What is Stock Photography - The Business of Photography by Brad Rickerby

Stock photography is a great way to make money by creating photographs.  If you are successful in stock photography you will be able to create wonderful images, travel to beautiful places and have the freedom to create your own schedule, working the hours you want to work.

The industry is extremely competitive now, much much more so than when I started back in the mid 1990's. There are many who will tell you that it is impossible to make a living through stock photo sales. To be sure, it will take drive and determination, but there are plenty of people who make very comfortable livings with their cameras in the field of stock photography.

So what is this great thing called stock photography? Very simply put, you create a beautiful, flawless image. That image gets put on file either in your own file or in the file of a stock photo agency. Buyers then come to either you or the stock photo agency looking for images that will meet their current project needs. When the image you created best meets the needs of a photo buyer, that photo buyer will license, for a fee, the use of that photograph. What could be simpler, right?

To the right are three images that I created while traveling to create images. The first is from Shanghai, China, the second, from Miami Beach, USA and the last from Beijing, China. Each of these images were put in the files of my stock agency, Getty Images, and later used by three different publishers.

Book publishers are not the only ones licensing images. Magazines use stock images all the time, as do web sites, corporations, ad agencies, newspaper, record labels and just about any one else who has a reason to use a photograph.  For example, the top image, taken on Nanjing Road in Shanghai China was also used by a retailer of Chinese language instruction programs. In fact, each of the images you see here has been licensed multiple times and I have been paid for each license.

It is the ability to have your images licensed and then re-licensed that makes stock photography so wonderful. While you sit at home with your family, images in your stock file from last week or from eight years ago can be being licensed for use over and over and over again.

In theory, so long as you continue to update your stock file, and with all other things being equal, your income will continue to grow. And keep in mind that updating your file is not work, it is fun. It is being creative and doing what you love.

Such a simplified explanation as this begs hundreds of other questions. Questions such as, Who are the different stock photo agencies, what makes them different from one another, how do I get to work with them and how much do they charge (and they all charge in one way or another)?

More, What is licensing, what types of licenses are sold, what type is best for me and the style of my work and how does the license type effect my income?

And still more, What type of image sells best, what makes a sellable stock photograph and what kinds of images are agencies more apt to accept? Along the same lines, What are the technical specifications of an acceptable photograph.

Also, How do you find models and photo locations? Do I need to use models? What is a model release?

These are all legitimate and important questions. And I can think of about a hundred more questions the answers to which, are vital to your success as a stock photographer.

I will be posting on these questions and many more. Indeed, I would love to post on your questions. Please feel free to ask questions either in the comments section or by emailing me.

You may also want to subscribe to my newsletter (where I will provide links to old posts in this series and titles of posts to come). Please use the box on the upper right of this page to subscribe.

My Mutant Honey and Her Mutant Flower - iPhone Photo

My Honey!

Photo by Brad Rickerby

Fine Art Prints Available

This is another in my series of iPhone photographs. For a change, I wish I had been using my professional camera. The moment was so great and the light, from the almost setting sun was so even and so soft, that I could easily see this picture being used under the concepts of green, home ownership or gardening. The picture has an edge, which is good sometimes. And the mode, my honey if you couldn't guess that, has the kind of every day attractive look that sells in stock photography.

The light has changed now. So maybe I will try to get her back out there tomorrow. This image is not usable for stock because it is just over 1 MB in size. No stock agency that I know of will use such a small image. We will see if tomorrow I can get all the visuals in this image to work together again.

Fine Art Color Photograph by Brad Rickerby - iPhone Collection - Golden Retriever

Jake

The Old Golden Retriever

Photo by Brad Rickerby

Limited Edition Fine Art Prints Available

Another in the series of iPhone photographs, proving to me at least, that it is the photographer and not the camera that creates the image.

Poor old Jake was minding his own business when his nine week old Carin Terrior brother attacked, then attacked and attacked once more. It was relentless. When he finally found a touch of dappled sunshine with no puppy, I got this image where I think he looks both confused (why me?) and exhausted. Puzzled, that is the look in his eyes. This was taken with the instogram and one of the lovely filters provided the nice contrast.

Small size limited edition prints are available. Please contact me at brad@bradrickerby.com for details.

Fine Art Color Cityscape Urban Photograph by Brad Rickerby - Bangkok

Motorcyclists - Bangkok, Thailand

Photo by Brad Rickerby

Limited Edition Fine Art Prints Available

This image deserves to be seen much, much larger. Alas, there is only a certain amount of space on this page. I choose this image to talk about next because we have, over the last several images, been on a discussion on what works best as a stock photo. This image has sold many times as a Rights Managed image through Getty, netting in the thousands of dollars. I guess that makes it a successful stock image, although it clearly violates one of the major principles of stock photography, simplicity. This image is not simple. It is complicated. In fact it is more like an abstract or Impressionist painting than it is a photograph. And that is why it works. The image gives you an impression of what a scene is like. It is as if you squinted your eyes to eliminate detail (which is, in fact, how many of the Impressionist painters painted).

What you are left with when you just have an impression of the scene is a photograph that delivers concepts, and that is key for stock photo sales. In the first place, when you combine this image with its location, Bangkok, Thailand you get a real story about that location. The picture tells you that Bangkok is exciting and fast-paced and dynamic. So the image works as a journalistic travel photo. Take away the location and you just have motorcycles speeding by. You have an illustration of the concepts of speed, motion, fast, an adrenaline rush and movement. All those concepts being illustrated leads to a lot of income.

To create an image like this you really have to look for backgrounds and imagine how they will look when you move the camera across them creating a blur. A single traffic light or a couple of street lights is not going to suffice to create this image. Look for lots and lots of lights (and, of course, a lot of traffic). In this case there were car headlights, neon signs, traffic signals, street lamps and a bridge with more lights on top. Having found the background, creating the image becomes a matter of just panning with the motorcycles so they are clear against the blurred background. Easy? Not at all. I spent all night creating this image. It takes a lot of repetition to get the pieces to all fall into place.

The image was created at f 4.0 at 4/10ths of a second. The ISO was 200 and the lens, a 70 mm.

Fine Art Color Photograph by Brad Rickerby - Jumping for Joy 1

Meg - Jumping for Joy

Photo by Brad Rickerby

Limited Edition Fine Art Prints available

I did a whole series of people (mostly young women) jumping for joy. The image concept and execution are right out of the stock photographers handbook (or they would be, if there were such a book). The image is simple and consistently lit from front to back. The top leaves room for a masthead and both sides leave room for type. The image itself shows an emotion and represents a number of different concepts (joy, achievement, victory, success, youth, energy, craziness, etc.). That last point is crucial. It bears repeating. A good stock photo represents a number of different concepts. The photo will have many possible uses and will therefore sell much more than a single concept image.

This is a recent image and is digital. It was created with a zoom lens at 37 mm. The image was made at f 3.2 at 1/320 of a second at an ISO of 800. I usually don't like to go that high on the ISO (recall that I shot Fuji Velvia 50 for decades) but the light was going so I had no choice. The higher ISO works here and if I were not so picky, would probably work in a variety of other situations.

Prints are available. For more information, please contact me at brad@bradrickerby.com.

If I wrote a book titled, "The Stock Photographers Handbook" would you buy it?

Fine Art Color Abstract Photograph by Brad Rickerby - Hong Kong Harbor Abstract

Hong Kong Harbor Abstract

Photo By Brad Rickerby

Limited Editions Prints Available

This is one of the original images from my "City Lights" series, made on my second trip to Hong Kong. The image is on film, Fuji Velvia 50 (I loved that film).

You have to sit and watch the sun set over Hong Kong Harbor to understand just what a magical event that is. Capturing that magic on camera could be a life time project, there are so very many ways that it could be done. In this case a 200 mm lens was mounted with camera on a tripod. The film was set for a one stop push (to create a little grain and give me a tiny bit more latitude in the camera settings). This is about a ten second exposure with the lens set at f 2.8. During that ten second exposure I kicked the tripod, just a little bit, to give a blur to the overall image. Combine with the minimal grain effect from the film push, the image comes out more of a painting than a photographic likeness. This is exactly what I wanted.

I also waited for a boat to pass in front of me - in this case the Star Ferry leaving from Kowloon - to provide a light streak in the foreground.

I love the density of the modern buildings in the background, the overwhelming number of which have lit windows.

This image sold a lot back in the days when it was made. Buyers have become much more photorealistic these days and have moved away from this type of creativity. So sad!

For more information and to order prints, please contact me at brad@bradrickerby.com.

Fine Art Color Abstract Photograph by Brad Rickerby - Carnival

Carnival

Photo by Brad Rickerby

Prints and Greeting Cards Available

I am continuing the experiment of shooting with my iPhone camera. I really like this picture because it has a lot of lights and color and people being people as well. The technical aspects could use improvement, but I don't care. I am creating art, for its own sake. 

The art of using the iPhone camera at an event with lots of people is just to blend in and look like you are taking pictures of rides and booths or whatever else surrounds you. That way you get people looking natural. Everybody uses iPhone all the the to take pictures. No one gets defensive about it. You are ignored while you create beauty. Should you tell people you are photographing them? The law says I don't have to in a public space, and since I get better, more natural images without telling them, I don't tell them! Of course, that means I can't use the image for commercial uses. But like I said, these days, I am doing photography for my own  pleasure as as, for the sake of art.

To view additional works by Brad Rickerby and for more information on him, please visit his web site at http://www.bradrickerby.com

Limited Edition prints of this photograph are available for purchase. Please contact Mr. Rickerby by email at brad@bradrickerby.com.

Brad Rickerby is located in Cheshire, CT, USA

Fine Art Color Photograph by Brad Rickerby - My Dog Ginger

My Dog Ginger

Photo by Brad Rickerby

Prints and Greeting Cards Available

After two decades of carrying around 100 pounds of camera equipment, I am trying an experiment. I am now shooting with my iphone camera, proving to myself, once again, that it is not the fancy equipment that creates the photo, but rather the photographers eye.

You can see more of my iPhone photographic creations under the iPhone Photos tab on this bolg.

brad@bradrickerby.com

Fine Art Color Portrait of a Couple Photograph by Brad Rickerby

Enchantment

Photo by Brad Rickerby

Limited Edition Prints Available

Enchantment, desire, fantasy, romance, love, lust, desire all of these emotional concept, and so many more apply to this photography. You know that the man is staring at this woman, that his gaze is fixed and while you can't determine what is going through his mind, you know that it involves her. What ever is emotion is, it is not indifference. But what about her. She is soft focused so that all we really know is that the figure is a woman. Does she share his intensity or is she indifferent. Will she jump wildly into his arms, to be consumed in his embrace, or will she shut him down with a shrug and a step away. By virtue of being defocused she brings mystery, a mystery that counters his emotion.

The image tells part of a story, and leaves us wanting more. As a device to deliver information that is a good photograph, but it is a better stock photograph because of the number of concepts it could be used to convey.

The image was created back in the old days of film on a Mamiya RG 67. The film is an Ecktachrome 100. The difficult part of creating this image was the placement of the two models. They had to be far enough apart so that his head would be sharp at f4, while she would be a blur that was identifiable as female. The strong backlight helped to blur her further.

Interested in a print? Contact me at brad@bradrickerby.com

Fine Art Color Cityscape Photograph by Brad Rickerby - Shanghai, China

Green Light

Shanghai China

Photo by Brad Rickerby

Prints Available

This little beauty was taken in Shanghai, China. I can tell you two important things about Shanghai right off the bat. 1) It is a long way from New York City (where I was based at the time I created this image), and 2) The people in Shanghai are utterly bemused at the site of a chubby caucasian guy, dripping camera equipment, with a tri-pod and 300 mm f2.8 lens taking a picture of a traffic light. Of all the places I have been, I appreciate the bemusement of the chinese people the most. I felt utterly safe there, more so than any where else. In fact, it has only been in the USA where I have been hassled by passers-by and the police and only in Los Angeles that I have been robbed, Given me China for safety any day.

This is a great picture for stock. First, it illustrates a concept very simply. Go, start, proceed and others such concepts are all shown by this image. Second, it is simple, yet colorful and has what we used to call in the old days, light box appeal. It jumps off the light box at you because of its color and saturation. A third beauty of this image is that it requires no model release and can't be identified with any specific location.

As I mentioned, this images was created with a 300 f2.8 lens mounted on a tri-pod. It has a narrow aperture to isolate the traffic light against a fuzzy bak ground. The image was created on film (Fuji Velvia 50). Finally, to get the slight blur effect, I kicked (very gently, I didn't want to be accused of tri-pod abuse) the leg of the tri-pod during the exposure. I took a number of these images, varying the kick intensity and duration, so I could be sure I got the effect I wanted (remember, it was in the days of film so I couldn't see the images until I had travelled more than 10,000 miles to the lab I trusted.

Please contact me at brad@bradrickerby.com for more info or prints.  Cheers.

Fine Art Color Photograph by Brad Rickerby - Ghostly Runner

Ghostly Runner, Santa Monica, CA

Ghost Runner

Photo by Brad Rickerby

Limited Edition Prints Available

This was a stock shoot for Getty. Typical girl on the beach running at dusk. The concept was fitness, exercise, determination, drive etc. etc. etc. Just another in a long line of standard shoots with an expected outcome to fill the files of a stock agency that has thousands of other images just like it. Right?

Wrong! Not for me. To stand out, to make your product different and therefore more salable ay a premium price, you have to make your image unique. It has to jump off the light table (well, these days, the computer screen - I guess I go back a long way) and say to the buyer, "I am one of a kind. No other image that you can find will be like me".  I repeat this point often, because it is so basic to your survival as a photographer.

To differentiate my image on this day, I had the model, a women, keep running back and forth in front of me. Thirty feet one way, then turn around and go thirty feet back to where she started from. I had her jog rather than run. I knew if she ran fast, I would never get the image I wanted. I set the shutter speed at about a 30th of a second (at around f4) and shot away. In decades of looking at photographs I don't recall seeing many others like this one.

This is another image that has sold well through out the years.