Sell Photographs Online & Marketing Photographs

Selling your photographs is no different from selling anything else... it takes time and a lot of work. If you expect to become rich by selling your photographs, don't leave your first job just yet! Like any other type of selling, you are selling yourself as well as selling your photographs. And with the Internet, the selling of yourself becomes a little more difficult as you are not face to face with a potential buyer of your photographs. So, what do you do to level the playing field using the Internet?

The first thing you must do is to be able to create a Internet page including a photograph of yourself along with some text so the visitor can a least have some kind of knowledge who you are when email might be communicated back and forth. Your text should give a little background about yourself, who you are, how you think, what type of photography that you do and any other information that will help you become established in the mind of the visitor. The more a person knows about you, the better chance you will have to sell your photographs. A potential buyer has to establish a relationship with a photographer and if a buyer doesn't know what the photographer looks like or what really motivates the photographer, something is lost. The photographer is selling himself/herself as well as the photograph.

Always look good and be professional in the design of Your Gallery and the types of photographs that you are offering. Always think quality over quantity.

Try to include as much information as possible describing your photographs. Google and other search engines use the description to index your photographs even further in the searches. If a person searches for a specific photograph, yours might appear in the search.

What is your market? Who do you want to sell to? Are people living in the USA interested in photographs of the UK? If a visitor has not visited the UK, yet (and if many of your photographs are photographs of specific areas in the UK), the visitor might not be interested in purchasing any of your photographs. A visitor might purchase photographs from other photographers if they have been to a specific place or the photograph reminds them of a specific place. In other words, if the photograph is of a forest or a beach, it might look like a place a visitor has visited. If you are trying to sell to a broad market, you have to think about what the other market wants. If you only want to specialize in the UK, concentrate on just UK photographs. Then promote yourself within that market.

If you are talented, write some articles to promote your photography. If you are from the UK, write a few articles about photographing in the UK, hiking in the UK, what to see in the UK, tips about the UK. If a person is interested in reading about the UK, they certainly would be interested in seeing photography from the UK. And when they visit the UK, they might be interested in purchasing one of your photographs. Your article will be searched by the search engines and read by thousands of people.

Sell Your Photographs - Think Out Of The Box

Your town library is a good place to start showing your photographs. The library will give you great exposure, does not take a percentage of any of the photographs sold, is a non pressure environment and a good starting point for you.

The library will also promote the exhibit in the newspaper. I also approached our town nature center. They mailed an announcement of the exhibition to all their members. In return, I donated 25% of the sales of the photographs to the nature center. This gave potential buyers another reason to purchase a photograph. The nature center also promoted the exhibit on our local public TV.

Everyone at times, (including myself) has excuses why not to try different ideas and the underlying theme is usually failure. Once you decide that "Failure is not an option" and any failure that comes along is one step closer to success, you are on your way. If you are happy with photography as a hobby, then keep it that way... enjoy it for what it is and don't try to sell your photographs. No one needs any additional pressure on something that you enjoy. But there is one feeling that you will never experience and that is "Knowing that someone bought one of your photographs, took the time to frame it and hung it on their wall." And somewhere out there your photographs are being seen each day.

"If you don't try, you will never know... and when you do know, you will understand that feeling." You can't sit back and expect to be known without being creative and getting the word out about yourself.

After I had the photographs framed (cost about $220.00 including photographs and hangers), the investment was made. Any benefit that could be achieved after the investment was spent was a bonus and at the same time created a cost/benefit advantage over time.

Here is a plan for you:

1. Drive by the libraries and outdoor retail stores in your area to see if there is an area in the library/store that could display an exhibition of yours. Even if the place has never done something like this, they will appreciate a suggestion from you. My second exhibition was fortunately being displayed in the optics department in a outdoor retail store.
2. Frame your photographs with the same gallery frames. Do not mix frames. My photographs are 8"x10" and the frames are 16"x20".
3. Create a title for your exhibit (seen in the center of the photograph) along a bio with pricing. If you can, laminate the title and bio. The bio also includes the Outdoor Eyes website URL. I also created a little pocket made from cellophane that I placed my business cards in.
4. If you have other photographs to offer, create a little book of other photographs that customers can look through to purchase. I have a binder machine that creates a book, but you can go to Staples, Office Depot or any print shop and they will create a book for you with your pages for about $2.00. I printed all my additional photographs available on photo paper with 9 photos on a single page.
5. Do not sell the framed photographs off the wall. These are only to take orders from. The retailer will process the orders and also take a negotiated percentage of the sale. Usually the exhibit will run for a month. A library will only display your photographs. They will not sell your photographs.
6. If the retailer sells your photographs, then you can talk to the retailer about an additional length of time for your photographs to be displayed.
7. Search the Internet for all the newspapers and magazines in your area. Go to the calendar section and send a press release to the magazines and newspapers. This must be done at least 2-3 weeks prior to your exhibition.
8. Once you have one month booked for your exhibition, then you should look for your next month's exhibition.
9. The framed photographs are already paid for, so your out-of-pocket expense in only your time spent and a little gasoline. My last exhibition took a total of 2 hours to hang and drive to. You can continuously use the same photography book and the same framed photographs over and over again.
10. Take photographs of the exhibition so that you can show potential places what your exhibition will look like.

Good luck with your exhibitions.

Selling and Promoting your photographs

Do I sell photos? Yes I do... and I am always thinking of ways to promote myself and my photography.

1. Develop a target market and focus on who and what you want to sell. That's your first objective.

2. Give your customers a DVD with all of their photographs so they can easily order their photographs. The DVD should start with your business logo and then display their photographs in a slide show. It is a very easy procedure for your customer to order photographs. All they have to do is write down the number on the photograph as it appears on the screen and give you a call. When they have a DVD, you never know when they might want to order some more photographs at a later time (even when they already have ordered some photographs).

3. Create a portfolio DVD for potential clients. It is very easy for them to view your portfolio on their DVD players at work or at home.

4. DVD How To: A multi-card reader allows you to create a DVD on a CD. There is software available to select the photographs and the music that you want to play along with each photograph. Each photograph should contain a file number, a copyright notice and your name.

5. Consider building a small office in your home. I go to a customer's home, to their business or a customer comes to my office. I built an office/lab where customers can discuss jobs. It's small (9'x11'), comfortable and includes a wet and digital lab. The office has definitely helped me develop business.

6. Always take photographs of any public event such as: grand openings, dog shows, sporting events, graduations, church events and public concerts. There might be an opportunity later when someone needs photographs of that event. At the same time, you will be seen photographing the event and people might come up to you with a possible job opportunity.

7. Always carry a binder with some of your work in it in case you have to opportunity to discuss some potential jobs.

8. Constantly try to get your name out there and everywhere. People will start to contact you because they heard of you. Word of mouth is a great form of publicity for you.

9. Take as many photographs as possible. Remember, any photograph can be sold the week it is taken or or a year later. You never know what photograph will sell or when a photograph will sell. If you have a large inventory, the better off you will be. There might be instances when a newspaper needs a photograph of someone who you've photographed recently.

10. Take many candid photographs around town... all I can say is take photographs and more photographs. If you have a digital, it costs almost nothing to store it on a CD. One day, that photograph is going to be wanted by someone. Guaranteed.

11. Look for photography opportunities and create your own. Don't just wait around hoping that some opportunity will just appear.

12. Get invited to private events because people will hope that you'll bring your camera along... which you will do!

13. There is an excellent book on how to make a profit with photography. The book is "Photography-Focus on profit" by Tom Zimberoff. Mr. Zimberoff will guide you on how to make a PROFIT, not just make money... and there is a real difference.

14. Always think of new and creative ways to promote yourself each and every day. And always carry your camera with you. You'll never know what opportunity may come along. My camera is constantly glued to my face at all times.

Good luck!

How To Get Stock-Quality Shots

If you look at the sort of shots that get printed in travel magazines and expensive coffee-table books, they tend to share similar attributes. Look for pictures that you admire and try to analyze why you like them. These are some of the features I like:

Include People

Magazines in particular always like people in the shot. It gives the viewer a human connection, a sense of being there, and a sense of scale. Photographs evoke emotion and empathy comes with someone's face. Avoid crowds and simplify the shot down to one person. The young and old are preferred subjects, with their innocent expressions and weather-worn faces respectively. People make your shots warm, friendly, and personable. Just like you are.

Simple, Clear Layout

A good shot focuses your attention on the subject by using a sparse background and a simple but interesting composition. Always remove clutter for the picture - this is a real skill. Like a musician, it's always difficult to make things look easy. Zoom in, get close, get to eye level, find a simple backdrop, look for balance.

Bold, Solid Colors

'Stock-quality' images make great use of color. Look for solid primary colors: bright 'sports-car' red, emerald green, lightning yellow, and ocean blue. Use a polarizer to bring out the colors. Avoid patterns - keep it simple. Bright afternoon sunlight will add warmth. Alternatively, look for 'color harmony' - scenes restricted to similar tones and colors, or even a single color. This presents a calm, restful image where the eye plays with the differing shades and intensities. Look for pastels, cream, or delicate shades.

Depth

Always include some pointer about depth. A photograph is two-dimensional but we want it to appear three-dimensional. If you're shooting a background (mountains) include a strong foreground (people). If you're shooting people (foreground), add an out-of-focus blur behind them (by using a wide aperture - small f-number).

Use a wide-angle lens for exaggerated depth. With a 20mm to 28mm lens, get just a few feet from your subject and, with a small aperture (large f-number), include an in-focus deep background too. This exaggerated hyperfocal perspective is used in a lot of magazine shots. What impact!

Alternatively you can remove all depth by using a long, telephoto lens. This compresses or compacts the image, making your 3-D subject appear flat.

Dramatic Lighting

Photographs that win competitions are often ones that make interesting use of light. Look out for beams of light shining through clouds, trees or windows, long shadows, and the effect of side- and backlighting. Shoot in the warm golden "magic hours" of early morning and late afternoon.
Preparation
"Chance favors the prepared mind." - Louis Pasteur.

A great shot takes time. Scout out the area, make mental notes of important features, unusual and interesting angles, and changing crowd levels. Take time to prepare the shot. Get there before the best time of day, clean your lenses, set up a tripod or mini-tripod, add a cable release, try out different filters, wait for a good foreground, and talk with people who may be in the shot so that they're comfortable and will pose well.