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Can You Revive Those Ancient Color Prints for Stock Sales?
If you are an editorial stock photographer, (that is, you enjoy capturing life around you with your camera and building a stock file that will appeal to book and magazine editors), you are going to find that our industry has moved cautiously into the Digital Revolution. Especially for the smaller markets, prints are rarely acceptable to photobuyers. This is not to say that no photobuyers can accept prints, but it is to say that most editorial stock photobuyers continue to require original slides or high-resolution digital scans submitted exactly to their specifications.
The high-resolution image is sent by e-mail (DSL or higher speed) or courier on a disc. In some case, the photobuyer will require the original slide.
And those prints? If you have the negatives, and they're in good condition, you're in luck. Color negative scans work well and are often better than transparency scans. This means you could send a high resolution digital scan of your image, produced from the original color negative.
THE DIGTAL MARKETS
Newspapers have been the pioneers in this digital\print revolution, but newspapers usually don't pay well enough for you to get involved.
The commercial stock industry, e.g. buyers at ad agencies, graphic houses, corporations usually can readily use a high quality hi-res scan just as well as a transparency.
Your prints can easily be digitized and employed on the web, but then again, that Internet market presently is not large.
You'll find some of your editorial buyers are equipped to digitize your prints for their particular use. This saves you the expense of using a local service bureau to produce high-resolution digitized images from your prints or negs.
YOUR WORKING METHODS
In this new century, the marketing approach is still the same: "Find out what area appeals to you, find markets for that area of interest, and then photograph for it." Inquire of your particular photobuyers, which delivery method they prefer, and the buy camera equipment accordingly.
If you've been strictly a color-neg-photographer is the past, the digital era has provided you with new marketing opportunities.
Rohn Engh, veteran stock photographer and best-selling author of "Sell & ReSell Your Photos" and "sellphotos.com," has helped scores of photographers launch their careers. For access to great information on making money from pictures you like to take, and to receive this free report: "8 Steps to Becoming a Published Photographer," visit http://www.sellphotos.com
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| Welcome
to PhotoSourceInternational.com. Here's where
you'll find information about social photography,
editorial photography, selling photos, buying
photos, stock photography, photo research, and
making a marketable photo. |
The Power of
Keywords
In the field of
editorial photography, photo researchers no longer search for pictures
by looking at scores and scores of images (real tough on the eyes after awhile!).
Instead they search, first, by using descriptive words. Rarely do they use a
one-word search, like “bird,” or “sports” (they’d
receive thousands of hits). They usually use a three- or four-word search, and
sometimes five or six words – describing the content they need in the
photo.
When you attach keywords
(tags) to each of your images (metadata), keep this in mind. Try to anticipate
what keywords a photobuyer using Google or another popular search engine might
use in his/her search.
Since text description takes up very little space* in a database, be generous
in your use of words to describe each image. Also, remember to include colloquial
descriptions: In California it’s a “carpet,” in Wisconsin,
it’s a “rug.” In Alabama the word is “flying;”
in New Jersey it’s “aviation.”
HINT: Stay
away from trite descriptions and keyphrases that are too general. The phrase
“Infant child and mother” may bring 2,000 hits. A better description
would be, “Infant soiled diapers distraught mother” ** (in other
words, more precisely describe the scene).
* The phrase, “ Four score and seven years ago, our fathers…”
takes up 32 bytes. A normal 8 meg image takes up 8,000,000 bytes.
** No need to include prepositions.
GOOD:
mother supports toddler standing position
Victorian photo locket circa 1865
Spain Andalusia Seville Giralda Tower mother daughter under bell
poor Cuban family seated on sidewalk Havana Cuba
mother daughter Biscarrossek Beach France
men with fishung net Sete, France
crazy worm ride Edinburgh funfair people
family mountain biking France Aquitaine Landes Forest
France Aquitaine Landes Forest
boy mountain biking France Aquitaine Landes Forest
teenagers looking bored music symphony
teenagers looking bored rock concert
little girl mother walking carefully on snowy dirt road
kid and man repairing mountain bike rain
elder boy scout welcoming little sister railway station
four children contemplating sunset Frioul Islands
France Corsica island Bastia man son Jet Ski
heart-shaped biscuits white plate, valentines
male writes graffiti Hebrew
three little boys looking at world globe
NOT GOOD:
The following keyphrases
are too generic. The photobuyer would get hundreds of inquiries. The
following need one or two additional modifiers to make the description more
specific. Typical modifiers would be: where they are doing the activity (name
the city, park, resort, etc.). If it’s at a school, business, industry,
church, synagogue, mosque, add this also. GET SPECIFIC. That’s what the
researcher does when he or she makes a Google search !
mother and baby playing
family riding bicycle together
children riding carousel
mom with newborn baby
mother kissing child
newborn baby feet
crying baby
baby on bed
newborn baby boy
mother holding baby
tired mother and baby
crying baby
mother holding baby in arms
mother and child
smiling mother with newborn baby
mother holding newborn baby
infant newborn baby boy
infant child and mother
mother and child
crying baby on mother’s lap
christmas turkey
mom and daughter opening present
mom and son opening christmas presents
young boy and girl and dog
young girl and her parents
young girl and her mother
young girl and her father
woman taking photos of children walking in the country
brother and sister playing with sand
grandmother and her granddaughter
baby foot grasping father’s finger
mother and daughter kissing
girls hugging
children at beach
grandmother snuggling with baby
a loving family, father with his little boy
Rohn Engh is the best-selling
author of “Sell & ReSell Your Photos” and “sellphotos.com.”
He has produced a new eBook, “How to Make the Marketable Photo.”
For more information and to receive a free eReport: Learn to sell your photos
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