Free your thoughts

Hello all
I have been going back and forth with concepts and tried to elaborate the same concept with many different approaches. Captivity is one of them and here is one of my attempts.
I went with silhouette mood because I thought it will add more emotion to the image and will give the captive rose a more sad appeal.
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Night photography

Hello all
I took this shot in Beirut Lebanon, a very lively city by the Mediterranean.
Night photography is very rewarding as most of the distracting objects
will fade into the darkness.
A tripod is a must as you will need a small aperture to get the best result.
What I love about this image is that it reflects the spirit of that area.
I also just finished updating my website and I had to think hard of what to
include, although I will be adding more images very soon.
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Getting organised

Hello folks
I've been away for a while, just got back from a two month trip to Lebanon.
After loads of shoots I'm facing the drama of organising all these files, but I must
admit that Lightroom is a lifesaver, the library module is just fantastic, once you get around the features you will fall in love with it. Getting all your files captioned and keyworded is priceless
specially if you submit your work to different agencies with different exclusivity levels.
Unfortunately I learned this the hard way after 3 years of submissions I ended up with a clogged hard drives and things were getting messy. One good read I highly recommend is The Dam .
Digital asset management becomes so easy its unbelievable, it covers all aspect of digital photography when it comes to organizing and backing up your files.

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Shooting for book covers

If getting your work published on book covers interest you then a trip to the bookstore every now and then is a must. You get to see what kind of images are being used. You can always find something that match your style of work.
Inspiration is another thing you will benefit from keeping a close look at the market.
These are some of the books that I was lucky enough to get the tearsheets of.

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Images of war

Moody portraits

I'm experimenting a lot recently with light, trying to add more drama to the portraits, its amazing how the feel of an image change simply by changing your lights. Getting the right level is a key as always.


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Don't break the habit

I recently made a daily habit of editing, submitting and keywording.
It works, you will not get sales of pictures you don't have online already.
Although adding keywords maybe the ugly bit for me but somebody gotta do it, and I must admit that the new batch keywording interface on Alamy works a charm and does a better job than Advil.
A good piece of advice will be checking your keywords again and those easily overlooked keywords, It will be easy to adjust them now on Alamy, I added some of these easy to miss keywords about two months ago and I've seen a rise in sales.
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Finding the right balance

I have been away for a while now, lurking in the dark, writing endless "To shoot lists" but only when I started shooting that I started to feel different about the whole thing.
Shooting for stock is an ongoing process and needs a whole lot of stamina, one can not afford the absence of the will or the drive that will keep one going.
After a lot of contemplations I found that making a habit of shooting, editing and adding keywords a daily habit is one heck of a production booster.
One more thing I learned is that moving away from a subject just because the market is already flooded with it is a mistake. When I started shooting for stock there were already hundred of thousands pictures of business women, guess what makes 55% of my sales now?.
The equation is easy you are playing a waiting game that needs high numbers, keep your hands on the shutter and click away and don't worry about creativity, it shall come for those who seek it.
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How to add textures to your pictures

Textures add a nice touch to your pictures, here is how I usually add it

• Open your image in photoshop.
• open the texture you would like to add, you can find some here
  
• with the move tool ( press V) drag and drop the texture layer on top of your background image.
• resize the texture layer to fit.
• Change the blending option to overlay ( other blending options also work but I prefer overlay).
• Change the opacity of the texture layer to your liking.
• you can use a low opacity eraser to lessen the effect in certain places.
• Flatten your image.
  

There is no one size fits all when it comes to texturing, you will have to experiment to see what works best.
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Book covers

Book covers are my favorites, This cover here is my latest. It was licensed by Arcangel Images .
One of the advantages of being with an exclusive agency is that you get to know where your images are used.
Shooting with book covers on mind is important, a trip to the bookstore will give you an idea what kind of images publishers like to use and it can also be very inspiring. I made a habit of going to the book store frequently to look for new covers and take a closer look at the credit line on books that catch my eyes.
It is a very big market and worth targeting. I am working on adding all my book covers to my website very soon.
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Persistence is the key

Waiting is the name of the game when it comes to stock photography, there are no shortcuts.
When I first started three years ago I joined Alamy with a handful of images after passing their quality control I was over the moon thinking that my pictures will be all over the magazines and billboards the next day, guess what ? far from it it took me 7 months of doubt to see my first sale and it was this one
I started reading so many forums specially Alamy Forum which is a treasure of information coming from experienced stock photographers who played this game for a while and I learned that you need to add volume, the more you submit the more chances you have of selling.
I keep my chances open and diverse my subjects and I find it helpful, one thing I try to avoid is that I don't look at how many pictures there are of the same subject I'm shooting already, if you want to submit pictures of business woman go ahead and do it even though they have loads already on the website, I sold many pics that I thought their subject was over saturated, but hey they sold there is no reason why the editor will not pick your image for his layout.
Make a habit of submitting weekly, I find it a good way to increase your numbers and maintain your quality and let sales start rolling.
Keep on shooting
Cheers

Licensed or Royalty Free

One confusion that faces a lot of stock photographers when submitting for agencies is what type of license should they choose for their images. What license you should choose ?
Well Royalty free pictures have shorter shelf life but they work good with easy to shoot subjects
So if you have an image that any one else can replicate you might want to set this as RF, but if you have a hard to get image then L is the way to go.
The RF Vs L war has been on since the introduction of Royalty free and will always be there
You must realize that you can not license the same image or similar in both L and RF.
One of my images was licensed to the same magazine four times I was lucky I had that one as L because if it was royalty free I would have lost three sales and whatever more is coming.
Although I have chosen to diverse my licensing type on Alamy but I am going more towards Royalty managed from now on.
All the best

Keep your eyes open

I sometimes wonder what to shoot next, I bet it happens to you as well.
The truth is the photo opportunities are endless, subjects are everywhere all you have to do is look.
You will be amazed what you can see if you just look. getting inspired is easy is you let it happen
what ever your interest is, it is out there all you have to is start clicking that shutter.
I took this picture of a friend of mine in the middle of a lifestyle shoot, I know its distracting to have two different concepts at the same time but I couldn't help it.
I made it a habit now to take my camera everywhere I go you never know when something will catch your eyes.
As you can see I added a heavy texture to this image, its a new style for me that I am trying to develop, hopefully soon I will write a Photoshop tutorial about adding textures to your images, so watch this space.
Remember to keep on shooting.

Thinking concepts

Shooting conceptually is the way forward in stock, it will increase the selling power of your work.
For stock photography you need to up your game in such a competitive business.
I try to think of a concept that I would like to shoot then I start trying to find a way to portray it.
This image was shot at home I wanted to add shadows to give the flower more of a captivity feel rather than flat lighting. I feel that adding texture also helps in the same manner.
Finding new ideas is the hardest or at least so it seems, but when you start writing down the concept you are after and try to break it down on a notepad things get easier.

Am I a generalist?

Shooting for stock agencies works best when you shoot a lot assuming you are like me a generalist, I find it interesting when I come across spontaneous photo opportunities. The key is to keep on shooting maybe the first shot will be the one you choose but keep on shooting anyway.
I know a lot of you will disagree about the whole generalist concept but I really find it hard to pick only one side among the numerous most beautiful sides of photography.
I love still life shoots but I also love the natural world specially when you wake up early to take pictures at sunrise, oh yes how can I not love portraits.
I surely can not miss portraying the glorious human nature with its awesome and endless expressions.
I enjoy being a generalist when it comes to photography and will continue in doing so.
http://www.imagesbyitani.com