Jake Baynes Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 Hey, So I recently started selling my photographs on Alamy about a week or so ago. So far I have not sold anything. I was wondering if there are any tips or guidance that anyone could offer to help me out? I currently have 17 pictures for sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Clemson Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 This is a question which is asked on an almost weekly basis. This is a very helpful and tolerant forum with many experienced photographers ready to help others .However, every new contributor is also a competitor so don't be too surprised if you aren't bombarded with responses to a question which has been asked many times before. The best advice for you at the moment is to browse the forums and read carefully what has been said to others in your situation. Then go with your new found knowledge, practice your art and upload your best work. Then come back with specific questions and you will find good advice readily given. I will however offer a couple of things to get you going. Monochrome images don't tend to sell very well here. Upload in colour and your buyer can easily convert to mono if they wish. Also, make sure your keywording is comprehensive and accurate if you want your images to be found- lots of threads on the forum on this subject. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 The picture of the jetty might have a chance if the location were in the keywords. The location field isn't searchable. Most of your images don't illustrate anything. With 17 images you can expect rather less than one sale every 6 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Quist Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 Add another 2,000 relevant quality images and remember that Alamy is primarily an editorial agency - and if still no sales at all, something needs to be done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kumar Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 Welcome Jake Baynes !You did one thing right by arriving at Alamy in stock-photo matters. However, developing a successful portfolio (sales-wise) requires tons of patience-sensible KEYWORDING-quality-quantity-variety.Best wishes,Kumar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Bell Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 Where have Jakes images gone? I cannot see them. Allan Magically re-appeared. Panic over. Allan (ITMA) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Limb Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 Philippe - You took the very words out of my post! When will people lean that there are some 70 odd million images on here and that stock photography is an ultra marathon - not a short sprint! Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vpics Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 I like the pic of the dock. But the dock is really a jetty and you need to put the location in the keywords. Alamy doesn't fall back on the location keywords in your IPTC data. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 Reshoot the knot in color. Offset it leaving some space at one side. Customers like copy space to write something. This image "might" be useful to illustrate a knotty situation or knots in muscles. Reshoot the barbed wire. Yours has blurry weeds that detract. But that said, do a search on barbed wire, you'll find a lot already offered and so well done that yours will get lost. But still can be done. Get rid of ( delete) all those dark ones. They'll never sell and will drag your CTR down. Reread my first paragraph, then when planning a shoot, imagine what your image could illustrate. Don't just go out and fire at everything you see and be pleased you got a few images to upload. Engage your brain and reread the first paragraph again as to what your images can illustrate. Those are concepts. Then you can shoot important buildings, businesses, electronics or whatever. Get your technical and location facts straight. Somebody might not be interested in a generic bridge, but if it's the keyworded bridge over a named body of water near a named town and state, then If there is a newspaper article about renovations to that bridge, there's your picture ready and waiting! Use your family...people doing something, working, cooking, playing, jumping in the air, interacting. Releases desirable but still can be sold unreleased for editorial. Remember to leave copy space. Take a peak at mine, you'll see copy space in a fair percentage of them. A building? Copy space in blue sky. As others said, a b&w can be made from a color image. A b&w image cannot be turned into color. Good luck. Betty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexandre Fagundes Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 Hi Jake, A lot others have already said a lot of things, so I will try to focus on other aspects. Your portfolio looks very artistic and I actually liked it very much. Art and stock is not exactly the same thing though, that´s why the tips about the dark images make sense. In some situations you can use B/W, even though one can always supress the colors of a color image to get a B/W, the visual impact of a B/W image can make the sale, but you have to wonder if you are not loosing appeal by uploading a B/W image instead of a color one. I wonder if the spider wouldn´t be more interesting in colors. BTW, that one could be much more dramatic if you have cropped it and used the rule of thirds. Flowers are beautiful, but there is a lot of them (I have some too), so don´t push too much of them, you wont have much sales unless it is a very special image. Titles are important and shouldn´t be vague like "into the Darkness", be precise on what your image is and what it is about, because you want a buyer to search for it. And of course you will need much more images to have sales. I hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 Jake, I just wanted to add this remark. Back when I joined Alamy, the forum wasn't very nice. There were flame wars, name-calling, and often a newbie question was met with scorn. So I didn't ask. And I didn't understand what made a stock image, a saleable one. Didn't have a clue about concepts, and believed I had to have a release if an image had a person in it. I tossed a lot of images that had people in them that actually were saleable. That forum was closed down, and this one was born. Alamy did a great job somehow of getting rid of the malcontents and getting people to play nice. So you have gotten some good help above. I wish I had gotten that help. As it were, I think I had 500 images before I made my first sale of a hummingbird. About a year from when I joined. Why? Because most of what I uploaded was dross, and not what the buyers wanted. People who shoot with stock needs in mind can make a first sale with far fewer images than I had when I made my first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MircoV Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 I am sorry. Having 15 photos online in combination with being 1 week only on Alamy is not a start point to ask about sales. Create first thousands of images and wait several months. If no result then you can ask your question again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amril Izan Imran Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 Dear All, Thanks very much for the valuable insights. I am also new to Alamy and have yet to sell a single image. However and with only 79 images up for sale, i do not expect any sales to come up anytime soon. Browsing on other contributors images, I can't help but noticing that my current batch of images are slightly different from what is being put up on sale by other contributors. Should I change my shooting style? Thanks and appreciate any comments that you all can give. Cheers!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 Wow, your images are beautiful. It appears what you are shooting has merit, the places are important to my eye. What I don't know is how much demand there is for those locations. I think your style is good, but a little short on people doing things. At open air markets, working, families. All those beautiful places you've been you must get some people, too. Try to get more of a mix of subjects. Buses, traffic, people shopping, playing sports. I'd enjoy seeing the next 100 images you produce. If you travel to places where the people wear traditional clothing, show people dressed that way. Take shots of the culture. What I'm seeing for the most part are gorgeous landscapes. Landscapes by themselves don't sell that well, but yours seem to fit in travel, I could see them used in travel brochures since they aren't generic landscapes. Not sure if that's a hot market. You might try getting a lot closer to those landmark buildings rather than the distant view. Or do both. Really admire your work. It's aesthetically pleasing. Betty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amril Izan Imran Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 Thanks Betty, Yup, looking back at all my images, I do agree that some human elements / interest are missing from my images. Noted on that, will try to shoot with a slightly different approached from now. Cheers everyone.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustydingo Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 Dear All, Thanks very much for the valuable insights. I am also new to Alamy and have yet to sell a single image. However and with only 79 images up for sale, i do not expect any sales to come up anytime soon. Browsing on other contributors images, I can't help but noticing that my current batch of images are slightly different from what is being put up on sale by other contributors. Should I change my shooting style? Thanks and appreciate any comments that you all can give. Cheers!! Firstly, I'd suggest you immediately adopt and nurture the belief that the fact your images are slightly different from what others are offering is a 'GOOD THING'. Secondly, I ony have one piece of advice when it comes to anyone's style, and that is: ignore all advice about your style. Definitley, embrace the excellent suggestions about including people doing stuff, about cultural references and about including copyspace sometimes etc, but do not abandon that which makes your images stand apart from others and which many better brains than mine so often encourage others to develop . . . that is, IMO, your own unique style. dd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Ashmore Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 Firstly, I'd suggest you immediately adopt and nurture the belief that the fact your images are slightly different from what others are offering is a 'GOOD THING'. Absolutely! The fact that these images stand out from the crowd because they offer something different will only make them more sell-able in my opinion. More photos covering a wider range of subjects but maintaining the quality and you have to be onto a winner! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reciprocity Images Posted June 21, 2016 Share Posted June 21, 2016 I can't help but noticing that my current batch of images are slightly different from what is being put up on sale by other contributors. Should I change my shooting style? Just had to chime in and echo what others have said (dustydingo said it right): Your images are different because they are likely a step above what many contributors are submitting, especially 99% of those who are just starting out. You are starting on the right foot– Just take on board some of the advice others have offered (many more well-shot images, maybe pull some more detail out of the shadows, etc.) and you will be on the right track. In addition (contrary?) to what others have said regarding specific locations/subject: I would also note that it's often the exceptionally captured generic shots which bring sales that come in way above the general editorial travel market. Example: Very nicely shot, plenty of COPYSPACE! (I'd still lift the shadows a touch) A few more: F0JN0K: great image (vertical is always a plus), copyspace F08YEW, F0APN9, EYHWYC etc: well-shot skylines are ALWAYS in demand. G3H8E3: stunning pic, vertical, copyspace, etc. These are the types of images I would focus on based on your portfolio. If you are able to shoot the kind of images the commercial market demands, do that, and forget about what other editorial shooters are producing. Take a look rather than at alamy, but perhaps some of the more commercially-oriented (or premium travel photography) competitors and see what other kinds of images are out there. You obviously have the technical base to build on in order to produce images that will appeal to a smaller, but richer market. Good luck! -Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reciprocity Images Posted June 21, 2016 Share Posted June 21, 2016 F0JN0K: great image Not specifically, but generally, these kinds of images are made using: a. ND filter? b. multiple exposures as flattened layers? c. both (a) & ( b ) d. neither (a) nor ( b ) but: _____ Just hazarding a guess (perhaps Amril will share his technique), but shooting at dusk, you would most likely not need an ND filter to get a long enough exposure for the light trails (though it's certainly an option if you want to increase them, or if the exposure is too short otherwise). Don't see any reason for multiple exposures in this case. My guess: just a well composed, well shot, but more or less straightforward image. =) -Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted June 22, 2016 Share Posted June 22, 2016 Jake, the image everyone is talking about you have a keyword misspelling. It is "light trails" not "light trials" two different meanings. Yours is so nice, I'd hate for someone searching light trails to not find yours. Betty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christian58 Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 A week ago?????????? and you expect sales . Some of us have been waiting since WWII, can't speak anymore they have just announced the world-peace, Churchill and Roosevelt are coming. So long Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 I've had photographs here since 1979. Or is it photographs from 1979. I forget. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYCat Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 Jake, the image everyone is talking about you have a keyword misspelling. It is "light trails" not "light trials" two different meanings. Yours is so nice, I'd hate for someone searching light trails to not find yours. Betty Betty, I don't think you mean Jake. Amril has the milky way shot. Or have I missed the shot you mean. Paulette Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlessandraRC Posted June 26, 2016 Share Posted June 26, 2016 you need a stock of images ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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