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Successful Stock Strategies, Part 8 |
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Written by Richard Weisgrau
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Saturday, 08 April 2006 |
 In the first seven parts of this series provided an analysis of the various stock photography licensing models that make up the marketplace. Knowing the variety of ways that stock can be licensed is imperative to developing your own strategy for success in stock photography. Equally important to developing a strategy, however, is the nature of the fit between you and any given licensing model. So the second analysis that has to be made is one of your particular traits, assets, capability, etc. That analysis will help you determine which licensing models suit you best.
The self-assessment that you must do is really rather simple. It is an
analysis of who you are as a photographer and how you are as a
businessperson. I could write book about the process, but I have
already written four books, and I don’t really have another one in me
right now. Not to mention that this is a Website, and that calls for
brief articles not books. To explain the self-analysis process simply
I’ll provide you with the results of mine below, and I’ll connect that
analysis to stock licensing models.
What kind of photographer am I? Generally, I would classify myself as a documentary photographer and not as an illustrator. I like to make the best photograph of the subjects I find rather than create photographs from scratch. My shooting is very selective. Once I locate the subject I want to photograph I am deliberate about it, and I shoot very few exposures of any subject. You might say that I treat my digital SLR more like a sheet film camera. When a candid situation arises I am quick to grab the shot with the hope that it will be good for publication. Of course, many candid photographs are flawed. As a result of both the aforementioned factors, I do not produce volume when shooting. My photographs tend to break down into two types: expository photographs, which tell a story, or from which you could concoct a story, and poster effect photographs, which are iconic in nature. The latter, as my stock agency editor says, are hard to caption and assign keywords to. They are more conceptual than specific.
What kind of businessperson am I? Generally, I am a person who values his work and will not accept really low fees for the use of my photographs. I think rights managed fees are acceptable. I think royalty free fees are marginal, and I think microstock fees are below marginal. Those beliefs set me squarely in the rights managed camp where I will offer most of my images for sale. I am not interested in producing photographs as a commodity.
Here’s a brief application of my photographic and business characteristics reported above to licensing models.
1. I don’t shoot volumes of commodity-oriented photographs, so royalty free is out of my picture. Needing four times the volume of sales to make the same revenues that would come from rights managed sales I will never be able to produce that kind of volume so I won’t make money. Rights managed works better for me.
2. I shoot documentary not illustration. That means stock production is out of my sphere. It also means my images are slanted to editorial use and not advertising and promotion. Editorial photography users are most often looking for a specific kind of photograph and not a generic one. That means rights managed is a better home for my documentary type work.
3. I shoot iconic type photographs that are suitable for a variety of uses where the image has to attract the eyes of the viewer and hold them there for a while. The photographs’ messages are abstract not concrete, so they can be used in a variety of conceptual ways. As a result, they are worth more money than my other photographs, if I can find the customer for them. Stock agencies don’t find those customers because the agencies generally don’t know how to present, caption, and keyword the images so they rarely show up on searches. Those photographs are better suited to rights protected licensing. So they are better sold directly by me to prospects that I seek out. If I cannot find a buyer, then I will put the shot into a rights managed collection in which I can add the keywords and captions.
4. I care about the prices my work is sold for. As a result, even though I could dump my seconds into microstock, I will not because I just won’t sell the use of a photograph in publication for less than I could buy a good 5 x 7 inch print of it.
In deciding what licensing models I will pursue, I have taken into consideration my nature as a photographer and businessperson. I believe that if we disregard our natures, we inevitably end up betraying ourselves. I also believe that the best way to make money is to do what you want to do; do it as good as you can do it, and feel good about yourself in the process. As a result, its rights protected and rights managed stock that I will pursue.
In the next article I’ll cover my strategies for employing rights protected and rights managed stock models to maximize my revenues.
Go to Part 9
(c) 2006 Richard Weisgrau [contact] [bio]
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 23 April 2006 )
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