STOCK LIBRARIES

I am often asked about taking photographs for stock libraries - "Is my camera good enough, have I the right qualifications, what kinds of photographs should I send?" etc, etc, etc.

I am often asked about taking photographs for stock libraries - "Is my camera good enough, have I the right qualifications, what kinds of photographs should I send?" etc, etc, etc.

First of all stock libraries are not interested in your qualifications. Whether you have a degree in photography or not is not what they are selling. If your pictures are good enough then your qualifications are good enough. It’s not easy to teach creativity and flair. The best way to find out about stock libraries is to enter the words "stock libraries" into Google search engines. This will give you enough websites to research.

Basically all stock libraries are interested in is eye catching, saleable subjects, photographed with high technical ability. I took my own advice and looked into Google and found the Alamy web site. Alamy accepts only TIFF, minimum 48 Meg files. They like to turn your TIFF files into JPEG’s themselves. So if you take a photograph of less than 48 Meg you will have to resize it using interpolation software. This sounds technical and complicated, but in actual fact is quite easy. I use software called "Genuine Fractals" which costs around the £100 mark. Fairly expensive, but it does a great job. Alamy also emphasises using a camera of at least 6MB.

Edit your photo’s in photoshop and send about fifteen of them on a disc to the library of your choice. For subject matter do some research by looking on the net to see what different libraries already show. This will give you an idea of not only what subject matter they are after, but also the level of technicality and creativity needed. Most also give more detailed advice than I am able to give. Good luck!