P#4 Q3: Are My Photographs Good Enough To Sell To A Stock Agency?

Using keywords to find out what sells to a stock agency

Scott Stulberg: First of all, send in your photographs to agencies and see what happens.

But before you would even do that, go to the website of an agency like Corbis or Getty.

Go there and type in the keywords. You type in stuff that you want to shoot. For example, if you want to shoot pregnant women, if you want to shoot travel photography -- say Vietnam on a boat out in Halong Bay, if you want to shoot horses -- whatever it is -- you type in those keywords.

The site will bring up images with those particular keywords. You will see the kinds of images that are at these agencies.

You don't have to just to go Corbis and Getty, there are so many other agencies that you can go to. You can go to some of the smaller agencies. You can go to iStockPhoto (that's Getty's microstock agency that they bought recently for quite a few billion dollars).

Doing this will show the kinds of images that are on these sites -- and that are probably making money. If you type in 'horses, France, white' you might bring up the white Camargue horses in Aral, France and see, "Wow, look at these shots. I was thinking of going to photograph these horses but these are already here. I will have to do at least as good as this -- or hopefully better or different."

Or if you type in 'baby, pregnant, beach, mom' then you could see what it's like to shoot a pregnant mother with a baby at the beach. If you think you can photograph at least as well as that if not better or have some great ideas, then you'll know.

Then you'll know if you are going to be good enough to sell as stock. If your images are just average and you can't tell that, that's a tough one but if you have a good sense of, "Wow, these are a lot better," or, "I'm as good as that person," then you'll know if you have a good chance.

Audri Lanford: What kind of camera gear do you need?

Scott Stulberg: You're not going to want to go out and shoot with a little point-and-shoot camera. A lot of microstock photographers are doing that. That's what's really ruining, I think, stock photography.

You're going to want a nice single-lens reflex (SLR) digital camera. You can still use film if you want, but I think it's really not going to be in your best interest.

You're also going to need to know Photoshop because you're going to need to retouch your images and make them look a lot better. One of the best things you could do is learn Photoshop -- and learn it well.

Buy a decent SLR with at least 10 megapixels and a couple of decent lenses. You're going to need a good portrait lens, between a 70 to 200, a nice wide angle lens, and you need to spend some money because you're competing with people out there that have very expensive camera gear.

If you think you can't tell the difference -- believe me, you can tell the difference. The right gear is going to help you make the bucks.

In conclusion

Before you send your images to a stock agency, do your research. Compare your photos to others that the agency already sells. Use keywords to determine whether or not the agency is buying the types of things you want to sell, and to see if your images compare favorably to what they already have on hand.