Selling my Images

Hope I've put this in the right place!

I have mentioned this recently, on this forum, but I was wondering if I could ask you guys' your opinion?

Last year I bought the book 'The Freelance Photographer's Handbook', with the view of using it (for it's purpose) for possibly trying to make some money from my images. It's what I've wanted to do for years, but didn't really have any idea how to go about it, until I heard about the book. As I may have already said, since geting the book, I haven't had the confidence to approach any of the companies in there, as I'm not sure that my images are up to the standard!

Anyway, now it's getting to the stage where I'm thinking 'to hell with it'! I have nothing to lose, except for possibly more confidence.

So, I have two questions: If any of you guys (I know Azz has) have seen my photos, posted on my profile album, do you think some of my images would be, or could be good enough (with maybe a bit more practice) for say a postcard company or something? I don't know if any of you have seen/got the book, but there are loads of companies from magazines, to postcards/greeting cards etc., to choose from! A lot of the magazine entries though want words with the photos and I don't think I'd be too good at that, so would prefer greeting/post cards instead, where you just have to send an image.

Also, I did ask this the other day, but if I did send some images, I don't think that I should watermark them, as they will do that, but what if they use my images without me knowing? They could pretend that they're not interested, but then keep my images and use them! Or am I just being paranoid?

Thanks for reading this really long post and I know that I'm a newbie, who most of you don't even know yet, but I'm really tearing my hair out, wondering whether i should submit some of my images and use the book for it what it was intended for!!!

Hey Sally - my moto is, we all gotta start somewhere!

The good news is that photography, is skills based - so the techniques and skills can easily be learned. You then simply put your own take and creativity on your work to give it that something special.

Personally I would start by building a portfolio of my best work - and would be highly ciritical of it too (as I'd be thinking about selling it). Once I were happy with my own work, I would then try to look at things from the perspective of my buyer, my market - and then try to tweak things for that.

I would go with the type of photography that you enjoy the most, and try to be as good as you can in it - there's a lot of competition in photography, so you need to get your own style and be able to stand out

Hope that helps!

Ps the best place to post photos for comments is in the forums - not many people venture into the profile albums (as they stand currently).

Thanks Azz and thanks for the nice comments about my photos!

I already have a folder with what I think is my best work, so maybe I'll get the courage together to send some of those. What about the copyright though??

Well the copyright belongs to you - so it just comes down to enforcing it if they 'steal' your images.

I personally wouldn't worry too much right now as any legit company would steer clear of selling stolen images as they could in turn get sued by their clients too.

I also hear that you have to follow the 20%-talent-80%-marketing rule, something like that.

I second Azz Good luck Sally

xx

Check this out
www.picturenation.co.uk
Submit a couple of images, they,ll soon tell you if its up to the mark,
its a 60% / 40% comission rate in there favour, still not bad though, good luck with it.

I think you should go ahead There is no harm in making a start!! I wouldnt worry about theft as to be honest as I take it you would be selling prints not the actual file?.. If it is the file make sure all your M-Data is there to help prove the image belongs to you IF the inevitable happens.

As for advertising, aswell as using third party sites where you pay comission, you could try setting up a blog. I have two of them now. They are very simple to set up, run and they are also free (great sub for a website!!). If you need any help at all, give me a shout x

My blogs are here if you want to check them out...

http://daisychains-photography.blogspot.com/
http://designsbysamantha.blogspot.com/

You are unlikely to sell your images by simply sending them directly to companies that make postcards. Those companies will hire photographers for specific purposes or buy images from a stock agency. Bear in mind that common attractions are photographed 1000's of times a day - even by professional and talented amateurs.

Unless you have a proven track-record, the best way of selling them to a customer would be to submit images to a stock agency with the right meta-data enshrined and hope the customer goes to them with a request for an image like yours. Then you have to look at the competition - are your photos equally as good?

Notwithstanding the aesthetic and technical appeal of the images per se, your submissions will need to be a minimum of 300dpi and of a very high quality in a number of submitting formats, jpeg, RAW and TIFF.

Another way to sell the pictures would be to to get high quality samples made, which can be done at a modest cost nowadays, and try and sell them to local retailers or organisations directly. This is what I did to sell a series of images, which were made into postcards, notelets and cards to the Welsh Tourist Agency and to local garden centres - but don't expect high financial returns unless you manage to sell in volume.

I think before you embark on a project/ambition such as this you need to be realistic about the quality and appeal of your images, how much time you are going to invest in marketing them, and how much cost v income you are likely to attract.

Those 'get rich from' books are all very good if read through pink-tinted glasses, or you have a track record or high quality or unique images.

Good luck what ever you choose to do - but be realistic about what you hope to get from it.

I would back what Jack has said but would also say that as you live in a tourist area and providing you have images of high enough quality, you could get postcards printed and approach shops, bed and breakfast, hotels and other outlets to see if they would be interested in stocking and selling them on a, perhaps, 50/50 basis.

You would have to make regular visits to restock and ascertain what is selling and what is not.

I would start with only 6 different images and proceed from there. It's hard work and not extremely financially rewarding, but it gets your name out there.

Dolphin Printers http://www.dolphin-printers.co.uk/home.html on the Nuffield Estate, Poole are a good place to approach to find out what the cost will be to print the cards.

Steve