Friday, April 8, 2016

Anatomy of A Social Media Stock Image


Social Media and social networking are illustrated in this stock image combing two hundred individual portraits with a wide range of ethnic diversity, age ranges and with gender balance.
This "Social Media" stock image has over 200 individual, model release portraits montaged into one dynamic photo.

Social Media Images
Over the last several years I made quite a few “Social Media” and “Social Networking” images. This particular image is my current favorite. I believe it portrays the idea of online communities and social interactions by combining over 200 individual portraits into one image that fairly vibrates with energy. The image is quite simple, a collage of portraits, yet conveys a complexity and intricacy that is part and parcel of online communities.

Eight Years Of Shooting People
The image took me two full days to composite together…not to mention about eight years of shooting people and getting model releases. Imagine what it would cost to pull this image off from scratch! Then there is the time to upload and enter the model releases and metadata…over four hours…and that does not take into consideration all the sorting, searching and scanning time. Geez. 

Value For Art Directors
It is an image like this that REALLY offers tremendous value for art directors, designers and art buyers. Of course, just how good a value it is often makes me a little crazy. With the resources and time that go into an image like this one it is hard to see those $2.00 sales come through. Oh well….

Ethnic Diversity, Age Ranges And Gender Balance
The overlapping images with varying degrees of opacity and different layer modes, combined with the intermixed use of large and small portraits, creates a feeling of motion and energy and depth. The image crops easily to square, vertical or horizontal. Obviously there is a wealth of ethnic diversity, age ranges and gender balance. This portrait montage doesn’t just work for social networking concepts, but for a vast range of ideas from demographics to political themes to international and global business concerns.

Social Networking And Blend Images
There is an inherent interest in faces, and with over two hundred faces in this one image there is a powerful pull on viewers to spend extra time viewing. That is good news for those using the image to draw attention to their message. I placed this networking photo with Blend Images to get maximum distribution. It is a Rights Managed image because it is hard to duplicate and I have a bias for RM for images that take so much time to create! Take a moment and view all of my Social Media images on Blend’s new site!



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