Taking Stock

Learn how to shoot to earn in today's exploding photo microstock market with insider tips and techniques from a veteran iStock inspector. Rob Sylvan has served as an iStockphoto inspector for the last seven years and is currently rewriting iStock's contributor manual. Friendly, approachable guide gives readers tips for improving shooting and postproduction techniques with an emphasis on creating successful stock images. Includes interviews with iStock contributors who reveal their secrets for microstock success. As low-cost, royalty-free microstock agencies like iStockphoto, Shutterstock, Dreamstime, and Fotolia continue to take business away from expensive stock alternatives like Corbis, more photographers of all stripes are looking at how to make money online selling more for less. Enter Rob Sylvan, who has worked as an iStockphoto photo inspector for the last seven years, and who has made over $40K from his own microstock collection. In his new book, Sylvan shares insider tips on how to shoot, edit, and tag photos so that they sell well, regardless of which microstock agency you're using. Sylvan discusses using Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Adobe Camera Raw, and Lightroom to process and prepare photos for submission to stock agencies (readers need some form of software for editing). Sylvan starts by explaining what subjects are in demand and then shows readers how to get those shots with specific tips for shooting and editing food, people, nature, objects, animals, and more. He also outlines how to set up an effective digital workflow, which is key to making money in the high-volume, low-cost microstock market. As further proof that making money in microstock can be done, Sylvan features interviews with the most successful microstock photographers in the industry, who share their best inspirational and practical tips. By the end of this book, readers will look at their photos with new eyes, seeing shots from the viewpoint of prospective buyers, and shooting photos that sell.