Recent Stock Photography Articles

The Fro Knows Paris

Recently Jared Polin, better known as “The Fro” visited The City of Lights to add to his portfolio more time-lapse and slow-motion work. Polin takes his viewers along as he journeys through Paris, offering tips along the way.

How Motion Array Just Became The Ultimate Video Maker's Platform

Stock video marketplaces are handy little operations. They provide a smorgasbord of top-quality footage and graphics all in one convenient place and all for one very reasonable price. But earlier this month, one marketplace took things to a whole new level.

You're Leaving Money on the Table

Stock photography is an industry that enables many photographers to make a good living. Though some photographers focus their entire career around creating stock imagery, almost every photographer has the ability to supplement their income with images they've already taken.

Easily Capture Everyday Items to Sell as Stock Photography

Have you ever considered the potential of the objects that sit in front of you every day? With the high demand for photos in social media and online marketing, your images of even the most simple items have value. Here’s how to capitalize on this and produce an easy portfolio of stock images to sell.

Why You Should Never Upload Your Images to Unsplash

If you've ever considered uploading your work to Unsplash, you should probably watch these two videos, or at the very least, familiarize yourself with the points raised by legendary commercial and editorial photographer, Zack Arias. If nothing else, Arias wants photographers to understand the risk of facing a lawsuit as a result of uploading their images to the site.

How to Rework Old Photos for Adobe Stock

Do you have old photographs just hanging around on your hard drive, taking up space? If you do, then perhaps you should consider uploading them to Adobe Stock. You never really know what sort of image someone out there is looking for - they might just want to use that shot that you currently have buried away in the archives. Sometimes, these old shots may require a little bit more work in order to ensure that they will measure up to stock submission standards, but the opportunity to make revenue on work you've already shot makes it a worthwhile venture. If you have old files you want to breathe new life into, the following guide for prepping and submitting those archived shots is just for you.

Building a Stock Catalog of Lifestyle Images Through Assignment Work and Adobe Stock

Building a stock photography portfolio and generating passive income can be one of the easiest ways a photographer can make money. However, creating a sizable portfolio that generates a worthwhile income month after month doesn't just happen overnight. Chances are you have already been shooting images suitable for stock without realizing it. With just a little planning and adjustment to how you see and approach assignments, you can turn your existing and future work into a growing stock catalog. Additionally, with stock sites like Adobe Stock built right into your Creative Cloud, submitting, tracking, and learning what sells is a relatively easy task.

Creative and Authentic Is the New Trend for 2018 Stock Photography

Stock photography companies are tallying their data from the last few years to predict what imagery trends will flourish in 2018, what they've predicted is fantastic news for us all. A mixture of creativity and authenticity are expected to dominate the new year's biggest image trends. It is so important for artists to stay on top of these trends as to not slip through the cracks, it's especially important this year because these trends are very different.

How I Use Adobe Stock as a Professional Photographer and Art Director

Let's chat about stock photography. I've used stock sites for nearly a decade while working as a designer and commercial photographer with great success. Most of the options I used in the past left a lot to be desired, which is why last year, I switched over to Adobe Stock. I made the change for many reasons, but the most important was their integration into Adobe Creative Cloud.

Selling Stock Photography as a Wedding Photographer

Finding ways to earn passive income as a photographer is invaluable. In this field of work, our businesses often require a large amount of direct hands-on time. Selling stock photography, especially when you have the ability to simply upload images you have already taken in a minimal out of time, can add a great deal of value. The online tools that are available today allow you to turn photos that would otherwise have been worthless, or stored hidden on your hard drive, into pieces of art that have real monetary value.

Shutterstock Unveils New Composition Aware Search Feature

Shutterstock has been working on machine learning-based technology for different features, such as reverse image search and visually similar image search, and last week they unveiled a new feature that will allow users to search images based on their compositions and layouts.

​Why the Next Era of Stock Photos Looks So #Instagood

Stock photography has always been something of an enigma. Used by brands, marketers, advertisers, and the media, it’s managed to withstand the test of time and the radical shift in how media is consumed and sold. Stock photography has, until recent years, served up functional, generic images that could be used in diverse ways by a core customer base. That’s no longer what creators want. To keep up with demand, stock photography providers have started evolving past cookie-cutter imagery to more compelling, artistic, and authentic visuals—keeping stock not only relevant, but making the industry a leader in the visual arts.

Photographer of 'Distracted Boyfriend' Meme Explains Process

One of this year's more popular memes has been the "distracted boyfriend" meme in which a girlfriend looks at her boyfriend in disbelief as he turns around and eyes another girl right next to her. Perhaps the most clever and fitting adaptation (for us) yet has been the above image from the D850 Facebook page. The relatively new photographer behind the original image spoke to Wired about his process and how he captured his most popular stock photograph yet.

Stop Waiting and Get Your Photography on Stock Image Sites to Earn More Passive Income

For freelance creatives, earning passive income is a great way to increase your annual profits, but getting a large library of images uploaded can be a daunting task. Plus, which agency should you use? When will you find time? The simple answer is the time is now, and the sooner you jump on, the sooner it will pay out.

Here's How to Freshen Up Your Your Old and Stuffy Looking Stock Business Photos

No matter how young and beautiful your models are for business stock photos, buyers often feel that the images come across as stuffy and old-fashioned. That’s not just a guess, it comes from many years of experience in the industry. Here are a few things you need to pay attention to when working with models for a business photo-shoot that will help make your business stock photos more attractive to buyers.

Epic Fashion and Fine Art Images His Own Way: Konrad Bak Changing the Perceptions of Stock Photography

Polish photographer Konrad Bak straddles the line between high concept fashion and lush fine art creations. Images collected in his book Konrad Bak PhotoART range from the elegant to the surreal could easily find a home in advertising campaigns or on gallery walls. However, Bak's work can surprisingly be found in the files of stock photography websites. challenging the perceptions of the quality and creativity many ascribe to stock.

How to Take Stock Photos That Sell

I’ve been making money from stock photography for about 10 years now. I very rarely set up a shoot, or go on a trip thinking “I can’t wait to take stock images and make money from this,” but I've managed to recoup some money I've spent on trips over the years. Although I don't shoot stock full time, there are a few things that I do to make sure that every shoot I do gets me at least a few nice stock-style images that I can try and sell.

When Shooting Stock Photography Finally Pays Off

A couple weeks ago I was contacted by a friend in Puerto Rico with an incredible story. She was walking through a gas station and noticed my face on a box. Without knowing, I had become the face of a brand.

What Photographers Need to Know About Public Domain Images and Stock Photography

In 2006, Leah Caldwell was eating at a Chipotle near the University of Denver when a photographer took her picture. When she got up to leave, the photographer asked her to sign a release form for use of the images, but she said no. Eight years later, when Caldwell went into a Chipotle in Orlando, Florida, she saw her picture on one of the restaurant’s walls, and subsequently in two other locations in California.

How to Impress Image Buyers in Stock Photography

Stock photography has been a main or side income for many photographers throughout the years. Contrary to general belief, stock photography is not dead, but rather stronger than ever due to the rise of the digital media. Rapid movement in social media urges companies to create new content on daily or even hourly basis, and the need of new imagery is unavoidable. This is just one of the reasons why stock photography still matters.

Have Your Photos Rated by AI

You can have your images judged by AI. Just don't blame me if you don't score as high as you thought you would. These developments are supposed to help people decide what images work best for the message you are trying to convey, so it's good to know it's there and to try it out. It's in the beta phase now, and the website is similar to that of EyeEm, the stock image library built in Berlin, where the images are analyzed and tagged automatically depending what is featured in the photograph.

Profiting Multiple Ways with Adobe Stock Images

I am always on the hunt for new stock images to incorporate into my photography and find that stock enhances my photography business in several ways. Stock provides me with the ability to incorporate different locations and textures into my images that I am not able to easily shoot. As a result, I have not only seen improvements in my own work, I have also gained an eye for spotting opportunities to take extra images to sell.


Fstoppers Interviews Shutterstock Creative Director Terrence Morash About Industry Trends

If you're a photographer or videographer, keeping abreast of creative trends is pivotal to best positioning yourself to continually evolve and turn profits. Fstoppers spoke with Shutterstock Creative Director Terrence Morash about how creative trends are analyzed and predicted and how photographers and videographers can use that information to their advantage.

Making Money With Your Drone Photography Through Adobe Stock

Ever since I got my drone, I basically keep it in my car at all times in case I happen upon some cool spot while driving. It turns out that all these random excursions have become something very useful to me: profitable stock photography.

Free Stock Photography by Joshua Earle on Unsplash

In this high-tech, fast-paced world, we all "snap pics." I'm going to go ahead and venture a guess that the majority of us tend to do so from our phones, since we now have these amazing portable devices that can provide a decent exposure for us. What has come out of these great technological advances is a larger-than-ever movement of aspiring photographers... which is great! The internet is now more saturated than ever with some pretty decent amateur work. So my big question for you today is, does this in-fact hurt the Professional Photographer?