July Results

Here is my first report on this site about how I’m doing. Thanks to two $50 extended license sales on Dreamstime, I have a record month! This is despite the offset from lower Fotolia sales. This is the first month of Fotolia’s subscription service. They drastically reduced our commissions for clients who purchase a subscription. The return was supposed to be more sales. Well, not quite.

This month: $160.80
Total Downloads: 118
Lifetime Total: $1122.04
Number of months contributing: 15
Average: $74.68/month

July is traditionally a slow month. Without the extended license sales, it would have been where I would expect it based on previous slow month performance. Hopefully the slow period will end in August. I’m hoping for my first $300 month by the end of January.

How Much Can I Make?

There is no easy answer to that question. Here are a few things to consider:

1) Your skills
Do you have the skills to create top quality images? This is not only with the camera, but also in post processing.

2) The Market
Are people searching for the images you are producing?

3) Time
Do you have the time to dedicate to becoming successful? It takes a lot. If you are looking to replace your current income with micro stock, don’t quit your day job for years to come.

4) Creativity
You need to find creative ways of expressing ideas.

5) Linguistic skills
Nobody will find your images if you cannot properly keyword them. Key wording is your advertising. You must give accurate keywords to describe your images. Don’t through in words that have nothing to do with the image. This practice will cause your image to receive the reject stamp.

6) Sales
Most sits reword you with higher sales. They will place your images higher in the search results if you have a high acceptance ratio, and a high purchase ratio. Also, as you get more sales and get incremented to a higher contributor level, you will be rewarded. Some rewards include higher commissions, higher set prices, and more exposure.

There are many factors you can control, and many you cannot. Do the best you can with the ones you can control and adjust your imagery to match the market demands.

The Magic Hour

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How do you create a postcard image from an otherwise blah subject? Shoot during the magic hour. Actually, there are two magic hours. The magic hours are the hour before sunset and the hour before sunrise. This is when the sun is at the lowest angle possible. High in the mountains, the wide open spaces of the Great Plains or along the shoreline of a decent size body of water will yield the lowest angled light due to fewer obstructions towards the horizon. You will obtain a higher contrast and additional color.

My favorite time is in the morning. I especially like mornings during the warmer months when you have a greater chance of water vapor in the air. Fog can provide a more dramatic effect. It also provides more of a canvas for the suns warm glow to paint.

It is sometimes tough to get up before the sun. Here are a few tips:
· Look for several potential locations the day before.
· If possible, stay close to the locations. This is a real good excuse to go camping.
· Determine how long it will take you to get there.
· Find out the time of sunrise/sunset.
· Use a compass the day before to determine where the sun will be on the horizon.
· Use a tri-pod.
Don’t believe me? Find a blah subject during high noon that will also have very low angle sunlight on it in the morning or evening. Shoot from the same spot at noon and during a magic hour. You will see what I mean.

Forgot Your Macro Lens?

Here is a quick tip on how to get that extreme close up. It is a bit tricky, but can be done. Let’s say you see something very small that would make a great photo. You have a few options. You could pull out that $700 macro lens. Except that $700 price tag has kept this purchase at bay. You could shoot as close as possible, and then crop it. The draw back here is that in the MicroStock world, size does matter. The larger your image, the more money you can potentially make. Cropping will reduce the size of your image. Sure you can scale it up, but you will also get some love from the rejection Nazi’s. Here is another option.










Take a lens, and turn it around. Yep, shoot with the lens pointed backwards. This is a tricky method, but it works. You have to focus with your body position. You will have a very limited focal range. You will also have to shoot at multiple shutter speeds. Here is the technique:

1. Set your camera for multiple exposures
2. Adjust your zoom. You will notice the difference from one extreme to the other.
3. Shoot several images while slowly moving your body back and forth.
4. Look at the image in your LCD. Adjust the shutter speed and redo.

You will end up with many useless photos, but one in the group will most likely be a winner.

Welcome to the MicroStock Blog

Welcome to The MicroStock Blog! This is simply a blog for those of us who enjoy earning a few extra bucks from (or more appropriately, the quest to make some cash) from our pictures and artwork. I’ve been doing Microstock for a little more than a year now. I’ve been shooting digital imagery as a hobby for many years before I stumbled onto the stock photography market. I’m happy to say that by the end of August, I’ll have an entire mortgage payment in the bank. In this blog I’ll be sharing what I do and how I do it. As I come up with new tricks and techniques, I’ll pass them on to all of you. So, let’s charge our batteries and get out there!