Taking Photos with Models
Who would have thought I would become that obnoxious person shouting orders with the flashing strobe and the hissing lens and capture button? Well perhaps it didn’t get that bad. But I definitely felt the pressure to perform and get all I could frame by frame from my live model. It was hard not to convey that pressure to the model.
The assessment of how to produce a microstock image begins with a perception of a need. Perhaps some web customers or member sites will need pictures of hair, eyes, hands, ears, something of that nature. There may be a person starting a website somewhere about computers, customer service, vision problems, or nature and green living issues.
This begins a process of exploring the association of what anyone might presume is associated with those themes. But for microstock photography, the subject should be named, tagged, and labeled. The photographer must decide before lens capture what that subject will be. With human subjects, hands using calculators or people at monitors make easily marketable images.
A human subject instantly humanizes the picture. There is a relationship happening between human subjects and human perceivers via imagery. this is the value of microstock photography with people in it.
But some photo sites even from members have to have release forms signed when facial features are revealed. this can get tricky. Thus, the preponderance of microstock photos with half face angles shots, or side shots where the exact facial features are somewhat obscured.
For online stock photo sales, the variations should be minute. The picture of the same woman at a computer might be taken from several angles. A pair of feet put up at a ottoman stool or in front of a “for sale” sign can indicate human emotion intermingled with subject matter like realty sales or relaxation.
For micro-stock photography I started noticing that the involvement of the human hand, a person’s face, or human subjects suggested many interesting ideas to people viewing my photos for the first time. My focus for composition tends to stay on the still life or focus item, like a structure or light effect on water or glass.
I realized that taking photos of the most innocuous things with human hands involved created a story. This also meant that such photos had a real value for accompanying text. People are now used to seeing a image or photo accompanying the text block in any online form. Providing these photos for mixed media use can have lucrative microstock results.
