Stock versus Assignments (Selling Photos versus Services)

The first and most common division is between those who sell images (“stock” shooters) and those who sell their services (assignment photographers). Stock photographers take photos on their own time and resources, accumulate large libraries of images, and sell the rights to use those images. Assignment photographers, by contrast, are paid to take the specific images that clients need. After the assignment, they may or may not retain rights to those images.

While that’s the basic difference, there remains great diversity within each category of work. For example, stock shooters may sell their images directly to photo buyers at magazines or publishers. They might sell photos through stock agencies. Or they might specialize in selling fine art prints.

Assignment photographers, on the other hand, include those who do fashion or commercial assignment, but also those who shoot weddings and special events. In each of these cases, a client is paying for the services of the photographer, for the process of having photos taken.

Editorial versus Commercial

Another important distinction is between editorial and commercial or creative photography. Editorial images are those used in newspapers, magazines, textbooks, and similar publishers. Commercial or creative images are most often those used for advertising—including, for example, fashion, product, and conceptual photography.

The divide between these categories is clear on most major stock agencies. Go to the sites for Getty Images or Corbis, for example, and they will ask you to select whether you want to search their editorial or creative collections.

Editorial and commercial images are very different in terms of style. Editorial images are often photojournalistic in style, taken to illustrate important news stories or contemporary issues. Conceptual images are generally taken in studios or in other locations with highly controlled lighting.

Most editorial images are published in educational, informational, or news-type publications, and as a result they require much more detailed captions: who did what, where, and when. Commercial images, by contrast, are designed to invoke a mood or idea or give an appealing appearance to a particular product. Neither the location nor the timing nor the identities of people involved are of great importance, so captions can be brief.

One of most important difference between these two types of images lies in the need for model releases. The vast majority of editorial uses do NOT require model releases, while the vast majority of commercial images do. For more on this issue read Model Releases.

Putting these categories together and adding a few others, we can distinguish 7 types of photographers.

7 Types of Photographers

Using the two distinctions above, we can immediate distinguish four categories of photographers.

1. First, there are editorial stock photographers who take their own images and concentrate on selling those images in book, magazine, and similar markets. Two good, well-known examples are John Shaw and Ron Engh.

2. Second, there are editorial assignment photographers. These people are sent on assignment by major magazines and publishers. The classic example is a National Geographhic assignment photographer. As a general trend, such editorial assignments are increasingly rare, limited to the largest (and best funded) magazines and publishers. Most editorial outlets increasingly rely on editorial stock photographers for their images.

3. Third, commercial stock photographers are stock shooters who specialize in creative imagery for advertising. They come up with creative themes and concepts to illustrate with their photography, and often take their images at home or in studios with controlled lighting. They also hire models to shoot “lifestyle” images that capture situations and emotions and relationships in ways that are likely to be useful for advertisers. Most commercial stock photographers work with major stock agencies. A good example here is Lee Frost.

4. Fourth, commercial assignment photographers are those generally hired directly by companies to take specific images for advertising purposes. These assignments may include fashion shoots to advertise beauty products, product shots for catalogues, or architectural shots for corporate brochures. An important sub-category here are those who make a living through their own portrait studios, often working directly with end consumer rather than with corporate buyers.

In addition to these four categories, it might be useful to distinguish four sub-categories of photographers who technically fall into one of the fall categories above, but who represent such a large or unique group that they could be considered separate.

5. There are event photographers, those who shoot weddings and other special events. Event photographers are essentially commercial assignment photographers, but who work with end consumers rather than corporate entities and who constitute such an important industry to be a category in their own right.

6. There are print sellers, who make a living selling prints either online or at art exhibitions or fairs. They are essentially an editorial stock photographers, but rather than selling to magazines and publishers, they sell retail fine art prints to end consumers. An interesting example here is Dan Heller, who has built a successful business with a blend of commercial assignments and online print sales.

7. There are staff photographers who are directly employed as full time photographers for major national magazines and newspapers. Unlike the freelance photographer, they have regular employment with benefits and insurance, and a much more rigid schedule.

8. Finally there are the artists. Artists are less focused on photography as a business. They have often attended photography schools, and either enjoy photography for its own sake or strive to compete for places in the best-known galleries. Here, the approval of art critics is more important than making money, although the two may ultimately go well together. The world of high art photography operates according to its own rules. You should consider studying photography formally, and should try to establish links to art directors and photographers doing the type of work you like.

Combining Models

The distinctions between the business models above are important. But unless you are already a well-established photographer (in which case you wouldn’t be reading this), you will almost certainly need to blend several of the models above. Indeed, even most established professionals do a blend of stock and assignment shooting, and perhaps even a blend of editorial and commercial work. Combining models is crucial because in the competitive world of photography today, you probably can’t make enough revenue to survive from just one type of activity.

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Am I missing any? Let me know in the comments if so.

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Oh dear.

Then Middlesborough police want a word with you …

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Thousand Islands at Sunset.

Take the photo above for example. It’s one of the very first photos I took with my current camera (a Nikon d70s), taken from the top of a sightseeing tower over-looking the Thousand Islands at sunset while trying not to fall the 300 and some feet and break my neck. It was a fun shot to get, if only for the experience.

I think back to that moment now and realize just how much better a photo I could have taken if I knew then what I know now, and it aggravates me just a little. Still though, it makes for a great reminder about learning from your work.

That photo is essentially a reminder to myself to always take something away from the experience of taking a photo, whether good or bad. I’ve taken horrible photos at times that have taught me an insane amount to improve on for the next time, and I’ve taken great photos that have given me experience in other ways. This shot is far from my best work, but it is probably my biggest inspiration out of my personal archive.

Anyone else have a photo you’ve taken or an experience you’ve had (good or bad) that serves as inspiration for you personally? What about other people’s work? Am I alone in pulling inspiration from a photo that is nowhere near as good it could have been?

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A bit of bad news about Vista if you’re a photographer. Apparently if you tag a photo’s metadata in Vista, it destroys other important metadata used by image editing apps such as Photoshop. Microsoft’s gotten reports of RAW files generated by Nikon cameras being unreadable after being tagged with Vista or Microsoft’s Photo Info tool.

Now before the anti-Microsoft crowd start foaming at the mouth or the pro-Microsoft guys lynch me, this is not all Microsofts fault. If only the camera manufacturers would produce a standardised format perhaps cockups like this wouldn’t happen?

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Via: DarrenBarefoot

Technorati Tags: panoramic, photographs, travel, photography, news

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My latest eBay arrival was actually one of my first purchases. Big tip, if you want something quick do not pay by cheque, move on to the next auction where paypal is accepted. I “won” this SB-28 flash on the 9th of September, it arrived on the 30th! I will be doing a review of these flashes along with the SB-26 and how they compare to my 580ex soon now I have got some use out of them.

The surprise parcels this morning were my moo cards and my first ever published photograph.

First the moo cards. They are really really nice. I will definitely be buying a set even though I don’t really have a pressing need for them like Mark.

I’m not sure what the done thing is with these cards, do you just take a random selection of your recent pictures (as I did with the free 10) or choose only your best work (if not your own choice, in who’s opinion? interestingness?) or is it better to actually design an image to use?

The best parcel has to be the British Airways in-flight magazine with my picture in it! For the professionals who see your work in print all the time you will probably think this is really lame but it was quite a moment for me when I opened up this magazine and saw my name under my photograph.

Maybe next time someone might be willing to even pay me…

Seeing as I didn’t win the Strobist competition (boo!) I have ordered a set of Dean Collins DVDs and am also considering buying a set of “ebay radio slaves” so hopefully soon I will have another “birthday moment” soon, heh.

Technorati Tags: photography, nikon, sb-28, ebay, moo, printing, news

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Early afternoon in Paris today, Fotolia CEO Thibaud Elziere was out for a walk and testing the new Nikon D80 digital camera. However, one image would change the rest of his day.Walking down the Rue Vaneau in Paris, Thibaud captured an image of a CCTV camera [...] Within minutes, Thibaud was approached by the French Police and detained for the better part of the day.

Unknown to Thibaud he had captured the CCTV camera of the French Prime Minister’s personal residence and caused a great security concern. According to Thibaud, there were no signs or warnings about photography in the area. A simple click and his day was ruined.

The police questioned him about what he was doing in the area, if he had any terrorism connections, about his work, and why he would want to take a picture of a CCTV camera. Thibaud relates that his first answer of “taking pictures for fun” did not satisfy them. He soon outlined his connection with Fotolia and testing the camera. After 8 hours of questioning and background checks, they returned his camera and escorted him home.

It seems from what I read in the article this could have happened to any one of us. You take a picture of a building, for whatever reason, next thing you know you are being questioned by policemen about if you have any terrorist connections. What can you do, stop taking pictures of houses?

We are increasingly being warned not to take pictures of anything (or anyone) which might be construed by the paranoid as a terrorist threat but how was he supposed to know this was the home of someone important without any signs or notices. Just CCTV present does not necessarily imply that the resident is someone of national or defense importance, the guy might have an expensive car etc.

So now we have a new entry in the top ten things you can’t safely photograph

1. Underground/Tube/Buses
2. Refineries or other Industrial plant
3. Police
4. Government buildings
5. Bridges
6. Tunnels
7. Shopping malls
8. Airports
9. Office Buildings
10. Houses

Have I missed any?

Technorati Tags: photography, law, terrorism, police, rights, news, tips

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Go try it, it’s free!

via:Thomas Hawk picture: richardmoross

Technorati Tags: photography, flickr, moo, minicards, printing, tips, news

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“To take photographs means to recognize—simultaneously and within a fraction of a second—both the fact itself and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that give it meaning. It is putting one’s head, one’s eye and one’s heart on the same axis.” — Henri Cartier-Bresson

It was used as an intro to a post on the discussion “making or taking” photographs. We have had this discussion here and also on Flickr. Each time I have discussed it my thoughts have evolved somewhat.

“Maker or taker”, it’s not an absolute thing in reality, and I agree to a degree that “intention” is probably what matters. The photographer always makes the picture by pointing the camera in a certain direction, with certain settings and pressing the shutter. Then after the picture is “taken” it changes in post. One person selects hyper saturation, another black and white. One crops here, the other there.

I have been doing a lot of reading about great photographers of the past and studying their photographs. Even photojournalists told a story with their pictures. Selecting what to show and what to remove from the frame is in effect “editing reality”. As is selecting a telephoto lens to flatten perspective or a wide angle to exaggerate.

But in the end it almost doesn’t matter what the photographer intended but what the viewer sees. Everyone observes the world through their own filters. What might have taken hours of planning might be dismissed as trash by one observer while your quick accidental snap of someones elbow as you dropped your point and shoot might be lauded as the best thing ever!

I guess the important thing is do you enjoy photography and whether you get a kick out of (or for the pro’s, financial return from) the results?

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