The Secret Of Successful Stock Photographers

What is the secret to successful stock photography? Create a lot of photos. Okay, maybe I should add that the stock photos need to be appropriate for the market place (meaning pictures that are needed and of a sufficiently high quality). But still, when I recently took a look at the half-dozen most successful stock photographers I personally know, the one thing they all have in common is that they are prolific. They consistently produce a lot of stock imagery.

Well, come to think of it, they also understand what kind of photos to make. They all vary a bit in the kind of images they produce. One of them does a lot of compositing work creating sophisticated concept photos. He actually shoots the photos himself and has a full-time in house Photoshop jockey who handles the post. Another of these successful stock photographers shoots primarily in the studio using sets, and yet another makes extensive use of her surrounding area for location lifestyle shoots. But they all study and understand what kinds of images the market wants.

It is interesting that everyone has their own twist on things and yet can still be very successful. Interesting and encouraging! But again, the one constant is that they all produce consistently…and produce a lot of work. When I asked one of them about how he dealt with the problem of cannibalizing his own work he responded that he’d rather cannibalize it than have someone else do it. He then went on to say that in this new stock photo paradigm where one’s work is so quickly “buried” by the unceasing flow of new imagery, it is necessary to continuously re-do ones own work.  While that seems somehow wrong to me…this guy earns a lot more than I do in stock photography.

We all know that guys like Yuri Arcurs produces massive amounts of imagery for microstock, but the shooters I am referring to are producing for the traditional RM and RF markets and not for micro. I might add that after giving this all a lot of thought my own reaction is to increase the number of images I produce.  Just to give you an idea, I think my new goal will be to average four images a week. Keeping in mind that I frequently spend more than one day on a given image even this seemingly modest goal could be a stretch for me.  One of the above stock shooters plans on adding a thousand images this year…what “consistent” production means to different shooters depends on the kind of images they make…and what their career goals are.

The secret to a successful stock photo career? Do your research to understand what the market wants, then consistently produce those images. Getting those images into the right distribution channels is obviously important, but I see that more as fine-tuning. Knowing that there are many shooters who are actually doing very well in stock means that you can do it too.