Great Escape Publishing

Posted May 8th, 2013 by Lori Allen & filed under Travel Photography.

Fact

: From 1946 to 1964, more than 76 million babies were born in the U.S. This is the generation known as the “baby boomers.” Fact: There are 76 million baby boomers in America, making up more than 25% of our total population. Fact: Pictures of healthy, happy baby boomers sell!! That’s why you should always look for opportunities to take photos of active seniors out-and-about and having fun. Stock agencies are looking for photos of these folks walking, talking, eating, and playing. They need photos of boomers with their pets, in the garden, on road trips, playing with their grandkids, at a local café, enjoying a barbeque with friends, and more. Here are a few tips for photographing baby boomers for stock:

Pay attention to your light. Intense, direct light can over-accentuate the lines on your subject’s face. And a dim, under-exposed photo can make your subject appear older and sad. Bright, even light not only helps hide your subject’s skin imperfections and wrinkles, it can lift the entire image and make it feel happier…
Make sure the people in your photo are engaging with each other or the camera…
Be sure their faces are in sharp focus — especially their eyes…
Scan the scene to be sure there are no visible logos, clutter or trash.

To sell a photo as stock, you will need a model release from each recognizable person in the photo. You can create your own model release by going to the one of these stock sites, Istockphoto.com, Shutterstock.com, Dreamstime.com, Fotolia.com and Bigstockphoto.com and adapting their releases to fit your needs. Make yours generic (erasing all trademarks) so you can use the same release on multiple sites. And stay tuned! More details about the kinds of photos that are selling best are coming up.