Over the last couple of years the term strobist has become increasingly popular in the world of amateur photography. We thought we’d run a little series of articles on strobism, explaining what it is, what gear you need and how it can improve your photography.

image by geroco

What Is Strobism?

Strobism refers to the use of small flashguns (often referred to as speedlites or strobes) to create effective lighting for all kinds of photographs. The ‘movement’ of strobism rose in popularity in the last couple of years after the photographer David Hobby set up his now seminal blog strobist.com.

Strobism is all about controlling what is perhaps the most important aspect of photography – light. Traditional photographers used to seek out the best light possible in order to make great photographs, strobists create it themselves. At the heart of the stobist movement is being able to understand how light, and more specifically the combination of light from multiple sources contributes towards great photographs.

Why Bother With Strobism?

The whole ethos of strobism is to use small inexpensive flashes to gain the same lighting effects as big expensive studio lighting rigs. What David Hobby did a few years ago was to show exactly what these little flashes were capable of if you the photographer followed a few simple rules and learned how easy it is to control and manipulate the light they produce.

Stobism is all about showing what great pictures small lights can produce.

photo by tetsumo

As David explains in this interview you can achieve truly great results by getting your flash off camera. Doing so enables you to explore and accentuate the 3 dimensionality of your subject in a much more powerful way than when using your flash on camera. As David explains, doing this with small flash units is just mimicking what the pros have been doing with much bigger studio lights for decades. Strobism is just making professional level lighting accessible to the amateur on a budget, and doing so with the same level of quality!

What Strobist Kit Do I Need to Get Going?

The beauty of David Hobby’s ethos is that all you need to get started is a flash gun (ideally one which allows you control the power output manually such as a the Vivitar 285 which costs less than $100) and a means of getting the flash off camera (either a cable or infra red or ideally a radio trigger system). Perhaps one of the reasons this technique has become so popular is that you don’t need a $500 flash gun to get started – any will do so long as you can manually control the power output. Add in a umbrella setup and for $150 you can be up an running.

Here’s the basic strobist kit you need to get started:

• $85 -  Vivitar 285 Flash

• $23 -  Remote radio triggers

• $30 -  Shoot trough umbrella,  stand & flash bracket

The Strobist Holy Grail

David Hobby has also produced a Strobist DVD box set which is pretty much the strobist bible and essential to learn how to use these little flashes to their maximum capabilities. In the first disc he runs through the kit you’ll need to get started and where you can get it (much of it is sourced for cheap on ebay). The second disc contains a video of one of his seminars where he runs through (and demonstrates) all of the core principles and techniques he uses.

photo by nickwheeleroz

The other DVDs contain different studio and outdoor shoots where he and runs through the set up, his thought process and the lighting execution used for each shoot. Having learned the theory on disc two these later discs allow you to see exactly how he uses the techniques when on a real life shoot. As he shoots he literally talks you through his exact thought process step by step from set up through to capturing the killer shot.

He also goes on to show a number of accessories and devices you can make out of everyday items like cereal boxes to help you control and manipulate your light. This do it yourself approach is perhaps one of the main reasons for the now cult following of the strobist movement. The whole thing is about getting professional quality light and photographs from simple, cheap but highly effective lighting set ups.

For a while I was battling with strange black spots appearing in some of my photographs. At first when this happened i thought it must be a dirty lens so off i went to buy a lens cleaning cloth. Well i became more worried when a thorough clean didn’t resolve the issue and I discovered that the problem was in fact caused by dust on my cameras sensor.

image by Daniel Greene

Sensor Dust Explained

The worst thing about senor dust is that it is a certainty. If you own a DSLR before to long you will probably encounter dust on your sensor. Sensor dust will usually manifest itself by black spots appearing in your pictures, usually in the same place in all of your photographs though sometimes these are only noticeable when you have a light, constant background such as a blue sky.

The reason that sensor dust is so annoying is that your cameras sensor is at the very heart of your dslr and is very delicate indeed. If you do not know what you are doing you can easily make the problem worse or even permanently damage your camera. In this post we’ll run through your options to remove sensor dust from your camera and advise you on the best course of action.

Sensor Dust Options

1. Live with it & fix in Photoshop

Ok, it can be annoying to have these horrible black spots on your pictures when you have spent several hundred if not thousands of dollars on expensive kit. However if you only have one or two spots of dust they’ll only be noticeable in some shots (such as the one above where there is a clear blue sky) depending on the shots background and position of the dust on the sensor. If you are nervous about operating on your dslr and cleaning the sensor yourself you may feel it is best to simply live with the spots and fix them in Photoshop as and when required.

Fixing sensor spots is usually very simple and quick to do using the clone tool in programs like Photoshop, Lightroom or GIMP.

2. Clean The Sensor

Cleaning such a delicate and critical part of your digital slr shouldn’t be taken lightly. Be warned that some of the below types of cleaning can void your warranty so be sure to check. If in doubt take it to a professional to get cleaned.

3. Blow The Dust Off Your Sensor

It is essential you only use a blower designed specifically for use with cameras. Using other methods such as blowing with your mouth, using compressed air or even a camp bed style pump will often result in you adding more dust to your cameras sensor, or worse still damaging it.

Hand blowers are perhaps the safest and often most effective way to remove dust from your sensor. You should use a blower with a one way valve that doesn’t suck in dust. There are several good models available but general consensus seems to be that the Giottos Rocket Blowers are the best and good value to boot.

In our opinion using a blower if fairly safe because you are not actually touching your cameras sensor. To use a blower simply put your camera into sensor cleaning mode and hold the camera upside down before blowing in the direction of the sensor. Be careful not to touch the sensor so as not to cause any damage.

This will hopefully remove any loose dust from the camera however you may find some more stubborn bits of muck that the blower cannot remove. If this is the case your options are either to live with it, get it professionally cleaned or have a go yourself.

If done carefully you shouldn’t have any problems with kind of sensor clean. One word of caution though: make sure your camera is fully charge before cleaning as the sensor mirror may snap shut if the battery runs out, causing damage if your blower nozzle is next to it!

4. Use a Sensor Cleaning Brush

Again a word of caution, do not use any old brush to clean your sensor. Specifically designed brushes have an anti static charge that helps prize the dust of your cameras sensor. Using a brush can cause small scratches of smears so brush very lightly. You are not trying to physically ‘wipe’ the sensor clean so there is no need for force. Instead let the brushes anti static properties help shift dust that a blower may not have been able to do.

It goes without saying that you need to look after your sensor brush and store it in a clean dust free environment.

5. Sensor Swabs

This is the next step up from sensor brushes and should enable you to remove the more stubborn bits of muck from your cameras sensor. Using swabs means more physical contact with the sensor and so increases the risks of scratches or smears. Popular brands include Sensor Swabs by Photographic Solutions.

Preventing Sensor Dust

Once you have had dust on your sensor you’ll definitely be keen to avoid having it again. Or if you’ve yet to encounter it take it from me you’ll want to avoid the worry of having to clean muck off your sensor. Here are some quick tips to help you avoid getting dust in your camera:

- When changing lenses on your dslr be sure to turn off your camera.
- Again when changing lenses always keep your camera pointing down so that gravity helps to keep any dust away from your sensor.
- When changing lenses always try to do it in a clean, dust free environment
- Take time out once every couple of weeks or so to clean your lenses (both ends) and your cameras lens cap

It is well known amongst photographers that the surround of a photograph can greatly change or enhance the effect of a particular photo. Simply by mounting a photo with a particular colour (usually white or black works best) can focus the viewers attention on your subject matter, improving their viewing experience.

One of the most common and simplist ways to achieve this is to add letter boxing to your photos.Letter boxing is a term to describe black bands across the top and bottom of an image, similar to what you would see when viewing a film in wide screen.

Adding letter boxing to your photographs can give them a real cinematic feel. Doing this in photoshop is incredibly easy.

How to Add Letter Boxing

Adding letter boxing is relatively straight forward to do in Photoshop. Here is our quick guide to getting this effect:

1. Image Menu > Canvas Size

2. Select to adjust the height using percent instead of pixels

3. Change the Height to 40 (40%)

4. Set the extension colour to black

5. Hit ok and your image should now have black letter boxing at the top and bottom!

Of course by adding letter boxing to your photograph you’ll be changing the aspect ratio. To keep the same aspect ratio you will need to first crop your image before adding on the letter boxing. You can try and be precise about this however I usually crop the height a bit to get that wide screen look.

Also I usually end up playing around with the height (40% in the photo above) until I get the right look and feel. This tends to vary from photo to photo.

We get asked quite a lot about what is to many a mysterious word….’Bokeh’. In this post we’ll explain the myth and explain how you can use bokeh to create some great effects.

What Is Bokeh?

Bokeh is a term used to describe the parts of the photograph that is out of focus. You can think of bokeh as the opposite to the part of the photograph that is in focus ( or sharp). As with sharpness, the use of different lenses, with different apertures in different light conditions will produce very different bokehs.

image by Lee Ann L

In recent years photographers have been paying much more attention to bokeh, how it changes and how they can manipulate it to improve their photographs.

How to Use Bokeh Effectively

One thing we as photographers know is that by using a shallow depth of field we can maintain the viewers attention purely on our subject, blurring out any distractions.  However the blurred part of the photo can be equally important for telling the photographs story. The type or amount of bokeh produced can greatly affect how we see and intemperate the background in our photographs.

Change Aperture

Perhaps the easiest way to control and change bokeh is to adjust your cameras aperture. The easiest way is to use your cameras aperture control (AV) mode. Selecting a large aperture (a smaller f-stop) means you’ll use a smaller depth of field which will increase the bokeh in the shot.

Another way to increase the bokeh in your shot is to get your subject closer to the camera. Doing so will reduce the depth of field and therefore increase the bokeh effect.

I used both of the above techniques for this shot of a puma above. Firstly I used an aperture of f6.3 to throw the background out of focus. In addition this was shot in a wildlife sanctuary (not in the wild!) so I was only a few feet away from the puma. Additionally I was using a 70-200mm lens, zoomed to 200m which helped to narrow the depth of field even further.

Another bonus in the above shot was that I managed to get some bokeh in for foreground too, on the pumas body on the left side of the frame. This helps even more to keep the viewers attention directly on the the pumas face.

Let The Bokeh Tell The Story

In the photograph below the bokeh had to be carefully controlled so that the emphasis was on the sign in the foreground while the bokeh allowed us to still make out the stressed pose of the woman in the background. Together the two elements tell the story of this photograph.

The point is you don’t need to know what the woman looks like or who she is. To make the picture work all you need to know is that she is stressed out! If the bokeh had been too much and the woman’s pose unviewable the photo would not have worked.

Using Light Bokeh

When shooting at night you can get some great effects by playing around with the bokeh produced by background lights. Any lights in the background can be used however it helps if they are either small or far away. Christmas tree fairy lights, traffic lights, car head lamps, anything can be used to get some pretty good effects.

In the shot below I wanted to take a shot of the little plastic film camera I’d just bought myself as an early Christmas present. Having set up a rather boring shot on my kitchen table I decided to make it more interesting by switching on the Christmas tree light in the far end of the room.

In order to get the nice effect I had to use my cameras manual mode to ensure the depth of field was correct. Next I switched to manual focus mode and played around until the amount of bokeh on the lights was what i wanted.

Finally once the camera was set I had to move forward or backward slightly to make sure the camera on the table was in the part of the picture most in focus.

Be careful if shooting in low light or at night time as you may run into problems such as low shutter speeds. If you do you can try and increase your ISO or switch to using a tripod (so long as you are shooting a static subject) as I did for the above shot.

Change The Bokeh Shape

If shooting at night time you can dramatically change the shape of the [usually round] bokeh produced by your camera. A great example is the heart shaped bokeh at the start of this article. To get this effect all you need to do is to cut the desired shape into a piece of black card (make the hole about 1-2 cm in size) then simply tape this over the front of your lens.

Do you have any bokeh tips? If so please share them using the comments below.

A common question we get asked by readers is what is the best way to organize your digital photographs? There is no easy answer to this question as everyone’s needs are different. Below I”ll explain how I organize my digital photographs.

I Store all My photos within one folder

Perhaps the most common problem I see with the people who ask for advice on this subject is not storing all of their photographs in one folder. Chaos will soon reign if you have folders dotted all over your computer with photographs in. Common places to store photographs seem to be on the desktop, in My Documents > My Pictures, On External Hard Drives or in any folder your Cameras software chooses to import them to.

By having so many folders scattered all over your computer where photographs are stored, it becomes easy to lose track of where your photographs are. Not only does it make it hard to find the photographs you want when you want them but it also makes it much harder to create a simple backup routine in order to help you prevent losing your photo collection should something go wrong. Check out my last post about creating easy photo back ups.

I Use a Standard Naming Convention

I use a simple naming convention for the folders I store my photos in. Each month I create a folder with the following format: ‘YYYY-MM-DD’ which I use for general, unrelated photos taken throughout the month. If I have a series of photographs from a specific event (such as a birthday, holiday or a photo shoot)  i keep them in a separate directory called YYYY-MM-DD EVENT.

I Use Adobe Lightroom

If you are not familiar with it Adobe Lightroom is an incredibly powerful piece of software designed specifically for professional photographers. With pro level cameras being more accessible to enthusiasts this software is becoming increasingly used by hobbyists.

Lightroom is not just a photo browser/viewer, it is a complete photo management application and database designed as a one stop shop for photographers. For me, it’s key features are:

• Library: This functionality lets you quickly browse your photographs, add keywords, ratings, create virtual collections and much more. A key feature is that like iTunes does for your music collection, you initially import your photos to your Library. Essentially Lightroom is storing your images and all their data (name, keywords, previews etc) in a database. This means that searching,locating and organizing your photographs is lightening quick.

• Developing: The develop module in Lightroom allows you to quickly edit both RAW and JPG images. The amazingly slick interface makes editing things such as exposure, contrast. saturation, curves, spot removal incredibly easy. It also contains more advanced features such as an adjustment brush. All this means there is very little need for me to edit my photographs in a separate application such as Photoshop.

• Other: There are numerous other features available within Lightroom which I wont go into here including slide shows, publish to web, contact sheets etc.

I take time to sort and tag my photos

It is all to easy to get back from a shoot, dump all of the photos from your memory card to the PC, have a quick scan through, maybe do something with the good ones (some editing, flickr, email them maybe) then leave them all to rot on your hard drive. Doing this it is very easy to quickly amass vast quantities of photos you’ll never use or be able to find that simply clog up your hard drive.

Here is the mini work flow I follow to help keep things organized:

• First I import all images from the memory card to my Lightroom Library

• Preview them all in Lightroom. As I go through them one by one I mark those that I obviously need to delete a 1 rating and those I am really pleased with a 5 rating.

• Next I delete all of those I marked as a 1

• Run through all the remaining photos again marking the bad ones with a 1 and the good ones 5

• Again delete all of those I marked as a 1

• Then add high level keywords to all the remaining images such as “2009-06 Italy Holiday”, “2010-10 Mr & Mrs Smith Wedding” or “2010-11 Mikes Birthday”

• Because I always shoot in Raw format I convert all of the ‘unrated’ photos to JPEG format and delete the RAW versions. These are the photos I may want to view again in the future but won’t sell, publish or edit further. Saving them in Jpeg format (as opposed to RAW) allows me to save a huge amount of space on my hard drive.

• The really good photos will be those marked as a 5 and still in RAW format. I will now go ahead and add some more detailed keywords to these images to allow me to easily find specific images in the future. These are the images I intend to use in the future (sell as stock photography, put into exhibitions, upload to flickr, sell to clients etc).

• If I have time I may start editing the above images, if not I’l leave them safe in the knowledge that they are nicely organized and tagged ready to be edited later.

Following the above work flow has made a massive difference to my photo collection. Of the many thousands of images in my photo library it never takes me more than just a few seconds to find the exact image I am looking for.

Do you have any tips to help others organize their digital photo collections? If so we’d love to hear them – just leave a comment below.

So many people (including myself until recently) fail to back up all of their photos (not to mention other documents) regularly. Every (and I mean EVERY) hard drive will eventually fail. It is only a matter of time before the disk drive your photos are currently residing on will fail. If you do not back them up there is a very good chance that one day you will lose them all.

Hard Drive Failure Can Leave You Pulling Your Hair Out

For years I have been preaching to family and friends about how easy and important it is to backup regularly, while secretly knowing all my data was not fully backed up. Sure I occasionally dumped everything from my laptop onto an external hard drive but I was never sure I had everything backed up as I had photos scattered around everywhere.

Another massive disincentive for me to make regular backups was not having an easy way to deal with files that I had either deleted or amended on my laptop. When copying to my back up drive did I want to replace the files already there? I didn’t know what to do and as a result I backed up less and less frequently. Until recently…

Here are my photo back up tips

1. Move all of you media into one place

The first thing I did was went out and bought a brand new external hard drive. I then spent the whole weekend going through virtually every directory on my laptop and my old ‘back up drive’ and cut (not copied!) all the directories containing photographs onto the new drive. Naturally as I did this I deleted duplicates and renamed the folders to something sensible as I went.

I now store ALL of my photos on that new external hard drive.

2. Promise Yourself to Develop Good Habits

I got my photo collection in such a scattered mess because I had no defined work flow to follow when importing photographs from my camera. Sometimes i created new folders and imported them into MyPictures folder, other times it was my Desktop, other times it was on my laptops second hard drive and finally sometime i saved them straight to my external hard drive.

Now I have a strict routine I follow every time I import pictures. I import all photos into a new directory inside my MyPictures directory. I then sort through them and delete any I deem worthy of not keeping. I generally run through them a couple of time to ensure I have identified all of the ‘keepers’. Only then do I move the photos to my new external hard drive, renaming the new folder with the following naming convention ‘YYYY-MM-Event Name’.

3. Use Back Up Software

I back up my external hard drive every night when I am asleep, onto my old external hard drive. The software I use makes this incredibly easy and is the reason why all of my backup nightmares have gone away.

Every time it updates (currently nightly) it only updates files that have been changed, or deleted. This way my backup is always an exact up to date copy of my photo library and I never need to worry about conflicts.

There are lots of specialist back up software solutions out there. The one I chose was the excellent  Genie Backup Manager.

Summary

I feel a bit embarrassed that I delayed putting a regular backup solution in place for my photographs for so long. In reality it is such an easy thing and not very expensive. In my opinion the price is well worth paying to avoid losing all of my photos to a hard disk failure.

I realize what I have outlined above only secures me against hard drive failure and not against theft or perhaps a house fire. To over come these risks I intend to implement an ‘off site’ backup, either by using an on-line service or another external hard drive that I store at a secure location (such as a family members house). More to follow on this…

In the 18 or so months since Digital SLR Guru has been live we’ve posted many photography tips.  We continually receive emails form readers asking for different tips ranging from how to improve their composition right through to how to rediscover your photographic inspiration.

We thought it would be fun to open up the debate to you, our readers. If you had to offer one photographic tip to a friend what would it be?

We intent to gather together a collection of the best tips and advice into a future article.

Please let us know what your number one photography tip is using the comments box below.

We’ve put together a list of 6 great tips to help your digital photography composition.

The Rule of Thirds

If you haven’t heard of the rule of thirds then you should have. To create more interesting compositions imagine your frame with imaginary lines drawn bot vertically and horizontally 1/3 and 2/3 of the way across. When composition your photo try to have points of interest at the points where these lines cross.

Give it a go by taking a simple portrait/head shot. In the first shot place your subjects eyes dead center of the frame. In shot two place them at one of the intersection points. You should see that the second shot is much more pleasing to the eye.

The Rule of Thirds

In the shot above you can see that the point where the rainbow and the flock of birds meet is at on of these intersection points. The result is the composition is much more pleasing to the eye than if that point had been dead center.

Leading Lines

This is a common trick used by landscape photographers to create much more interesting photos. Try to include features in your composition that lead your subjects eye from the front to the back of the frame. Anything will do for example railway lines, streams of car headlights, a winding river, fence or staircase so long as it draws the viewers eye through the composition.

In the example below the ledge on the right, along with the natural lines of the tunnel help to draw you into the scene towards the three figures in the light.

Leading Lines Draw The Eye In

Fill the Frame

A common mistake made by amateurs is always putting the subject dead center of the frame and leaving blank empty space around it. You can create much more impact by zooming in and filling the whole frame with the subject. Don’t worry about missing some of it so long as the main part of the subject is in view.

Pay Attention to the Background

It is so easy to forget about the background of your shots while you concentrate on the main subject. All to often you can get home only to discover truly terrible backdrops in your shots. Make sure you think about the  background of your shots before worrying about the focus of exposure settings in your camera.

If you are unable to control the background (either by moving it or your subject then you always have the option of using a large aperture to help you blur out any distracting or unwanted backgrounds.

Marry Complimentary Colors

One simple way to increase the appeal of your photos is to compose your shots with complimentary color tones in the frame. In the photo below I was taking a picture of this girls cool t-shirt when i noticed the complimentary colors on the side of a parked bus only a few feet away.

Complimentary Colors

To improve the composition i simply asked her to shuffle along the sidewalk a few feet to improve the composition from a plain, boring background to a bright vibrant one!

Less is More

By stripping away distracting elements to a shot you can place more emphasis on the subject or feeling you are trying to convey. The obvious time when this is useful is when you are photographing architecture.

Less is More

In the shot above I was in awe of the scale of the rooftop of the new opera house in Oslo Norway. I wanted to try and capture the scale and simplicity of the architecture in a shot. We had to wait for a good 30 minutes for the crowds to die down so I could get a shot without any other tourists wandering across the frame.

We’ve all had it, a seemingly unending feeling of boredom with our photography. Lack of inspiration (called writers block by authors)  can strike the photographer at any time without warning.

In Neeed of Photographic Inspiration?

In this article we’ll highlight some ways that can help you rediscover your photographic mojo and enable you to become inspired to get out there and start shooting again.

1. Develop a theme or a series of photographs

If you haven’t already done so try to come up with a theme or idea to base a series of shot around. Doing so will mean you have a specific subject or message to capture with your camera, immediately giving your photography some direction.

Your series could be anything from the seasonal changes on your street throughout the year to a series of shots of a particular type of insect. Be sure to choose something that interests you otherwise you’remore likely to become bored and lose interest again.

For a great example of how powerful a series of images with a common theme can be sure to check out the Boston Globe’s Big Picture Blog which features collection of reportage photographs based around common topical news items.

2. Look at your photo archive for natural themes

You probably already have the beginnings of a great photographic series in the archive of your photographic library already. During a recent review of the old photographs on my hard drive I found a number of images I’d taken over the last few years of the London Underground.

I usually travel to work above ground on my scooter so whenever I do take the underground I make sure I take my camera and try and grab a few shots during my journey. The net result is that after a few months I now have a little series of London Underground photographs that work well together and I can work at building over the coming months.

Take a look through your archives to see if you have some themes already there that you can work on developing.

3. Always Carry a Camera

You never know when inspiration may strike you. One thing is for sure if you don’t have your camera, you can’t take any pictures. It can be surprising how many wonderful moments you will spot in your everyday travels if you always carry your camera and make a conscious effort to keep an eye out for photo opportunities around you.

Always Keep Your Camera To Hand

You might spot interesting looking characters on the street, wonderful landscapes through the car window or interesting urban scenes during your commute. The point is that you can find interesting subjects everywhere and anywhere, at any moment.

4. Seek Inspiration From Others

All artists are influenced by others and often it is through these influences that the best ideas are born. Get out there and view some work by other photographers. Head over to flickr and browse some of the amazing pictures that have been uploaded or visit your local gallery.

By seeing more of other peoples photography the more likely you are to make that spark of an idea to be used for your own work. Even if you don’t suddenly find inspiration you may consider trying to replicate a particular technique or style you’ve seen someone else master.

5. Try to monetize your hobby

If money is the only thing that motivates you then why not think about trying to make some money from your hobby. There are two obvious ways that you could start making money from your photography hobby.

The first is to sell some of your images through stock photography agencies. This means you could make money from designers and publishers using your images in their brochures, publications or other work. To go down this route you’ll need to register with some stock agencies who act as a middle man. You’ll generally make anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars from each image you sell. While it may not be a huge amount if you have a few hundred images for sale, you can bring in a nice steady little income from stock photography. Take a look at our stock photography article to learn more.

Another way to try to make some money from your hobby is to start looking for some paid photography jobs. This can be a daunting prospect as you wonder whether you are good enough to charge for your services.

One of the best ways to get started is as a wedding photographer. Ideally you should try  and get a position as a photographers assistant to learn some of the basics. Alternatively there are a number of courses out there that teach you all you need to know to get started as a wedding photographer.

6. Challenge Yourself

Some people only get motivated if they are under pressure. One way to get you kick stared again may be to set yourself a challenge. There are numerous groups on sites such as flickr that challenge participants to take say one good self portrait everyday for a year (often referred to as 365 groups). Other groups set a theme for you to go out and photograph every day or week. The idea of groups such as these are to motivate you and force you to be creative with your photography.

How do you cure your photography block? We’d love to hear about how you get your motivation back on track when you feel uninspired. Just leave a comment below.

In recent years the quality of digital cameras has been increasing incredibly quickly. This has meant that it is now possible for many amateur photographers to produce great professional quality photographs. This combined with the spread of the Internet has created way for amateur photographers to become freelance photographers by selling the rights to use their images via stock photography websites.

What are stock photos?

A stock photograph is one that is licensed to be used for commercial purposes. Their are literally thousands of designers, magazines, publishers, webmasters and artists out there that need to buy photographs to use in their work or publications. When you register your images with a stock agency the agency will sell the license to use these images. In return they will pay you a percentage of the license fee charged.
Most stock images are sold as “royalty free” meaning that a one off payment is made to the agency (and indirectly the photographer) for which the buyer effectively buys a copy of the image. There are no ongoing fees or commissions (royalties)

What kind of Images Can i Sell?

Well, that all depends on what kind of photos people want to buy. If you browse any of the photos on the main stock agency websites you will soon see that there are almost an unlimited variety of photos for sale. That said many of the agencies have an approval process that filter out poor quality images that obviously will not sell.

As well as quality and resolution of photos many of the agencies publish lists of the kind of images they are in short supply of. This is a great place to start when thinking about the kind of images you should upload.

Virtually all sites have restrictions around the content of photos. Obviously porn or gratuitously violent images are out of the question. In addition virtually all require you to accompany uploads of photos containing recognizable people with a model release form (proving you have the models consent to sell the photo).

Where Can I start Selling My Photos?

Below is a list of some of the most popular and successful stock agencies you can register with and start uploading photos today.

iStockPhoto

This is perhaps the daddy of stock photography agencies. The standards are kept high meaning it is harder to get photographs accepted here than at some of the other agencies however once you get accepted the rewards can be high.

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Fotolia

Fotolia is up there with the very biggest of stock agencies, despite being a relative new player in the market. Though we feel the site layout is a little unclear they have a huge number of subscribers and offer good commission rates. Exact rates are dependent on the type of license sold though at the time of writing they were very competitive.

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Dreamstime

Dreamstime was born in 2000 as a specialist Royalty Free stock photography website. Commissions increase as your number of downloads increase. The site is really well laid out (our favorite from this perspective) making navigation and account maintenance easy.

Best of all Dreamstime really emphasis the community of photographers supplying their images by providing a free community platform where users can blog and chat to discuss their successes on the site.