Ahoj! This is Zdenka. I've been shooting stock
since 2007 and up till now I've been doing mainly
photography. Now it's a lot of years of experience.
This year I took a year break because I needed to fully concentrate on
this youtube channel. I just needed to put all my energy into
this. This year actually I'm coming back to it but I'm gonna be also doing a lot
more video. Not so much photography. This break
was very good because I had enough time to
rethink everything. I had enough time to look
back at all those years and all the experience
I had with it. There are many things I wish I knew before I
started selling photos. I would probably save a lot of time,
I would most likely even avoid all those burnt outs
and maybe I would even make a lot more money.
As I'm returning to it, I'm returning to it with a completely different
approach. So in today's video let me share
some of those I wish I knew before.....
Number one. Meeting technical requirements.
When you start selling photos for stock, you will most likely end up with a lot
of objections and it doesn't matter if you're a brand new photographer, if
you're a beginner or if you are an experienced one. Very
simply, stock world is different. What we
normally let slip like accidental noise in the images,
a little bit, dust there or maybe
accidentally blurry shot or accidental blurriness,
that won't pass in stock. They want perfectly sharp, perfectly exposed,
perfectly .... everything... They want everything perfect.
So I wish I learned right from the beginning
the technical aspect of photography. I learned the hard way
from all those rejections. Number two. Learning different photography styles
and keeping an eye on what is currently
trending in photography. Instead of feeling like
I'm working in a factory, at the production line, shooting the same
thing over and over and over and again... a person on a white isolated
background. Although, these images are selling well in stock
and some of them were selling quite well, I was limiting my creativity. It became a
factory. I started being bored with photography. I
felt uninspired. There are other things to shoot which
could completely change that like shooting flat lays which do very
well there, shooting food for example, more thinking
outside of box like my flowers with splashes.
Shoot more outdoors, just be more spread out instead of just being
comfortable in the studio. You can have a certain niche which sells very well for
you and that's great but over the time you
might become a bit bored and also you might miss out on the
opportunity to make quick money with current trending
style. It is always good to mix timeless images with
current trending styles. Number three. I almost became an exclusive contributor
and that would have been a disaster. Luckily
I chose to be a non-exclusive contributor so I can sell
my images to many agencies, as many as I wish
and also post them wherever I want. Over the years
in 2007, I have noticed many new agencies open up
and also close and I also watched many agencies changing their revenue,
their payout structure to photographers, to contributors.
From paying quite a bit to paying almost nothing. The same is actually happening
with Shutterstock for example. Only a few weeks ago I noticed
that my revenue from Shutterstock literally shrank in half
after they changed all those new payouts. So
I would not suggest to sign up with one agency exclusively because you simply
don't know what will happen. Things can change very quickly.
And there's nothing you can really do about it.
Number four. Keywords, description and quality over quantity.
Using proper keywords and description for your photos is absolutely important.
If you put bad keywords or not strong ones and your description won't be in
sync with the keywords, your images won't be found and you will
not sell. It is very highly competitive
market and it is a very saturated one so
to make it as a full-time contributor will be pretty
difficult but it can still make some money on the side. You can still make
your passive income. It can be a nice part-time, you can pay
for your gear. Unless you are someone who is
extraordinary talented. Number five is a very serious one.
I wish I did not photograph pretty women for stock.
When I started shooting stock in 2007, I did a lot of fashion and a lot of
swimwear and I simply didn't know what stock is
all about and I trusted those agencies... when they said that those images
will not be sold and not be displayed in a certain
way. That's how it's gonna be. Unfortunately
some of the images were used inappropriately and I got myself in a
lot of trouble on a very hot seat and it took a
lot of energy and a lot of stress, a lot of time to take that off.
So five years ago I decided to pull out about 5 000 images from my
portfolio and I tell you that was the best thing I
could have done. So be extremely careful, be extremely
selective what you upload to stock. What will
change for me returning to stock? After such a
long year break? Well, first of all, I'm gonna be uploading mainly videos.
I cannot really work much with flashes because of my eye condition
but also because some of the stuff I film here on youtube can be used for
stock as well. I have made a crazy move when it comes
to my gear. You will find out very soon. My plan is
not to create separate footage for youtube
and for stock. I will do my best to manage my time better
and create multiple revenue streams from one
single shoot. If you want to see my best selling stock photos I actually linked
such a video in the video description below. Also,
I actually linked the whole playlist of videos in a video description below
where you can learn how to do proper keywords and
description, how to get free models for your shoot
and stuff like that. Hit the thumbs up if you liked today's
video and subscribe to future videos like these.
In the next few weeks I'm gonna show you some of those behind the scenes when I'm
actually shooting a footage for stock. If you have
any questions, comments, simply want to say Hi or Ahoj, you know what to do.
You can leave it in a comment section below and I'll see you my friends
in the next video. Cau... Ahoj...