Comments on: 202 Challenging Subjects when Shooting for Stock

By: bobbigmac

bobbigmac — Fri, 06 May 2011 16:59:38 +0000

Usually yes, but don’t forget that some microstock agencies penalise contributors who have a high proportion of images which don’t sell. Sometimes (only sometimes mind) more is not better… (always though) better is better

By: Niki

Niki — Fri, 06 May 2011 01:01:23 +0000

Well, I shoot any subject that crosses my mind. Even if it’s challenging won’t hurt to extend my portfolio.
I mean if you have easy access to a particular subject even if it’s competitive is always better to have it.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:30:45 +0000

I love a not to do list; it makes me feel so much less pressure! Seriously, it is pretty useful in encouraging us to focus on niche subjects and/or twists instead of adding more to an already over supplied subject.

By: Don’t shoot clichés? We did… | core[pics]

Don’t shoot clichés? We did… | core[pics] — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:07:38 +0000

[...] photographers, discuss this taboo on clichés. The evidence is out there – the stock sites, a PicNiche article, on Mystockphoto and the microstockdiaries views on Clichés. There’s even a [...]

By: Colleen

Colleen — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:02:45 +0000

Yes, it does help. I think I understand it better now. Thanks!

By: bobbigmac

bobbigmac — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:37:08 +0000

Heya Colleen, yes and no, for your example ‘Still Life’, as a ‘subject’ it is severely oversupplied, not of course, ALL still life images.

Images very representative (cliches) of still life (fruit bowl on a curtain, a single wine bottle, etc etc) would be in very competitive segments, as with the rest of these subjects, for a newcomer to stock, they’d have to be producing very high quality images to be able to focus primarily on that and expect high RPIs for the work.

I’ve focused on searches consisting of 2 words here simply because the median search is somewhere between 2-3 words, I think the last figure I saw was 2.5ish, though I did read a while back that it was slowly rising. I wish I had access to good quality buyer data to be able to mine this further

With regards to your ‘more keywords = better rating’ question, this in some cases is true, as more keywords generally do indicate you are approaching a niche by the ‘proper’ definition, on picNiche results though you also need to keep in mind whether the phrase is likely typable by a buyer (not many buyers would type “my dog ate my shoes and I’m angry” whereas “dog eating shoe” is more realistic).

Determining this can be helped by checking the Views/File and Downloads/File metric, though sadly, interpreting the data still comes down to one of those things which many people are still trying (and failing) to automate, common sense

Not sure if that helps?

By: Colleen

Colleen — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:17:27 +0000

I don’t do much microstock at all, but I don’t see how this list is that useful, to be honest, because the subjects are so vague. It almost seems more like it’s a challenging list of keywords, rather than a challenging list of subjects. For example, under “Still Life,” I looked at what IS had–and it’s everything from an isolated object (baseball, with over 400 dls) to a smear of pink lip gloss (0 dls), and that’s just on the first page. Does that mean that ALL potential still life subjects shouldn’t be shot by beginners? I can’t imagine buyers always use only 2 key words for searches, and contributors have to use at least 7 or so. I’ve just recently started using picniche and I find the more keywords I have (that are accurate and valid, not spamdexing), the more of a “niche” I find to shoot. Do I have it all wrong?

By: Fotolia's top selling contributors | My Stock Photography

Fotolia's top selling contributors | My Stock Photography — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:49:53 +0000

[...] 202 Challenging Subjects when Shooting for Stock by Rob “bobbigmac” Davies (picNiche’s author); <> [...]

By: plrang

plrang — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:18:25 +0000

Then maybe i’ll use it with Your permission under that second title We’ll see which one get more hits
Naah, i have my next article on the way

By: bobbigmac

bobbigmac — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 06:31:55 +0000

‘colour image’ as a subject, yes, so things like those shots of multi-coloured umbrellas and rainbow/swatch style textures, and other patterns highlighting just colour are oversupplied.

Not of course images in colour