Anatomy of a Concept Stock Photo: Ideas

This light bulb brain draws on the iconic symbol of ideas and creativity but gives it added power with the new twist of making it into a brain.

Iconic Symbols In A New Light

The tried and true symbols that have been embedded in our collective subconscious, despite their overuse and cliché stature, remain powerful tools in conceptual photography. The trick is to use those symbols in new and different ways. When you succeed at doing that you, in a way, get double or even triple your bang for the buck. You get that subconscious hit, you get the quick read from a familiar image, and then you get the appreciation and boost from using the symbol in a new incarnation.

Light Bulbs Creativity And Ideas

The light bulb brain image above is a great example of just such a reworked, iconic symbol. The light bulb is still the premier visual symbol of ideas and creativity. Even when we know it has been used to death, we still know what it means.  Create a new light bulb image that we haven’t seen before and it gains a new, even stronger power to attract our attention.

Light Bulbs Brains And Intelligence

The human brain is another iconic image representing intelligence, creativity and ideas. In the case of our light bulb brain the brain form reinforces the concepts of ideas and creativity, adds in intelligence and possibly other themes such as artificial intelligence. On the humorous side of things I can see this image as a bright idea! Sorry.

Old Concepts And Powerful Ideas

By using an old, hackneyed concept, the lowly light bulb, we are able to create a new powerful symbol that can represent a number of concepts. It is a quick read at small thumbnail sizes but still provides impact at larger sizes. It is a memorable image, versatile in how it can be used and flexible in terms of cropping.

Blend Images

I delivered the photo to Blend Images. With Blend it will be available at all the major distributors and when licensed directly through Blend I will get 50% of the revenue. I expect the image to do well.  And, because there is nothing to age the image I expect it to bring in revenue for a very long time.

Creativity And New Approaches In Stock Photography

Big data, communications technology, and streaming data are all illustrated by this photo of streaking lights and binary numbers.

Consistent Styles, Creativity And Fun

One of the best things about stock photography, for me, is the opportunity and rewards of trying new things. While in the assignment world there is an ongoing need to build and maintain a consistent style, but with stock there are no such barriers to creativity and, well, fun!

More Demand, Less Competition

Luckily for me I enjoy the process of coming up with commercial images of all kinds, and part of my drive to experiment is the recognition that only by venturing out into new territory can I discover images that due to their unusual nature face a healthy amount of demand and less competition than more traditional imagery.

Big Data, Information Management And Needed Concepts

A few days a go I sat down and decide to create an image about needed concepts including big data, information management, and communications technology. I decided that I would use binary numbers to start with. I created a layer of ones and zeros and began to manipulate the layer using transform and warp tools. I used a hue and saturation layer to turn the binary numbers to blue because blue is highly associated with business.

Motion, Speed And Binary Numbers

I like the flow of the binary numbers. They were starting to give me a sense of motion and speed and definitely indicated streaming data. But I wanted a more dynamic feel as well. In my library of images I have a lot of light streaks created with long exposures and camera movement. I found one such capture with mutli-colored streaks that I could align with the initial binary numbers and that would add that extra dimension of drama. Another long-exposure light capture took on an intricate net-like appearance that I added in as a background.

Thumbnail Sizes and Cropping Options

One of the challenges of this image was creating it in a way that facilitated horizontal, square, and vertical crops. Mission accomplished! It can also be used to illustrate a lot of different concepts. Besides the above-mentioned ideas it can show bandwidth, wireless communications, and even cloud computing. This big data image is also a quick read at small thumbnail sizes on the Internet…an important aspect when one realizes that virtually all stock images are now purchased over the Internet and first seen as these small thumbnail sizes.

New Styles, New Approaches And Payoffs

Now I don’t know if this will be a successful stock image. It could take me a couple of years to find out. But I did enjoy the process of putting it together, and I do believe the image will produce revenue. But hey, I’ve wrong before…. Nonetheless, I know from experience that experimenting, coming up with new styles and approaches, over the long haul, definitely pays off.

Blend Images, Royalty Free And Revenue

I have submitted the stock photo to Blend Images as a Royalty Free image. My thinking is that because the image can be used for so many different concepts with such a wide audience that it’s revenue possibilities are greater as an RF image. A final point about the revenue potential of this communications image…by submitting it to Blend Images I get the advantage of very wide distribution and, in the case of a Blend direct sale, the added bonus of a 50% royalty split.

Roller Coasters, Business And Stock Photos

A roller coaster filled with screaming business people hurtles down a track in a humorous business stock photo.

Roller Coasters And Business

Like roller coasters, businesses have their up and downs. The Stock market certainly has its ups and downs. Every industry goes through its cycles, and there are a lot of businesses that offer products, services and guidance to help both individuals and businesses, small and large, to either avoid, weather or even thrive on the up and down challenges they are sure to face.

The Ups And Downs of Business

It makes perfect sense then to create imagery that such businesses can use to advertise and promote those products and services, and images that magazines, blogs, and online news services can use to illustrate their offerings around such issues. It was with exactly that need to illustrate those ups and downs of business that prompted me to create an image of a rollercoaster populated with terrified, screaming executive type business people in the middle of a rapid descent.

Flexible, Timeless Stock Photos

The message is clear and a quick read even at small thumbnail sizes and the image stands up to large reproduction including billboard sizes. I composed the photo to allow for cropping to square, vertical or horizontal formats while allowing ample copy space for headlines, body copy, and even inset photos.  Part of what makes a successful image is the ease and flexibility with which it can be used by art directors, graphic designers and photo editors. Another aspect of this photo that works to its advantage as a stock image is that there really isn’t much to date it. Roller coasters will probably look like, well, roller coasters for a long time, and casual business attire doesn’t really change much either. Another important aspect of the image is fun. The inherent humor helps the image be memorable and compelling.

Creating Business Concept Images

To create this business concept image I first went to an amusement park and photographed a roller coaster, focusing in fairly tightly on the first two cars. I specifically looked for cars that were mostly empty to facilitate the Photoshop work I would have to do. The next step was to find the nine models I would need, which I did using SF Casting.com. I had each model come in to the studio and photographed them from a ladder to get the correct perspective. As long as I had them I also photographed each of them for a series of other images I knew I would be making…have to be efficient these days! Each model was hired for $35.00 an hour digital files for their portfolios, with a two-hour minimum. I had a list of at least a dozen scenarios for each model.

Royalty Free In Blend Images

It took about a day in total to do the Photoshop work. I stripped each of the models out by making a clipping path, turning the path into a selection, refining the selection using the refine brush on the hair. I put them into the roller coaster cars using puppet warp for small positioning adjustments. I also used a sky that I had photographed years earlier in the desert (while at Burning Man…everyone should go once).  Because it is the type of image that I think can be used by a large audience for multiple uses I put it into BlendImages as a Royalty Free image. Who the hell named RF images Royalty Free any way? But I digress.

Hanging On For Dear Life

This rapidly descending roller coaster car filled with terrified executives could be a poster image for the stock photo industry! As an aside, we stock shooters have to remember that like a roller coaster, if we hang on long enough we should be fine.

This image has been licensing well for a couple of years now (and seldom fails to sell at least once a month). Someday I will check on the revenue and be pleasantly surprised to see that it has earned many thousands of dollars…at least that is what I am planning on…in the mean time…I am hanging on for dear life!

A Changing Stock Photo Strategy For Success

In a social media overload image a woman's head explodes into individual people portraits.

The Changing Landscape Of Stock Photography

With the disappearance of Corbis, somehow being swallowed up by Getty without being bought by Getty (huh?), the continuing success of the new “tech” stock agencies like ShutterStock and Stocksy, 500px and the probable success of Adobe Stock, the landscape in our industry continues to change. For an old timer like me it is a challenge to keep up with it…but I try!

Supplemental Exposure, SEO and Social Media

More than ever, I believe, that to excel in stock photography one has to find a way to get what I call supplemental exposure for one’s work. It is a mistake to just sit back and hope/expect the agencies to garner sufficient eyeballs for your work.  It is the stock shooter’s equivalent of the assignment photographer’s necessary and constant efforts at marketing. For me that effort is coming down to SEO work on my website and the use of social media.

Participating In Social Media

I have to confess here that I have been a social media hater. I have tried, but have a hard time committing to the time it takes to engage with social networking. But that is changing. I am changing. In the past couple of weeks I have made a stronger effort to participate in social media in a several ways…and it started with Blend Images.

Enjoying Social Media

As regular readers of this blog already know, I am a part owner of Blend Images, a photographer owned stock agency. Blend Images has a great new website (check it out) that facilitates social engagement and I have started making the most of it…liking images, pinning them, tweeting them and sharing them on facebook. As much as I hate to admit it, I am starting to enjoy it!

Facebook Ads

I am also experimenting with facebook ads. They are really pretty cool. You can drill down deeply in choosing the parameters for an audience. There is great flexibility in setting up the schedule for adds, setting budgets and so forth. There are also very few options in creating the ad itself…which is wonderful! I don’t have to spend agonizing hours figuring it out. That is great because I would much rather be spending my time creating stock photos.

Website SEO
As I have done for years, I also continue to upload my images to my website with plenty of text on each page, alt text for the images and so forth. The facebook ads get my work in front of new people, the website and SEO work helps people looking for specific images find mine. Too bad so many of them are looking for free images...oh well!

A Stock Photo Strategy

At this point my stock photo strategy is to keep working on my website SEO…which is great for reaching people who are looking for an image, participate in social media which builds my brand (and that of Blend Images), and advertise on facebook…which further builds my brand and sets the stage for future stock photo sales.  Geez…I’ve been converted! Oh well…gotta go pin/share/tweet an image!

Anatomy of A Social Media Stock Image

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!

Anatomy of a Stock Image #1

Cloud computing and communications technology are both illustrated by this image of vivid streaks of colored lights cutting through high altitude cloud formations.

Anatomy Of A Stock Image #1

This is the first of a series of blog posts I am undertaking in which I will share a stock image I have created along with the thinking and strategy behind it.

Cloud Computing And Communications Technology

Cloud computing and communications technology are the primary concepts behind this stock image created for Blend Images. When I set about creating new stock photos I try and come up with ideas based around significant need. In the cases of both cloud computing and communications technology, there is clear need. One of the challenges is, though, that such concepts are hard to illustrate. I do believe that in this case I have come up with an elegant solution.

Clouds And Streaks Of Light

Clouds, combined with streaks of light, are, I believe, a quick read for “cloud computing”, the obvious part being the inclusion of clouds in the image. I decided to have the clouds be storm clouds to help illustrate the idea of the challenges posed in cloud computing. After all, a company that needs to advertise their cloud computing products and services are doing so because they can help potential clients overcome such obstacles or difficulties.

Color, Movement, And Streaming Data

The streaks of light not only add visual interest (due to their intense color and movement), but also because they make a great metaphor for streaming data and networking. Even wireless communications can be seen in the light streaks. Energy, motion and speed are all seen in those vivid arcs of colored lights as well. What we then have is a stock image that is quite versatile in what art directors, designers and photo editors can use it for. Further, the image is also quite flexible as well in that there is plenty of copy space and the image can be cropped into any format. The image can even work as a banner ad.

Cloud Computing And Possibilities

The lights that knife through the clouds are seen weaving in and out of the cloud cover adding a sense of depth to the image.  The lines are yellow, blue and magenta and arc across the image angling upwards to the right. Having the lines move upwards adds in the idea of a positive graph and growth and further supplementing the sense of possibilities that exist in cloud computing, communications technology, and networking.

Adding Visibility

Again, I cannot predict the success, or lack of it, for any one stock image, but I am confident that I have covered the basics with this image giving it a fighting chance to stand out in a crowded marketplace and with come clear applications in mind. Some might leave at that placing the responsibility for getting adequate visibility for the shot on the stock agency. I am, however, adding further visibility by adding the image to mywebsite and blogging about it. In this brave new world of stock photography one can no longer afford to be complacent, but must, in fact, be extremely pro active in getting eyeballs on one’s imagery.     

A Cloud Computing RF Image

I chose the Royalty Free category for this image because it was relatively easy to create, can be used for a wider variety of messages, and because, well, I want to have the bulk of my stock photo contributions to be RF content because of the much wider audience for RF over RM.

Blend Images

For any of you not familiar with Blend Images, it is a photographer owned agency (disclaimer…I am one of the owners) with a cutting edge web site, a tightly edited collection of relevant and creative images, and is currently offering a 25% discount on licenses when using the promo code JL-PROMO2016. Even if you don’t need to license an image Blend’s highly curated library is a great place to browse images for inspiration…or just to enjoy the visual delight! Check it out: http://www.blendimages.com                            

New stock photo website and 25% off

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