Adding captions and tags to abstract images

[Robert M Estall]

The greenies are nice little touches, but the only one of these niceties worth hanging onto is your QC rating which maxes out at 3. As to keywording abstract images, anything which can possibly steer clients towards your offering is worthwhile   Abstract and copyspace seem unlikely but main colour and mood descriptions might help. Years ago when I was trying to get the hang of this business, I used to include abstract in my presentations. Picture editors and picture researchers were scarcely polite about them and dismissed them with scowls of "artyfarty stuff". I soon learned to keep my carefully crafted abstracts to myself. Many photographers like them, that's just fine, but they don't sell a lot.

[Sheila Child]

Thanks Robert.  I take your point and can understand why a 'general' (for want of a better word) picture editor could easily dismiss micro stuff as artyfarty.  Until I got into it and saw what could be done, I would probably have thought the same.  I wanted to explore microphotography to see if there was any artyfarty'ness creativity in me and I am quite liking what I have been able to do.  That said, it does not mean they will sell, but having spent much of my life in a structured and ordered world I am finding it quite refreshing.  I guess that there is a limited market for this type of image, but if we don't make them available, then they won't get used.  I do see images like this from time to time in nature type publications and am willing to give it a go - for now at least.  I will do my best to describe the image and hope that a like-minded searcher sees them.  At least Alamy has a keyword search for micro related images so you never know.  

[dustydingo]

Sheila, I would definitely add "texture" as a keyword to those of your images that show . . . texture  . . . do a search and you'll see what I mean.

 

Okay, you're up against over 4,000,000 other "texture" images, but hey, <ventured/gained> eh?

 

DD

[Sheila Child]

OK - I see what you mean.  Some of my stuff does indeed show texture and it can't hurt to add that as a keyword can it?  Funnily enough, Alamy's header image (when I just looked) appears to be a micro image.  Thanks for the tip.