you’ve got the chance to photograph some human subjects, you should get some stronger photos with good commercial prospects.
Matt Brading is a contributor to GlobalEye Photo Stock Agency, which represents many people photographers. View their best people pictures photography here.
Talented photographers can find out more about selling photographs online and download a free stock photography business kit on the GlobalEye website.
AMPD Photography Photo Slideshow ©2012
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