Lighting for macro photography of fern gametophytes
Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau
Hi,
Somebody said to me that I ought to think about selling these images. I wondered if any of you discuss on here how to do that?
I've been very frustrated trying to find a science image library, to the point that I started one myself, but we don't get many customers yet. :-)
This is it:
http://chlorophyllosophyimages.blogspot ... brary.html
I just wondered if you all had better ideas of how to use your photos.
Thanks!
Somebody said to me that I ought to think about selling these images. I wondered if any of you discuss on here how to do that?
I've been very frustrated trying to find a science image library, to the point that I started one myself, but we don't get many customers yet. :-)
This is it:
http://chlorophyllosophyimages.blogspot ... brary.html
I just wondered if you all had better ideas of how to use your photos.
Thanks!
Hi Chris,
Thanks, I'll try that. Now that the motor is moving faster, I could probably do that without the fern getting too hot.
I just thought about the idea of how to get these images into text books and realised that it's probably quickest to write to my plant developmental biologist friends and show them the images. I reckon if they know they exist then they'll know where to come when they want them. :-)
Ta!
Thanks, I'll try that. Now that the motor is moving faster, I could probably do that without the fern getting too hot.
I just thought about the idea of how to get these images into text books and realised that it's probably quickest to write to my plant developmental biologist friends and show them the images. I reckon if they know they exist then they'll know where to come when they want them. :-)
Ta!
Do you have reason to think they know what they are talking about? There seems to be a general perception among the uninformed that any half-decent photo is a potential goldmine. The reality is rather different.jsp wrote:Somebody said to me that I ought to think about selling these images. I wondered if any of you discuss on here how to do that?
Ten years ago there were a lot of niche photo libraries which had the potential for half decent return for specialist imagery. The web changed all that - new online libraries like Alamy used a crowd sourcing approach, while most of the specialist libraries were swallowed by the expansion of Getty. The number of images available increased a hundredfold and prices dropped accordingly.
You can put your pictures on Alamy simply by signing up and passing some basic QC. For other libraries you'd need to persuade them to take you on, naturepl.com would be the biggest surviving specialist I'm aware of.
Otherwise you could use a service like Photoshelter to create your own library with online sales built-in. Providing an article for a relevant journal might be a good way to raise awareness, or yes work your contacts.
In all cases good captioning and keywording is essential, and don't expect the return to reflect the effort. Stock is a numbers game. Most of the pros I know who used to make a decent return from stock are now running workshops instead.
Thanks, yes, I kjnow I'm never going to make my fortune from gametophyte fern images. It's just that the botany text books only have line drawings of gametophytes in them, and if I'm going to have these photos, I'd like to make sure that some of them make it into the text books so that students can see what the plants really look like.
Having typed my message before though, I realised that the last big plant development text book that came out had four names on the front, and three of them were people who are good friends of my PhD supervisor, so really what I should do is just email him.
Thanks for the names of the image libraries. That is very useful.
Having typed my message before though, I realised that the last big plant development text book that came out had four names on the front, and three of them were people who are good friends of my PhD supervisor, so really what I should do is just email him.
Thanks for the names of the image libraries. That is very useful.