5 Questions For Stock Photo Success

Connection, networking and communications technology shown in an image that is easy to crop, has room for copy, and has visual impact, results in a successful stock photo.
A Best Selling Stock Image
Since I created this image of a woman with the top of her head engulfed in streaming colored lights a couple of years ago, it has been consistently a best seller for me. When I created it I was hopeful that it would sell but I never would have guessed that it would be in my top 100 (actually it was my 16th best selling image out of about 10,000 images over the course of 2015).
Sales Reports And Trying New Things
I tend to obsessively scan my sales reports determined to glean information that will help me make images that sell well. But time and again what I come away with is that everything sells (okay not every single image sells, but pretty much every category does) and it’s impossible for me to know which images are going to be the best sellers.  That opens the door for me to keep trying new things (like combining streaks of light with models).
Five Questions About A Stock Image
There are five questions I ask myself about an image to try and insure the image has a chance to sell well:
1.              Does the image illustrate important concepts?
2.              Is the image a quick read at thumbnail sizes?
3.              Can the image be cropped to multiple formats?
4.              Is there room on the image for inclusion of headlines and/or copy?
5.              Does the image have visual impact?
Now no image needs to have all of these qualities, but the more of those questions get answered, “yes” the better chance an image has of being a successful stock image.
Concepts, thumbnails, Crops And Visual Impact
Connections, networking and communications technology are all concepts illustrated in this shot of a woman’s head intersecting with streaking lights, all important concepts in this digital age. I am pretty sure that at least one reason the image does well is because it can serve to illustrate multiple concepts. It reads quickly as a thumbnail, crops to square or vertical and it has visual impact. It really stands out on a page of thumbnails about “networking” or “connections”.
Eyeballs And Blend Images
I gave the image to Blend Images believing that is my best chance to get the most eyeballs on it. So far it has been licensed in India, The U.S., The U.K., Thailand, Germany, Slovenia, Korea, United Arab Emirates, France, Qatar, Canada, Taiwan and China…so far. And it’s a Rights Managed image…meaning it probably would have sold many more times as an RF image. But that is the subject for another time!

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