Well the latest blog from Serban Enache Refferal Program, motivated me to write this blog. You all read the blogs, but have you noticed an image in that blog. I saw the image and saw its in level 5, was surprised, then browsed the portfolio, of Icefields was more surprised, this simple concept had loads of sales.
Now if you look at these images, do you think the photographer used expensive camera, or any ******** products. Well I checked he did use the camera, but this could have done even by scanning.
969 images and 8448 downloads, and top sellers are this photographers concept. Now someone commented on Ioana Grecu's blog that it was bad idea, look at these images, this photographer has proved it, with 8448 downloads.
The bottom line its not the high end camera, expensive software and the plugins nor the endless hours we spend at post productions its just you idea and concept which sells. Nothing much to write just check this images and you will know what this blog is all about.
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Aginger
Hahh....why not MY idea...???!!!
:D
Porjii
Wow, so it really is concept, concept, concept. Thanks for the info ;)
Fultonsphoto
Hi Altaf, I agree with you a great concept can sell great without great equipment as long as the image conforms to the basic rules as Icefields mentions, that is getting the whites perfect, this was done by using some knowledge of good photo techniques (over exposure) and basic editing knowledge. These images would not have looked that much better using a top of the range camera, however I agree with Starblue and Maigi in some cases a good camera helps in other subject with more detail in the image.
Creativei
Thanks everyone for the comments,
@Icefield, indeed I found your concept worth to point to my fellow contributors, Its kind of inspiration, and sales wise the concept was hot.
@Starblue, I agree to be in competition you need good gear, but what I wanted to highlight was even without camera you can still sell your concept and idea.
@Maigi, I guess you edited your comments, I agree with your previous comments, anyways thanks for taking the time to comment.
I just wanted this blog targeted on newbies who think its a must to have expensive equipment to start microstock. You can start with PS Camera, even just with illustrator or just with a scanner. The better the equipment better the results, but everyone need to think out of the box, creativity and concept is the backbone.
Maigi
Great blog, Altaf! Ideas are more important, than equipment indeed. But I have to agree with Starblue too. I had to spend lots of hours in polishing my photos, before I got DSLR. There were lots of rejections because of quality. DSLR helped me to spend less time on fixing images. So, better equipment is great. If you can afford it, go for it.
Starblue
Nice blog and I agree - the concept and idea are the most important and yet... if one makes a photographic concept, it is definitely better to have a quality camera. I can tell with my experience that before Nikon I had some rejections because if technical issue. Since having Nikon cameras... well, no noise, no artafact, no problems with making images more saturated and keep quality.
Daddylongleg
look like he needn't camera at all, use Windows painting can draw the chart ;-)
Icefields
Well, Creativei, thanks for pimping my port, you’re making me blush! ;-)
Seriously now, thank you for your kind and praising words, I really appreciate it!
I didn’t invent the idea though. We use these kinds of diagrams a lot at work, and I had seen similar diagrams quite a few times in powerpoint presentations as well. So I decided to come up with some relevant business and social topics and turn them into diagrams. I thought they might have some limited but definite sales potential.
After choosing a topic, it usually took 30-45 minutes to find the most important words that could be connected to it. I used Wikipedia for this purpose.
And now comes the funny part, or the amateur part, so to speak ;-)
Nowadays I use MS Word to make the diagrams, but in the old days it was just a sheet of paper and a black marker to draw it all with. Everyone who has tried to photograph white paper knows you have to be careful not to end up with some grey drab image. So I would tape the sheet to a window to make it more translucent, take an overexposure +1 (with a simple Canon EOS 400D) to get rid of most of the grey drab.
And then the images went to the computer. I’ve only taken up Photoshop lessons since a few weeks, it was all Google Picasa in the old days. It’s a very good tool if you’re looking for easy and basic editing. After adjusting contrast and shadows, the pictures were ready, et voilà ! So no big secrets there, only amateur secrets ;-)
Lately, Dreamstime is rejecting images with the same concept but with other topics, because of “too many images from the same seriesâ€. I tend to disagree: the concept is definitely the same, but the content definitely is not.
But what the heck, perhaps I should thank Dreamstime for taking care of me, preventing me from turning into a one trick pony! And I’ve had my 5 minutes of fame, finding a successful niche in stock photography, it’s really a once-in-a-lifetime experience, I guess, both joyful and humbling ;-) I was baffled no one had used this idea before me, I was baffled to see the success of the idea, and I was baffled no one has copied the idea, maybe because the idea is so simple and so easy to identify.
So that’s all there’s to it. I guess you just have to keep your eyes open and go for it when you think you have a good idea. Thanks again for your blog. Happy shooting and creating in the meantime!
Huating
Concept! ;)
Mani33
Absolutely right! Concept Concept Concept! ;)
Studioportosabbia
Yes...this is so true: less is more!
Wildmac
I totally agree, good concepts sell regardless of equipment. Simple sells :) Carol
Justmeyo
Nice idea:)
Littledesire
........ amazing port! Very creative!