By Lee Foster
Almost every modern writer/author will have an ongoing relationship with photos. You likely are using photos for:
- your blog
- your articles
- your social media
- perhaps as illustrations in your books
Where will you get those photos? You have your sources. But could you also create some of those photos yourself? If you get good at this, could you even sell those photos to others?
Our Photo-Driven Culture
Aristotle defined our species as the rational animal. If any 21st century update on that would be universally allowed, it is perhaps that we are the photo-driven rational animal.
Photos influence a lot of what we do as media communicators and as consumers. Every communication benefits from a strong photo, whether a still photo or a moving photo, meaning a video.
Supplying photos for sale to others has been a profitable venture for me and for many other photographers.
For example, travel publisher Lonely Planet and their Lonely Planet Images stock photo agency paid me about $220,000 in the years 1998-2010 for the use of my photos in their books and in their external sales to other publishers, especially magazines.
They published my photos in more than 300 of their books. They sent me two copies of each book in which I had photos. I have long shelves of those books in my condo in Berkeley, CA.
The current situation in selling photos is more difficult, but profit is still possible.
Your Camera
The main revolution in the field of modern photography is the invention of the phone as a photo device, especially the iPhone. I happen to use an iPhone 7+ for much of my current photography. Samsung phones are equally good, but the iPhone is what I know.
Chances are you are using a fairly sophisticated phone already, so you probably have a pretty good camera in hand now.
The iPhone 7+ has enough pixels, those little increments of information, in its capture for many photo uses. Keep in mind that the capture device only needs enough pixels for the intended display use.
The iPhone 7+ captures at 72 dots or pixels per inch, with the total size on the long side of the image at 4,032 pixels. That’s enough for most screens. Some print uses will benefit from additional pixels.
I like the + in the iPhone 7+ because it indicates that this is an iPhone with two camera lenses. The phone has a wide-angle 28-millimeter lens and also what is called a “normal” lens of 56 millimeters. It is useful to have these two lenses. You can get closer to a subject and still use all the pixels.
Some of the iPhones after the iPhone 7+ also have the two lenses. I recommend a phone device with the two lenses.
The Camera Beyond Your Phone
If you get involved in photography, you might want to supplement your phone camera with what is called a DSLR camera, or digital single lens reflex camera. All of the great camera brands, such as Nikon, Canon, and Sony, have competing cameras that are good.
You don’t need the latest greatest DSLR camera. You just need the recent good. I shoot with a Nikon D7100 and an 18-140 millimeter telephoto zoom lens. The technology is about five years old.
When I am out in the field getting photos, I capture with both my iPhone and with my Nikon, simultaneously.
There are two things a DSLR camera can do better than a phone camera.
First, the DSLR with a telephoto lens can pull in distant images and use the “full frame” to capture the subject. For example, see the geese flying in a group as the illustration for this post. The image is at the top, as the Featured Image, and then is midway down in the post in full detail. Those geese are fairly far away. But I zoomed in with my Nikon and caught them crisply.
On the other hand, with this recent restaurant photo of a chef, I used my iPhone only for the capture. See this chef as the Featured Photo and fully presented below in the post in an article on restaurants here.
Second, the DSLR sensor, with more pixels, can make your photo more eligible for larger-size print sale opportunities, such as the cover of a magazine.
Processing Your Image
The photo right out of the phone or DSLR camera may need some “processing” to be useful. How will you do that?
You may want to change the dimensions. The terminology in photo speak is to “crop” it. You may want to intensify the colors. Above all, if you ever want to sell photos, you will want to put in the information, called “File Info” or “metadata” that will be attached to the photo. The File Info tells what the photo is about and that you are the creator and want your copyright honored. Potential licensors will see your contact information.
One of the great ironies of our modern photo era is that buyers find photos they want based on the words attached to the photo. A Search Engine, such as Google, needs to find words associated with your photo that parallel the Search words the buyer has selected. If there is a close match, Google may award to you the gift of the Search.
So, how should you “process” your photos? I recommend you invest $10/month in licensing from Adobe for their Photoshop/Lightroom software. This is the industry standard. The monthly license fee is a lifelong commitment. No other tool is as satisfactory, in my opinion.
Your Own Photo Selling Site
Potential buyers will see your photos on your blog/website/social media or in your books and may inquire about licensing them.
However, the much larger audiences are the photo buyers who do not know you, but will search for their photo needs, which you may be ready to supply. For that, you need a specific photo-selling site, such as my Foster Travel Publishing photo selling site.
I license my photos from this site, which has about 7,000 of my photos, to my main clients, which are major magazines, and to unknown clients who find me.
I also have my site set up to license photos for a small price, $20/photo, to individuals for their blogs/websites/books. I call this category a Personal Use License. A potential buyer finds a photo, moves it to the Cart, sees the option of the Personal Use License for $20, pays with a credit card, and immediately downloads the high-resolution file of the photo for their use.
My selling structure is provided by an entity known as PhotoShelter. About 80,000 photographers use PhotoShelter. For a Standard site, about $300/year, you get 100 gigabytes of storage space on their server, plus their selling software, and their “themes” with which to present your photos.
You totally control all aspects of the commerce, setting your prices. Their software also allows people to buy your photos as cards, as prints, or printed on T-shirts and coffee mugs, whatever you authorize. It’s all automated.
Most importantly, most credible photo editors buying photos will know about PhotoShelter already.
Your Possible Photo Agency Partner
Are there agencies today, such as my mentioned Lonely Planet Images agency, where you could possibly place your photos to get further sales? (Lonely Planet Images now no longer exists, having merged with the Getty agency.)
Yes, there is one good one, in my opinion. It is called Alamy, located in England but selling worldwide at fairly decent prices. I have about 3,000 images with them. Search “Lee Foster” (in quotes) so see some of them. I started putting in photos about 2006. So far, I have had 1,032 sales for $85,630 in revenue paid to me.
Alamy will accept photos from the newcomer and outsider. The requirement is that the photo be properly processed, with appropriate metadata. The possible agency opportunity is an argument for your investment in Adobe Photoshop/Lightroom photo processing software.
What Would Help You in Photography?
This post just begins to explore the subject of a writer/author possibly creating and selling photography. I will be doing a post for Joel Friedlander once every five weeks or so. I could do more posts on photography. Would that be useful to you? What would you like to learn? Let me know in the comments section below this post.
Photo: BigStockPhoto
