On the 29^th of Jun 2011 4 x6 a contributor on istockphoto wrote “Has anyone ‘successfully’ synced two Canon DSLR in the studio environment? I spent most of today trying to work it out. The best I could get it was 50% sync rate of the two cameras with the studio strobes.”

This started a conversation on what would be the best way to release the shutters on both cameras  at the same time. My suggestion was to uses the Arduino microprocessor for controlling the cameras. If you’re wondering I’m not a programmer or electronic engineer, in fact my knowledge on both subjects is about nil. So why would I suggest using a Arduino and trying a DIY project of building a camera shutter release, because sometime it’s the only way to get what you want without paying some insane price. The suggestion got from the Pocketwizard Rep to 4×6 was he needed something like the Pocketwizard Multimax. Which is okay if you have $300,00 plus just hanging around un-used. For me the main problem isn’t getting the flashes to fire, but have the cameras fire in sync. To get the flashes to fire all you would need it one cheap Ebay wireless flash trigger and slave the flashes together. The end cost for this test circuit was under $40,00, add wireless flash trigger and you’re talking about something around $70,00.

The shutter release I came up with is partly based on a design for an Arduino Intervalometer  that’s  posted on the OpenMoCo website. If you want to build this shutter release you’ll need to replace the LEDs in this test circuit with (2x) 4N28 Optocouplers, you can find more info on wiring your camera to the Arduino on the OpenMoCo site. The major changes I made was to add a Passive Infra Red Movement Alarm (PIR) sensor to trip the shutters if movement is detected. I also added a mode switch so that you could fire the cameras in a manual mode.

The code that drive’s the cameras is listed below. If you want to improve on this design you’re free to copy and used the code. If you can think of any cool functionality to add let me know.

CODE:

//  4 X 6 Camera Trigger.v3
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//Fires two cameras at the same time if motion is detected
// or two cameras at the same time if you select mode 0
// Mode 0 places the trigger in manual mode.
// @author: Willie B. Thomas /eyedesign9@googlemail.com
// @date: July 19 2011
// released under a creative commons “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0″ license
// * http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/de/
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
int calibrationTime = 30;
int sensorPin = A0;                           // int Analog pin 0
int shutterPin = 13;                         // int Pin 13 for Camera 1
int shutterPin2 = 9;                        //  int Pin 9 for Camera 2
int ModeButton = 3;
int myButton = 7;                           //   sensor for camera mode

int val = 0;                              // val for storing the button state
void setup()
{

Serial.begin(9600);
  pinMode (shutterPin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode (shutterPin2, OUTPUT);
  pinMode (sensorPin, INPUT);
  pinMode (ModeButton, INPUT);
  pinMode (myButton, INPUT);

}

void loop(){
  val = digitalRead(ModeButton);        // Reads modebutton high this selects the Sensor mode
                                                                         //  If modebutton reads low this places the trigger into the manual mode. The void loop function calls
                                                                           //  two function one call mySensor the other myButtonTrigger.
  if (val == HIGH){
    mySensor();
  }
  else{
    myButtonTrigger();
    }
  }

// myButtonTrigger Function///////////////////////////////////////////////
 void myButtonTrigger(){

  val = digitalRead(myButton ); // read input value and store it// check whether the input is HIGH (button pressed)
  if (val == HIGH) {
    digitalWrite(shutterPin, HIGH); // turn LED ON
    digitalWrite(shutterPin2, HIGH); // turn LED ON
  } else {
    digitalWrite(shutterPin, LOW);
    digitalWrite(shutterPin2, LOW);
   // delay(1000);
    digitalWrite(shutterPin2,LOW);
    //delay(1000);
  }

}

void mySensor()
{
                                                                       //give the sensor some time to calibrate
  int Reading = analogRead(sensorPin);            // int “Reading” as varable for sensorPin and read the value

  if(Reading <=400){                          //   If value is less than or equal to 400 write pin 13/9 HIGH
 
    digitalWrite(shutterPin, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(shutterPin2, HIGH);
    delay(500);                               // Delay 500ms to fire shutters on both cameras than write pins LOW
    digitalWrite(shutterPin, LOW);
    digitalWrite(shutterPin2, LOW);
    delay(2000);                             // Delay 2000ms to give sensor time to reset
   
             } 

}

Today’s post will deal with getting a natural light feel using an one light setup. The best part of using only one light is you don’t need to carry around a tons of gear. For years I didn’t own a car and going from one job to the next quickly turned into a pain if I need to carry more than I could fit into my backpack and Camera Bag. This was back in the days before the Strobist and all his cool speed lighting tips.  I developed a system that allowed me to get the job done using the minimum amount of gear. If It didn’t fit into my Camera Bag, and Backpack it wasn’t taken.  The other plus to using only one light in the setups is if done the right you can shoot images  from more than one shooting position. With the classic three light setup you are often limited to shooting the subject from one view point, plus you still have to lug around all that damn gear.

The keys points for me when using only one light in a setup is to make the light look believable and not have it tie me down too only one angle of shooting. For this shoot I’ll use a  Hensel Integra Pro 500 flash head with a bare bulb, lightstand, and white reflector. The two elements of this image are Svenja Polenz, model and manager of Propeller fashions, and the room in which Svenja will be posing. The room is lit from four large windows that sit behind a dividing half wall that also has three small windows. Looking at the images below you may ask when not just use the window light? Well on this day the Sun refused to play ball, it was a dark rainy Berlin day. Being the old School Mofo that I am  dark sky and rain were not going to keep me from getting the shot.

When using a one light setup I always start with determining the direction of the origin of source, in this case it’s the Sunlight or one this day mud grey light entering the room from the main windows. The sources of Illumination are the white wall. Knowing this information I can place my main light into position. For this shot I placed a Hensel bare flash head so that the light would bounces off the ceiling facing the main windows. This creates the direction for the Illumination. The benefit of using a bare flash head is I’m  also able to light other parts of the set in a very natural way that mimics the way light would normally enter the room. If you look at the lighting setup below the areas in yellow is how much of the set the flash covered. 

In the first image of this post Svenja was facing the main windows. The image below was taken with Svenja on her side and the windows behind.  To shape the light on the this image I used a reflector to push a bit more light back into the subject.  As you can see with this one light setup I able to easily change my shooting position and still have nice light falling on the subject.  If you have any one light setups post your comments and idea.

This week’s lighting tip is how to uses a very simple lighting setup for actor headshots. The requirements for headshots other then capturing the personality of the actor is to light the actor so you don’t have harsh glaring highlight and overly dark shadows. A key was of doing this is to use diffused light. Two great lighting tools for this are large light boxes or lighting panels. I decide to go with using a panel because I like the flexible of using panels and I didn’t want to have to be moving three lights around on the set.

After talking with Sena a young black actress from Berlin the plan was to shot a low key image using the natural background of the studio. The main problem of shooting a black actress on a dark background was separating her off the background. To solve this problem I needed to be able to light the background but still keep the low key lighting look.

Light setup using lighting panels

To get the effect I was looking for I setup a Panel to the left of the model and lit it with an INTEGRA 500 plus Hensel flash head. The flash was placed so that some of the light would spill pass the panel and light part of the background. To get some separation on the right-hand side of the model I place another Hensel with a grid spot to the right of the model. The last key to this puzzle was I needed to block some of the light coming off the panel that was spilling into the lens of the camera. I did this by placing a Gobo between the panel and the camera. I hope this Friday’s tip helps on your next photo shoot.  For more cool tips on lighting visit my friend Luis Alvarez’s site vela-photo.

After doing some more research I found out this technique was pioneered by cinematographer Ron Fricke for has film Baraka.  In a nutshell what Fricke and his team developed was a motion control dolly system that enable them to pan or tilt the camera while shooting time-lapse footage.  The question then was how were the DIY on Timescrapes pulling off building motion control systems without paying thousands of dollars.  

After a little more digging around a found there is a whole Open-Source photographic motion control community whose home is  OpenMoCo.org .  The site is run by Chris A. Church aka. Shutterdrone.  Chris is the brains behind the software that’s running some the of the coolest motion control rigs for the DIY crowd. 

1.  So tell me who is Chris A. Church?

As to who I am, well, I’m the kind of guy to say something very humbling about myself, and then follow it up with a statement how annoying it is that people always respond to these sorts of questions with disingenuous inflections of humility.  Most people describe me as a workaholic, but I think I just have a knack for finding fun hobbies and neat projects to work on, and that’s what I spend my time doing.  Generally speaking, I like to split my time between office/shop, and the outdoors – everything else is done en route to one of those two.

2.  How long have you been into photography and when did you develop an interest in time-lapse?

I first got into photography in the mid-nineties, but the bug never really bit me until I got into medium format film and pinhole cameras about ten years ago.  I’ve always enjoyed the technical nature of photography, whether it was building a box camera, or tweaking chemical temperatures to see what effect it had grain sizes in particular films.  At some point, I realized that I was just burning so much money on film to play with it, if I ever wanted to actually get any pictures printed; I’d better switch to digital. It was just over three years ago I decided that time-lapse would be an interesting diversion, and I met up with Tom, Jay, and the other guys from the timescapes forum right as they were all also just starting to get into DIY moco rigs.  As you can imagine, that brought out the technician in me again, and I dove in head-first, forgetting some times that the goal was actually to make time-lapse films…

3.  What are the goals of the OpenMoco Project?

The main goal of the OpenMoco project is pretty simple: to create and share motion control solutions based on open hardware and open software.  Of course, we’re interested in supporting and helping any open-source photography project and helping people solve novel problems without resorting to expensive, closed hardware or software.  Our focus remains largely on the Arduino platform at the moment, but a goal is also to get everything ported over to the ARM platforms out there to craft even more expansive capabilities while still being able to run on hand-held form factors.

4.  What part of the project has been the most challenging to develop software or hardware and why?

One of the difficult aspects of working with hardware hackers is that we all get here by a sense of self-design and a need to express our creativity fully.  In light of this, one of the most difficult challenges is building a system flexible enough, and complicated enough to encourage the brave to not re-invent a new wheel each time, without also hindering those who are just looking to get their problem solved quickly and easily.  Writing software or designing hardware in and of its self isn’t particularly challenging (I’ve spent fifteen years in professional software design and development), but setting strict requirements and boundaries create the hurdles that make it a worthwhile achievement.  “It has to be built for less than x dollars,” or “it has to run using less than 1k of memory…”  That’s where the real interesting and fun challenges lie.

5.  The Openmoco project has two solutions for controlling motors, OpenMoco Slim which is a text-based interface to the your Arduino base timelaspse engine which runs stepper motors.  The other being the MX2 dolly engine which is a combination of Arduino microntroller with an attached Arduino motor shield that runs DC motors. What are the advantages of one over the other?

The core TimeLapse Engine, which forms the basis of the reference design, is to enable any sort of motion control, for up to four axes, using stepper motors.  This is the Swiss Army knife of moco tools – it can do just about everything, but if you just got one thrown in your hand, it’s going to take some time to figure out where that right tool is for the job.  In its current form, it’s really designed to entice the software developers and the seasoned makers to focus just on what they have to to come up with the next great motion control tool.  It has accuracy, scripting capabilities, keyframing, the ability to react to the environment and its own activities. Slim is just a scripting interface into it, meant to demonstrate what the API it provides can do, to experiment with capabilities, and to support debugging of software development around it.  Until we finish the GUI for the TimeLapse engine, its complexity keeps it a bit out of reach of the novice.

The MX2 DollyEngine was designed to be an absolute lowest-cost solution with minimal entry requirements.  Whereas the TimeLapse Engine requires four additional motor drivers, a whole lot of soldering, a separate device for user interaction, the MX2 packages it all into a single board (plus arduino).  The choice for DC motors here is just to get the job done easily, and at a low-cost.  For about 80% of what people want to do in time-lapse, DC motors are perfectly fine for the task, and the theory behind their operation (not to mention the wiring) is simple for a newcomer to get quickly.  Of course, the MX2 has several broken-out I/O ports, so one could easily use it to drive external stepper drivers, making it a great learner platform for the first time experimenter.

6.  On October 1st you started selling a version of your dolly. Do you anticipate any conflicts with selling this product and the open-source philosophy of the project?  Bottom-line will you still be out there helping others to develop Openmoco systems?

Absolutely, the Dynamic Perception project was not to distract from the OpenMoCo project, but instead to enhance it.  I kept running into two problems: the first was that there were a lot of guys with a nice garage workshop who could put all of the mechanical stuff together, but no electronics experience who kept asking if they could buy this circuit or that from me, so that they’d have a stable platform to start their learning experience on.  The second was that, like in any project, you can pick money or time, and this is an expensive hobby!  There are a lot of things we wanted to achieve, but funds were always limited – we could sell systems and put that money back into R&D to create the next generation of open systems to share with everyone.  Our hope is that the success of DP can be turned into an accelerator for all things in the OpenMoCo project.  The continued success of DP is intricately tied to OpenMoCo:  I am a firm believer in open-source software and open hardware, and truly believe that when one eliminates price and the bottom 20% of the features (those that 80% of the shooters rarely use), there isn’t much left to differentiate players in the same field.  Open-ness and helping the community grow – even if it means that others can capitalize on our work – is a key tenet of the business. We’re even in talks with a few people who are building competitive systems on the OM reference design, and helping to enable them rather than hinder them.  We hope to be seen as a knowledge base more so than just another company selling moco gear.

7.  After reading so much about stepper motors on the site I was a little surprise to find you went with a DC motor on the Dynamic Perception Time-lapse Dolly Stage Zero, are you planning on coming out with a stepper base version of the dolly?

Absolutely, we’re working right now on a four-axis stepper driver board that will be both low-cost and powerful, and a GUI that can be run on numerous hand-held platforms.  The Stage Zero is aptly named, as it is a building block – we will be providing lots of upgrades for it, stepper upgrade, 2nd and 3rd axes, and some fairly neat configurations that I don’t think anyone’s seen before.  These upgrades will open up some shooting techniques that have only been imagined at this point, and put them within reach of the hobbyist.  Obviously, the whole repeatable move aspect is going to be there, but we think the envelope needs to be pushed even further.

8. Okay thanks Chris, how that you have the Dynamic Perception Time-lapse Dolly Stage Zero up and running what are your future plans?

At the moment  were starting to work together with the Apertus(open-source cinema) project to merge both the open motion control and the open video camera together into one integrated system.

I would like to thank Chris for taking the time to answers the questions here and putting in so much time in development of the OpenMoCo software.

The room was tight but I had arranged to uses the area in yellow.  If you’re standing at the bar facing the models, to the right are the windows and door. To the left is the seating area any areas outside of the yellow were off limts. In front of the models is the bar area and on this night it was staffed fully. We started the shoot at 17:00 and by this time it was dark outside.  No bright sunlight coming into the windows to help light the subjects.  The lack of sunlight I would use to my advantage for the first shot which would be the moody one.

To shoot the first image I’ll place a large soft box to the right of the model and slightly behind them and angle it towards the white wall.  Fill light will be provided by the white wall behind the models.  To keep a darker tone about the image I’ll drop the camera to a lower position to get the dark chair into the foreground.  I’ll also move a bit to the models left so that I get some of the darken window into the frame. 

For the lighter image I’ll move the camera a bit more to the models right so that I get more of the white wall into the frame, and raises the camera so I have no chairs in the foreground.  Next I place a sliver reflector about 40cm in front of the female model. I’ll turn on the second light and direct it  the reflector.   

 As you can see sometimes to get a good shot all you need to do is think about the angles. Full lighting diagram is below.  

In this post I’ll show you a setup that works very nicely for many tabletop setups.  The key is to place the main light to the rear of the set.  My set will consist of  Germany Raspberry Cake Roll, white tableware and a small glass bowl.  I’ll first place my background light and set the exposure to one and half stops more than the main light,  than I’ll set the main light behind the subject.  In the two images below you can see the effect of the background light and the main light.  The biggest problems at this point is the light falling on the bowl being too bright and the front of the cake being to dark.  To correct these problems I’ll shape the light so that I get a more pleasing image.   

 First I’ll place a flag between the main light and glass bowl, that’s helps to tame some of those specular highlights.  The next thing is to push light back into the front of the cake by placing a white reflector card two inches in front of the cake.

I’ll continue shaping the light by placing a sliver reflector card to the left of the set.  This throws light into the left side of the cake and gives more fullness to the image.  The last step in this setup is to add some fill.  The fill light was place over the set and diffuser panel was place between it and the tabletop setup.  The fill light helps to light the back of the image.  This is what the lighting setup looked like by the end of the session.  All that is needed is a re-metering of  the image and some post processing.

Here is the final image after post- processing in Lightroom and Photoshop.

One of the thing I love as a Photographer is grabbing my gear and heading out of the studio and getting out on location.  Recently I had a chance to shot in a very nice home.  The idea behind the shoot was to have two young women having breakfast together and planning their day.  The room I was planning on shooting in has large windows and I thought we would be able to get some nice natural light shots, but on the day of the shoot the weather wasn’t playing. So what’s a Photographer to do when the Sun won’t play, recreate the lights that missing.  The lights used to create this shot were Fill light 1000ws Hensel, 500ws Hensel in softbox as Main Light, and a 500ws Hensel with a  grid spot as a kicker.

I decided to set the lighting to replicate how the Sun light would have lit the room if it wasn’t rainy and cloudy outside.  Light coming in from the window would have been a large soft light source so I decided on placing a large light box to the right of the models.  The same light would have bounce around the white room providing fill light.  To recreate the fill light I bounced the 1000ws Hensel off of the back wall.  The last light that was placed is the kicker.  The kicker creates a bit of an edge light alone the right side of the model’s face.  Below is the  postion of all the lights for the  final shot.

This month’s Getty Istock Hot Shots selection of the Chef and Trainee uses the same principle can you guess where and now the lights were setup for this shot.  I’ll post the answer to the question in next month’s post on lighting.

To see more images like this one check out Eye Design Photo Studio.

A question that is often asked is now one goes about shooting shiny objects.  The biggest problem with photographing highly reflective object is learning to control the specular highlights.  Controls for the specular are size of light, intensity, and control of the transition areas.   Specular highlights are nothing more than reflections of the light source in the object you are lighting.   The main property of  the specular highlight is it allows the viewer to discern the surface quality of the object being photographed.  In other words a shiny object isn’t shiny if it doesn’t shine.  Below are two red balls the left one looks shiny because of the highlight added to the right side.

In this first set of images the Sliver Trophy has been lit with a bare flash head.  This creates a specular that is very small, bright, and very intense.

 The simplest way to control the specular highlight is to increase the size of the light source.  In the second set of images I place the flash head in a large soft box.  This creates a much more pleasing reflection, but I still find it too bright in its intensity.  The more serious problem for me  is that the edges of the specular are way to hard and defined.

To modify the transition area between the specular and diffused highlight I placed a light panel between the soft box and the trophy.  By moving the soft box very closes to the panel I can  create light fall off at the edges of the light panel.  You can see on the image on the right side the effect of moving the soft box to within a few inchs of the panel.

By placing a panel between subject and main light source I am able to totally control the amount of light fall off in the specular.  In the finale image I moved the soft box back away from the panel to get back a slightly harder edge.

So here is the finale image, you can find more of my images over here.

You’re known as one of the most successful microstockers and your forum responds sometime strikes terror in the heart of new members. How would you describe yourself, who is the real Sean Locke.

I’m just your typical almost 40 guy. I’m a fun person in real life (ask anyone from a ‘lypse), but I don’t like to waste time on the internet. Got to get down to the facts when posting and get back to working. I think the silent majority likes to cut out the sweet stuff and get honest responses (backed up by the sitemails I get).

You don’t seem like the typical microstocker do you have a background in image making?

I have a college degree in TV/Film Production from Syracuse University, and out of school I worked at the Walt Disney World Resort, eventually ending up spending 9 years as a Computer Graphics Technical Director for Walt Disney Feature Animation. That included CG modeling, animation and some compositing on films like Brother Bear and Lilo & Stich.

 Do you think your time spent at Walt Disney influenced the way you go about creating stock image?

 I think the time working in such a unique arena allowed me to discover that I really enjoy the creativity that goes into and the entertainment that comes out of, content creation. As for specifically influencing, I can see I try to keep basic animation principals in mind when doing my CG stock work.

How did you first become involved with shooting stock images?

After discovering iStockphoto in 2004 during a search for images for a personal project, I attempted to sell some of my 3d renders as stock. While on the site, I saw the portfolio of Lise Gagne, and decided that going back to my high school hobby of photography might give me better (and quicker to produce) returns than my 3d work.

Did you understand from the beginning that microstock could be a viable business model, or was that something you found out after being involved with it for a while?

I’d say that I found that licensing stock (micro and otherwise) for me, is a viable business model. That’s not something I expected initially.

After watching you grow as a stock shooter over the last four years I still find it hard to describe your work. When most people ask me I tell them you’re a stock shooter’s version of Norman Rockwell. How would you describe your style?

Bright colors, emotions to the camera, easy to see concepts. I think you can look at my content and say “The point of this image is to depict ______”. I’m trying to license imagery to a wide audience here. The message has got to come across to everyone.

Any influences or anyone you look up to when it comes to stock photography?

Not really. I try not to surf portfolios too much. Of course Lise (lisegagne) and Amanda (hidesy), just by virtue of their success, not necessarily their content. I’ve always admired the composite work of Andrzej (abu) – it’s really magical stuff. There are other iStockers I peek in on at times. Outside iStock, not so much.

Some of your early work seems typical for someone new to stock photography, but then we come to Istock photo: 383272. It looks like you understood what direction your stock images needed to take. Was this image the turning point or was it some other image?

That’s just me and my son playing outside. I had set up the camera and had my wife push the button to get the timing right. I’d say my turning point was working with my first model, which I still work with today, 5 years later. She’s great! Member Suzanne (zerocattle) will take credit for that, telling me in 2004 to go out and get releases!

Yes, female number one I know her well.  Every day that I walk between my home and studio I see her on a poster.  This leads me to a question I always wanted to ask you.  Copying successful images (jumping Gold Fish) some would say is a problem, but I think copying the style of successful images makers is a bigger problem.  If I look at someone like Yuri Arcurs his style seems to be very easy to copy, and you can find a number of portfolios that are identical in style. If I look at your portfolio I can find a number of people shooting similar subjects and themes, but no one seems to be able to copy your style, why is your style so hard to replicate? 

 Well, I never really thought about dissecting my “style”, but I think a part of it is what is in your content, as well as how you shoot it. Something that could never be outsourced to a company in China for factory stock work, imo, is the people in your content and the settings and props you use. I try to aim directly at the US market, from the people, to the places, to the things, and I think buyers come to me because of that (not that I don’t see a lot of overseas use as well!). Another reason is that I don’t set out to train people to duplicate the way I shoot. I think it’s good to keep some things a bit more under cover.

I would swear you’re online 24-7, posting in forum, blogging, but you still find time to shoot upload and I hope have a family life. What is your working day like, how much time do you spend per day on stock photography?

I have an office in my home and a studio space down the street. I try to shoot 1-2 times a week, in the studio, or out, for stock. Otherwise, I spend a lot of time on my laptop in my office, processing, keywording, planning, etc. When I wait for Photoshop to save, I surf the forums. So, I normally work 8-4 on my business, and then whenever else I get the chance, like after the kids are asleep, or before they wake up. I fill in the time with 3d renders and sometimes some AfterEffects content.

Professionalization of microstock is one of the biggest changes I’ve seen in the last two years. What are your feelings on this subject and where do you think it will leave the hobby shooters?

Well, I think there were “professional” microstockers back in 2004. We’ve just had the time now for others to grow to the point where we can call them “pros” – full time or majority income. I’m not particularly upbeat about  these people that grow a staff to support their micro work, because I don’t think it’s sustainable. I think hobbyists will always be able to think outside the box and experiment a little more. Vetta is a good outlet for that.

List the five things that you think the sites could do to improve business.

- Make it easier for the buyer to upgrade an image size or license
- Tighten the licensing to allow another pricing level for larger business uses
- Keep the interface simple and working so buyers have a good, consistent experience
- Incorporate a buying interface into other applications, aside from the main site
- Raise royalties (well, that would improve my business).

 Incorporating a buying interface into other applications, now that sounds interesting.  Would that be something like allowing users of say a blogging site to pay for and download images without having to setup an account directly with a place like istock?

Yes, it’s something that’s been mentioned in online forums as a way to increase business. I know iStockphoto used to have a deal with an outside payment company where you didn’t need an iStock account to download and pay, but that was too much trouble, trying to follow the licenses. So, you would need an account, but it would be much easier to setup and drop images into reports and such.

I would like to thank Sean for taking the time to answers the questions.

To see more of  Sean Locke work check out his Istock portfolio.

 Since I’ve been contributing to microstock the burning question of many people has been can I make a living doing this.  The simply answer to this question is yes, but most likely you won’t.  Now before my entire creative network of microstock buddy start jumping up and down shouting blasphemy!  Fact most people contributing will never make a $100.00 payout and others will not make any profit.  I know this flies in the face of many of the blog post you read on the internet, but here are some of the reasons you won’t be making a living any time soon.

 You’re late!  This game has been going on since 2000, with tens of thousands of contributors and millions of images it’s a real uphill battle for the newcomers.  On each site you’ll find many contributors making good money and some even make a living, but most of these people have been part of the game for years or have other factors working for them. 

 All the easy stuff has been already shot!  I bet if you have an apple laying around the house you also have an uncontrolled desirer to photography it on a white background.  So has every other photographer that contributes to microstock.  If I search on istock for isolated apple on white background the search returns 4694 images.  Try for yourself, search for something that’s easy to shoot and see how many thousands of images appear.  How ask yourself why would a designer look at a few thousand images just to find mines.

 You’re not a professional photographer.  Now I know what you’re thinking, but weren’t these sites created by amateurs for amateurs.  No these sites were setup by professionals for other professionals. It was the amateurs’ photographers that first saw the value of submitting to these sites. And by submitting to these sites the amateur help destroy part of the professional market.  The professionals now want that part of his/her business back.  The professionals are in this game to win, and why shouldn’t he/she try to win at this game, after all this is business and not a hobby for them.  To reduce the market share of the hobbyist and amateurs the professionals will shoot things that you find hard with an image quality that you will be hard press to match.  The upside is that the quality on most sites has been growing.  The downside for the newcomer is you better be ready to compete with this higher image quality from the start.  

 Your metadata is working against you.  To understand this statement we need to take a look now your images are found.  Best Match is a source of much discussion and no one knows how it really works but we can take a guess.  Some of the factors are most likely age, downloads, views, and keyword relevance.  The problem is your newly upload file doesn’t have any history assign to it.  The only way for your file to acquire enough positive data is for it to be found and downloaded. 

 Realistically what you can expect to make from microstock would be between $40-100.00 per month. How do you go about making a living, first plan on putting in a full time job’s worth of time to create your portfolio, learn photography, learn photoshop, study and understand the market, shoot what sells and shoot it better then others, set goals, become a pitbull.

To see some my stock images