From the Mouths of 14 Photographers

From the Mouths of 14 Photographers

Business Tips from 14 Photographers
There
are many ways to participate as a photographer in the stock imagery
marketplace. Some photographers are ‘factory’ stock shooters – it is a
full-time job and they are incredibly focused in running their
businesses. Others are commercial assignment or other types of
full-time shooters who sell stock for side income. And others are just
photography enthusiasts who want to push their hobbies to another
level.  

Not surprisingly, there are as many ways to approach
shooting stock as there are photographers doing it. We’ve tried to
cherry pick the best insights from our talks with 14 photographers to
give you a sense of what to shoot, how to find models, what to budget
for a shoot, how to edit, and what to expect in terms of agency
selections and sales.

Thanks again to the many photographers
who spent so much time with us in exploring the business, life and art
of professional photography!

Figuring Out What to Shoot

 
“I base it on diversifying my portfolio financially — I have 6
portfolios (Lifestyle, Beauty, Portrait, Entertaining, Kids, Travel)
and I am always trying to round them out. I will keep in mind the stock
requests that I get consistently and make sure those are covered.” –
Thayer Gowdy

 “I will search stock sites and look for gaps. I
also come across great talent or a great location and will plan a shoot
around them. I pay attention to what sells and go forward from that.
Create imagery that speaks to a lot of people and that has a lot of
concepts attached to it. Timeless is key. Also, read magazines and stay
current on what’s out there in terms peoples’ concerns – the economy,
etc.” – Inti St. Clair

“I’m not the most scientific when it
comes to deciding what to shoot. The shoots where I’ve spent a lot of
money producing and organizing have been the least successful. The most
successful have been when I shoot things I really want to shoot – if
it’s people putting apples on their heads and playing William Tell,
cool – I just need 2 guys, a bow and arrow, an apple and a field.” –
Eric O’Connell

“I get ideas and lists from editors and agencies
and then think about what I can use for my own portfolio. I don’t think
I could shoot people in doctors’ offices without the photos looking
hoaky, and it takes a huge production. What I like about stock is being
able to come up with my own ideas – I’m very clear about what I’m
doing. Also, I never just go off an agency stock list – they will send
the images back to you and say they’re too literal. Be careful when you
use shotlists – your images have to have an authentic feel. It doesn’t
matter if an image is right on the shotlist, if it doesn’t feel
authentic, they are not going to want it.” – Kathy Quirk-Syvertsen

How to Find Models
“I get models anywhere I can. I have gone to dating sites, I walk up to people in gyms and grocery stores. I think it helps to be a woman. I’ll explain what I do, give them my card, and ask them to check out my website and get in touch if they’re interested. I don’t talk about money when I first meet people; I try to approach it as flattering and that it will be fun. Also, you have to be willing to give prints to everyone.” – Inti St. Clair

“I’ve actually had some luck on Craigslist, just be ready to sort through tons of responses. But it can be a good way to find diverse models. I also use casting sites and I often approach people on the street. My shoots are driven by who I meet so I am always looking.” – Nancy Ney

“I always carry business cards, and I tap into my personal network of friends and family. I’ll approach people cold if I like their look. 9 times out of 10 they will say no – I myself would say no. So I don’t take it personally if they aren’t up for it. Also, you can’t talk people into it – either they are into it or they aren’t. But when I find great models, I hang onto them.” – Glenn Glasser

 “I always cast my shoots for kids. I have a lot of friends with kids, and I’m always looking. I was in Brooklyn last week at a dance festival and probably gave my card to 20 parents. I have a file that I keep of people I meet. I do a lot of casting for big ad photographers too because of this network. For kids, besides being really cute, I look for personality and knowing that they’ll be comfortable. You need to develop a good sense of who is photogenic but also easy to photograph.” – Andrea Wyner

How to Handle Model Releases
“Don’t cover anything up. I would never want anyone to work with me who wasn’t 100% comfortable. Lay out the worst case scenario – you could end up on a Viagra ad, are you ok with that? Either they are or they aren’t – I don’t take it personally. It’s the most important thing – get releases from everyone and be upfront about it.” – Inti St. Clair

“I’m always very upfront and honest. When you talk about model releases it always sort of shakes people a little bit. That’s fine. If someone won’t sign, I won’t shoot them. I’ve never really had anyone say no though – sometimes they will try to negotiate more money when you start talking about releases. Also, I always include a line in my releases that ‘images may not be used for pornographic or defamatory purposes’ and I highlight the line just because this is usually what freaks people out.” – Stephen Ziegler

“You always have to be really clear about it. I never take a photo of someone without asking them first. And I get model releases from every single person. There are definitely some people who are not interested and I just don’t shoot them.” – Andrea Wyner

What to Pay Models
“When you’re working with real people, it’s best just to give them prints – most people are really happy to have them – and it’s cool because you’re helping each other out. Once you start talking about paying people they start wondering what you’re going to do with the photos and it changes the vibe.” – Brad Nelson

“I don’t pay models – I give them prints. It’s more about the shared experience than about anyone making money off of it.” – Glenn Glasser

 “I pay my models a percentage of net profits. If the sum is small and the child is very young, then they will probably appreciate a treat more than money – so I will give them a gift card and some kind of a treat. If the amount is over $20 I write a check to the parents.” – Kathy Quirky-Syvertsen

“I never pay more than $100. It depends. If it’s an ad thing then maybe more.” – Stephen Ziegler

“For professional models, it could be anywhere from $150-300 per day – if that’s a full day and several shots.” – Thayer Gowdy

Location Scouting
“I walk around a lot and I drive around a lot. I will take a model to a location with an activity in mind. There is no better location than an environment has fun doing something.” – Glenn Glasser

“I do a lot of location scouting. I consider that composition in a way. And I try to use as much available light as possible – so I am always looking for good light. Also, you have to take advantage of where you are. Think about what an advertising agency would pay for someone to go on location for in your area and shoot it. My background is fashion so when I moved to Minneapolis I used to travel to Paris to shoot – but it was really forced due to time constraints and travel. I’ve learned to take advantage of what’s around me – the small town look, Lake Superior, parks, gardens, nature – I don’t try to do urban gritty photography here. Figure out what’s unique or sellable about your surroundings and embrace it.” – Kathy Quirk-Syvertsen

Budgeting a Shoot
“Budgets are so personal. Once at Photonica, I went to an event where they had two of their most successful photographers talk to us as a pep rally. One of the photographers got up and gave a detailed budget and break-even formula. And then the woman who was the other photographer laughed and said I have no budgets- I just grab friends and go do it. These were both at the time two of the most successful stock shooters, with totally different styles. Just do everything as budget-consciously as possible.” – Eric O’Connell

“A high-end shoot might be budgeted in the $6-8k range, depending on model fees:

$2000    Clothing Stylist ($300-500 per day – might need for 2 prep days, shoot day, and a day for clothing returns – so need for 4 days total)
$250    Assistant Stylist ($250 day – just need for day of shoot)
$300    Food Stylist: (stylist fee for 2 days – one day to shop, one to shoot)
$500    Digital Tech (just need for day of shoot)
$350    Caterer
$1000    Location Fee ($500-1000 depending on location. Usually $500 for a file pull from a location company, and $500 to home owner. Tap out all your friends’ houses before you pay for location!
$300    Talent ($150-300 per day. Kids on the low range. If someone is there all day and does lots of different set ups, then they would be on the high range.)
$250    Camera Assistant (for the day of the shoot)
$1500    Props, Wardrobe, Food + Misc Costs
$6450     TOTAL

That’s for a high-end editorial shoot. But you could keep it simple and do it for $4k or even less – the basic cost comes from your crew, and you can decide from there how much else you want to spend on things like talent, props and wardrobe.” – Thayer Gowdy
 
“On average I try to produce for less than $50 per accepted image. That’s not wages for myself, but what I actually spend on a shoot for props, models, location, assistant fees etc. I’d spend maybe $500 on a small shoot and maybe $3000 on something more high end with great talent.” – Inti St. Clair

 “You can do a shoot on nothing. Don’t use assistants, and squeeze it into a vacation.” – Nancy Ney

 “One thing I’ve learned is to keep your costs down. It’s so easy to spend – a rock bottom shoot would be $10k for talent etc. So the best thing for me now is to shoot my kids up in our country house in the hills.” – Jon Ragel

Planning Your Shoot
“I always at least get a thought process in place. If I were to go shoot something on ‘active seniors’ I would sit down and try to list all the things I know seniors do. But then I would narrow it down to the ones that would work for what I like to do, and add my own twists. Like seniors doing bingo but one of them thinks it’s strip bingo so he’s there in boxers and socks, having a senior moment! But I’d shoot the entire realm – I would cover all the basic shots and then have him strip down and do the fun ones as the last variables of the shoot.” – Brad Nelson

“I used to be an editor, so I always have a checklist in my head. I focus on what I love but there’s a method to how I work. What are the locations, how many shots can I get out of a location, what are the variables. What is the lighting, does it need a commercial sheen? What is the narrative? I always do research on my subjects. I also do a lot of Polaroid shooting and sketching to make that sense of graphic design. I go in with scenarios – I used to do a lot of documentary work so having a narrative is often my angle.” – Lauri Lyons

“For structured shoots, I don’t want to forget so I do kind of make a list – I’ll make sure I get hands on the computer or pointing at the screen or multi-tasking, far-away, close-up etc. Sometimes I do absolutely nothing, I have something in my head, do a few variations, done. I will also occasionally sit with paper and a sketchbook and actually sketch out what my thought is – foreground, background, person here or there – there’s no set formula.” – Eric O’Connell

Get a Range of Shots
“I always get a range of shots: a close-up, a long shot, 3/4 etc.” – Nancy Ney

“I always get lots of variations in a shoot. If I’m shooting a 50’s mom in the kitchen with a turkey coming out of the oven, I’ll do 4-5 different versions of that shot alone and would expect to get 5-10 images out of the whole shoot because I’m getting different facial expressions as well, or different outfits. I try to get the most out of my shoots by switching things up.” – Brad Nelson

Editing
“When I’m editing, I look for spontaneity and sincerity across the board. I choose the images that carry the authenticity through. That only happens when you keep shooting – you catch the real smile or honesty – you have to keep shooting.” – Thayer Gowdy

“Editing is important because it involves how you want to display your own voice. Make sure you are happy with everything you submit to clients or for sale – once you submit, they pick what they want from that point – so the edit needs to be true to your standards and style.” – Glenn Glasser

“On an average shoot I might end up with 50 images to choose from. Out of that I try to have at least 3 different variations. I think about it more in terms of variations – different wardrobes, locations.” – Lauri Lyons

What to Retouch
“My Lifestyle work isn’t overly retouched at all. I might retouch a fly-away hair, or if the skin isn’t perfect or if the circles under the eyes are too dark. Or maybe if there is something distracting in the picture or that doesn’t go with the color palette, like an edge of a white house in the background. I might also take logos out. You just want to clean up anything obvious.” – Thayer Gowdy

“I try to save myself time by having models bring clothes that don’t have logos – so you don’t have to retouch them after the shoot. I also try to find models with great skin.” – Inti St. Clair

Acceptance Rates at Agencies
“Agencies are really picky. I’ve been doing this since 1983. In the beginning they took everything, hundreds of pictures. That has decreased dramatically – to 2-3 accepted images from a shoot. If I had 5 images accepted from a shoot I’d be thrilled. Sometimes it’s none. Try to do at least 2-3 situations within a shoot – change outfits – and that could help you get more accepted.” – Nancy Ney

“When people see photographers with thousands of pictures on Getty, it’s years of work. People don’t realize that. I’ve been doing stock for 4-5 years and have gotten used to the editing process and the emotions of having your work reviewed. I used to ask the editors why they didn’t want stuff, but I don’t even ask anymore. I look back on my first years and realize how unseasoned I was. The editors were right! But again I never shoot for editors, I shoot for myself. I get mad at myself when I get home and the stuff is too stocky for my website and the agency doesn’t take it.” – Kathy Quirk-Syvertsen

“On a smaller shoot with two people I’d expect to get 10 accepted images. But it varies. If the shoot is Caucasian I might get 2 accepted images. If it’s Baby  Boomer Latino models I’ll get more accepted. I actually think about it more in terms of what I invest in the shoot. If I spent $500 on the shoot I’d want 10 accepted images.”  – Inti St. Clair

What to Expect for Sales
“You always need to make your money back that you invested, and then a profit off of that. But that’s always iffy – if you front the cost for the shoot there is no guarantee that you’ll get the money back. You don’t even know if your agency will take the images.” – Thayer Gowdy

“You can never say ‘Ok I’m going to make $5k off a shoot in a year.’ It takes so much time for images to get to market – stock is a volume-over-time sort of thing. I do have some general ‘return per image’ goals but it depends on the agency and what I’m shooting.” – Inti St. Clair

“I never shoot with sales opportunities at the forefront of my mind – it’s all about what I want to say and whether I want to put my name on it.” – Glenn Glasser

How Often to Shoot

“I shoot a lot, as often as I can. I am always happier when I am shooting vs. when I am brooding about what to shoot. Just go out there and do it.” – Nancy Ney

“I shoot probably 25 times a year for stock. Not as much in the winter in Minnesota, but otherwise I get out there a lot.” – Kathy Quirk-Syvertsen

“My goal is to shoot 8 times a month, which I think is a lot – with one of those being a food shoot. That’s an average – some months it’s not at all, and some months it 16 times. But shooting is my favorite part – I’m totally buried in post-production!” – Inti St. Clair

“For personal work or stock, including my own travel and vacations where I also shoot, it’s probably 10+ times per year. Maybe half of those are structured shoots with locations, hair, makeup – and half are travel and casual. I try to get good usable stock imagery when I’m on vacation.” – Eric O’Connell

Establishing a Personal Point of View
“I always think when I’m shooting, I’m a newcomer to this world, what could I do with this? That’s 50% of every project. I have been photographing Ultimate Fighting lately – the fastest growing sport on earth. I spent time researching it, got on YouTube, saw who else was shooting this, and figured out my own approach to it. If a magazine or ad agency hired you to shoot, chances are they want your style, not something generic.” – Alex Tehrani

“I really know what I want my pictures to look like. One of the biggest problems in Lifestyle photography is that people don’t have a particular focus. Remember that you aren’t just taking a picture of ‘active lifestyle’ – you are taking a picture of the light on someone’s shoulder as they turn on a path and the person who’s looking at that, their partner turning the same corner is catching that – you are capturing an interaction and you should know immediately that that’s what the picture is about. You need to establish your point of view – that you are seeing something as the photographer and noticing something human and real. The image is going to resonate if it’s focused in that way. Mentally and in-camera focused.” – Emily Nathan

“Shoot what you really like. When you shoot for the sake of shooting, you don’t really have a voice as a photographer. Editors remember your voice if it’s more consistent. It makes buyers’ jobs easier because they can categorize you, even though photographers hate that. I focused my shooting on environmental portraiture, with cultural elements built into it. I love commercial images and portraiture and found a way to merge the two. I like to have a merging of ‘are these real people or are these models, and did the space look like that or did she create it? Is this fiction or documentary?’ And visually, a lot of the work I shoot is very poster-like – with a strong sense of graphic design – so even if you only saw one image you can see the whole story going on.” – Lauri Lyons

 “Someone asked me one time if I had different pictures on my studio wall than in my commercial portfolio – and if so, address it – you shouldn’t have these two separate lives, make sure you working on stuff that is closest to your heart. And editors know that. I’ve talked to so many editors – when they see the personal section of your site that’s where they go first, they don’t go right to your tear sheets. You reciprocate what you cultivate. If you only show stuff that’s close to your heart then that’s what people will hire you to do. The key is to stay true and not waver, and it’s tough.” – Jon Ragel

What’s Your Best Selling Image?
“My brother Matt is 28 but looks 50. I have a shot of him in the backyard on a plastic chair – he’s the iconic ‘last American old-fashioned white guy’ – bald, beer gut, shirtless in flip flops and shorts drinking beer. Japan and Denmark really love him.” – Brad Nelson

andreawyner3.png
photo by Andrea Wyner

“A picture of chefs in a professional kitchen. The chef is the new celebrity, it’s been a big topic lately. And then also a picture of a woman walking on a ledge near some water. I think this has sold a lot because it has a sense of freedom – it’s escapist, she’s in a world of her own. It also makes you use your imagination, you don’t know exactly what’s going on.” – Andrea Wyner

erico'connell 3.png
photo by Eric O’Connell

“A boy with peas! It’s sort of out of style now but that was a big one. Also a picture I took of the Brooklyn Bridge in a blizzard. I literally picked up my hat and camera, clicked one shot, and walked home. It was freezing! It took a few seconds and I’ve sold it for as much as $10k.” – Eric O’Connell

nancyney3.jpg  
photo by Nancy Ney

 “Just a simple shot of a young woman with corn rows flipping her hair with blue sky behind it – that has sold constantly, like once a month.” – Nancy Ney

inti st.clair3.jpg
photo by Inti St. Clair

“It’s actually a picture of myself – I set it all up and had my husband press the button. It’s ridiculous, but it’s a photo of me in Thailand in a pool with my arms outstretched, and taken from behind. It sells again and again – because the viewer wants to be in the photo. It sells luxury and vacation and relaxation and free time – concepts that appeal to all of us. It’s funny because we did the same picture with my husband, and that hasn’t sold nearly as much. I think women sell more than men because they are easier to identify with.” – Inti St. Clair

johnragel3.jpeg
photo by Jon Ragel

“The stuff selling the most for me is super spontaneous ‘life is good’ youth having fun stuff.” – Jon Ragel

Any Other Advice?

“You’ve got to assist. Figure out what you want to shoot, find your heroes, and contact them. People are willing to help. Assisting is key. The only way to understand photography is to actually do it.” – Glenn Glasser

“You have to really know that being a photographer is something you want and really be able to deal with the roller coaster of it. Or maybe decide to do something else in the business that’s not actually photography. Don’t take anything personally. Stick with it. Even if you’re getting a lot of work or one month you make a lot of money, it’s never a sure thing. A lot of incredibly successful photographers still panic that they’re not going to do anything next month! It’s hard. Also, it does take a long time. And it’s all about who you know, so be good to people and don’t burn any bridges. Treat people well.” – Andrea Wyner

“The best advice I got when I was working at a lab after college was to be careful of the work you do because it will be the work you get. I extended that advice into ‘be careful of the work you show because it will be the work you get.’ In the internet boom when I was starting out, I was shooting a lot of portraits of business people for magazines. But I put travel work and personal work on my website and never the business portraits because that’s not what I wanted to become – I wanted to become a travel photographer.” – Emily Nathan

“Photography takes a lot of work, I work all the time. A lot of people don’t really understand that – you’re not just walking down the street taking pictures. You have to be a total workaholic, that’s the reality of it. It’s becoming harder and harder to make a living in stock because there is a gluttony of imagery available. But I love the lifestyle and I love the freedom. To do it full time, you need tenacity and to tough out a long time of not making money at first.” – Inti St. Clair

Next Post:
Previous Post:
This article was written by

Allen Murabayashi is the co-founder of PhotoShelter.

There is 1 comment for this article

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *