Great Escape Publishing

Posted September 30th, 2011 by Lori Allen & filed under Travel Photography.

Dear Photographer, What photos are selling now? According to professional photographer Shelly Perry, it’s horizontal photos that are selling best. I’m here at the Ultimate Stock Photography Workshop in Portland, OR where we’re learning from some of the best photographers in the business how to sell vacation photos, family and friend photos, photos from our backyard or kitchen sink, etc., to online stock photo agencies. Stock photography is fun, they all say. And it’s something you can start doing this weekend with minimal equipment. All you need is a camera and something to photograph, with a little know-how about what it is that’s selling right now in the stock world…and some photo-editing techniques to get your photo up to par. Today I’m in the back of the room listening to professional stock photographers Shelly Perry, Andrea Gingerich, Danny Warren, and Lise Gagne. Professional photographer Shelly Perry showed us a list of the top 15 photos that have been the best sellers at iStock in the last three months. They’re all squares and horizontals, Shelly pointed out. And when she looked back through her own portfolio, she found that to be true for her, as well — her square and horizontal images outsell her verticals. So what does that mean if you’re interested in selling your photos to online stock photo agencies? Does it mean you should only take horizontal photos? Of course not. AS Shelly said, if it’s worth taking a photo once, it’s worth taking it twice, once as a horizontal and once as a vertical. You have no idea how a photo buyer will use your image. After all, magazine covers are all vertical, lots of picture frames are vertical, and websites often use vertical images to illustrate their needs, too. Here are some of Shelly Perry’s best-selling images, both horizontal and vertical.. Stay tuned tomorrow for a few pictures our attendees are getting here in Portland at the event. Lori P.S. What else is selling right now in online stock photo agencies? Shelly says white sells better than black. Objects isolate on white often outsell items isolated on black. Tomorrow were going to set up over 15 different photo stations for attendees to practice photographing on black, white, and other backgrounds. I’ll send you those pictures tomorrow. [Editor’s Note: Learn more about how you can turn your pictures into cash in our free online newsletter The Right Way to Travel. Sign up here today and we’ll send you a new report, Selling Photos for Cash: A Quick-Start Guide, completely FREE.]