Selling Your Photography – A Book Review

Is there still a need for assignment photography? Do advertising directors still hire out photographers on a regular basis? Can you really make money selling your photography in the media and editorial venues?

When I picked up this book, those were the first questions that ran through my mind.

I checked the publishing date of Richard Weisgrau’s Selling Your Photography book – published in 2009. Okay, another good sign the information might be relevant to where we stand today. So I sat down and started reading.

“The market for publishable photographs is growing faster than ever before. With that growth, the demand for photographs of all types of subjects has increased.”

“Whether you are an amateur or professional photographer, the opportunities to publish your photographs are growing every day.”

Those are Weisgrau’s opening remarks. And it only gets better from there.

Selling Your Photography covers everything from beginning to end. It starts by giving you a market overview – how the current market looks for today’s photographer, and what you can expect if you start out as an advertising, media or corporate photographer. He moves through setting up your business model. And talks at great length about finding your market segments and how to reach out to your target client. He has a great chapter on licensing and pricing, and even provides samples of letters, estimates and licensing agreements for you to follow and use. And ends it by providing online resources that should keep you busy for weeks.

And in between, you’ll gain a ton of useful ideas that make this book a definite for your library if you’re serious about selling your photography.

Selling Your Photography: How to Make Money in New and Traditional Markets
By Richard Weisgrau
215 pages
Published 2009

Organize Your Photographs With PicsMatch

Have you ever spent more time searching for a file, than actually manipulating it once you’ve found it?

Have you ever put a photograph into a file – knowing its location made perfect sense when you originally put it there – yet even a few days later you have no idea where it is?

PicsMatch can help you find what you’re looking for, and even help you organize based on what your plans are for the photograph.

PicsMatch is a facial recognition software that assigns an ID for anyone in a photograph, and will sweep through your hard drive finding any other matches for that facial ID.

Once you have your images together, PicsMatch gives you a variety of tools to work with the photos. You can use one of the tools in the Zoom Editing Suite, such as the crop or sharpen edit options, or choose an effect such as the black & white feature.

Once you find your images, create a special album folder with the images you select. You can even share the images using the PicsMatch tool bar, and choose to print, burn to disc, or share with family and friends on your Flickr account.

At $49 for a downloadable copy, it’s a tool that’s easy to use just about anywhere. PicsMatch is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems – so if you are PC, this may be a great tool to add to your toolbox.

What Should You Be Shooting With – A Canon EOS-1D Mark IV or a Nikon D3S?

If you’re just starting out and looking to invest in your first professional camera, which one should you choose?

To help you through the selection process, take a look at Snapsort – a brand new search site that finds the best camera for you by comparing any two cameras, giving you the stats, and ranking the winner accordingly.

I compared the Canon EOS-1D Mark IV to the Nikon D3S. Snapsort gives you both the differences and the similarities between the two cameras.

Once you’ve reviewed the differences and similarities, Snapsort declares the winner based on the camera that provides you with the most features.
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Using Reverse Image Search Tools For Copyright Protection of your Photographs

Have you ever been just a bit nervous about putting an image online, not sure who’s going to copy it and claim it for their own? You can head over to Google and search for the file name to find out if anyone has duplicated it. But what about finding an exact match for your images?

Enter reverse image searches. Upload your image into the search tools, and it will scour the web looking for matches without worrying about keywords, copy, or file names.

TinEye is a new entry into the world of reverse image searches, and is by far coming out as the leader in this category.

TinEye allows you to submit an image and find out where it came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or find higher resolution versions. The technology is pretty cool. When you submit an image, it creates a “fingerprint” and then compares that fingerprint to every other image it retrieves through searches. It won’t find similar images – only things that are an exact match, even if its been cropped, resized or adjusted. Read more

Display Your Work In A Mosaic Frame

A few days ago I introduced you to Moo.com. I love their cards and their ideas because they can make you stand apart from your competition, and make your prospects say, “wow”.

Today I received an email introducing the Mosaic Frame to their U.S. customers. If you order a pack of mini-cards, you can place 20 of them in any direction on to the frame. It’s a great conversation starter.

Stand Out From The Crowd – Create Unique Photo Cards

Want a unique way to stand out from the crowd?

A couple of weeks ago I somehow surfed my way over to Moo.com – a custom printer of business cards, minicards and postcards. Their homepage made me take a second look, so I started to take a look around. And I loved the opportunity they offer for photographers.

Head over to Moo.com and click on the business card option. Then start designing your business cards. You can upload up to 50 of your images to display on your cards. Then choose what you want to say on the other side, your paper options, and hit the order button. You can have these vibrant business cards ordered in no time.

I loved their options, but to me what matters most is the quality. Since they had a “try before you buy” option, I thought I’d give them a try. So I uploaded 10 different images, and had my cards made. Five days later, the cards were in my hands. And I have to tell you, I love them. The quality will put your other business cards to shame. They are printed on thick paper, and the colors held true to what I expected.

The price is extremely reasonable –especially for the newbie. You can order a 50 pack for $21.99. (They do have other options if you need more.)

They also offer the same option for postcard and greeting cards. Want to include some of your prints in your marketing kits you hand out to clients? Order these high quality postcards. Again, I love the quality and it’s nice to be able to order a small quantity.

Play With Your Photos – 8 Sites To Create Something New

Since its Friday, I thought I would share fun sites where you can play with your photographs and turn them into hundreds of different images. (And maybe you’ll get some ideas to share with your tween and teen customers!)

PhotoFunia

PhotoFunia is an online photo editing tool that allows you to have fun with your image. Upload your image, than add a cool photo effect. Over 100 different effects to choose from.

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8 Album Software and Design Applications

As a high-end wedding photographer, I know the money isn’t in the shooting part of your business. It’s in the selling part of your business. And the easiest way to make a ton of money is to sell albums as opposed to packages and handing over the digital files.

For ideas on building and selling albums, you may be interested in Photographing By The Page – The Only Way To Shoot A Wedding.

In order to build and sell large albums, you have to design large album templates before the sale in order for your clients to see what you do, and picture the final product in their minds.

Yes, you can design each page in Photoshop. But when you’re designing over 280 pages on speculation the way I did, you have to have something that makes the process more efficient.

Here are 8 album design programs that can help you design albums on speculation quicker.

Fundy Album Builder

Allows you to design and create your own layouts instead of using pre-established templates. Works for both PC and Mac. Offers a free trial download.
Album DS

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Do Your Photographs Come Up In Google Creative Commons?

When you put your photographs on Flickr, do you place some of them into the Creative Commons?  By giving away some user rights to some of your pictures, you allow others to have the right to use your images freely in what they do online, providing they give you credit.

Now Google has a way for searching in the Creative Commons.

If you use the Google Advanced Image Search you can search by usage right. Search for images labeled for reuse, or commercial reuse, and for reuse with modifications.

Great if you’re looking for images to use on your blogs or sites. And great if you’re a photographer looking to gain some traction with your images.

Why? Let’s imagine a blogger uses your images in a blog post. They give you credit for your image. One of their readers sees your work, clicks over to your Flickr stream, likes what she sees, and connects to you through your website.

You’ve now made a connection with a potential client – one that you found by being active using social sites.

Because your work can now easily be found through Google, make sure you are keywording your photographs appropriately, so they will come up high when people search in Google.

65 Stock Photography Sites To Find And Sell Photography

Looking for stock photos, stock video, or stock graphics to go into your marketing and advertising? Or looking for a great resource to begin selling your photography to stock houses? Check out this list for a variety of resources, both general and specific.

Stock Photography – Commercial/Fee Based

123 Royalty Free
AbsolutVision
AgeFotostock
Agodia
BigStockPhoto
CanStockPhoto

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