Critique Photography

[Chrisinmd]

Can I get a critique on my photography?  Posted 27 pictures about 3 years ago.  No sales.  Are my photos of poor quality or just of no interest subject matter wise? Any advice thank you.

 

 

Edited January 31, 2021 by Chrisinmd

[spacecadet]

Nothing wrong with the images, really, there just aren't enough of them.

Based on my averages, you might expect a sale every 4 years. Many contributors here upload upwards of 1000 images a year.

[Steve F]

Hi Chris,

Just briefly on your pictures:

• It's quite unusual to see these days, but I think your pictures look a bit under-saturated, they're not very punchy. Apart from the red flower which is oversaturated on the red. The white balance looks a bit blue too. Are you just uploading JPEGs straight fro the camera, or are you doing some editing?
• Captions and keywording - you're competing against 239 million images on Alamy, plus millions more on other agencies. Clients find pictures by searching, like using Google. If you put 'red flower' into Alamy's search bar, there are 1,346,426 results. You need to put the common name, latin name and the location preferably in the caption as well as keywords. Captions are also searchable and Alamy encourages us to have them as full sentences with as much description as possible. 'New Mexico landscape' - very vague caption and no clear subject in the photo, what concept or thing are you trying to illustrate? 'Iceland waterfall' - which one??!! 'Bird'..........

Sales:

As I mentioned before, you're competing against billions of images. On average on Alamy, you might sell approximately 1 image per month per thousand pictures you have up. You need way way more images than 27.

 

I hope this helps.

Steve

Edited February 1, 2021 by Steve F

[Chuck Nacke]

21 hours ago, Chrisinmd said:

Can I get a critique on my photography?  Posted 27 pictures about 3 years ago.  No sales.  Are my photos of poor quality or just of no interest subject matter wise? Any advice thank you.

 

 

Chris,

 

In my opinion you have a few interesting subjects, but your processing (image preparation) is not consistent.  I would also say that I believe that you need more information about what is in the image and location, about the location.  I would also add that it is not just about numbers, I've been saying that for years.  It is about the image and the information with that image that makes the image useful.

 

Chuck 

Edited February 1, 2021 by Chuck Nacke

[Chrisinmd]

15 hours ago, Steve F said:

Hi Chris,

Just briefly on your pictures:

• It's quite unusual to see these days, but I think your pictures look a bit under-saturated, they're not very punchy. Apart from the red flower which is oversaturated on the red. The white balance looks a bit blue too. Are you just uploading JPEGs straight fro the camera, or are you doing some editing?
• Captions and keywording - you're competing against 239 million images on Alamy, plus millions more on other agencies. Clients find pictures by searching, like using Google. If you put 'red flower' into Alamy's search bar, there are 1,346,426 results. You need to put the common name, latin name and the location preferably in the caption as well as keywords. Captions are also searchable and Alamy encourages us to have them as full sentences with as much description as possible. 'New Mexico landscape' - very vague caption and no clear subject in the photo, what concept or thing are you trying to illustrate? 'Iceland waterfall' - which one??!! 'Bird'..........

Sales:

As I mentioned before, you're competing against billions of images. On average on Alamy, you might sell approximately 1 image per month per thousand pictures you have up. You need way way more images than 27.

 

I hope this helps.

Steve

Im not doing any editing just uploading straight from the camera.  You said "you might sell approximately 1 image per month per thousand pictures you have up".  Is that even worth all the effort to go through money wise for approx. 1 sale a month?  Dosent seem like a very efficient use of time to make money.  How much earnings  could someone with say 5000 photos posted here expect per month?

 

 

[MizBrown]

1 hour ago, Chrisinmd said:

Im not doing any editing just uploading straight from the camera.  You said "you might sell approximately 1 image per month per thousand pictures you have up".  Is that even worth all the effort to go through money wise for approx. 1 sale a month?  Dosent seem like a very efficient use of time to make money.  How much earnings  could someone with say 5000 photos posted here expect per month?

 

 

 

This varies all over.   Some people do well with smaller portfolios and some people do well with specialized collections.  Some people take better photographs than others.   Some people have access to situations and people that others don't have access to.   Consensus seems to be that a tightly edited collection of first rate photos with few duplications will do better than someone throwing stuff up because it's in focus and exposed well.  

 

Most of us, I suspect are doing stock either as a sideline to doing client photography or have retired from more active careers (either in photography or not) and this is side income, though some people have done well.   Alamy also draws in Reuters news photos, so those people are probably full time staff photographers.

 

You need common names and scientific names for plants and animals (birds are animals).  Also, what is in the landscape -- name of river, glacier, mountain, etc. 

[Steve F]

12 hours ago, Chrisinmd said:

Im not doing any editing just uploading straight from the camera. 

 

That is a considerable timesaver, but will reduce the saleability of your pictures.

 

12 hours ago, Chrisinmd said:

 Dosent seem like a very efficient use of time to make money.  How much earnings  could someone with say 5000 photos posted here expect per month?

 

I do some paid photography work from time to time, but it's mainly a hobby for me and it's nice to make an income doing something I enjoy. You could make decent money doing this years ago, but in recent years there has been a proliferation in the number of photographers doing stock and in the number of photos online. Coupled with microstock, this has significantly driven down the prices you get for selling photos. You're right, unless you specialise in a very saleable niche area or do Live News, this is not a very efficient way of making money - most of us principally do it because we enjoy doing it. If you have a look at the how was your 'month' thread, you can get an idea of how well people do:

https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/13997-how-was-your-january-2021/

 

I made $855 gross last year, going from approximately 2400 to 3000 pictures during the year.

 

Edited February 2, 2021 by Steve F

[spacecadet]

8 hours ago, Chrisinmd said:

Im not doing any editing just uploading straight from the camera

As Chuck rightly points out, that won't do. Your images are lacking in contrast and saturation. You can work on jpegs in something like Lightroom but in the long run you will be better off shooting RAW.

As to money, Steve has been good enough to reveal his turnover. His return per image is a bit better than mine and some do much better than that, but I would be surprised if more than a few contributors here grossed as much as $1/image/year.

A number of long-term contributors, those whose incomes rely on images which have been here for years, have said here that they would not start uploading now from scratch. I probably would not. Make of that what you will.

If you have a substantial general archive ready to upload you may be in a different position..

Edited February 2, 2021 by spacecadet