topic Re: Marketing Photography in General Discussion

Marketing Photography

superimposed — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 23:24:43 GMT

High everyone, I recently undertook a massive photo shoot of mainly landscapes. I was curious if some of you fine folks would have any advice for an new photographer to get their work in front of either potential buyers or investors on a minimal budget? Thanks, Bruce

Re: Marketing Photography

ebiggs1 — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 14:03:37 GMT

Try Getty Images <---click here.

Re: Marketing Photography

Skirball — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 15:25:46 GMT

There are numerous stock photography sites out there, such as Getty. Different sites specialize in different types of photography, so look around.

That said, stock photography is becoming saturated with standard shots - landscapes, macros of flowers, etc. Everyone has a DSLR now, and many companies jumped into the game, offering extremely low payouts (litteraly pennies) that newbies to the game were happy to get. The game has changed significantly in the past decade. Getty just released millions of it's photos to free use not too long ago. Not discouraging you, just something to consider before jumping in. If you have some unique photography you can do well, as it sticks out on a stock photography site. That said, if you really have something unique, you're selling away your control of pricing by giving it to Getty. Personally, the biggest thing I noticed after working with sites like Getty, is that my photography was stolen and used on the internet much more frequently.

Re: Marketing Photography

RobertTheFat — Wed, 16 Jul 2014 11:50:22 GMT

Didn't I read somewhere that Getty is getting more picky about what photographers they'll work with? Or maybe they always were.

Another approach would be to look for local art galleries that may be willing to display and sell your pictures. Not all art galleries will work with photographers, but some do.

Re: Marketing Photography

superimposed — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 00:26:11 GMT

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm looking into printing some of my photographs poster size, framing them and trying to street merch them. I'll have to buy a vendors license but this seem to be the most affordable method I can come up with where I may make some money, enough to matter anyways. I haven't tried GettyImages but I'm checking out the site now. It seems easy to use but I wonder how many photographers "Blend hard work with creativity and you could be the next iStocker to quit their day job." Sounds interesting though, I may post up a few unique shots and see what happens 😉 Thanks for the ideas everyone. If anyone has more ideas, please lay 'em on me.

Re: Marketing Photography

RobertTheFat — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 01:25:19 GMT

@superimposed wrote:
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm looking into printing some of my photographs poster size, framing them and trying to street merch them. I'll have to buy a vendors license but this seem to be the most affordable method I can come up with where I may make some money, enough to matter anyways. I haven't tried GettyImages but I'm checking out the site now. It seems easy to use but I wonder how many photographers "Blend hard work with creativity and you could be the next iStocker to quit their day job." Sounds interesting though, I may post up a few unique shots and see what happens 😉 Thanks for the ideas everyone. If anyone has more ideas, please lay 'em on me.

The main idea is to get out there and try something. Follow it through, and the worst that can happen is that you have to try something different next time. But you'll probably have learned some things that you can use in your second try. And your third, etc.

BTW, "poster size" is in danger of becoming a cliché. And if/when it does, it won't be missed. These days, many more displayed pictures are too big for their surroundings than are too small.