Your Image Look and Why

[Ed Rooney]

When I first got into assignment photography, some magazines were still doing picture stories. Life Magazine and Look were still active, and there were others. I did some theatre celeb pic stories then, even one for Life. 

 

W. Eugene Smith was the master of telling a story in a series of images.

 

But about that time (the early ’60s), Pete Turner, Art Kane, and others began to illustrate stories with one strong image. I approach Alamy editorial stock that way, so I tend towards pics with more contrast and saturation that jump out at you in thumbnails.

 

I see many Alamy shooters try to stick with reality. If I were capturing English villages, I would too. But I’m in the city centre of Liverpool.

 

Edo

[Chuck Nacke]

52 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

When I first got into assignment photography, some magazines were still doing picture stories. Life Magazine and Look were still active, and there were others. I did some theatre celeb pic stories then, even one for Life. 

 

W. Eugene Smith was the master of telling a story in a series of images.

 

But about that time (the early ’60s), Pete Turner, Art Kane, and others began to illustrate stories with one strong image. I approach Alamy editorial stock that way, so I tend towards pics with more contrast and saturation that jump out at you in thumbnails.

 

I see many Alamy shooters try to stick with reality. If I were capturing English villages, I would too. But I’m in the city centre of Liverpool.

 

Edo

+1 Edo,  

 

I almost feel sorry for those who missed the "Good and BAD Old Days...."

 

P.S. you left out Richard A.

 

Hope you are well.

 

Chuck

[Marianne]

I find when I up the saturation and tonal contrast, my images tend to do better. Sometimes an image seen at "fit to screen" size or larger doesn't work as well at thumbnail size. I  try to do an initial culling of my images at thumbnail size in LR (later checking focus at 100% before I make any final decisions) for just that reason. 

 

When I began shooting for local magazines in the mid- 2000s they would still want a story told in 3-5 images - but eventually it was more likely to be one or two images unless it was the cover. When I'm shooting stock I find I get lost in trying to get a particular image and am less likely to tell a story, a failing I am trying to rectify by storyboarding ideas. Though a single image is more likely to sell than a series, it can't hurt to have one. 

 

But yes some of my stock photos are more saturated than I like and some older ones  I've oversaturated to the point that I sometimes feel a bit embarrassed by the look are among my best sellers. I also upload some that are far less in your face in terms of color, trying to give buyers a choice. 

 

Some shots are just naturally colorful like my most recent image sale here - for a book. Simple and bright. I shoot a lot more nature and seaside travel, so colors that pop tend to work best for stock:

 

 

Though even looking at crowd scenes I've sold there's usually a person with a red shirt or a flag - some pop of color (an old image uploaded as live news for the 4th of of July I'd process with more pop today - but the colorful clothing I believe caught a buyers' eye earlier this year):

 

 

 

Edited December 14, 2020 by Marianne

[Ed Rooney]

Thank you for posting, Marianne.

 

I'm going to take a moment to try dictation in the Catalina version of photoshop. Amazing, amazing, amazing! Much better than typing with one hand. 

 

Edited December 14, 2020 by Ed Rooney