Small Tomatoes
A picture like this seems like pretty small tomatoes. Small tomatoes, small potatoes. That’s because it is. But look at the color. Tomatoes and other plants make excellent microstock image fodder because they stand for so many things at once. Summer, gardening, composting, green living, agriculture, etc. But the tomato plant is only a small part of this picture. Prurient editors must use all of their resources.
But what a lucky shot, to catch the full light on the tomato plants in the Eastern sun in the morning. This photo file is a 30% decrease of the crop to get it. There is about 70% expanse of the file left for stock use. By chopping and resizing, several other stock shots can go right into the archives tagged by keyword. Even “B” roll or background shots can be furnished from second use files that can be faded or watermarked into a background for field fill in shapes.
This kind of shot is the tiniest crop of a much larger image that in itself cold be a much more wide compassing shot. These types of “outtakes” can teach the young Paduwan apprentice microstock photographer not to ignore a good opportunity. Don’t ever assume there is “nothing” in the shot. There is. You just have to choose what to save and in what dimension.
Let your eye work on it later. The scale of the camera LCD will contract hundreds of details in a landscape shot. Only jettison pictures from the image queue in the camera is an obvious flash, jarring, the wrong lens, wrong setting, or cutoff frame flaws the image for good. Let the desktop editing process take its course. The remainder microstock product will grow useful in time.
If there is even one small object decently lit and in full resolution, it can redeem the entire image. Extract it by cropping, rename the file, and store it in your staging folder. Soon with your expanding project portfolio and increasing range the use of the file will earn back its care and nurturing by creating value in another entity.
