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.
Keep on shooting

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.
Keep on shooting

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