by: dan feildmanlsft.s3.amazonaws.com/typic_dl/turn-your-photos-into-cash.pdf · dan feildman’s...

By: Dan Feildman

Dan Feildman’s “Turn Your Photos Into Cash” How to quickly and easily make money... with just a digital camera, computer and internet connection!

© Dan Feildman, TurnYourPhotosIntoCash.com – 2008 All Rights Reserved

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Table of Contents

Introduction .............................................................................. 3

Jumpstart Your Career ............................................................... 7 1) Making Money with Citizen Journalism ....................................... 7

2) Getting a Model (the Easy Way!) ............................................ 14 3) Selling Your Photos Directly to Webmasters ............................. 15

4) Creating and Leveraging Your Own Fame................................. 16 5) Starting a Pet Photography Business ....................................... 17

Before You Begin ..................................................................... 19

Gathering Your Equipment ......................................................... 20

Buying a Digital Camera ............................................................ 24 Avoiding Legal Problems ............................................................ 38

Protecting Your Photos from Theft .............................................. 49 Copyrighting Your Photos .......................................................... 54

Four Ways to Make Money with Your Digital Photos ................ 56

Creating an Income Stream with Stock Photo Sites ....................... 56 Creating and Selling Photo Products ............................................ 66

Making Money Using Freelance Sites ........................................... 72 Sharing Your Photos for Cash ..................................................... 74

Five Secrets to Making More Money with Your Stock Photos .... 77

Secret #1: Taking Pictures of Your Co-Workers ............................ 78 Secret #2: Getting Pictures of Children ....................................... 86

Secret #3: Snapping Pictures of Your Local Area .......................... 96

Secret #4: Selecting Your Keywords ......................................... 111 Secret #5: Scouring Your Computer for Photos .......................... 116

Tips and Tricks for Taking Better Photos................................ 121

Tips and Tricks for Enhancing Your Photos ............................ 124

Conclusion ............................................................................. 126



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Introduction Hi, Dan Feildman here, and I‘d like to welcome you to ―How to Make

Money with Photography‖.

I‘m really excited about this ebook -- and that‘s because you‘re about

to discover a complete ―A to Z‖ guide to making money with your photos.

Look, there are plenty of photography books and courses online and at

your local bookstore. Most of them show you how to take a photo. But this is the one ebook you need if you want to turn those photos into

cash in your pocket!

In just a moment you‘ll get a complete chapter-by-chapter overview of what you‘ll learn in this ebook.

But first, let‘s make sure we‘re starting out on the same page (so to

speak ) by defining a term you‘ll see throughout this ebook, plus we‘ll

take a look at what you need to get started making money with photos…

Here’s What You Need to Know Before You Get Started

First, here‘s a definition of ―stock photos.‖

DEFINITION: Stock Photo- ―Stock photos (stock photography) are professional photographs of common

places, landmarks, nature, events or people that are bought and sold on a royalty-free basis and can be used and reused

for commercial design purposes. The photographer (or stock photography distributor) has ownership to the images, and

the commercial designer has some limited usage of the photo (which is set out in the Terms of Service by the

company you purchase the stock photos from).” Source: www.webopedia.com

http://www.webopedia.com/



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The important thing to extract from this definition is that ―stock photos‖ are not taken for a specific or contracted design project.

Rather, they remain ―in stock‖ somewhere, so that they can be

purchased by design professionals without the hassle of commissioning a project.

Next, let‘s make sure you have the right equipment to generate a full-

time income online using your photography.

Realistically, there are at least three things you should have if you truly want to turn your photos into cash:

A Digital Camera

A Computer Internet Access

Obviously, a digital camera is an absolute must if you want to make

money with photography. Additionally, you will want a camera that

meets certain quality standards – you‘ll learn what those quality standards are in later chapters. Pay attention to this information -- if

you get this wrong, you may not even be able to upload your picture to many stock sites.

Having a reasonably good computer is also important if you want to

make money with photography. You will need to perform various tasks on your computer, such as:

Editing photos

Communicating with clients via email Finding new jobs

Uploading pictures

If your computer is slow or does not have the necessary software

(which I will cover in later chapters), you will waste a lot of time simply waiting around for pictures to load and upload.

Finally, you will also need to obtain some type of regular Internet

access. Since you will need to communicate with your clients and upload photos, you must be able to access the Internet throughout the

day.



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I will discuss how you should approach this issue in later chapters, but for now, assume that it is a good idea to have access to a cable, DSL,

or better connection.*

A GREAT TIP IS: While having Internet access at home is definitely ideal, it is in no way a prerequisite in order to make

money with photography online. In fact, if you don‘t have Internet access or if your Internet access is slow, you use the closest public

Wi-Fi station instead.

Here Are the Strategies You’ll Discover Throughout This Ebook

Generating a nice income with your photos isn‘t difficult, especially

when you have this complete guide. Here‘s what you‘re about to learn chapter-by-chapter:

CHAPTER 1: Here you‘ll discover the secrets to jumpstarting your

career.

If you‘re anxious to get started, I‘ve included this chapter to show you how to jumpstart your career in stock photography. You can begin

earning money online from your digital photos immediately!

CHAPTER 2: Here you‘ll learn everything you need to know before you

start to earn money online with your photography.

You‘ll discover how to:

Select your photography equipment. Protect yourself against theft, and

Ensure your photography doesn‘t violate any laws.

CHAPTER 3: Here you‘ll find out how to make money online selling photos.

You‘ll discover the three main ways to generate massive piles of

money selling your photography online, including:

1. Sell your photos to stock photography sites.

2. Create and sell photo products. 3. Attract and complete lucrative photo assignments.



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CHAPTER 4: You‘ll learn all about the in-depth strategies for making money online with stock photos.

You‘ll discover: 1. Complete, usable, and powerful strategies for obtaining model

waivers. 2. What types of pictures you should be taking to make the most

money.

CHAPTER 5: How to improve your digital photography.

While this ebook is mainly focused on making money online with digital photography, I address briefly in chapter 6 reviews of some basic

methods for taking good digital photos. You‘ll also get a list of resources if you need more information on this topic.

CHAPTER 6: How to edit your digital photos.

Here you‘ll discover some of the quick fixes for common editing and other photo problems. Plus, you‘ll also get a list of resources if you‘d

like to examine this topic in more depth.

By the time you complete this ebook, you‘ll discover that making a lot

of money with photography online is not only possible, it‘s well within your grasp and quite enjoyable!

Let‘s get started…



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Jumpstart Your Career

If you‘re desperately in need of some fast cash, this chapter is for you.

In the coming sections, I will detail exactly how you can make some fast cash using only your digital camera, your computer, and the

Internet.

While other photographers spend hundreds of dollars and hundreds of hours of their own time, you‘re going to get five secrets for

jumpstarting your career that will ensure that you never have to go through that process.

So what are these secrets?

The first secret is something called ―citizen journalism,‖

The second secret is a trick you can use to always get a model when you need one.

The third secret is a strategy you can use to find more clients

eager to buy your photos.

The fourth secret reveals how to use social networking sites to boost your income.

The fifth secret involves making money with your neighbors‘ pets.

Now - Let‘s get on with it…

1) Making Money with Citizen Journalism ―Citizen Journalism‖ is a broad term used to refer to any form of

journalism that is practiced by citizens, rather than the media establishment.

For our specific purposes, whenever I use the term citizen journalism, it should be understood that I am talking about non-

journalists (i.e. people like you) taking pictures and submitting them to news agencies.



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Now, you might say ―that‘s a great idea, but can I actually make any money off of it? Aren‘t I just giving my own photos to wealthy media

giants?‖ And that‘s an excellent question. Luckily, you don‘t have to

just give your photos away.

Instead, you can sell them to the media.

Now, there are many ways you could go about selling your photos to the media, but most of them involve a lot of marketing to large media

outlines, which is unlikely to have a great outcome.

For this reason, I would suggest that you use the following websites:

Number 1#

http://www.peoplepaparazzi.com/

What is People Paparazzi?

SNAP, SEND, SELL -- The age of the People Paparazzi is here. There

are four billion mobile phones in the world today with cameras and everyone has a camera.

Splash has led the way in selling the public's images to websites,

magazines, newspapers and TV around the world. Some of the biggest

scoops include –

Colin Farrell kissing a girl in a New York Pub $4500, Britney Spears first wedding - $150,000,

Paris Hilton kissing her lover - $7500, Brad Pitt and Angelina in Canada - $20,000.

And its very easy too. Anyone can email pictures from their cell phone

or computer, email them to Splash within minutes and they‘ll sell it for you.

So how much do you get?

YOU will get 50% of every sale (they take 50% for marketing,

accounting and archiving). Not bad for a quick snap.

http://www.peoplepaparazzi.com/



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Number 2#

http://www.thesnitcherdesk.com/

All You Need To Know About The Snitcher Desk

Celebrities are all around us and are a valuable commodity in this

media driven world. The often lauded celebrity lifestyle is one that would not exist without the recognition and acceptance it receives from

us – the general public.

However, it‘s not just the celebrity imagery in its full airbrushed glory

that is all round us. So are the people behind the on-screen personas. They still shop the same high streets as us, they drink in the same

pubs, walk in the same parks and go to the same gyms. Whether we love to love them, or love to loathe them, our society‘s thirst for them

is insatiable.

In this forever advancing digital age, we at The Snitcher Desk are adding a new dynamic to the public/celebrity relationship. A new

paradigm that in fact benefits both sides, but primarily lets you get a slice of the action. A call to arms for a public paparazzi kitted out with

http://www.thesnitcherdesk.com/



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ever improving mobile phones and digital cameras, and an opportunity to make some easy money.

What the Snitcher Desk is all about is taking these celebrities from the public view into the public viewfinder, and turning megapixels into

megabucks. So, if you get the right shot, we‘ll get you the right price.

If your photographs or videos are sold, 50% is split between The Snitcher Desk and our partner agencies and 50% is paid to you.

Number 3#

http://www.photographersdirect.com/

Photographers Direct is a photographic portal to help picture buyers

and researchers find suitable stock photos for any media.

To date, we have connected 18,932 buyers from Australia to Venezuela, with 15,280 professional photographers from Andorra to

http://www.photographersdirect.com/



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Zimbabwe and currently have 2,189,710 stock images in our search engine.

In response to the enormous changes that have taken place in the photo business in the past few years, we have pioneered the concept of

"Fair Trade Stock Photography".

Our photographers receive 80% of the sale price of their images (through an agency they normally receive 50%, through sub-agencies

they may receive as little as 8% of the sale price!).

Number 4#

http://www.citizenside.com

Citizenside: How does it work?

Citizenside: What is it?

With Citizenside, you can share and sell your news images.

http://www.citizenside.com/



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Share: Citizenside is a community of citizen-reporters around the world who send, broadcast and comment on their news images on the site.

Join Us!

Sell: Think you got a scoop? Citizenside can sell your images to the

international media in one click. Citizenside works like an agent between you and the rest of the world.

Citizenside negotiates the best sales prices for your content and gives

you back up to 65% on the final price.

Number 5#

http://www.demotix.com/

Demotix is the multi-award winning home of 'Street Journalism' - the

newswire where YOU tell the stories.

Upload your news stories, images and video, Build your profile and portfolio and join the thriving Demotix community; we'll push your

work out to over 200 news companies around the world – giving

http://www.demotix.com/



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strength to your voice and splitting any fee 50:50.

We are a 15,000-strong community (growing daily thanks to you), from

190 countries around the world.

Together, we have won and been nominated for awards all over the world; have placed your images on the front pages of the New York

Times , WSJ, Guardian and elsewhere, as well as CNN, NBC and the BBC; have licensed your stories to literally 100s of sites and news

organisations around the globe; AP, Reuters, EPA and many others have distributed our content around the world; and we have

agreements in place with resellers from Australia to Argentina.



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2) Getting a Model (the Easy Way!)

Later on in the ebook, I will discuss the legalities of digital photography in-depth; however, for the purposes of this section, all you need to

know is that if you take a photo of an identifiable human face, you must obtain a “model waiver.”

This waiver gives you permission to use those photographs and waives the model‘s rights to any royalties generated by the photography

session.

There are two problems with model waivers:

Problem #1: Model waivers are really annoying to keep track of, carry around, and fill out.

Problem #2: They tend to make people very apprehensive.

Rather than simply snapping someone‘s photo and then selling it on a stock photography site, you must first ask them to fill out a lengthy

legal document and sign on the dotted line.

This makes most people apprehensive and makes a lot of them reject

your offer (to take their photos) when they otherwise would not.

While this makes it harder to get humans in your photos, it also does something that can help you if you take advantage of it: Namely, it

makes it harder for most photographers to get pictures of human models.

And, for this reason, if you can get good pictures of human models, you

stand a great chance of making a lot of money on stock photo sites and elsewhere.

Luckily for you, there‘s a good way to get around this problem: you

can be your own model. Even though you‘ll still technically have to obtain a model waiver from yourself in order to submit your photos to

stock photo sites, you won‘t have to beg, plead, cut deals, and scour

your address book to find a willing model.

Instead, you can simply use the self-timer to capture photos of yourself.



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If you do decide to go the self-modeling route, I personally suggest that you do the following two things:

Edit all photos you take of yourself, so that you can sell one with a white background and one with the natural setting.

Capture a large variety of pictures of yourself in different poses and

at different places. That way you stand a greater chance of attracting designers to your work.

Additionally, I would suggest that you practice taking photos with

the self-timer for about a week.

Initially, you probably won‘t be particularly good at taking them; however, if you practice again and again, you will figure out how you

can position yourself so that you look reasonably good in self-timed photos.

3) Selling Your Photos Directly to Webmasters As a photographer and skilled photo-editor, you have probably

stumbled over dozens of poorly-designed sites that made you cringe.

You have seen photos that were poorly cropped and image-editing work that was far below average.

Strangely, though, as you also noticed, some of these sites were

receiving massive amounts of traffic from search engines and other sources. But there‘s something that you may not have noticed: that

these poorly designed sites provide you with an excellent opportunity to make money.

How can you earn money this way?

You can do it by contacting the webmaster and offering to take pictures

and do photo-editing for the site. In most cases, you can find the webmaster‘s information by clicking on the ―contact us‖ button at the

bottom of the page.

From there, you can simply contact the webmaster and give him a

short sales pitch, explaining exactly what you can do for them and how much you would charge.



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While this strategy can work in a number of different situations, I personally suggest that you use the following two ways (at a

minimum):

Contact local businesses and organizations that have websites, so

that you can offer to take pictures of the local area (i.e. their headquarters, their products, their employees, etc.).

Contact sites that could benefit significantly by some minor photo

editing (i.e. to make their site upload faster or to make a banner or logo look better).

Another great TIP is: In addition to local businesses and organizations, you may want to consider contacting the local

historical society (if they have a website). You could offer to canvas the historical areas in your town and capture photographs

for them for a reasonable price.

Even if they weren‘t willing or able to pay for them, you could

offer to do it for free; and you could later reference the photos on their sites next time you needed to show your work for some

reason or another.

4) Creating and Leveraging Your Own Fame While most Internet users have watched videos on YouTube, most have

not used YouTube to upload their own videos. If you fall into this category, don‘t worry.

As long as you‘ve got experience with image editing and slide shows,

you should have no problem following along with this career jumpstart secret.

And if you DO already have experience creating videos and

slideshows and uploading them to YouTube, then you‘ll find this career jumpstart extremely easy to do.

So how is YouTube important?



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It is important because it allows you to upload short slideshows and videos, which you can then use to gain a reputation and get your ―15

minutes of fame.‖

You can then use your good reputation to sell your work by sending

traffic to your website (if you have one) or to your www.cafepress.com site (which you will learn how to create later in this ebook).

I personally suggest that you follow these easy steps to make money

with this method:

1) Attend local events (such as concerts), take photos, and then create slideshows with background sound or music.

2) Upload these slideshows to YouTube.

3) Spend some time finding and commenting on other people‘s

videos that are on similar topics (i.e. the same band, the same

city, etc.).

Whenever you comment on someone else‘s videos, link back to your own profile with an explanation of what they will find.

When you are doing this, remember that your ultimate goal is to make

money.

For this reason, you will want to place the URL to your site or to your mini site at www.cafepress.com on each of the slides in the slideshow.

5) Starting a Pet Photography Business One business which has been on the rise in the United States and

Europe in recent decades is the pet accessories business. Pet owners want to purchase clothing, toys, photos, and expensive

medicine and procedures for their pets.

This increased spending is good news for you. You can benefit from this increased interest in pet accessories by creating a pet

photography business.

But rather than setting up a store and charging $20 for a pack of

wallet-sized photos for Rover, I‘m going to suggest that you do

http://www.cafepress.com/

http://www.cafepress.com/



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something different altogether: offer your services for free to pet owners in your area.

Now, you might say: ―Hey, I‘m trying to make money here. Why should I give away photos for free?‖

Well, the reason is that pet photos tend to sell very well on stock

photography sites. You can easily get a bunch of these photos by offering to take pet photos for free. And then you simply upload these

photos and sell them hundreds of times on stock photo sites.

TIP: You must obtain a “property waiver” for the pictures from the pet‘s owner. You should also make it very clear to the owner

that pictures of his or her pet will be sold on the Internet to various persons, corporations, and websites. To be safe, ask the

pet owners to sign a legal agreement.

Here’s a Quick Recap of Chapter 1

And there you have it -- five excellent ways to jumpstart your career as a digital photographer. You can:

Act as a citizen journalist. Take pictures using yourself as a human model.

Contact webmasters to see if they are interested in your services as a photographer or digital photo editor.

Make yourself famous and then leverage that fame to make money. Set up a pet photography business to get stock photos to sell.

Whichever option you choose, you should be able to make money fast

if you‘re dedicated and if you‘re willing to work hard.

Your mind is probably buzzing with ideas just from this last chapter –

and we‘re just warming up! Keep going – and don‘t stop reading until you have a strong understanding of what it will take to succeed selling

photography online.



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Before You Begin

In order to get started in the business of digital photography, you need two things: equipment and knowledge. Without equipment, you will not

be able to get pictures worth selling, regardless of how hard you work and regardless of how skilled you are as a photographer.

And without knowledge, you will frequently encounter all sorts of

problems in your daily business. Additionally, if you‘re not careful, you may even encounter legal problems.

Fortunately, on the equipment side of the equation, you do not need a

lot to start out as a photographer - So what do you need? There are Three things:

1. A Digital Camera;

2. An Internet Connection; and

3. A Computer

In the upcoming section, you‘ll learn more about these three requirements in greater detail, starting with a digital camera.

On the knowledge side of the equation, you will need to know two

things:

1. How to ensure that the photos you have taken can legally be sold; and,

2. How to protect yourself against individuals who might attempt to steal your work and claim it as their own.

Understanding the aforementioned things and knowing how to deal

with them are two of the most important things you must know as a

digital photographer.

For this reason, I will dedicate two sections in this chapter to dealing

with these problems.



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Gathering Your Equipment

As I mentioned in the introduction, you will need three pieces of equipment:

A Digital Camera

An Internet Connection; and

A Computer

Let‘s start with the first item on the list: selecting a digital camera.

How to Determine If You Need a New Digital Camera

While many stock photo sites welcome pictures from photographers of all levels, most do not welcome pictures from woefully inadequate

cameras. This does not mean that you must purchase the latest $1500 camera with all the bells and whistles, but it does mean that you will

have to be able to produce images that meet minimum quality standards.

iStockphoto.com, for instance, explicitly lists its quality standards as

follows. It states that it reserves the right to reject any pictures with

the following problems:

Poor Focus Poor Lighting

Excessive Noise, Grain & Color Distortion Compression Artifacts

Over Filtering Poor Isolation & Cropping

Dust & Debris in Scans Upsampling or Rezzing up Images

Poor Composition Inappropriate Title or Description

Copyright / Trademark Infringement or Risk Adult Content unsuitable for iStockphoto.com

Profane or Violent Images

For our purposes at the moment, we are only concerned with the items

that are related to inadequate equipment. Now, in part, some of these problems may be caused by poor skills on

the part of a photographer; however, they can also be caused by inadequate or outdated equipment.



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Poor focus, for instance, can be the result of shaky hands or it can be

the result of an old camera with a slow shutter speed.

One way to test whether it is your hands or the camera is to use a

tripod or to take a timed picture while leaving the camera on a grounded surface. If the focus of your picture is still blurry, there‘s a

good chance that your equipment is simply inadequate.

As iStockphoto‘s Photographer‘s Manual indicates, poor lighting can be a byproduct of a number of things, but more frequently, it has

something to do with either the camera‘s flash or the way that the camera‘s flash is being used.

There are roughly six problems that iStockphoto identifies that you

are likely to encounter with lighting. I‘ve listed them all below, along with a brief explanation of how you can determine whether or not the

problem is related to your equipment:

******

Reflections. If your photos frequently contain large, beaming, distracting reflections, there is a good chance that stock photo

sites will not accept your pictures. Fortunately, this problem is usually related to technique—and even when it isn‘t; it‘s a

relatively easy problem to fix.

You can test whether your problem is technique-related by stepping further away from the object you are photographing.

Examine the resulting pictures to determine whether or not there is still a significant amount of reflection.

If there is, then you can use one of two options:

Stand further back to avoid reflections.

Purchase an inexpensive *diffuser for your camera (we will cover this more later).

Definition: Diffuser – some object or camera attachment that

diffuses light to make it softer and prevent it from reflecting. Diffusers range from things as simple as a posterboard and



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cloth (used to diffuse the light) to actual, physical attachments

for your camera, which enable you to diffuse the flash, regardless of where you are.

Harsh Shadows. If objects in your pictures tend to be

surrounded by deep, dark shadows, this is a good indication that you may need additional attachments for your equipment

(otherwise, you risk having your photos frequently rejected by stock sites).

TIP: Here‘s a cheap solution straight from iStockphoto: Cover

your camera‘s flash with wax paper, which will help to reduce the effect of the flash. If this does not work for you, then you may

want to consider using a softer flash or purchasing a diffuser.

Underexposure. If your photos frequently appear dark with

details missing, there is a good chance that your photographs are not getting enough light.

There are two ways to solve this issue with a change in

technique:

o The first solution is to increase the aperture size through your digital camera‘s settings.

o The second solution is to decrease the shutter speed. Either

one of these options should increase the amount of light your pictures are exposed to.

If your problem does not go away after toggling these settings,

you may need to consider an equipment change. There‘s a

chance that your camera needs to be replaced with a newer model.

Overexposure. In contrast to an underexposure problem, if your

camera is frequently producing images that are overexposed (which will look faded and bright), then you will need to either

decrease the aperture size or increase the shutter speed.

Either one of these two options will decrease the amount of light that the picture is exposed to.



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Lens Flares. If your pictures frequently appear to have ―flares‖ in them when they are taken during the day, you should avoid

taking pictures where the camera is pointed directly at the sun or

at another light source.

In most situations, this should solve your problems; however, if it fails to do so, you may need to replace your camera or lens.

Purple Fringing. If your pictures frequently have a purple glow

in areas of high contrast, you may also need to consider purchasing a newer model.

One way to test whether it is simply a technique problem is to

adjust your aperture settings. If this does not improve your pictures significantly, you may want to consider purchasing new

equipment.

In addition to these six problems, iStockphoto identifies an additional

three that could be related to your equipment.

I will cover each of them in turn below:

1. Compression Issues. One frequent problem with stock photo rejects is that they have serious compression issues. This is often

caused by a range of different issues—among them, the following:

Frequent re-sizing of pictures.

Frequent re-saving of pictures. Saving pictures in low-quality modes.

If saving your pictures at the highest quality setting (12) does

not eliminate this problem, and then you may simply have a

camera problem, not a compression problem.

If the quality of your photographs is low to begin with, then compressing them one or more times is likely to result in

something you will not be able to use on most stock photo sites.

2. Artifacting. iStockphoto identifies artifacting as another one of the major reasons that stock photos are rejected.



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This also occurs when a JPEG image is frequently re-sized and re-saved; however, pictures that are already low resolution to begin

with are far more susceptible to this problem, which often

manifests in the form of grainy or noisy areas of a given photo.

******

If, after reading all of that, you have decided that it makes sense to get a new camera before you start submitting to stock photo sites, then

follow my camera-shopping mini-guide below.

This will give you an idea of what you should try to get at a minimum in order to ensure that you are able to take high-quality photos that are

not only up to the standards of most sites, but will also sell well.

Buying a Digital Camera Five Quick and Easy Ways to Get the Best Camera at the Best Price

There are roughly 5 steps to selecting and purchasing a digital

camera that will be suitable for your needs as a stock photographer. I have included them all in detail below:

Step #1: Create a list of all of the features you need in a camera, starting with the ones you absolutely need to run your

business.

If, for instance, we check out iStockphoto‘s picture requirements, we can see that you will need a camera that can produce photos with the

following minimum quality standards: (See figure below).



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The important thing to note on the above screenshot is that you will

have to be able to take large pictures with your camera and they will

have to be a minimum of 2 megapixels and around 6 megabytes in size.

TIP: Don’t purchase a camera that produces pictures that

are less than five megapixels. Even if stock photo sites will technically accept them, you are still likely to encounter a

significant amount of trouble when trying to sell your photos, since all of your competitors will have better cameras.

In addition to megapixel and resolution considerations, you will also

want to consider the accessories that come with the camera. For instance, does it come with a high-quality optical zoom? Is it 2x, 4x,

5x, or 6x?



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This could be particularly important if you are planning to take pictures from long distances (because you cannot approach the target of your

photo on foot).

You will also want to consider the type of flash and flash accessories

that come with the camera. For instance, does the flash come with a diffuser mechanism? This could be important if you want to make sure

that you do not end up with harsh shadows and reflections.

You should also think about the viewing screen that comes with the camera. Is it an LCD? Does it have a history of technical issues? Are

there any other important points you need to take into consideration?

Another important thing to consider is whether or not the camera has noise-reduction features and light optimization features.

As a skilled photographer, you will no doubt want to play a role in

toggling various features to ensure that you can get photos that match

your particular needs; however, it helps if your camera is capable of automatically handling many of the tasks you don‘t wish to perform.

Step #2: Re-Evaluate Your Feature Choices Based on Your

Career Goals

One important thing you must do when selecting a camera is to determine how you will actually use it. In your particular case, you will

be using it to capture photos to sell as stock photography.

But you might also be using it for other reasons, such as taking up side jobs as a wedding photographer or for family photos.

Rule of thumb: Again, here‘s a case where technically you could just

get by using a 5 megapixel camera. However, ideally you should have

at least a 6 megapixel camera. That way your clients can blow up their prints without any serious deterioration in the quality of the

photographs.

Step #3: Re-Evaluate Your Choice Based on Your Budget

Now that you‘re a business owner, the camera you ultimately purchase will take on a new name: capital. That‘s right: it‘s a piece of machinery

that will ultimately enable you—the photographer—to produce things that are of higher value.



27

Unfortunately for you, though, you cannot go wild spending money on

the camera, since the total amount you spend on your camera is the

―cost of capital‖.

And if you cannot justify the return on each additional gizmo you purchase to improve your camera through the returns it generates for

you, then you are ultimately choosing to incur costs that are not justified by the benefits generated.

Now, if you wish to purchase a part for something that has to do with

your hobby, then do so, but understand that these types of decisions should be distinct from your business decisions.

That is – you should only justify business decisions when their benefits

(i.e. the amount of revenue they generate for you) exceed their costs.

On the flip side, when you take the time to examine all of your options,

you may find that purchasing the most expensive digital camera on the market—along with all of its bells and whistles—is entirely justified by a

cold, hard cost-benefit analysis.

If that‘s the case, then I fully encourage you to purchase the most expensive camera on the market. Further, if you have strong evidence

that this will indeed be the case, then go ahead and finance the camera through a bank loan if you do not have the cash on hand to purchase it.

Remember: this is a business decision. You‘re not taking out $1000 to

fritter it away on a hobby camera; you‘re taking it out because you know that it will produce a return that significantly exceeds the monthly

payment on your loan.

TIP: Talk to your tax accountant about claiming your

camera and other equipment as business deductions.

Step #4: Start Comparison Shopping for Cameras on the

Internet

One of the best places to purchase digital cameras today is the Internet. The reason for this is that there are dozens of sites available

that allow you to get the best deal for your needs.



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Another reason why the Internet is a great place to comparison shop for digital cameras is because it makes it very easy for you to compare

the features that different cameras offer; and also to compare the

comments that other owners leave.

To give you a more concrete idea of what I mean, let me demonstrate this with an example.

Let‘s head over to nextag.com, which is one of the larger comparison

shopping sites on the Internet. Start by simply typing in ―digital camera‖ and searching. You will pull up something like what I did:

That‘s right: you have a whole lot of options and it is unclear so far

which is the best. A good place to go from here is to start narrowing down your options according to the features you selected.

For instance, let‘s say I‘ve already decided that I want a camera that is

in the 5MP to 6MP range.

http://nextag.com/



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I would select that link first, which would narrow down my options to

149 cameras, including the following ones:

As you can see, not all of these cameras are alike, even though they have capture images with roughly the same amount of megapixels and

even though they are within a narrow price range of between $60 and $100.

Some of the cameras are ―point and shoot‖ and others are ―SLR.‖ Some have an optimal zoom of 5x, some have a digital zoom of 6x, and some

do not have any form of zoom whatsoever.



30

Additionally, some can capture videos with audio and others come with additional memory, so that you can store more pictures and material

before you have to upload it onto your computer.

Now, your next step should be to narrow down the pool once again.

Let‘s do this by selecting cameras that have between a 2x and a 4x optimal zoom. This narrows our results down again:

This time, we only have 58 cameras left to choose from. Next, let‘s

narrow our results down further by selecting a digital zoom of 4-5x and an LCD screen that is 2.4 inches or larger. This pares our results down

significantly, giving us only 7 cameras.

Since only one page of results remains, I will continue by simply

inspecting the cameras individually, rather than narrowing them down further by a broad criterion. One thing I notice immediately is that the

Nikon Coolpix S1 has a terrible customer rating:



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A quick stop at Google Product Search BETA BETA, which can be accessed at http://www.google.com/products, reveals additional customer

ratings:

One important thing to notice here is that Google Product Search BETA

reveals the opinions of 108 reviewers, which is a considerably better indicator of the quality of the camera than the three users who voted

on NexTag Comparison Shopping (To be referred to as ―NexTag‖).

Another important thing to notice is that the price at NexTag is a lot closer to the refurbished price on Google Product Search BETA $89,

rather than the new price, which is $388.55.

This indicates that the camera on NexTag is highly likely to be

refurbished. Additionally, it indicates that I might be able to get a better deal if I purchase through Google‘s vendor.

Heading back to NexTag, I re-order my products by their customer

ratings and prices to see how they are ranked differently.

I notice one interesting anomaly: one camera, which has no user ratings at all at NexTag, appears to have completely superior features

and a price that is lower than most of the other remaining cameras (even though they don‘t have these features):

http://www.google.com/products



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In particular, the 15x digital zoom, the mp3 and voice recorder, and the 512 MB of installed memory could prove useful in a number of

different situations where I am capturing audio and video footage or

where I am taking a large amount of pictures at one time without ready access to a computer.

Delving deeper, I look the camera up on Google Product Search BETA. I

find that there aren‘t many reviews of it, but the two that exist are positive. Additionally, checking the various other review sites, as well

as Amazon, and Ebay, I find that the cheapest this model is available for is $180, regardless of where I search.

For the time being, I create a list and place this camera first on that

list, along with a link to where I can purchase it on NexTag and a description of its major benefits.

I then head back to the 15 cameras I selected on NexTag and begin to

work through the rest of them.

At the end of this process, I have a list with several good candidate

cameras. From there, it is simply a matter of figuring out what features I really need for my business and what price I am willing to pay in

order to obtain those features.

Step #5: Select and Buy Your Camera

Before you make any buying decision, take a day to think it over. Sleep on it. And then come back on the following day to review the options

you have carefully parsed out in your list of cameras.

Above all, remember to focus on the features you need. Ultimately, the better the camera is suited to play its role, the more it will be able to

generate for you.

So, taking all of this into consideration, select your camera and then

purchase it from the cheapest source.

If you went and ahead and purchased your camera, congratulations! You now have a camera that will pass all requirements on stock photo

sites and will also be an excellent tool for your budding digital photography business.



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As soon as it arrives in the mail, you will be ready to start churning out high quality prints to sell.

Is Your Internet Connection Fast Enough?

Now that you have a working, high quality digital camera, you will soon be taking beautiful photos with the intent of selling them on stock

photo sites. There‘s only one problem: in order to sell them on those sites, you have to actually be able to upload them. And if your Internet

connection is less than great, that might not be as trivial as it seems -- especially since your pictures will be around 6 megabytes each.

If you have a cable or DSL Internet connection, you might be all

set without making any changes. However, if you‘re connecting wirelessly to a router that is far away, if your Internet connection is

slow for one reason or another, or if you‘re using dial-up, then it may be good to look into your other options for Internet use.

The best option, of course, is probably to purchase a DSL or cable connection. This will allow you to connect to the Internet at your home,

so that you can start to upload photos—and then walk away from the computer to do something else.

Take note, however, that even a fast connection will require as much

as an hour or two to upload a large batch of photos that are each 6MB.

If you can‘t do this, then what you may want to do is find a fast Wi-Fi connection in your area and use that instead of your dial-up or

whichever other Internet connection you would have used.

TIP: One quick way to do this is to use a Wi-Fi locator site, such as JiWire. If you go to http://www.jiwire.com/search-

hotspot-locations.htm and then click on your country, you can very quickly gain access to all of the information you need

to locate nearby Wi-Fi stations, along with their payment status (free or paid).

In the picture shown below, I am browsing Wi-Fi stations in Paris, France:

http://www.jiwire.com/search-hotspot-locations.htm

http://www.jiwire.com/search-hotspot-locations.htm



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Note the amount of Wi-Fi stations in the area—2494! Additionally, by clicking on the links to each of these spots, I can figure out how much

(if anything) it will cost to use that Wi-Fi hotspot.

Based on the price and on the review of their connection‘s speed, I can

then select several hotspots in my area and use them to upload photos, rather than doing it on my own slow connection.

To summarize: when it comes to your Internet situation, ideally your

connection should be cable, DSL, or better.

Regardless of whether you purchase this connection for your home or obtain it through a hotspot, you will need it in order to run a successful

digital photography business. Without it, uploading photos from your computer to your stock photo site accounts will literally be impossible.

How to Determine If You Need a New Computer

The last thing you need in order to be a successful digital photographer is a good computer with the right software and a good printer.



35

If the ones you have are reasonably good already, you might not need to do much here; rather, you can rely on your existing equipment for

your needs.

Below, I will detail some of the things you should consider when

deciding whether or not you need a new computer.

Are You Wasting Time?

As a new business owner, one thing you will need to be highly conscious of is the amount of time you waste on a daily basis. If, for

instance, you spend hours doing something, the real cost of losing those hours isn‘t the out-of-pocket cost (which very well may be zero),

but the opportunity cost which is incurred because you were not able to do other things which would have generated revenue for your business.

To put this in the context of your business, think about how much

time you waste because of your current computer.

Does it load slowly?

Does it lack the necessary software to perform high-quality image editing and other, related tasks that will be important for your

digital photography business? Does it run applications slowly?

Does it have a hard time keeping multiple windows open at the same time?

All of the aforementioned things will slow you down when you are

trying to do work for your business. If the amount of time lost is significant, you should consider getting a new computer. If the time is

insignificant, then don‘t bother.

One way you can put this to the test is to copy the sheet I‘ve made

below. Fill it out for yourself and use it to decide whether you are wasting too much time.

Foregone Wage Table



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In this table, I‘ve made the dubious assumption that your wage is only $6.50 per hour. I have also made the assumption that you will not

work on Saturday and Sunday.

For the amount of hours you lost to computer problems, I simply filled in random, but relatively small, numbers (however, when you do this

exercise, you should actually fill out a log to derive real numbers).

If these were your figures, you would be losing $123.50 monthly as a

result of your computer. If you could finance a computer for less than that each month, then you should definitely do it.

But before you start to think about financing, let‘s talk about what else

you might want to consider before you purchase a new computer.

Does Your Computer Have Good Image Editing Software?

If you fill out your log and find that you waste a lot of time on a daily basis trying to edit images, then you may simply have a problem with

the software you are using.

If you‘re using Adobe Photoshop, then there‘s a good chance that you don‘t need to switch your software (although you may need to switch

computers if it is unable to handle this type of image editing).

If, on the other hand, you don‘t have Adobe Photoshop, then you will either want to consider purchasing it or getting one of its alternative

programs, which I have listed below:

1. GIMP. GIMP stands for ―GNU Image Manipulation Program.‖ It is entirely free to download and use and it comes with most of the same



37

features as Photoshop. You can obtain a copy of the following at gimp.org/downloads.

2. ImageMagick. Another open source program, ImageMagick offers many features that are similar to Photoshop and GIMP. If you want

another free image editing option, download a copy of ImageMagick at Imagemagick.org/script/index.php

3. Photoshop Elements 6. This program is highly similar to

Photoshop, but offers fewer design tools. The major benefit to Photoshop Elements is that its full version is roughly 1/10 the price of

the full version of Photoshop.

If getting this program sounds like a good idea to you, you can check out the full details at Adobe‘s site: .www.adobe.com

For the most part, I wouldn‘t suggest straying far beyond these

options. As far as paid programs go, Photoshop is the industry

standard; and everything else offers a significantly worse price-quality mix.

On the other hand, as far as free programs go, GIMP is far and

away the best you will find.

If you‘re also planning to use your digital camera to capture video (which you may also sell on stock photo sites), then you will also want

to make sure that you have some powerful video editing software.

If you use a PC, I would highly suggest that you consider either Pinnacle Studio 11 or Adobe Premiere Elements 4—the programs which

PC Magazine Ranked #1 and #2 for video editing in 2008.

Finally, there is one more thing you will want to consider before you

decide whether or not you should purchase a new computer...

Should You Have a Laptop?

One important question you will have to ask yourself is whether or not

you should have a laptop. This is not a straightforward decision. There are a number of significant benefits to having a laptop; however, there

are also a number of equally-important negative aspects.

http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php

http://www.adobe.com/?ogn=EN_US-gn_home



38

The most important benefits of a laptop are probably that it is portable and that it can basically act as a very large extension of your camera‘s

memory.

This means two things:

You can take your laptop wherever you go and perform image-

editing during your downtime.

You can take your laptop on full-day photo shoots (whether they be weddings, stock photo collection trips, or something else). That way,

you can store photos when you start reaching your camera‘s storage space limitations.

This is especially important when it comes to taking and storing

video clips, which can take up a lot of space.

To summarize this section:

The only pieces of equipment you will need to start your photography

business are the following:

1. A digital camera 2. An Internet connection (preferably high speed)

3. A computer

Of course, if you really want to be successful, then you should spare no out-of-pocket costs if you have a reasonably high chance of generating

benefits that significantly exceed them.

Avoiding Legal Problems

As I‘ve mentioned before, there are two basic things you will need in order to succeed when selling photography online.

The first is equipment, which we have already covered. The second is knowledge which we will begin to cover in section 3.3.

Specifically, in this section, I will explain the legalities of photography, focusing mostly on stock photography, which is where you are most

likely to encounter potential legal problems.

In this section, I will specifically cover the following three legal issues:



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The legality of photographing people. The legality of photographing places.

The actual legal forms themselves and how to fill them out.

The Legality of Photographing People

When it comes to capturing stock photography and selling it, there are

some things that are simply not legal. And there are other things that are not clearly illegal, but might be.

In the specific case of photographing people, most cases are fairly easy

to differentiate into either the legal or illegal category.

Below, you‘ll find the three rules related to using ―human models‖ in your photography. You‘ll also see examples of when things are legal,

when they are not, and when there‘s no clear rule (i.e. check with a lawyer when in doubt).

Rule #1: You Cannot Sell Photographs with Identifiable Faces without Obtaining a Model Release Form

This rule isn‘t particularly hard to interpret. If you snap a photo of

someone and you can clearly see that person‘s facial features in the picture, then either get a release form or don‘t try to upload that

photograph to a stock site.

Let me give you a few examples to drive these points home.

Example #1: Gardening

In the block of pictures below is what iStockphoto returned for ―gardening.‖ Without me adding anything further, see if you can

identify which pictures would be legal to take without a waiver and

which would not:



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Going from left to right and up to down:

The first photo would be legal to take without a waiver. The second picture, which shows part of a woman‘s face, would

not be legal. The third picture with the woman tending to her roses would

also be illegal, as would the fifth and sixth. The fourth photo would be legal because it does not show a

face. The seventh photo would be legal because it sufficiently

obscures the farmer‘s face with a straw hat.

Example #2: Yoga

As another exercise, see if you are able to select which pictures below (taken from iStockphoto‘s results for ―Yoga‖) would be completely legal

to use without a waiver and which ones would be illegal.



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Again, going from left to right and then up to down, if you said that

pictures 1, 3, 6, 7, and 8 would be illegal to sell on stock photo sites,

you are correct.

1. Picture 2 is legal because darkness is obscuring the face of the woman in the picture.

2. Picture 4 would be legal because all of the women are in positions that make it impossible to see their faces.

3. Picture 5 is legal because it is impossible to see the man‘s face in that lighting.

Hopefully, those two examples not only helped you discern the

difference between illegal and legal photos, but also helped you to figure out creative ways to get around having to obtain a waiver (i.e.

using natural lighting and positions as a way to obscure faces).

Rule #2: Use a Model Waiver for Your Own Pictures

Since stock photo companies don‘t really know that the person in the

pictures you‘re taking is really you, they must also obtain a legal waiver from you. So, if you‘re planning to submit some pictures of yourself to

your favorite stock site, remember to fill out the waiver form and submit it along with your photos.



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Rule #3: Obtain a Signature from a Witness

Most stock photo companies also require you to obtain a signature from a witness to prove that the model did indeed waive his/her rights to the

royalties. Obviously, this witness cannot be you; and it also cannot be the person you are photographing. This poses a potential problem;

however, there are several different things you can do to get around it.

Example #1: Find a Random Stranger

As strange as this sounds, consider approaching a random stranger and asking them to sign and verify that you and your model were in

agreement. You might get a few odd stares, but it also may save you a significant amount of time later on.

Example #2: Find a Family Member

This is probably easier and less awkward than the first option. Simply approach one of your own family members or one of your model‘s

family members and ask if that person is willing to sign as a witness.

Example #3: Hire a Friend

Offer to give your friend $1 every time he agrees to be your witness. This means he will have to accept a three-way phone call between you,

him, and your model to confirm that you are both in agreement. Next time you see him, you can ask him to sign as a witness.

Rule #4: Avoid Photographing Logos

We live in a world where logos rule. You can find them on clothing, on

billboards, on street signs, and in shop windows. If you‘re not careful,

you‘ll capture a whole load of them in your photos. Unfortunately, stock photo sites do not accept any pictures that contain corporate logos, as

this is illegal. If you do this, you‘ll have to spend a massive amount of time editing them out.

Now, you might say that you enjoy using Photoshop‘s editing tools to

remove logos and to patch up missing parts of photos; however, there are two reasons why this is definitely not a good idea:



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1. Heavily editing and frequently re-saving pictures degrades their quality significantly. Since all stock photo sites have quality standards,

you risk falling below a certain quality threshold as a result of

graininess, noise, or artifacting whenever you edit out logos (unless you are simply cropping that part of the photo out).

2. Editing logos out of pictures requires a lot of work. If you can

prevent the logo issue ahead of time by taking photos that don‘t contain them or only contain them in places that can be easily cropped

out, this will be far more efficient.

And as a new business owner, your primary concern should be efficiency (i.e. getting the same exact results, but for a lower cost).

So try to exclude any corporate logos from your photos. If you do it

early on, it will save a lot of time on the long run, which you can spend doing higher productivity tasks, such as taking a new batch of photos

to submit.

Tip #1: One good way to get around problems related to logos on road signs is to take pictures later in the day. If at all

possible, try to take the photos at an angle that casts a shadow on the sign. As long as the logo is sufficiently obscured, you

should still be able to submit it to stock sites.

Tip #2: If you‘re planning to use human models, email them or call them in advance and ask them to wear something that does

not have any logos on it. For instance, a shirt with no crest,

brand, or sports team‘s name on it would be preferable to one that does. Additionally, if possible, they should try to wear

clothes in a way that covers up any logos.

In addition to avoiding logos on clothing and on signs, you should also

avoid taking pictures that include businesses‘ names—as this is similarly illegal. A quick scan of the results on iStockphoto for ―signs‖

drives this point home—and also demonstrates a notable exception:



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While you cannot display corporate signs and corporate logos (as noted

by the complete lack of such logos in the results above), you can display state symbols, logos, signs, etc.

In fact, some clever photographer exploited exactly this to create the

green signs above that are labeled ―answers,‖ ―changes,‖ and ―results,‖—all of which have received thousands of downloads.

And this brings us to our next topic for stock photo legalities.

The Legality of Photographing Places

Contrary to popular myth, the rules for photographing property are not

nearly as clear as they are for photographing humans.

When it comes to humans, you simply get them to sign a model waiver

if there‘s a clearly identifiable face in the picture. With property, there are some instances in which you may want to do this, but it is very

unclear when you would have to.



45

Blurry Rule #1: Use a Release Form if a Person Can be

Identified by His Property

Most stock photo sites recommend that you obtain a release form if

there‘s a good chance that the property you photographed can be identified with the person who owns it.

In particular, iStockphoto identifies three reasons for this, because:

The person can claim that you are profiting from his private

property. The person can claim that the photos you took defame him in

some way. The person can claim that you were trespassing when you took

the photos.

Let‘s examine each of these possibilities with an example.

Example #1: You’re Profiting Off Somebody else's Property Unbeknown to Them

Sure, this is a bizarre scenario, but it makes a good example. If you

were to take photos of a garden that a photographer owned, then he could argue that by taking those pictures and submitting them to stock

photo sites, you are diminishing the returns that he could have earned if he had taken similar pictures himself.

In reality, these situations are probably far and few between; however,

stock photos sites are becoming increasingly cautious because they do not want to get sued.

For this reason, you will want to be extra cautious when you take pictures of property. You may also want to knock on a door in an

attempt to get the person to sign a waiver. If you decided to do that, I suggest that you attempt it this way:

First, don‘t approach any houses in your neighborhood or even in your

town. This could create a perpetually awkward situation between you and someone you encounter frequently.



46

Second, before you take any pictures, you should knock on the person‘s door and say something like the following:

―Hello! I was recently in the neighborhood looking for beautiful gardens that I could take pictures of. Out of all of the gardens I

saw, yours stood out the most. Would you mind if I took a few photos of your garden?‖

At this point, the person will either think you are insane or will say

something to the effect of ―sure, go ahead‖ or ―that‘s really flattering. Please, go ahead.‖

From there, all you have to do is explain that you need a signature to

show that the person did not have an issue with it. You could say,

―Thanks a lot. I‘m planning to post the pictures I take on a photography site, where website designers often go to purchase

pictures for their site‘s logos. Would you be willing to sign this paper,

so that I can prove to them that you do not have a problem with this? If you want, I can email you a link, so that you can check out the

pictures of your garden online.‖

Again, this is likely to be a highly awkward situation, but if you really find a good place to take photos and you want to make sure the stock

photography sites will accept them, and then it may be worth a few minutes of awkwardness in exchange for the money you will earn.

Tip: Try to approach older people. In general, they will be

far more likely to engage you in conversation and to

consider your offer. In contrast, younger people might find this encounter extremely awkward.

Example #2: You Might Accidentally Defame Someone through

Pictures of their Property

Less than two years ago, there was a national news story in the United States about a man who was trapped under a heap of garbage inside of

his own house.

Outside of his house, there was a veritable maze of junk, including

giant, moldy mattresses, unused dressers, and bags of garbage, clothes, and toys.



47

You might think that snapping a photo of someone‘s yard in such a state of disarray might make an excellent stock photo. But there are

two problems: the first is that this yard is probably very clearly

identifiable with the person in question; and the second is that posting such pictures on the Internet could arguably defame the person in

question by exposing his yard to throngs of viewers on the Internet.

In general, when it comes to photos like this, you will have to decide whether or not you think it is worth it to take them. Additionally, you

must figure out whether or not stock photo sites will be willing to accept them. If the site accepts them and if you‘re willing to risk the

very small chance that the person finds out about them and decides to sue, then there‘s no particularly good reason why you should not go

ahead and sell them on a stock site.

Using a more realistic example–you might snap some photos inside of a business establishment without thinking much of it. These photos might

show that business establishment at a time at which its floors weren‘t

recently swept or when its employees were goofing off. In either of these situations, the business might have grounds for a defamation

case. And it is for exactly this reason (and ones like it) that stock photo sites will be reluctant to accept such pictures without signed waivers.

Example #3: You Were Arguably Trespassing When You Took

the Pictures

Another thing stock photo sites don‘t know is whether or not you were trespassing when the photos were taken. If, for instance, you walked

up onto someone‘s lawn and started taking pictures, then you were clearly trespassing on their private property in order to capture the

pictures. Since stock photo sites do not know this, they will want you to provide proof that you did not—namely, in the form of a property

waiver.

Let‘s move on to our next and final rule.

Blurry Rule #2: Obtain Signatures from Legally Authorized

Persons

In order for a signature on a waiver to be valid, it must be given by the person who is actually the legally-authorized guardian of the property.



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1. For instance, if you want to take a picture of someone‘s dog, you should ask the owner of the dog to sign the waiver—not the

person who happens to be walking it at the time.

2. Likewise, if you want to take a picture of someone‘s house and

yard, you should obtain a signature from the legal owner of the property, not her children or other adults living on her property.

3. And another example: if you want to take a picture of someone‘s

car, you should obtain a waiver from the title owner.

And this brings us to the last part of this section—the actual legal forms themselves.

How to Use the Legal Forms

In order to submit your photos to stock sites, you will have to complete

a form like the ones I have linked to below. In most cases, the sites will

actually provide you with the forms.

You can download them, fill them out, and then have the model or property owner sign them. In the specific case of children, you will

have to fill out a different form, which the guardian, rather than the child, will have to fill out.

You can get

1. iStockphoto‘s legal form: at

www.istockphoto.com/docs/modelrelease.pdf and

2. Shutterstock‘s legal form:at submit.shutterstock.com/legal.mhtml

I personally suggest that you download the forms for whichever website you are using and fill in as many details as is possible. Writing

out model release forms can be extremely tedious.

The last thing you want to do is to force the actual model to do it; or to have to take 10 minutes to do it while the model is waiting.

For the most part, these forms are not terribly complicated to fill out.

The most important thing to remember is in which situations you will

have to use them; and which form to use in which situation.

http://www.istockphoto.com/docs/modelrelease.pdf

http://submit.shutterstock.com/legal.mhtml



49

To simplify, all you have to know is that you must:

Use a guardian form for models under 18.

Use a model form for individuals over 18. Use a property form for pets.

Use a property form for any property that has the chance of being associated with an individual.

Additionally, you should remember to fill out forms for your own

pictures. You should also make sure that you obtain a form from every individual involved in the photo shoot.

To summarize this section…

We can sum it up in just two words: protect yourself!

If you plan to make money selling stock photography, you will need to understand the ins-and-outs of the legal framework that surrounds

photography.

If you ignore this information, you have a very high chance of your

photos getting rejected by various stock photo sites.

Even worse, if you ignore the legalities and snap photos of people or places that you don‘t have the right to photograph, you can end up in

court. The attorney fees alone will wipe out your savings, not to mention any fines and/or damages!

But as you discovered in this section, all of that is completely

avoidable. Just make sure you secure signed waivers – and if you don‘t get those, then take legal pictures (e.g., non-identifiable faces and

similar).

And, with that said, we come to the final section in chapter 3…

Protecting Your Photos from Theft

As a stock photographer, one thing you are likely to learn very early on is that there are many individuals out there who would prefer to steal



50

your work, rather than paying for it. Luckily, there are several options you have as a photographer that can help you to prevent this type of

theft that will ultimately devalue your photos.

In this section, I will specifically cover two of those ways:

How to use watermarks.

How to copyright your photos.

Watermarking Your Photos

Let‘s start off by defining the word ―watermark‖:

Definition: Watermark – According to stamps.net, a

watermark is ―A machine-applied, deliberate thinning of paper during its manufacture, to produce a semi-

transparent pattern or design of some kind.‖

For our purposes, when I refer to a watermark, I will be specifically referring to a watermark on a digital picture.

Similar to paper watermarks, these digital watermarks will obscure part of the photo, making it impossible to

use.

In the digital photography world, watermarks are generally used to

make pictures worthless.

The reasoning behind using one is that it will allow the browser to see the photo, but if they actually try to steal the photo, it will be useless

because it will have a giant watermark obscuring important parts.

Thankfully, watermarks are relatively easy to create. I created a watermark for the following photo using Photoshop Elements in a

process that I will go over below:

1. Open the image you would like to place a watermark on.

http://www.stamps.net/



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2. Select the type tool, which looks like a ‗T‘ in the options bar.

2. Choose a font, preferably one that will be visible when semi-transparent.

4. In the options bar, click the color panel and set the HSB values to 0-0-50 or the RGB values to 128-128-128.



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4. Enter in your desired watermark/text.

6. Click the check mark at the top right of the screen to add your text.

7. Position your text as you would like with the move tool. 8. From the Layer pull down in the top menu, choose Layer Styles, and

then choose Blending Options.



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9. Under Advanced Blending, lower the percentage of Fill Opacity to your liking.

10. Choose OK at the top right, and continue on to save your image in

your desired format.



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Copyrighting Your Photos

In recent years, copyright laws in many countries have changed significantly with regards to photography and writing. And there‘s a

good reason for this: intellectual property theft has become rampant on the Internet.

Unscrupulous webmasters frequently steal writing and images from

other sites and use them in unauthorized ways.

The most important change is that an actual ―copyright‖ isn‘t completely necessary anymore. Rather, with both writing and photos,

the work becomes effectively copyrighted the minute you write something or the second you snap a photo (and lasts for 70 years or

until you are deceased).

In the United States, for instance, it is not possible to ―copyright‖ your

own photos. They are copyrighted the second you take them.

You can, however, ―register‖ your copyrights by sending copies of the photos (with the appropriate forms) to the patent office.

There are, of course, additional benefits to registering your copyrights,

including the following:

It demonstrates that you were the original photographer. This could come in handy if someone decides to steal your pictures—and

then claims that you stole hers. If you had your copyrights registered with the patent office, you would have indisputable proof that you took

the pictures.



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It allows you to recover damages according to copyright statutes. This means that you will not only have the right to tell the

individual to stop using your photos, but you will also be entitled to a

sum of money according to the statutes that govern copyright laws.

IMPORTANT: Since I am not a legal expert, I strongly caution you to seek the help of someone who is more

experienced in this area, such as a copyright attorney.

With that said, I would also caution you to pay attention to costs while

you‘re going through the copyright process. If you simply cannot justify the out-of-pocket costs and the time losses, you may want to re-think

the idea of getting your pictures copyrighted.

In the long run, it may actually be cheaper to allow people to steal them from time to time.

Here’s a Quick Recap of Chapter 2 These legal topics surrounding your photography career aren‘t the most

exciting topics, but they certainly are some of the most important topics you‘ll encounter.

Knowing this information:

Keeps you out of court and helps you avoid breaking laws.

Protects you from getting ripped off.

Saves time so you aren‘t snapping and editing photos that are

unusable.

I highly recommend you should re-read, this chapter at least once

more before you start earning money with your photos.

Next up: how to make money now…



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Four Ways to Make Money with Your Digital Photos

Regardless of what your plans are for your Internet-based digital photography business, they are unlikely to pan out if you do not find

ways to start generating revenue now.

Without generating revenue, you cannot make investments in your equipment and in your photo editing and video editing software.

Without generating revenue, you cannot pay the rent, buy food, and pay the electric and cable bills.

Just remember this: If you don‘t start making money soon, your

budding business venture will collapse in on itself. In this chapter, you‘re going to discover some of the ways in which you could make

money fast, so this doesn‘t happen to you.

Creating an Income Stream with Stock Photo Sites One of the best ways to make money through digital photography is to

take pictures and to sell them on stock photography sites. So let‘s start

this section by taking a look at some of the top stock photography sites.

Top 7 Stock Photo Sites

1.istockphoto.com. After hearing about this site dozens of times

throughout this ebook, it should be no surprise that I would rank it in the top seven stock photo sites.

http://www.istockphoto.com/



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2. stockxpert.com. A subsidiary of the massive Jupiter Images, this stock photo site offers many of the same features as iStockphoto.com.

3. shutterstock.com. This site offers two different commission rates to photographers: 25 cents per download for photos 1 – 2000 and then 30

cents per download for photos 2001+. 4. dreamstime.com. This site offers between 50% and 80% commissions

on each photo downloaded from their site. 5. bigstockphoto.com. This site charges slightly more per photo download

and, in return, offers photographers higher rates (between 50 cents and $3).

6. fotolia.com. This site offers commissions that range from 33% to 80%

on each downloaded photo. 7. alamy.com. Alamy currently boasts the largest online stock photo

collection. They also offer commissions at a flat rate of 65%.

Now that you know which stock photo sites exist, let‘s consider how you might go about posting on them.

How to Post Your Work on Stock Photo Sites

Posting your work on stock photo sites is relatively easy. Follow along

with my several-step example below – and then try it yourself.

Step #1: Go to www.istockphoto.com. Click on the ―sign up‖ button on the front page:

http://www.stockxpert.com/

http://www.shutterstock.com/

http://www.dreamstime.com/

http://www.bigstockphoto.com/

http://www.fotolia.com/

http://www.alamy.com/

http://www.istockphoto.com/



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Once you complete the sign-up process, you‘ll receive an email confirmation that includes your member name and your password.

Once you login to iStockphoto for the first time, you will want to change your password, since it will initially be a set of randomly

generated letters and numbers (which isn‘t exactly easy to remember).

Once you are logged into your account, head back to iStockPhoto‘s main page. From there, locate the ―upload button,‖ which is circled in

red in the screenshot below:

When you click on that button, you‘ll see a new form, which is shown

below:



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In order to upload photos to iStockphoto, you will have to fill in all of the fields with asterisks next to them. They need this information,

so that they can send a check to you once you have surpassed their

stated holding amount for earnings.

Once you have filled out the above form you will be redirected to a different page, where you are asked to perform several tasks before

you can upload images.

The purpose of this is basically to weed out spammers and to ensure that people who are uploading photos have something good to offer.

Once you click on the tab ―upload image,‖ you will be redirected to a

course that is a mix of photography training and training in iStockphoto‘s particular set of rules.

Work through all of the stages of this (at least the first time you read

it). If you have already read it, you can simply click on the last link for

the series and then click ―continue on to application.‖

Something like the following screen should pop up once you have completed the previous step:



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In order to upload to the site, you will have to take and pass this quiz. Once you do that, you will be allowed to upload as many as three

images, which will then be reviewed by the iStockPhoto staff—which may decline them.

Along with your photos, you will need to:

Upload model waiver forms for any human beings in the pictures. Upload property waiver forms for any buildings or property

included in the pictures.

This process works the same way with video and audio files and with illustrations. In order to upload those, you will also need to complete a

different quiz. Furthermore, most stock photo sites also have similar procedures for when you sign up and upload your pictures.

How to Take Photos that Sell Like Crazy

Now that you know how to upload photos to iStockphoto and other

stock photo sites, your next step is to figure out what photos are likely

to sell well. I‘ve talked about this in various other places in the ebook. So, instead of covering it all again, here‘s a short list of topics you will

want to consider covering:

1. Nature 2. Children

3. People 4. Animals

5. Corporate Settings

Photos of this type tend to sell particularly well. Of course, within these categories, you will want to drill down further and select photos that

satisfy the two criteria I mentioned earlier.



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For a more thorough understanding of this, please refer to chapter 5.

How to Sell More Photos

Promoting your stock photography can basically be narrowed down to two steps:

1. Select the right places to sell your stock photography and make sure

that they do not have exclusive contracts. Since different stock photo sites attract different customers, you

increase your chances of selling your photographs every time you open up an account with a new seller. The best part is that they do most of

the marketing for you.

TIP: Some stock photo sites require you to accept an exclusive contract, which stipulates that you will not

provide a different site with the same photos. Do not accept any of these exclusive contracts. Instead, work

with a number of large, non-exclusive sites, where your photos stand a greater chance of being seen and

downloaded.

Once you have signed up with all of these sites, you will upload your photos. After you do this, you will begin the second part of your

marketing phase.

2. Select the right keywords for your photos. Since all designers who find your photos will find them by searching for

certain keywords on stock photo sites‘ search engines, it is critical that you pick the right keywords. There are a number of different ways that

you can expand the list of keywords for each photo. I covered most of them exhaustively in the first section, so I will only recap them quickly

below:

1. Create a list of at least 10 keywords that describe the features of

the photograph, the photograph‘s possible uses in design, and it‘s other useful attributes (i.e. whether it is horizontal or vertical,

whether it has copy space* or not, etc.).



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Definition: Copy Space – Space in photographs where

text may be placed. This is especially important for designers, who will want to place images in banners and

next to text for various reasons.

2. Expand on this list by using a thesaurus. If you find words that people might reasonably use as substitutes for your keywords,

then add them to your list. The larger your list is, the better (as

long as it does not include irrelevant words, which could get you banned).

3. Solicit more keywords using photography forums. Post your

photo and ask people what words come to mind. Additionally, mention that you will be selling it as a stock photo, so that people

know to use words that designers will find useful.

4. Consider using misspellings of the words. This is as an old marketing trick that few photographers know about -- which

could work to your advantage and put more money in your pocket.

The reason behind this is simple: when looking for images, many

designers misspell words. You can capitalize on this by selecting

keywords that match such misspelled words. Next time someone uses that incorrect spelling, your photo will probably be the only one that is

returned by the site‘s search engine.

How to Create Public Lightboxes to Sell More Photos

Many stock photo sites allow you to create something called a ―Lightbox.‖ Basically, a lightbox is a group of photos that have the

same theme.

Most sites set some requirements in terms of how many photos constitute a ―public‖ lightbox. iStockphoto, for instance, keeps your

lightboxes private until you accumulate 20 photos. After that, anyone can view your lightbox photos.

One example of a lightbox taken from iStockphoto is one member‘s ―Not Stonehenge‖ lightbox, which contains 21 photos of human-

arranged standing stones in the United Kingdom that are not a part of Stonehenge:



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One of the major benefits of creating lightboxes is that you can link all

of your individual photos to the lightbox, allowing designers who are looking for that theme to quickly access everything else available in

your portfolio.

Thus, creating a number of high-quality lightboxes has the potential to

significantly increase your number of downloads.

Luckily, creating a lightbox isn‘t all that hard—with the exception, of course, of selecting a good theme and actually taking and editing the

photos.

Once you have a theme, you can click on the Lightboxes tab, as shown in the picture below:

This will bring you to a page that contains the following text:



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From there, you can click ―create new lightbox,‖ which will then prompt

you to add a name, description, and some keywords (which will pull the lightbox up once it becomes public) for your new lightbox.

Just as you were careful with your keyword selection with individual photos, you should also be careful with your keyword selection or your

lightboxes.

And this brings us to the last part in this section—how to actually get paid.

How to Get Paid

Many stock photo sites only pay their photographers via physical

check—and they also put holds on earnings until they reach a certain amount. Most sites, for instance, require you to earn more than $100

before they are willing to cut you a check. Other sites will allow you to set the amount.

Alternatively, some stock photo sites will allow you to get paid through PayPal. This is far more convenient, as it will allow you to receive your

pay more frequently and without having to wait for the stock photo company to cut you a check and mail it.

If you don‘t already have a PayPal account, signing up for one is pretty

easy. All you have to do is head over to www.PayPal.com and then select the ―sign up‖ button.

You will then be prompted to select your location, your account type,

and your language preference. For your account type, you should select Premier.

http://www.paypal.com/



65

Note that it will be free to open and to maintain your account, but there will be a fee applied to each money transfer.

Here‘s how to validate your account and start accepting payments:

1. Once you select your type of account, you will then have to fill out some personal information, including information about your

bank account.

2. Next, PayPal will send a small amount of money to your bank account.

3. In order to confirm that it really is your bank account, you will

have to log into your PayPal account and enter the exact amounts Paypal deposited into your bank account.

4. Once you do this, your account will be valid; and you will be

ready to accept payment from stock photo sites. In turn, you can

transfer any money you receive to your bank account, receive a check, or you can withdraw it using an ATM/debit card.

5. Your last step is to log into your stock photo site accounts and

add your PayPal account information.

To summarize this section: Are you running a business or

dabbling in a hobby?

If you‘re a hobby photographer, you wouldn‘t be reading this book. You want to turn your photos into cash – and lots of it! And that‘s exactly

what you just discovered how to do simply by using stock photo sites.

Here‘s the key: once you find out what works and what sells, multiply

your efforts to increase your revenue.

For example, if your puppy photos are selling well, then do more puppy photos. If designers love your building photos, then snap pictures of

more buildings.

If your beach pictures sell like crazy, seek out more water-related photo opportunities.



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Granted, you‘ll want to diversify in case one of your main categories of

photos stops selling. But that doesn‘t mean you should abandon what

works. On the contrary, ride that cash wave for all it‘s worth!

Creating and Selling Photo Products

So far, we have spent a lot of time discussing the merits of stock photography. But it is important to understand that there are other

ways to generate revenue through photography with your digital camera, your computer, and the Internet. One of those ways involves

creating and selling your own products through sites like Cafepress.com.

If you‘re not familiar with Cafepress.com, you should head over to the

site now to check it out.

According to CafePress‘s own description…

―CafePress.com is an online marketplace that offers sellers complete e-commerce services to independently create and sell

a wide variety of products, and offers buyers unique merchandise

across virtually every topic.

Launched in 1999, CafePress.com has empowered individuals,

organizations and businesses to create, buy and sell customized merchandise online using the company's unique print-on-demand

and e-commerce services.

Today, CafePress.com is a growing network of over 6.5 million members who have unleashed their creativity to transform their

artwork and ideas into unique gifts and new revenue streams.‖

In short, CafePress allows you to take a blank canvas product -- such as a t-shirt, a mug, a keychain, a poster, or a clock -- and put your

very own designs on it by simply uploading and arranging the images

and text you want to use. From there, you may market the products yourself by directing potential buyers to your CafePress store.

1. If you don‘t already have a CafePress account, start by selecting

the ―Sign In‖ link in the top right hand corner of the page:



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2. From there, select that you do not have an account—and then

move on to fill out the required forms with your information.

3. When you get to the form that requests information about the specific type of things you plan to sell and the theme of most of

those things, it is important to pay careful attention to your responses, as they will determine how your store is setup

initially.

4. After that, all you will need to do is select the name for your

store front, as well as the ID that will be used in its URL. If you plan to refer people to your store via word of mouth, it may be a

good idea to use an ID that is easy to remember.

5. Once you finish this process, you will be given the option to either view your store or to ―build your store.‖ Click the build

your store option. After that, click the ―add 1 or more products‖ button. This should bring you to the following page:



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6. From this page, select ―bags‖ and then ―tote bag.‖ Once you do this, you will want to select the link that says ―select image.‖ This

will allow you to place an image on the tote bag.

7. After clicking ―upload image,‖ you will be given the option to look for an image on your hard drive. In the photograph below, I have

selected the same photo that I used to create the watermark:

8. I now must click ―select‖ to accept this photo. This will return me

to the ―Products‖ page, which should now look like this:



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9. All I have to do now is select ―add these products‖ and my tote

bag will be created. I‘ve shown the final product below:

And there you have it: in a matter of a few easy steps, you can create

a tote bag—or a hat, or a clock, or a keychain, or a t-shirt, or a mug, or something completely different.

In total, CafePress offers just over 100 different customizable items – and that‘s over 100 money-making opportunities for you!

How to Get Paid

Now that you know how to create products on CafePress, the next

smart question to ask is how you actually get paid. The answer is that CafePress sends out monthly checks whenever you pass the payment



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threshold you selected, which can be as low as $25 or as high as $250; however, since CafePress maintains a 30-day return policy, you only

receive payable credit for sales 60 days after you make them.

How to Market Your CafePress Storefront

When it comes to marketing your CafePress storefront, you have

dozens of options. In fact, you have virtually as many options for marketing as you would if you had started your own site and had

manufactured the products yourself.

Option #1: Market Your Site in Classified Ads

One great way to generate traffic for your site is to purchase classified ads both online and in newspapers. You can capitalize on newspaper

readers‘ interest in current events by following topics that are particularly hot in the newspaper.

For instance, at the time I‘m writing this, the United States is having

presidential elections. Not surprisingly, apparently, stickers, mugs, and other items related to the candidates are some of the best sellers on

CafePress. If you can use the images that you have on your hard drive to create

products relevant to the elections and then market them through classified ads, you‘ll have a good shot at generating a lot of revenue.

Just remember to include the exact URL of your shop in the ad.

TIP: If your CafePress URL is to long or difficult to remember,

then get your own short, easy-to-remember domain name at

NameCheap.com. Then redirect your new domain name directly to your CafePress storefront.

Option #2: Market Your Site through Online Newsletters

Let‘s say you intend to take pictures of gardens. One great way to use

this to make money with a CafePress store would be to open a theme-specific store—and to market it to a niche audience.

Your gardening pictures, for instance, could be placed on mugs and t-shirts, along with a clever phrase or description.



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Once you setup your niche store, you can then start to market it to niche groups. And one of the best ways to contact these groups is

marketing to them through newsletters they read.

You can locate many of these sites by using the Google Directory at

www.google.com/dirhp. From there, you can drill down to newsletters on gardening to try to locate newsletters you can use to advertise your

niche products.

Another way to find niche newsletters is by searching Google for your niche keywords along with the word ―newsletter.‖ Continuing with our

example, you might search for ―gardening newsletter‖ or ―gardening ezine.‖

The more specific the newsletter, the better. So for example, if

you‘re selling products with roses on them, then search for ―rose newsletter‖ and ―rose ezine.‖

Here are a few tips to make this even more profitable for you:

Due your do diligence first. That means you should spend some time

reading the newsletter to ensure it‘s a high quality newsletter.

Ask the publisher about his or her demographics. You‘ll want to put your targeted offers in front of a niche audience – so the more you

know about this audience, the better.

Consider doing a joint venture. Usually you‘ll purchase advertising outright from the newsletter publisher. However, you may consider

offering the publisher a joint venture instead. That means he runs your ad (for free) in his newsletter in exchange for a percentage of

the profits.

Swap advertisements. If you have your own newsletter, then you

can swap advertisements with other newsletter publishers. They print your ad and you print their ad (for free).

Option #3: Market Pictures of Your Local Area

Another thing you can do to attract a niche audience is to create a

section of your store that sells posters, bumper stickers, mugs, keychains, and other items that use photos taken in your hometown. If

you live in an area that abounds with nature, then go to some of the

http://www.google.com/dirhp



72

better spots—perhaps the ponds or the marshes or the beaches—and snap a bunch of quality photos.

Once you finish creating a line of merchandise that contains photos of some of the landmarks in your hometown, your next step will be to

market those photos by placing flyers with your URL at various spots in your hometown.

I personally suggest creating flyers with fringe, rip-off pieces of paper

that contain the URL. You can post these on telephone poles. You can also ask businesses and local restaurants if they are interested in

carrying your flyers.

TIP: Before you post flyers on telephone poles or

other property, check your local laws and regulations. Certain jurisdictions prohibit this practice.


CafePress is an excellent medium through which you can create photo products and then sell them to various niche buyers.

The key to being successful with it is zeroing in on those niches, creating storefronts that target them well, and then finding ways of

marketing the ones that tap those niches directly.

Making Money Using Freelance Sites

Another great way to make money through photography is to accept freelance assignments.

These are likely to pay better than most other options. However, your

success depends more on your photographic talent and your use of one or two websites, rather than on your ability to market to large and

diverse audiences (which may still be a work in progress).

Let‘s start by checking out the available freelance sites:

1. www.elance.com

2. www.guru.com

3. www.rentacoder.com

http://www.elance.com/

http://www.guru.com/

http://www.rentacoder.com/



73

Once you have had a chance to browse these sites, you will want to create an account at each. Initially, you can create a ―free‖ account;

however, doing so limits the amount and type of projects you can

accept.

For now, that‘s okay. But, in the future, you may want to get rid of that cap on your project selection options.

Once you‘ve created your account at Elance, click on the ―Find Work‖

tab. After that, select ―Design & Multimedia.‖ That should bring you to the following page:

From here, select ―other.‖ One of the options displayed will be

―Photograph & Editing.‖

One thing you will notice immediately is that Elance does not list a tremendous amount of photography jobs; however, it does list a lot of

graphic design and photo editing jobs.

If you‘re indifferent between photo editing, graphic design, and actual photography, you may want to consider giving these other types of

jobs a chance.

Aside from that, there are only a few things you should keep in mind when looking for freelance photography projects on these sites:

1. Look for project posters who have feedback that indicates they

have paid on time and as promised.

2. Spend at least 15 minutes each day on all three sites checking for

new projects and placing bids.



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3. Avoid posting generic information when you place bids. Make it

very clear to the project poster that you have examined his or

her instructions and that you are certain that you can carry them out as desired.

4. Put a tremendous amount of effort into any projects you‘re

awarded. That way you can be assured that the project poster will be interested in contacting you next time—meaning you‘ll get

repeat business.

5. Update your profile frequently to include examples of your best work. As always, include watermarks on anything you post

publicly, so that it isn‘t easy for someone to come along and steal your work.

6. Create your profile; being sure to give a thorough explanation of

all types of work you are capable of doing. Additionally, include a

resume, your general work hours, and the software you are capable of using.

7. Accept projects at relatively low pay rates when you‘re just

starting out. While this may seem irritating at first, it will ensure that you do get a few projects. Once you receive and complete

those projects, you can start to collect feedback from buyers, which will identify you as a reliable source.

Remember, these sites operate by reputation, so, if you want to

attract and retain clients, you had better provide exceptional customer service from the start to the end of the project. Further, you had better

provide a brilliant final product to ensure that the client will return.

Sharing Your Photos for Cash

There are several sites that allow you to make money based on how many people view your videos or photos.

These provide yet another income possibility. In this section, I will examine break.com, shareapic.com, and flixya.com – all of which offer

monetary incentives to post photos and movies.

1. www.break.com.

http://www.break.com/

http://www.shareapic.com/

http://www.flixya.com/




75

The first step to making money with break.com is to create an account. From there, you will need to capture some very interesting

pictures and then upload them.

If the judges at Break.com decide to feature your photo on their

front page, you‘ll earn $50, which they will send you via PayPal.

In addition to pictures, Break.com also gives uploaders cash for submitting videos that are selected for their front page.

You‘ll make $400 for the first video (if you give them exclusive

rights), $500 for the second, and $600 for the third and all others thereafter. If you cannot give them exclusive rights, the structure

will be $200, $300, and $400.

2. www.shareapic.com.

If you‘ve ever used sites like Photobucket.com before, you

understand the concept of using a site to upload your pictures; however, what you might not be familiar with is making money by

showing those pictures to others.

Shareapic.com gives you $1 for every 4,500 ―image views‖ your images get; and sends payment directly to you Paypal account

within 7 days.

This gives you a lot of options for generating revenue through this

method--such as directing visitors from your MySpace page or from your Photobucket account to your Shareapic.com account--so that

you can pick up the extra revenue.

3. www.flixya.com.

Unlike most other paid picture sharing sites, Flixya has reasonably

attractive commissions. Rather than giving you a meager amount of money per view, they allow you to retain 100% of the Google

AdSense earnings that you generate whenever people click on the ads next to your pictures.

Here, of course, you will receive your payment from Google, rather

than Flixya. Other than the revenue generation part, Flixya operates very similarly to Shareapic.com or Photobucket.com.


http://www.shareapic.com/

http://www.flixya.com/



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While these sites are fun to use and perhaps you‘ll even pick up a little extra coin when you submit your work, you shouldn‘t focus too much

attention on them.

Here‘s why:

Most programs that allow you to generate revenue by submitting pictures, video content, and other media items do not have

particularly high payouts.

There‘s no guarantee you‘ll win a prize or sell photos that you uploaded to your account.

Here’s a Quick Recap of Chapter 3

You‘ve just discovered a number of different ways to make money

online with digital photography, including:

1. Submitting photos and videos to contests. 2. Selling photos on stock photo sites.

3. Accepting freelancing jobs. 4. Creating and selling high-quality photo products.

In this chapter, you have learned how to make money using these

various methods. In the following chapter, I will focus exclusively on one of them—selling stock photos.



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Five Secrets to Making More Money with Your

Stock Photos

Many photographers who attempt the transition from a hobbyist to a professional encounter significant resistance along the way.

This is because being good at photography does not at all guarantee

that an individual will be good at creating marketable work and then actually selling it.

In fact, the opposite is often true: many talented photographers are

unwilling to sacrifice artistic value in order to achieve commercial value.

TIP: If you want to earn money with digital photography, you should be willing to sacrifice artistic talent and

spontaneity in exchange for commercial value. Remember—your ultimate goal is to provide customers with a product

that they need for a particular purpose. While your artistic talents may help to improve that product, you should never

use them to impede the creation of that product.

Another problem with transitioning from a hobbyist to a professional is

that it entails picking up a number of new skills that are unrelated to photography.

These skills range from knowing which pictures will sell well (which is

not something photographers will necessarily know) to understanding search engine optimization—which is a prerequisite to being successful

with stock photo sites.

In this chapter, I‘ll offer advice to hobbyist photographers who are ready to go professional. If you are willing to follow my tips and to use

them when you capture, select, and market your photographs, you will

see far better results than you would if you had attempted to do all of those things without first obtaining an education.



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Earlier on in the ebook, I gave you a rough overview of how you can make money on stock photo sites. In the following sections, you‘ll learn

five secrets of the stock photo trade that will give you an unfair

advantage over most other photographers, who have not had a sales educational background.

Secret #1: Taking Pictures of Your Co-Workers Not all stock photos sell equally-well. In fact, there are several

categories of stock photos that tend to sell particularly well while others are virtually guaranteed to never sell.

For instance, if you don‘t have any interest whatsoever in making

money with stock photography; spend most of your time taking pictures of…

1. Your keyboard

2. Your mouse 3. Your computer

4. Your desk 5. Your shelves

6. Your pen and paper

7. Your briefcase 8. Anything else in your immediate surroundings

Why is this? Because just about anyone in the world could take those

very same pictures and upload them to iStockphoto or whichever site you are using.

If designers have thousands of different objects to select from, the

chances that they will select yours is a slim one

Additionally, designers rarely use stock photography for such mundane objects, since they could very easily captured these images

themselves.

To demonstrate that this is the case, look at the following results taken

from iStockphoto.com for our first keyword—keyboard:



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The word ―keyboard‖ returns 15,737 results on iStockphoto.com. If you submit a photo of a keyboard, you can expect that very few designers

will actually find and select yours, rather than the hundreds of other photos they have available.

If we look at the rest of the items on our list, we find that…

The word ―mouse‖ returns 4981 matches after it is disambiguated* to mean ―computer mouse.‖

The word ―computer‖ returns 60,567 matches.

The word ―desk‖ returns 20,219 matches.

The word ―shelf‖ returns 2,865 matches.

The words ―pen and paper‖ returns 6744 matches.

The word ―briefcase‖ returns 4119 matches.

*DEFINITION: Disambiguation – The act of making something unambiguous. In this particular case, we are



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referring to a search key phrase.

If, for instance, you enter ―keyboard,‖ into iStockphoto‘s

search engine, it will ask you to make your term unambiguous by selecting one of two terms that describe

what you are looking for:

1) computer keyboard; or 2) piano keyboard.

So, if the above list of items isn‘t likely to earn you much money, what

will?

In short, there are dozens of possibilities. And while there are dozens of categories of stock photos that can make you a lot of money, I am

going to cover one of them: taking photos of your co-workers.

Now, if you already work at home and do not have any ―co-workers‖ to speak of, you can ignore this section or you can read it to see if you

can extract something useful from it anyway.

On the other hand, if you do have co-workers, then you are in luck: workplace and corporate stock photos tend to fetch very high prices

and tend to be downloaded frequently.

There is a simple reason for this: many businesses need cleanly-

photographed corporate pictures to place on their websites; and if you can take those pictures, they will buy them for top dollar.

Let‘s start by checking out what iStockphoto.com returns for the term

―co-workers‖:



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Once we disambiguate to clarify that we mean ―white collar workers,‖ we get the pictures above.

There are several important features to notice. The first is that two of

the pictures show people with no faces. And the second is that three of the remaining pictures show people who do not have clearly identifiable

faces. This is really important.

The reason that this is important is because it is illegal to sell stock

photography of your co-workers if their faces are clearly identifiable if they do not sign a waiver (more on this later).

Therefore, if you get pictures of some of your co-workers in a corporate

office setting, but one or more of them will not sign the waiver, then you can:

1. Edit that person out.

2. Crop his head out of the picture. 3. Use pictures that only show him below the shoulders.

4. Choose pictures in which his face is not clearly identifiable (i.e. he has his back to you or sufficiently far enough away).

In all of the aforementioned cases, you can legally sell any of the pictures you have taken without obtaining a ―human model waiver.‖



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Knowing this should make it considerably easier for you to work within the existing legal framework to take pictures that are likely to generate

a significant income for you.

With this said, I‘ve included three specific tips below that you can use

to obtain ―corporate,‖ ―office,‖ or ―co-worker‖ pictures that are likely to generate some cash for you:

Tip #1: Capture Pictures of People Shaking Hands

One of the easiest ways to capture photos without obtaining a waiver

is to take numerous shots of co-workers shaking hands in corporate settings.

These handshake pictures are frequently used on corporate logos and

on corporate websites to represent a range of different things, such as camaraderie, salesmanship, and agreements between clients and

vendors.

To get an idea of what types of photos you might take, check out the

following photos taken from iStockphoto.com:

There are two important things to notice about these pictures:

Fifty percent of these photos do not include clearly identifiable

faces.



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Most of them are in general-enough settings, so that they can be used on corporate sites with minimal effort on the part of the

designer.

Now, if you don‘t mind approaching people, you could always take out

the camera on your lunch break and ask your coworkers to shake hands while you take pictures.

However, if you‘re weary of approaching people, you can always keep

the camera nearby and snap a photo or offer to a snap a photo when the time permits.

Approaching people and asking them if they‘re willing to sign a

waiver is the most lucrative method. If you can actually include a face in your picture, you will be able to fetch a much higher price, since, as

we‘ve seen in the examples above, the supply of pictures that includes faces is highly restricted.

Tip #2: Offer to Photograph Office Gatherings and Meetings

If your boss wants to impress her corporate bosses, then she could very well be thrilled with the idea of you capturing pictures of meetings

and demonstrations… especially if you allow her to use them later in slideshows or on the company website.

She may also like the idea of having pictures of her leading or

instructing her workers, so she can appear impressive.

Thus, you may want to approach your boss directly and ask if she is interested in having you take pictures at upcoming events. To sweeten

the pot, you should specifically offer to do extra stuff.

For instance, you could offer to:

Make an accompanying slide show.

Put the pictures on a CD. Take video footage.

Crop and edit the photos however she wishes and for whatever purposes.

For example, consider the following batch of stock photos taken from

iStockphoto.com:



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There are several important things you should notice about these pictures:

1. First, notice that some of these photos use cropped heads or

blurred faces to make them unidentifiable. While this may diminish the value of the pictures slightly, it does not have to do

so significantly if the work is tasteful and if the editing is done carefully.

2. Another important thing to notice is that most of the pictures

have white backgrounds, which makes it relatively easier for an

editor to use them.

In addition to taking pictures in office settings, you should also consider taking pictures of your co-workers in other settings.

For instance, if there is a company picnic, retreat, beach day, or

conference, you should be able to collect hundreds of pictures that could turn out to be big earners.

Just remember to bring your camera and to take photos. And,

whatever you do, remember to distribute waivers if needed and to take a lot of shots that do not include faces or corporate logos (which must

also be excluded from stock photos).

Also, remember to obtain a large batch of photos that are legally

usable—and then to edit them at the end of the day.



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Once you have narrowed your photos down to a select, high-quality batch, move on to the next step—uploading them to stock photo sites

(we will cover this part later).

Tip #3: Make Deals with Your Co-Workers

If the idea of snooping around the office to capture photos of your co-

workers seems creepy to you, then don‘t do it. Instead, make explicit bargains with them.

For instance, you could offer to photograph your co-workers and their

families if they are willing to allow you to sell some of those photos. You could even give them the power to approve or deny your request

to use their photos.

Ideally, however, if your goal is to take corporate photos, you will want to exchange family photos or individual photos for pictures of your co-

workers in corporate settings.

In particular, try to get them to pose at their desks, at a computer,

shaking hands, or engaging in some sort of ―team‖ activity. All of these categories of stock photo tend to convey positive corporate messages

and subsequently tend to sell well.

Remember, you‘re a professional – so when you‘re taking these photos, act professionally. That means you should strive to produce a truly

high-quality product for your co-workers.

One great way to get other co-workers interested is to have them referred to you by your other co-workers. If, for instance, you provide

them with a CD that has a slideshow or some great-looking photos that were edited, they are highly likely to show them to other people, who

might just be interested in hearing how they could get such good

photos taken of them, too.


Taking pictures of your co-workers to sell as stock photos makes a whole lot of sense. Not only do ―office‖ and ―corporate‖ photos sell well,

but they are also relatively easy to obtain.

If you decide to go this route, remember to:



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1. Distribute waivers. 2. Take shots that do not include faces.

3. Make exchanges (i.e. such as photographing a co-worker‘s

family) where necessary.

Secret #2: Getting Pictures of Children

A lot of people want really good pictures of their children to place on walls and mantles. There‘s only one problem: good pictures are

expensive. While they won‘t be able to avoid the cost of ink and glossy paper, you can give them a way to completely avoid paying the cost of

the photographer‘s time by offering to do it for free… with a catch, of course.

The catch is that they must sign a waiver that allows you to sell some

of their children‘s photos. Many parents may be reluctant to do this, so when you set up such an exchange, you should make it clear and

explicit that this is why you are offering this service for free—because you can recoup the costs by selling the stock photos.

The reason why you want children‘s photos to re-sell is that they

generally fetch a high price. As many stock photo selling experts note,

advertisers tend to seek out children‘s photos because they can be used in dozens of different applications. Additionally, since they are

generally hard to obtain, advertisers are willing to pay a premium for photos that match their specific needs.

With that said, let‘s go over three tips you can use to setup such an

exchange, since your ability to engage in these exchanges will ultimately determine whether or not you can make money with this

technique.

Tip #1: Seek Out Parents in Your Area via Craigslist

If you haven‘t heard of Craigslist, it‘s a massive site that posts classified ads for 567 metropolitan areas. You can find virtually

anything there for sell or wanted, including jobs, services, consumer

electronics, apartments, vehicles, and personal ads.



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For our purposes, however, we are primarily interested in seeking out people who want family photos in your area (either by responding to

their ads or posting your own).

You can start by heading to http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites.html, where

you will see the following:

Depending on where you live, you may find that Craigslist offers

classifieds for multiple cities that are in close proximity to your house.

So, before you get started, jot down all of the Craigslist locations that are close enough to you so that it would be worth it to for you to travel

there in order to make an exchange.

Let‘s pretend that you live in Dallas, Texas, USA. If this were the case, you‘d select Dallas and then you would select ―jobs.‖ From there, you

would start your search by pulling up results for ―photographer‖:

http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites.html



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Spend some time working through these ad postings. Even if you do not find one for family photos, you may find some that could provide

you with equally-lucrative situations in which you could take stock

photos.

When you‘re finished browsing the posted ads, post an ad of your own. Be sure to use keywords that people will use when they are looking for

you, such as ―family photos,‖ ―photographer,‖ ―pictures,‖ and anything else that you can imagine someone typing into Craigslist in order to

pull up an offer that is similar to yours.



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When you create the actual ad, make it very explicit that you will perform this service for the cost of the CD, ink, paper, and gas (and

perhaps write what this is ahead of time)—and that you will NOT

charge for your time.

However, you will require the parent to sign a waiver that allows you to sell some of the photos (perhaps ones that they approve) as stock

photos. Also, make it very clear exactly what a stock photo is.

Of course, including all of the caveats that I wrote out in the above paragraph will deter some would-be “customers”;

however, your goal should not be to attract cost-imposing tire-kickers.

The only people you want calling are the ones who find this trade-off

amenable and the ones who ultimately will sign the waiver without reluctance and with the full knowledge that you plan to sell some of the

pictures.

Tip #2: Cut a Deal with a Local Day-Care Service

You want to photograph families. Families want inexpensive pictures

from photographers. And day-care have access to families. This leaves you with a puzzle to solve: if you can only figure out what day-care

owners want, you can also solve your problem with getting access to families.

I suggest that you take this route: start by locating a large day-care

center in your area that serves dozens of families. Doing this can be as easy as opening the Yellow Pages and looking for ―Day Care‖ in the

back. Otherwise, you could look up ―Day Care‖ and ―Your City‖ on Google.

When I looked up ―Day Care‖ and ―London, UK‖ on Google, one of the first results that it returned was info.london.on.ca/, where I found the

following:

http://info.london.on.ca/



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I cropped off most of the page, but in total, this site provided dozens of

different day care centers in the London area. Each of the links in the above picture brought me to a page with full contact information for

each of the day care centers.

If I were working on this project, I would open up an Excel spreadsheet and enter the names, phone numbers, email addresses, and addresses

of each of the day care directors in the following way:



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Now, once I had filled out my Excel spreadsheet, I would create a form email—and I would then start sending it out to each of the day care

centers on my list.

Below you‘ll find an example of what I would write. You can use this

template when you start contacting people:

******

Dear Susie Smith:

We have not spoken previously, but I am a photographer in the London area—and I have a proposition for you that I believe

could benefit us both a great deal.

I am willing to take family photos of every child and their parents at your day care center for free and on an annual or bi-annual

basis. In exchange, all I would require is that five families who

were receiving pictures would waive their royalty rights, so that I may sell their photos as stock.

To clarify what this means – I would put some of these family

photos up for sale through a stock photo site. Companies would then purchase them for various uses—such as placing them on

logos or websites.

The only thing I would require compensation for is the cost of my transport (probably a few pounds or less), the cost of the CDs on

which the photos would be placed (roughly 1 pound per family), and the cost of photo paper and ink (if any of them want prints).

If this sounds like a good idea to you, you can contact me at this email address or you can call me at 555-123-4567.

Thank you for your time and interest.

Sincerely,

My Name

*******

As I was contacting each of these day care centers, I would add two more columns to my Excel spreadsheet like the following:



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In one column, I would record whether or not I called or contacted the person. In the other column, I would record the date I was scheduled

to take the pictures.

If you end up juggling several different day care photo shoots, an organized spreadsheet like this could save you a lot of time finding

email addresses, phone numbers, and appointment dates.

If you want to save yourself some time, you could put the waivers in PDF format (as many stock photo sites now offer them)—and email

them to the director of the day care. She could then find the five willing parents and then have them sign and mail you the waivers.

Once you receive the five waivers, you can setup an appointment with

the day care center and make any additional provisions as required.

Whatever you do, make it very clear to the director and to all parents involved exactly what they will receive and exactly what you will

require in return.

The last thing you want is to end up with is a massive ―customer service‖ disaster on a project you are not being paid for directly.

Additionally, when you send out the CDs with the photos, make sure

you place a business card inside, so that parents know how to contact you for future projects.

Tip #3: Find Parents who are Interested in Marketing the Image

of Their Children

You may encounter some serious resistance when you asked parents to

sign a waiver that would allow you to sell royalty-free pictures of their children on the Internet.

And I‘m sure that all of those parents had very good reasons for not

wanting anyone to be able to obtain pictures of their children and use them commercially.



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Luckily, though, there‘s a way to get around this problem: find parents who are trying to market the image of their children.

Who are these people?

They‘re the people who have sons and daughters who are talented baseball players, talented skaters, talented singers, talented artists,

young models, and young singers.

Many of them are actively seeking ways to market the image of their children inexpensively, so that their children have a greater chance of

achieving stardom at a young age.

So how can you benefit from this situation? You can offer to become that child‘s photographer for free in exchange for the rights to stock

photos.

Of course, you will require the parent to cover your transportation costs

to events, the costs of CDs, the cost of ink, and the cost of photo paper, but other than that, you could offer your services entirely for

―free,‖ provided that the parent is willing to sign a waiver that will allow you to sell some of the pictures as stock photos.

In many cases, parents will actually want you to sell the stock photos,

so that their child‘s photo can be placed on banners and logos, increasing their profile and giving them an additional resume item.

With all of that said–one big question remains: how can you get into

contact with these parents and convince them that you deserve to be given this chance?

My suggestion for you would be to take the same approach I outlined

in the second tip: find a middleman who can benefit by connecting you

and the families.

One good place to start is to think of areas in which individuals may excel or show significant promise at a young age. Your next step is to

find businesses that would cultivate that talent.

For instance, if you want to find the parents of young singing talent, you might start by looking for voice coaches in your area either in the

Yellow Pages. Otherwise, you could use Google‘s Directory Search feature to find voice coaches.



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For instance, I started at www.google.com/dirhp and looked up ―voice

coach‖:

Google Directory pulled up 121 results. My next step would be to sift through these results and find studios in my area. Similar to what I did

in tip #2, I would create a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel, so that I could keep track of every studio I contacted.

Here‘s an email template you can use:

*****

Dear Terry Tatum:

I found your voice coaching service through Google Directory. I was impressed with the quality of your website and the

description of the service that you offer.

http://www.google.com/dirhp



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I am not currently seeking voice lessons, but I am interested in working with you on a joint venture partnership. I am a

photographer and I am interested in capturing pictures and

taking video footage of talented young singers.

If you are interested, I would be willing to provide a service to all of your clients—namely, capturing footage and pictures of their

children at recitals and concerts. I would also be willing to capture stand-alone pictures and family pictures if parents were

interested. By virtue of being connected to you, all of your current and future clients would be able to obtain this service for

free.

With the exception of the cost of my transportation, CDs, ink, and paper (which shouldn‘t cost more than $5 per person), I would

not charge anything additional. My only requirement would be that participating parents would sign a waiver allowing me to sell

at least a few of the photos as ―stock‖ photos. Of course, I would

allow the parents to work with me to select which photos.

To clarify what I mean by this—I would put some of these family photos up for sale through a stock photo site. Companies would

then purchase them for various uses—such as placing them on logos or websites. Indeed, for parents interested in increasing the

profile of their children, this could actually be a big step in the right direction. It could get their children on corporate logos and

sites (an impressive resume item, indeed). If this sounds like a good idea to you, you can contact me at this

email address or you can call me at 123-4567. I would be more than happy to answer any questions you have about my

proposal.

Thank you for your time and interest.

Sincerely,

My Name

*****

Again, as I went, I would record the responses in my Excel file, adding new columns as necessary.



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If you‘ve never attempted a joint venture such as this in the past, you‘ll

be breaking new ground here, but it will be well worth it.

In business, many of your largest break-throughs will come from

simply having the courage to approach someone and to ask them if they are willing to share clients and information with you.


Stock photos of children are in high demand at places like iStockphoto.

If you want to make some serious money selling stock photos, you should consider following the three methods I outlined in tip #2.

Most importantly, you should get in the practice of ―connecting the

dots,‖ so to speak, by finding third parties that can connect you with a vast treasure trove of clientèle.

Secret #3: Snapping Pictures of Your Local Area

In one of our previous tips, I discouraged you from trying to sell photos of things that are in your immediate vicinity. Well, now that you have

some more exposure to the stock photo business, I‘m going to throw in

an exception to that rule.

Rule #1: If you take pictures of things that are close to your immediate surroundings, they must be something that is also

unique to your immediate surroundings. If you live in New York City in the United States, you might snap a shot of the Empire

State Building. Whatever you do, don‘t take pictures of things that anyone could take.

Got it? The reason firms purchase stock photos is because they cannot take those photos themselves. For instance, firms in the Caribbean

cannot take pictures of glaciers or arctic fauna. But if you live in Northern Canada or Alaska, taking such photos might be trivial for you.

So, do it. Think about what is unique or exclusive to your area. Next

time you pass by that unique landmark or landscape feature, take the time to photograph it extensively.



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You might not think it‘s a big deal, but if it‘s unique to your area or at

least not in a lot of areas, there‘s a good chance that some firm out

there has a use for it.

In your search for ―unique‖ items in your area, I would suggest that you try out the following three tips:

Tip #1: Look Your Area up in a Travel Guide

One of the best ways to come up with a list of places in your area that

people outside your area might be interested in is to open up Fodor‘s Travel Guide and to look up your city. There‘s a good chance you will

find a half dozen attraction sites that, as a local, you may not have thought were significant.

As an example, I did this for Portland, Oregon in the United States. I

went to Fodors.com and found the following information on Portland:



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I noticed three important things immediately:

I can go to an Opera in Portland. There is a historic library in Portland (which I noticed after

clicking through one of the links). There is an ―Outdoor Store‖ in Portland, which may have an

interesting, unique theme.

Now, let‘s start with the Opera idea. If Portland shows operas, there is likely to be an opera house (or at least a stadium of some sort) in the

area.



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This means that you have the opportunity to take a number of pictures

of an opera house to sell as stock photos. These could prove to be good

sellers, as designers who need such a picture may not have an opera house in their area.

Indeed, if we pull up the results for ―opera house‖ on iStockphoto.com,

we find the following:

Compared to pictures of keyboards, computers, pens and paper, and other household objects, there are very few pictures of opera houses.

Of course, part of the reason for this is probably that there is also a

lesser need for opera house pictures, as indicated by the low ―downloads‖ numbers. Even so, if someone does search for opera

houses, they will have a much greater chance of selecting your photo than they would more common items.

Next, following the link for libraries on Fodors.com, I found the following information:



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To me, this sounded like it might yield some excellent photos that I could sell on a stock site. So I dug deeper and followed the link to the

website to see if I could confirm that it would be worth taking pictures

of this library.

I found the following on the library‘s website:

If the location of the library was in close proximity to my house, I

would probably go there immediately and get some pictures – both of the building from the outside and of the books, exhibits, art, and

various rooms inside.

Once I was finished over there, I would check out the Outdoor Store, which was described in the following way on Fodors.com:



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I expect that I could get several dozen photos from the Outdoor Store, such as people purchasing saddles, cowboy shirts, and other items that

you would not normally see in most parts of the United States or the

rest of the world.

Additionally, in order to make sure all of my pictures were legal stock material, I would crop out faces and avoid taking pictures that included

corporate logos.

Now, before I move on to the next method—there‘s one thing I want to mention: because you are running a business (rather than doing this as

a hobby), you will want to be highly conscious of your costs at all times.

In the examples above, I did not outline the best way to approach

those tips, but if I had to, I would probably suggest that you spend 45 minutes searching for sites to photograph and another 15 minutes

planning the shortest route from site to site.

The more gas you save, the cheaper this stock photo run will be; and

the more time you save, the more time you will have to edit photos.

Tip #2: Take Climate and Environment-Related Pictures

As I mentioned previously, one of the most important unique features of your local area (at least as far as stock photos go) is your climate.

Another important feature is your environment. Whether you live in a harsh, barren, cold environment; a tropical, humid, hot environment;

or somewhere in between, there are design firms who want photos from your area.

Before you rush out to take pictures, start thinking about what features

are truly unique to your area that may not exist at all in other places.

Below, you‘ll find three environment-types as examples.

Environment Type #1: Cold and Snowy

If you live in an area where it snows (and it isn‘t snowing at the time), pull up the photos on your computer from past winters. You may

already have pictures of snowmen, snow angels, snowy cars, snowy buildings, and snow-capped mountains.



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If this is the case, you can simply edit these photos and then submit them as stock. Provided you have good material, you may not have

any dire need to spend more time and money to capture additional

photos.

If, on the other hand, it is snowing at the time and the photos on your computer from past winters are less than brilliant, you will want to take

some new photos of the snow. But before you rush out to do this, take some time to plan your adventure, so that you can conserve gas and

time (again, remember that you are running a business – not pursuing a hobby).

I personally suggest that you start by going to Jupiter Images‘ stock

photo site at www.sxc.hu. From there, start looking for pictures that are related to snow in some way. When I did this, I simply typed in ―snow‖

and got 1000 images, including the following ones:

Immediately, you will notice photos that you probably can‘t take

yourself, such as photos of ice floes taken from the decks of ice breakers near Antarctica.

http://www.sxc.hu/



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This is perfectly fine. The only thing you need to figure out here is which ―snow‖ photos are popular out of the set of all photos that you

can take relatively easily and inexpensively.

On the first page of results, the most downloaded picture was actually

of two snow-covered pine trees, taken in Ankara, Turkey. It was downloaded 362 times when I checked.

And if you are a reasonably good photographer and you live in an area

where it snows, I‘m fairly certain that you could have taken this photo yourself.

With that said, don‘t limit yourself to nature photos. If you can get

photos of people sledging, skiing, snowboarding, hiking, and participating in other winter sports, you are sure to capture the

interests of a large group of designers.

For instance, I took a look at the top downloaded pictures for skiing

and found the following:



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Note that ―snowboarder‖ and ―snowboarder 1‖—two of the most highly downloaded skiing photos on the site—do not include identifiable faces.

This is good news for you. It means that you have a reasonably good chance of making money by taking photos of people engaging in winter

sports, even if you cannot get them to sign release forms.

To give you a more general formula:

Spend some time browsing the top downloaded photos on stock photo sites to get ideas.

Write down a list of different snow topics that appear to be in high demand on whichever site you are using.

Start figuring out the best places to shoot those photos. Take 15 minutes to map out your routes, so you do not waste

time and gas along the way.

Environment Type #2: Hot and Tropical

Now, if you live in a hot, tropical area, you will also have a large

selection of locations to choose from when taking your environment/climate photos. In fact, there are probably dozens of

great photo opportunities right next to your house that you might not consider stock photo material, since you‘re so familiar with your own

climate.

Of course, if you have a pool or live by the beach, you could get a lot of great photos without going too far. Again, though, you should spend

the time to work through the top downloaded photos on iStockphoto.com to get an idea of what people really want.

When I searched for ―beach,‖ I got the following:



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Additionally, as I worked through more frequently-downloaded photos, I noticed several common threads:

The use of palm trees in shots that did not include any people. The use of families and children.

Photos cropped around the shoulders.

If you want to make sure that designers download your photos, you should probably take those three things into consideration when you

snap your own.

As always, remember to try to get pictures that do not include corporate logos, as you will have to edit them out before you submit

them as stock.

For instance, I searched iStockphoto.com for ―pool‖ and found the following images (ordered by downloads):



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Here, many of the top downloaded pictures did not even include models. They were simply good pictures of pool water, which probably

lent themselves to dozens of different possible uses. Consider taking simple pictures such as these when working on this batch of stock

photos.

In addition to pools, beaches, and places that are unique to your area,

you will also want to consider taking pictures of palm trees.

Regardless of whether you get shots of palm trees lining the road or of a single palm tree on the beach, these make excellent shots for

designers who are stuck in cold weather climates and cannot get these photos themselves.

As always, make sure you plan out your travel route for the day before

you head out to get pictures. Additionally, if you run into landmarks or unique landscape features during travels, you should stop briefly to

snap some photos. Wherever possible, you should try to conserve gas and time.



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Environment #3: Ponds, Lakes and Harbors

One feature of your landscape that you might easily overlook is a pond,

lake, or harbor near your house. Indeed, if there is one of these nearby, it might be easy to walk by it day after day without even

thinking that there are many individuals and design firms that do not have access to areas such as these.

But there are. Design firms in landlocked areas and areas with no

bodies of water cannot easily snap photos of boats, swimmers, sunsets on the lake, and whatever else they need for Internet design projects.

Following our standard procedure, let‘s start by heading to

iStockphoto.com to look for some ―pond‖ pictures. We find:

As usual, there are several important things to note about these

pictures (which were the most downloaded on iStockphoto):

1. Many of these photos are simple pictures and do not involve

human models.



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2. One photo includes an animal model. These are ideal pictures because they do not require a model release form and they are

generally hard to get.

3. The third thing to notice is that there is a picture of someone fly fishing that shows his entire body, but, because it is getting dark,

his face is completely unidentifiable, which means that this picture can be used without first obtaining a human model

waiver.

Another great thing you can take pictures of is a lake. While the dynamics will be similar to pond photos, there are some additional

things to keep in mind:

Take photos at different times of the day, so you can capture the sunset, sunrise, and midday activities.

Take photos of a range of different activities at the lake—from

swimming, to boating, to picnicking, to camping. Each of these

different categories of photo will draw designers interested in lakes, as well as designers interested in the other activities going

on in the picture.

Take photos from different spots on the lake. If you have a rowboat or if you can access one, you may want to use it to take

photos on the lake, rather than on the shore. All of these different perspectives will give you additional stock photos to sell.

Finally, if you live next to a harbor, do use that opportunity to take

stock photos. In particular, you will want to:

Take shots at different times of the day Take shots of different types of boats, including tugboats,

sailboats, cruise liners, and cargo ships.

Take shots of the piers, the birds on them, and the boats attached to them.

As usual, the best guide for photo theme selection will always be the

most downloaded items on iStockphoto. When I looked up harbors, I found the following:



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Of course, you should do your own thorough investigation. You should

also remember to plan your day accordingly, so that you can snap photos at different times and so that you can cover as much ground as

possible while minimizing time loss and gas usage.

Tip #3: Take Pictures on Vacation

If you‘re a photographer, no one needs to tell you to take pictures on vacation. You probably snap hundreds of photos of every landmark you

pass, every beach you visit, every cathedral you enter, every gorgeous landscape you drive by, every person you encounter, and every

building that is different from what you‘re used to at home.

In the past, you might not have considered these photos as an

opportunity to earn money. But now you can. All you have to do is make a conscious effort to figure out how you can take photos that

designers want to buy.

Additionally, if you want to save yourself some trouble, you should get in the habit of snapping photos that you can legally use with minimal

editing.



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But before you start planning your next vacation, you should start by digging through pictures of past vacations on your computer. Without

knowing it, your hard drive could contain a treasure trove of pictures

that could be converted into cash via stock photo sites.

If you find some good ones from previous vacations, take the time to edit them carefully. Crop out faces, remove logos, and improve the

brightness, color, and shadows. Once you‘re finished editing, you should have a number of photos that you can submit to iStockphoto or

your preferred stock photo company.

Now, with that said, let‘s assume that you haven‘t gone on vacation yet, but you‘re planning to go in the next month. If that‘s the case, you

will want to take extra care to observe and photograph the following things while you‘re on vacation:

Landmarks along the trip from your home to your destination.

The airport—both inside and out.

Planes, as they take off and land. Crowds at the airport and on streets.*

Historical statues and landmarks. Unusual places, such as rustic villages and historical districts.

Decrepit houses. Mansions.

Spectacular buildings. Children playing in the street.

Visually-appealing settings. Climate-specific pictures that you cannot take at your own home.

Environment-specific pictures that you cannot take at your own home.

Beaches, ponds, lakes, the sky, and nature in general.

*Hint: When you take pictures of crowds, try to remain far

enough away, so that all faces in the picture are unidentifiable. If, for instance, you are at the airport, then

take a picture from the top of the escalator or over the railing of the second floor. If you don‘t do this, you will wind

up doing far more editing to blur and crop out faces in the long run.

Again, your best bet is to use iStockphoto to figure out what you should photograph on your trip.



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As you go, make a list; and then use that list to determine where you should focus most of your time when snapping photos.

Section 5.4 Conclusion:

One easy way to make money with stock photography is to take pictures of things that are near you, especially those things that are

unique to that particular area. While other techniques may require you to drive long distances or hire human models, this technique allows you

to make money without human models (for the most part) and to take all of your pictures within a short distance of your home or while you

are on vacation.

Secret #4: Selecting Your Keywords

As I mentioned earlier, being good at photography does not automatically cause you to understand the best way to sell stock

photography. Indeed, there are several things you must know that are unrelated to photography in order to do well at selling your photos.

First and perhaps most importantly, you must understand something

about two topics: ―search engine optimization‖ and ―keywords.‖ Let‘s

start by defining these words:

Definition: Search Engine Optimization – the act of optimizing something (i.e. a written article, a photograph,

etc.), so that it ranks higher in search engine results. For instance, in the case of stock photos, your goal should be to

have your pictures pop up as frequently as is possible when people search for topics related to your photo on

iStockphoto.com or whatever site you use.

Definition: Keyword – the word YOU select to describe your pictures on stock photo sites. If a user enters that keyword

into the stock photo site‘s engine, your picture will be returned with the results. In most situations, you will be

selecting multiple keywords to describe your pictures. Additionally, you will be selecting ―keyphrases,‖ which are

keywords that are more than a single word.

When you upload your pictures to a stock photo site, you will have to use keywords and keyphrases to describe them. And these words—



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combined with the quality of your photos—will ultimately determine how many people actually end up finding and downloading your

pictures.

If you choose wisely, your pictures will be located easily and

downloaded frequently. If you‘re sloppy, few people will find your pictures and even fewer will download them.

You might think that this process is trivial, but it really isn't. As many

successful stock photo sellers note, keyword selection is often the primary determinant of success as a stock photo seller.

Sloppy keyworders do poorly; and good keyworders earn tremendous

amounts of money. This holds true, even when the quality of the photos is questionable

Let me give you an example.

Example Picture: Woman on Scale

Let‘s say that you go to the trouble of getting a real, actual human model. You approach your neighbor and ask her if she is willing to allow

you to photograph her and to sign a waiver that will allow you to sell her pictures as stock photographs. After offering to provide her with

the CD of photographs, she agrees—and you end up with this photograph of her sitting on a scale:

Your next step is to figure out why designers would want this picture

(although you should have thought of that before you got started, anyway) and what keywords you can use to direct them towards it.

Let‘s start off with the worst of all possible keyword lists—one that does not keep the designers in mind. You can use this is an example of what

you should never think is a satisfactory keyword list.



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Really Inadequate Keyword List

Woman

Sitting

Scale

Now, you might laugh heartily at this pathetic keyword list, but in reality, most submitters do not do a whole more than that. They focus

most of their time and energy on taking photographs; and then expect that magic will draw buying customers to their work, rather than good

keywords.

Now that we have a poor example of what a keyword list is, let‘s try to

create one that is substantially better. And let‘s do that by asking ourselves what a designer might be looking for.

Well, for starters, we‘ll take the keywords ―woman,‖ ―sitting,‖ and

―scale.‖ After that, think of what designers might want to know about that picture.

One thing they may want to know is that it has a white background,

which will make it easy to manipulate in an image editor. So add ―white‖ and ―white background‖ to the list.

Another thing designers might want to know is more about the woman

in the picture. Since she happens to be your neighbor, you might know that she‘s 25.

You could write ―20 to 30,‖ ―25,‖ and ―adult‖ and possible keywords and keyphrases to catch that same idea. You should also include that

she is ―Caucasian‖ and ―tan.‖ These are all useful things that the designer may be using to narrow down his or her search.

You will also want to consider various features of the woman‘s

appearance. For instance, you may want to include ―pretty,‖ ―attractive,‖ ―cute,‖ ―brown hair,‖ ―closed eyes,‖ ―shorts,‖ ―short hair,‖

and any other adjectives that capture important features of her appearance.

Finally, you will want to think about what the designer might use the

picture for. For instance, you could write ―horizontal,‖ since the picture is longer than it is tall.



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You could also include the key phrase ―weight loss,‖ since she is weighing herself—and since a designer looking for such a picture may

be working on a weight loss project. Similarly, you could include the

words ―thin,‖ ―fit,‖ ―diet,‖ and ―health,‖ giving us the following list:

Better Keyword List

Woman Scale 25 Caucas

ian

Pretty Cute Closed

Eyes

Sitting 20 to 30

Adult Tan Attractive

Brown Hair

Shorts

Short Hair

Horizontal

Weight Loss

Thin Fit Diet Health

In the table above, you have a far better keyword list—one which has a

far greater chance of attracting designers who might use your piece. But you aren‘t done yet. There is a lot more you can do to collect

keywords for your photos that are good matches. One good place to start is with photo forums.

You can start by heading over to www.big-boards.com. Once you‘re there,

search for forums that are related to photography. I found the following:

Look for forums that have a lot of readers. I personally would suggest that you start with the following ones, which I have listed below for

your convenience:

http://www.big-boards.com/



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1. photography-on-the.net/forum/

2. www.clubsnap.com/forums/

3. www.avforums.com/forums/index.php

4. www.iphotoforum.com/forum/index.php

Head to each of those forums and create an account. Next time you snap a batch of stock photos, post one on the forum and ask people to

reply with all of the words that come to mind when they see it.

This will exponentially increase the amount of words in the short list

that you came up with originally. Additionally, it will put hundreds of thousands of minds to work, rather than relying strictly on your own.

After a few days (or a week, depending on how many people post on

the forum), collect all of the keywords from the thread and start using them to label your pictures.* If some of the keywords turn out to be

completely irrelevant, ignore them, as some stock photo sites have keyword rules which could get you banned for using unrelated

keywords.

*Hint: as soon as you finish taking a batch of stock photos, you

should transfer them to your computer, organize them, edit them, and then put them up on your stock photo site of choice

using your initial list of keywords. You can return later after you update those keywords to expand your list.

Initially, you may be tempted to use only one forum and to post, take

off, and return once the job is done, but if you want to do this sustainable in the long run, it is in your best interests to take a

different approach. This approach should consist of the following

things:

1. Post frequently on the forum to increase your post count and to become more familiar with other regular posters.

2. If someone else asks for help, try to be helpful, rather than ignoring

the post.

3. Post on multiple forums, so that you do not appear to be a pest on a single forum.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/

http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/

http://www.avforums.com/forums/index.php

http://www.iphotoforum.com/forum/index.php



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4. Stay current with your own threads; and make sure to return and to frequently comment on replies—as well as thank people for

participating.

If you ignore those four tips, there‘s a good chance that your

threads will end up locked or abandoned, as you will appear to be a spammer who is attempting to take advantage of the forum.

Additionally, few people will want to help someone who contributes nothing to the forum in return.


One of the most important things you will do when you post stock

photos is select the keywords to go along with those photos. This step can make or break your success as a stock photographer!

Most photographers are highly negligent with their keyword selection –

but that works to your benefit. Fortunately for you, you can take

advantage of the weak competition by taking extra care to select keywords that attract eager designers.

Throughout this process, remember to come up with large lists of

keywords that not only describe the picture, but also describe its potential uses.

Finally, remember that tapping the power of dozens or hundreds of

other people through forums is one very easy and inexpensive way to get all of the feedback you will need to generate a long keyword list.

Secret #5: Scouring Your Computer for Photos By now, I‘ve gone over the basic ―do not‘s‖ of stock photo selection half

a dozen times; however, many of them bear frequent repeating, so that you do not forget. Of all of the ―do not‘s,‖ the most important are

the following two: Do not use photographs that include an identifiable human face.

2) Do not use photographs that include corporate logos of any sort.

With those two ―do not‘s‖ in mind, it‘s time to start capturing some

excellent stock photos that are likely to fetch you hundreds or thousands of dollars—not out in the real world, but on your very own

hard drive!



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If you‘re like most photographers, you have hundreds and hundreds of photographs on your computer. In fact, you have so many that—up

until now—you probably weren‘t sure what to do with them all.

Today, you‘re going to put them all to use. But before you do that, I

want you to start organizing them. Now, you can do this with your own elaborate system of folders or you can do it using free or paid software.

If, for instance, you would like to organize everything using the

Internet, so that you can access your photos anywhere, you could use http://www.photobucket.com or some other web photo-storage service.

Conversely, if you would like to use free software, you could use http://picasa.google.com/, which will find and help you to organize all of

the photos on your computer.

If you would prefer to use an elaborate folder system on your own computer, you might try something out like this:

http://www.photobucket.com/

http://picasa.google.com/



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At the top level of the folders, I have created a specific folder in which I may place all of my stock photos. Within the stock photos, I order them

by category, so that I can quickly find the topics I need.

Within those categories, I order them by date, so that I can get a rough

idea of what batch they are based on the month of the year I took them.

Once you drill down to the photo level, it won‘t be as hard to find

photos, since you can look at the thumbnails. However, you will want to use descriptive titles so that you can find them easily using a

searching (rather than directory/browsing) method.

This is especially important if you use software like Picasa, which will allow you to quickly rifle through all of your folders to find photos with

certain keywords in their titles.

Now that you have all of your photographs organized, it is time to start

working through them to determine whether or not they are a candidate stock photo. I suggest that you use the following criteria

when determine whether or not something is stock photo material:

1. Estimate the amount of time it will take to eliminate logos, blur faces, and crop out heads where necessary. If it will take too much

time, ignore that photo and move on to the next. The only exception here is if you have a photo that is likely to bring in an exorbitant

amount of money if you make those changes. In that case, go ahead and make them.

3. Figure out how long it will take to edit the photo in order to make

it something that a designer might purchase. Again, if you‘re

looking a long, drawn-out editing process, then skip that photo and look for others that can be fixed up quickly.

TIP: Keep this in mind: at a bare minimum, you could be working

somewhere and earning minimum wage. So, if you spend hours fixing up a picture

and only earn a few dollars from it, you‘d be better off bagging groceries



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somewhere than spending your time fixing

photos that won‘t fetch much money.

Finally, the one exception included in criterion #1 also applies to #2.

3. Focus on finding and editing photos that actually have a chance of

selling. Poor quality photos and photos of mundane objects—which can

be found in the tens of thousands on stock photo sites—probably are not worth editing and submitting, as they will be downloaded very few

times and will be unlikely to fetch more than 20 cents per download.

4. Spend the most time finding and editing photos that include people, animals, nature, and children. These photos tend to fetch higher prices,

since they are also very hard to find. As always, remember to follow the usual rules when dealing with pictures of human beings.

5. Take the time to come up with a detailed list of keywords before you

submit to the stock photo sites. Use some of the techniques I mentioned earlier to generate large lists. In addition to coming up with

your own lists, you should ask friends, photographers, and forum members.

You should also use a thesaurus to see if there are words that you are systematically missing that people might use in place of words that you

have already listed.


You can start making money immediately using stock photography sites – without even snapping a new picture! All you have to do is

check your hard drive to see whether some of your existing photos can be converted in to stock photos that will sell well.

Start by organizing what you‘ve got. If you don‘t have much, that‘s

fine. You can skip this part. But if you do have a lot—as I suspect most photographers do—then you may have dozens of photos that you can

use as stock material before you even need to step out the door to take

additional pictures.

As always, remember that what you‘re running is a business—not a hobby. If you can minimize costs by cutting down on unnecessary

photo trips and by organizing your photos, so you save time when you



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are searching for them, then you should do that. The more time and money you save, the more profit you put in your pocket!

A Quick Recap of Chapter 4

You now should have dozens of different ideas for how you can operate your stock photo business. Most photographers don‘t learn these tips

until years into their career… or not at all! Others are tips that business persons might know, but photographers would not. Still others are tips

that the average photographer might find useful to create better-selling photos.

Whatever your situation may be, it is critical that you take in all of the

information I included in this chapter:

1. Start applying these ideas to find co-workers who might sign a waiver, parents who might be interested in allowing you to

photograph their children, and so on.

2. Remember to check with stock photo sites to make sure that your selection of picture themes matches well with what is

already selling. 3. Remember to follow both the legal rules of stock photography

selling and the rules and norms of business (i.e. courtesy, salesmanship, over-delivering, etc.).



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Tips and Tricks for Taking Better Photos

In order to limit the scope of this ebook, I have specifically opted not to cover digital photography or image editing in-depth. These are two

subjects that could easily take up several large ebooks in themselves.

Instead, in this chapter and the next, I will cover some brief tips and will then refer you to places where you can find more information.

You‘ll also find a more thorough treatment of some of these topics in earlier chapters.

With that said, let‘s start with digital photography tips. There are

roughly 10 things you should do if you want to take better pictures:

1. Get a strong grip on the camera. Many problems with digital

photography can be traced back to a loose, shaky grip on the camera. This frequently results in blurry pictures, grainy pictures, or pictures

with texture issues. So, before you take that next picture, pause a few seconds to make sure you have a strong, still grip on your camera.

2. Prevent yourself from moving while taking the photo. Moving while

taking photos is another culprit of low quality, blurry digital photos—and one you can completely eliminate by being more conscious of how

you are standing.

The most obvious way to eliminate this is simply to use a tripod. Another way to eliminate it is to sit down or lean against a wall while

you are taking pictures. This will prevent you from moving.

3. Obey the rule of thirds. If you‘re not familiar with photography, the

rule of thirds basically says to view your picture as being divided into thirds (both vertically and horizontally). The diagram below of a picture

roughly illustrates this concept:



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Next time you take a picture, imagine that this grid was placed over it.

Your goal should be to place the most important items (i.e. people, the horizon, etc.) on one of the lines that separate the thirds.

4. Find different vantage points to change the appearance of the photo.

Rather than simply taking photos at your height level, try taking them from various positions. For instance, climb up into a tree and take a

picture from there. Or sit down on the ground and take a picture looking directly up at something above you.

5. Use balance to make your photos more interesting. The concept of

balance is straightforward: attempt to take pictures that roughly balance their focus between objects on different sides of the picture.

This will get viewers to look around more.

6. Control the lighting in your pictures carefully. If, for instance, your

picture will include a lot of natural lighting, then don‘t add a lot of additional light with your flash. Additionally, if you are taking pictures

that are very close to your target, consider using more diffuse light, rather than a flash to avoid reflection and other issues.

7. Reduce glare by using a polarizing filter for outdoor shots. If your

camera did not come with a polarizing filter, you should consider purchasing one if you plan to take nature photos. This will reduce the

glare that comes from your photos. TIP: If you cannot use such a filter with your camera, place one of the

lenses of your sunglasses over your camera‘s lens.



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8. Master the self-timer device on your camera and use it frequently. Need a model for your next batch of pictures? No problem! As long as

you can use a self-timer and have a tripod, you can do much of your

modeling on your own.

9. Experiment with slow shutter speeds. Using very slow shutter speeds will allow you to take pictures that appear distorted if something is

moving in the picture. This can create interesting effects that could significantly improve the photo.

10. Take time to arrange the objects and models in your pictures. If

you have objects and models in your picture that are moveable, you should take the time to put them in an order that will make a good

photo, rather than simply snapping it as is and hoping for the best outcome.

If you want a thorough overview of these topics, I highly suggest that

you check out Learn Digital Photography Now, which is a brilliant guide

to digital photography.

This guide is literally brimming over with indispensable tips on lighting and backdrops—as well as how to photograph children, weddings, and

pets. You can find out more about it at www.learndigitalphotographynow.com/guide/.

http://www.learndigitalphotographynow.com/guide/



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Tips and Tricks for Enhancing Your Photos

As I mentioned in the last short chapter, I will not be covering photo editing in-depth. Rather, I will simply cover seven important tips that

should help you to improve your image editing—and then refer you to a more comprehensive manual on the subject.

Let‘s start with the tips.

Seven Simple Tips for Editing Your Photos

1. Edit out ―grain‖ and ―noise‖ out of all of your photos before you

submit them. You can do this by carefully filling places where you had to remove logos or which were damaged by image compression.

2. Eliminate unwanted elements using the cropping tool. This is one of the simplest editing tools yet also very useful when it comes to creating

photos for commercial purposes. Use it to eliminate unwanted heads, unwanted signs, and unwanted logos, so that your pictures are legal to

use commercially.

3. Use the magnetic lasso tool (which is part of most image editing programs) to remove the main object in your picture, so that you can

copy it into a picture with a white background. This will make it easier for designers to manipulate it—and subsequently make a more

attractive download on stock photo sites.

4. Erase any strange coloration on faces and eyes on your human and pet models by using the ―red eye‖ tool in Photoshop Elements and

Photoshop CS3.

5. Correct strange coloration problems in your photos by using the

―temperature‖ function (usually listed under the ―color tool‖). Usually, this function can be used to eliminate blue or purple hues in photos.

6. Hide blemishes on skin, strange anomalies and discontinuities in

your photos using the ―clone stamp‖ function in Photoshop Elements and Photoshop CS3.You can do this by selecting the clone stamp, then

pressing the ―Alt‖ key while clicking, and then clicking on the blemishes you want to correct.



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7. Avoid over-editing your photos. Frequently resaving them in JPEG

format degrades their quality with each edit and with each save.

Instead, edit only as needed; otherwise, you risk having them rejected at stock photo sites.

Finally, if you want a full, detailed guide to editing photos, you really

need to rely on something other than the information contained in this guide (both in this chapter and in previous chapters) and instead find

something more substantial and detailed.

I suggest that you grab at least one of the following two guides: www.edityourdigitalphotos.com and www.learnphotshopnow.com.

Even if you don‘t end up purchasing either, they both offer extensive

and free video tips on image editing, which are worth watching regardless.

http://www.edityourdigitalphotos.com/

http://www.learnphotshopnow.com/



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Conclusion

Congratulations on completing ―Turn Your Photos Into Cash!‖

You‘ve just been handed three main strategies to make money with your online photos, along with dozens of tips, tricks and tactics to

improve your photos and boost your income!

You‘ve discovered:

How to generate cash by selling stock photos.

The best way to purchase a digital camera.

Little-known methods for capturing photos that you probably didn‘t know before.

What designers want when they purchase stock photos.

How to use photos to win contests and to generate money every time someone views them.

How to perform basic photographic and image-editing tasks.

How to scout your local area for pictures just waiting to be taken.

The basic principles of business that improve how you plan and how

you take photos.

All the legalities associated with digital photography.

How to put your photography on shirts, mugs, keychains, and other

items…

And how to sell those and make money.

And much, much more!

You‘ve discovered strategies that will put you far ahead of your

competition should you start a digital photography business. And you‘ve learned things that will help you to avoid major pitfalls.



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But learning should not be confused with doing...

Right this moment, your successful photography business is just waiting to be born. There are clients waiting for you to find them. And

there are stock photography site customers eager to buy your pictures!

So do yourself a favor: begin converting your newfound knowledge into action. Begin converting those idea seeds into profitable investments.

Begin converting everything I have showed you into money… now — and before you forget!

Take action today by starting your photography business and using

some of the fast revenue generators I mentioned in this ebook.

If you follow my guidelines, re-visit the chapters in my ebook, and exert some serious effort, I have no doubt that you‘ll be capable of

launching a successful digital photography business and reaping the

large monetary rewards as a result!

So it‘s time for you to get started…

Figure out right now — right this instant — what you will do today to start turning your photos into cold, hard cash!

by: dan feildmanlsft.s3.amazonaws.com/typic_dl/turn-your-photos-into-cash.pdf · dan feildman’s...

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