Everyone who has had the thought of selling photos online or even those already selling stock photos has wondered what direction they should go to earn maximum dollars. It can get a little tiring trying to figure out what exactly to take pictures of and more importantly, what types of images have a high probability of selling.
Here’s an overview from one of the world’s top stock photographers, Yuri Arcurs.
Yuri points out the following subject matter is neglected in microstock.
- Travel photography, special places and extreme nature
- Really, really old people
- Contemporary fashion
- Policemen, military and state officials from all over the world
- Pictures of currency other than Euros and Dollars
- Aerial pictures
- Stylistic still-life in soft and low contrast colors
- Fantastic panorama shots in high quality
- Motion-blurred and lively pictures
- Artistically executed lifestyle, edgy
- Natural looking people, that don’t look like microstock models
These are subject Yuri suggests we all stay away from because they are simply over represented.
- Businesspeople (too easy to put a group of people in suits around a table)
- Isolated people on white (too easy to duplicate and too many shooting it)
- Anything with a laptop
- Nudes
- Spa (requires so little set-up and every model in the world wants a spa shoot)
- Medical (Too easy: a scrub and a model)
- Backgrounds and “lonely tree” kind of pictures
- Beach pictures (Really too easy)
