6
Taking and Making Editorial Stock Photos

DO YOU TAKE OR MAKE THEM?

Throughout this book, when I refer to stock photos, I’m referring to the Track B editorial stock photo—the marketable picture. The stock photo as we know it today has evolved from a documentary snapshot to a subtle and sophisticated art form. This evolution can be traced in magazines such as National Geographic that have existed for one hundred years. Following the progression in bound National Geographic volumes at the library can be entertaining as well as informative with the added benefit of getting a chance to look through some of the best photography in the world.

As we learn in zoology class, ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny (the stages in the development of the individual mirror those of the species). A photographer entering the field undergoes the same sort of progression. She begins by taking simplistic photographs, similar to the early photo illustrations, gradually incorporates new ideas and technical knowledge that enable her to produce better and more interesting pictures, until, if she endures, she eventually turns out fine photo illustrations—editorial stock photos. This evolution is a valuable learning experience for the photographer, but it can be accelerated. Here’s how.

Many photographers are conditioned to take photographs that reflect the world, somewhat as a mirror does. A documentary photographer takes a picture: He simply records things the way they were at that moment.

However, to limit photography to mirrorlike documentation is to restrict knowledge and understanding.

Stock photography opens up a vast new field of interpretive endeavor. The fact that stock photos are in large measure workaday pictures doesn’t preclude innovative and creative treatment of them. Photo illustration allows a photographer to make photographs. The stock photographer creates a situation as it could be, or as it should be, or distills the essence of a scene or event. As we all know, painters rarely paint their landscapes true to nature. To limit their illustrations to exact duplications of nature would be to confine their creativity and their viewers’ enjoyment. They rearrange the elements in their paintings to achieve a composition of wholeness and meaning that didn’t exist earlier. Similarly, jazz musicians improvise on the melody and rhythm of a familiar tune not because they wish to seem clever or self-consciously different, but because they wish to discover, for themselves and their listeners, new meaning in the music. Photographs, like other expressive media, can offer fresh insights and deeper understanding. A photograph can become a microscope or a telescope for the viewer to see into or beyond what is being photographed.

All of this, of course, does not apply to photojournalism or documentary photography. It would be dishonest and unethical to alter or shape a news photograph to misrepresent a scene or subject. The line between photo illustration (stock photography) and photojournalism can be thin. Photojournalist W. Eugene Smith was criticized for moving the bed away from the wall for a better camera angle in some of his photographs of a midwife for Life Magazine. With digital photography and new and powerful editing software great care must be taken as images are prepared for digital and print use.

Stock photographers often confront ethical questions when it comes to such improvisation. For example, if you photograph a teenager whose blemishes are here today but gone tomorrow, do you leave them in the picture or retouch them out? Which is the truer interpretation? Are the blemishes inappropriate if you’re illustrating the winners in a student government activity or a science fair? Should they remain if you’re illustrating nutritional deficiencies or youth gangs? Or should the blemishes remain no matter what the context?

The answers are ultimately left to you, the stock photographer. It might appear to photography purists that allowing free rein to interpretive photography could lead to a lack of respect for the truth. However, before the arrival of the photograph and the photographer, pictorial illustrations came in the form of etchings, cartoons, drawings and paintings. We accepted the artists’ interpretations and managed to survive.

In photo illustration work, then, you are frequently and legitimately making a picture, not taking it. For example, you see something happen, you feel it was significant, and you would like to photograph it. You have two alternatives.

1. You can hope it happens again in your lifetime.
2. While you’re still on the scene, you can attempt to re-create it, “improving” it (stripping it of distracting elements) as you do your P = B + P + S + I principle.

In stock photography, you can also create scenes that never happened but could happen. Often when I photograph crime scenes I will in fact make two images of the same thing: one recording the forensic facts of the scene for the investigators to use and one of the investigators working the scene for my stock photography use. In stock photography, it is true, you may bring elements together that never happened. You are, in effect, contriving. However, you can keep your illustrations authentic by selecting situations that could happen and then reenacting them in a way that appears unposed.

The more you know about the topics you photograph, the better you will be at making photographic illustrations. You will know if an illustration is believable or not simply by knowing your subject matter. If you are an expert at barrel racing, you will be able to tell if the farrier is shoeing the horse correctly simply by looking at key facts in the photo.

Danger Ahead: Trite Pictures

There’s a trap waiting for the photographer who is new to stock photography. Although I continually remind you in this book that workaday pictures are the most marketable, that kind of subject matter can fall into the trite category—if you let it. Corny pictures are easy to produce. Beware of the temptation to take pictures that are trite, cute or clichéd.

“There’s nothing new!” You’re probably saying.

Stop. Think about the pictures in your portfolio, print notebook, recent slide show or on your website. If you were to eliminate (1) dramatic silhouettes, (2) sunset scenes, (3) postcard scenes of mountains and clouds, (4) portraits of old men, (5) the father lovingly holding his daughter and (6) experimental abstract shots, how many pictures would you have left?

I don’t want to imply that the previous subjects are always trite. We have all seen these subjects treated with compassion, depth and a sense of beauty. Many of them can qualify as standard excellent pictures. However, the more photographs we see of these familiar subjects, the less charity we have available for them in our appreciation bank.

The tendency to take trite pictures is almost a disease among photographers—even veterans. Because we see trite pictures every day in local, regional and national publications, we become conditioned to the status quo. Photographers find an easy way to take a school portrait, a commercial or architectural shot or a standard stock photograph, and they gradually lock themselves into an effortless routine that stifles creativity.

Photography, especially photo illustration, has become a vibrant communication vehicle in our daily lives. The public expects not only to be entertained but also to be informed by photos; people don’t take well to stock photographs that, like old news or old jokes, are mere repeats. People want new insights and angles, and thought-provoking interpretations of everyday subjects. As Don Hewitt, famed producer of CBS-TV’s 60 Minutes, said, “Show me something I don’t already know!”

HOW TO AVOID MAKING TRITE PHOTOS

Let’s say a publisher has assigned you to produce a photo essay on “The Circus.” Take a scratch pad and jot down ten picture situations that come to mind. Don’t read further until you’ve jotted down at least ten.

That was easy, wasn’t it? Well, if it was, I’ll bet you’ve listed ten trite ideas. Producing pictures that aren’t trite takes thought.

Before you rush out and snap away a few memory cards full of photos on a subject that every man, woman and child is familiar with, take at least a half hour to sketch out some picture possibilities. This brief exercise will save you hours of location and computer time spent on pictures that a publisher would probably reject. It will also eliminate those blinders we often inadvertently wear when we arrive at a picture-taking locale and become immersed in the scope and immediacy of the situation. Objectivity is easier to retain if you have a preplanned sketch of what you want to photograph before you get there. By the same token, don’t go overboard and lock yourself into a plan that has no room for spontaneity and innovation sparked by on-the-scene elements. Always be ready to discover and adjust to new picture possibilities.

Let’s take our circus example. These shots are not new to us: the clown in his dressing room, the elephant’s trunk appearing through the window of the circus moving van, the tightrope walker silhouetted by spotlight against the tent’s ceiling, the roustabouts taking a well-earned coffee break, the trainer at work with his chimpanzees, the cleanup crew the day after. We’ve all seen these pictures over and over again. Maybe the documentary photographer can be satisfied with such pictures, but not the stock photographer or the photo buyer who strives to provide fresh insights, even on such a familiar subject as the circus.

What do we want to see in your essay on the circus? The answer will take thought, timing and preparation on your part. Imagination, luck and persistence will be important, too. You’ve got to zig when other photographers zag. You’ve got to anticipate. Most importantly, you’ve got to show us the circus as we never imagined it could be. (Don’t interpret this as license to shoot obscure, experimental, weird-angle pictures in an effort to be different. That would be equally trite.)

What nontrite pictures, then, will you shoot at the circus? For starters, let’s see an extreme close-up of one of the acrobats straining at push-ups, showing the effort and dedication it takes behind the scenes to produce a quality performance come showtime. How about a mother with toddler in arms happily finding a seat ringside? Or a stocky father lifting his three-year-old up to touch the bar of the trapeze? How about a backstage shot of a roustabout pumping air into the tire of the goofy mobile while the chimpanzee driver waits nearby? As a stock photographer, you must remember that readers of publications are people and that people love to watch and learn about other people. You will record how spectators at the circus relate to the performers (with admiration?), to the animals (with amazement, fear or pity?), to the atmosphere generated by the circus (with awe?), to each other (with friendship?). You will include symbols of the circus in your pictures—a trapeze, a cage, a tent—but you’ll keep these low-key to serve only as incidental elements to establish the circus atmosphere.

In most cases, you will want to apply the principle of making a picture rather than taking one. You can reenact or improve picture possibilities by asking the cooperation of spectators or performers. To a clown: “Would you mind taking a bite of that cotton candy again?” To a teenager: “Could I ask you to do that again—over here by the zebras?”

To see a refreshing photographic insight into the circus, look up an archive copy of the January 1986 issue of American Photographer (now American Photo) at your library, and turn to the feature by Susan Felter on page 58. Another great source for photo story ideas about a wide variety of topics is the magazine Photo District News, the only U.S. publication for professional photographers relevant for anything else than mere product reviews and list-type articles.

Photography is visual, and you can escape the plague of triteness by constantly visualizing picture-taking possibilities. Most successful photographers use this secret, so why not try it out yourself? In free moments, even days before you actually perform your assignment (circus, annual report, political convention and so on), visualize the hundreds of picture-taking possibilities that will probably come up. Eliminate the trite, the corny and the too cute. Concentrate on innovative possibilities that are practical and realistic. (This process will save you on-the-scene time, too.) If you visualize, you’ll arrive at your assignment well prepared. Most important, you will have worked all of the tempting, trite pictures out of your system, and you’ll be able to concentrate on a fresh approach to your subject matter.

Are trite pictures salable? Like trite paintings, songs and handicrafts, they are. There also are directories, websites, catalogs and CD-ROMs devoted to displaying trite stock photos, and books devoted to making trite photographs—but not this one. If, after reading this admonition against trite pictures, you find some culprits in your stock photo file, send them to a stock photo agency (see chapter twelve). Veteran photographers are familiar with stock agencies’ need to provide standard trite photos to their (mostly commercial) clientele. One photographer friend says, “I market my best pictures myself, and I dump my clichés on my agency, which can use all I can send.” While agency cliché sales do come in, for any photographer the checks are “every now and then.” You don’t want to depend on them to pay the rent.

There has been a change in agencies over recent years, and today’s agencies are less likely to accept your trite photos. They want great, innovative, stock photography that is vibrant with new ideas. If you plan on sending only your “second best” to an agency, you probably shouldn’t put much time and effort into having a business relationship with an agency.

If, on the other hand, you’re willing to put some of your best work with an agency, there are sales to be made. I’ve had roughly 3,500 photos with Alamy.com over the last ten or so years and those sales have brought in over $100,000 so far. More about agencies and my own experience with Alamy and others in chapter twelve.

How to Manage Models

Marketable stock photos are very often pictures of people doing things. How well the people in your pictures perform can determine the success of your photos. The commercial service photographer usually has the convenience of working with professional models. In contrast, most of your models in stock photography will be regular folks rather than professionals, and it’s up to you to make sure they feel comfortable and are cooperative.

You will encounter many of your models spontaneously in the course of your routine shooting. For the most part children, teenagers and adults will willingly cooperate with you for the fun or novelty of being photographed or being involved in the action. People often are intrigued that their picture might be published.

Before you begin photographing your on-the-spot models, let them know who you are and why you want to photograph them. Take the time to make them feel at ease.

Often their first question will be, “What’s this photograph going to be used for?” Give your models a direct answer: “For a book. If this photo is selected for publication, you’ll appear in a school textbook.” Or “For a magazine [name].” Or “For my photograph files. I’m a stock photographer and have a library of pictures that I sell to magazines and books.” Give some examples of where the picture might be used.

CONTROL THE CONVERSATION

If it seems appropriate, explain the mood you’re trying to capture in your pictures. Control the conversation throughout the whole picture-taking session to trigger naturally the kind of expressions you’re aiming for. Don’t let the conversation slip into a subject that is contrary to the mood you are trying to create. For example, if your picture calls for a happy mood, steer the conversation away from war, taxes or the fire that took so many lives last week or the twenty-car pileup on the freeway this morning. However, if your picture calls for somberness, guide the conversation to something difficult or puzzling (not necessarily sad—serious expressions can be interpreted as sad).

HOW TO GET THE MOST FROM YOUR MODELS

Sometimes, to elicit the right kind of expressions from a nonprofessional model, you’ll need to go a few steps further and become an actor—occasionally to the point of giving an award-winning performance as a clown, demagogue or saint.

After a while you’ll find that, in working with people for your pictures, you’ve developed a technique of gentle persuasion. You become adept at moving the conversation along the lines you want it to go.

Be as selective as the situation allows in your choice of models. Don’t choose the model because she is a neighbor, relative or friend. You’ll make your task easier if you choose a model whose natural style or demeanor comes close to the expression you’re aiming for—a serious thinker for sadness or weary expressions, a clear-eyed, upbeat individual for happy shots, and so on.

Here are some tips on how this works in practice.

HAPPINESS. Don’t ask for a smile. Instead, maneuver the conversation to some magic questions that always get smiles.

SENIORS: “Do you have any grandchildren?”

ADULTS: “How’s your golf [bowling, tennis] game?” Or “Been anywhere fun on vacation lately?”

TEENAGERS: Teenagers usually won’t allow themselves to be categorized. I’ve found it best to learn the teenager’s interests first (sports, music, movies, and so on) and then ask questions in those areas. Don’t attempt to speak their language. They’ll only become more suspicious of you.

PRETEENS: “Who’s your boyfriend [or girlfriend]?”

SMALL CHILDREN: “What’s your dog’s [cat’s, horse’s] name?”

BABIES: If you make strange noises, you’ll usually be rewarded with a smile (from everyone!).

SORROW. Some people (Abraham Lincoln, for example) look sad naturally. You can induce a sad-looking expression by asking a model to look tired. Another method is to catch him “between expressions,” which can appear pensive and sad-looking.

INTIMACY. Shoot from a three-quarter view with a long lens. This will bring two people closer. Ask your models to look at each other’s eyebrows. Unless they are pros, models who do not know each other will feel self-conscious, and your resulting pictures will look stilted. For your intimate pictures, choose models who know each other.

OVERCOMING SHYNESS. Use a long lens when your model is shy about being photographed. Teenagers are often self-conscious when asked to be photographed. If you need a single shot, ask the shy teen to be photographed with a friend. Then use a telephoto lens to capture a single portrait of the person. In Illustration 6-1, the long lens also brought the model, my niece Amelia, closer to the viewer of the photograph. “Don’t take my picture!” shy people will often say. To accomplish your mission, try taking a picture of what they are doing, as in Illustration 6-2.

If people truly don’t want their photograph taken, you should respect this.

Children are good models and can be diverted in ways that will enhance picture content. They tend to participate more fully than teenagers or adults. A good technique is to get your kid models involved in guessing games with you (the type of games we offer our children on long, boring car rides). Kids become animated when they like what they’re doing. Children, like pets, are fast though, and when photographing these subjects, you have to be alert and on your toes.

Pictures of people sell. Photo editors know that we’re human, that nothing touches us more than a picture of someone feeling something we identify with—be it anger, humor, pensiveness, bewilderment or delight. Thus, when you aim your camera at your models with photo illustration in mind, you have to adjust your thinking from the cosmetic approach usually employed when taking pictures of people. Your customer is not the portrait client or the bride or Aunt Harriet, but a photo buyer. Photo editors are not interested in how pretty or handsome you have made your subject appear, but in what emotion, what spontaneity, what insight into the human condition you have captured.

Should You Pay Your Models?

If you’re shooting on speculation for inventory for your stock photo file, many of your on-the-spot models will be satisfied with a copy of the published picture (tear sheet) if and when it is published. Other nonprofessional models are willing to cooperate just for fun or for the experience, especially if you’re a beginner yourself. Still others are happy to have copies of the photographs. Give them your card and have them write to you for the pictures. If you do promise photographs and they contact you for them, follow through. You’ll find, though, that the majority of people don’t get around to writing for the pictures.

Monetary payment is in order for nonprofessional models when you’re shooting a commercial assignment as a service photographer. A good rule of thumb is to budget a minimum of 5 percent and a maximum of 10 percent of the fee you’re receiving for the picture to pay your model(s). Seal the transaction with a signed model release. I’ve included a sample model release that you can use. (See Figure 15-2.)

Other Model Sources

A good source of models is your local community theater. Amateur actors always need portraits for their portfolios. You can trade them some portrait shots for their posing (in natural settings, of course) for your people-picture needs (e.g., people talking, engaged in some activity, expressing fear, sadness, loneliness, joy and so on).

You can try to find models at the drama departments at your local university, community college and high school.

Check also with local families and neighbors in need of family portraits. I will often sketch out photo illustration ideas (using my principle P = B + P + S + I—see chapter two) and have the members of the family act out the photo illustration situations. In return for their modeling services (about an hour’s work), I supply them with a family portrait.

When Is a Model Release Necessary?

It is the usage, not the picture, that determines whether a model release is needed.

If the photograph you take might be used commercially (basically for advertising), you will need a model release (you may also need a property release). If the photograph will only be used editorially, you will not need a model release in ninety-nine out of one hundred situations.

Generally speaking, commercial usage is when a photograph is used in an advertisement and/or to endorse a product or service. Editorial usage is when a photograph is used to illustrate an article in a magazine, newspaper or book.

If you don’t want the intrusion or the administration of releases for each photo, a general rule many stock photographers (and some service photographers) follow is to use photogenic neighbors, friends and relatives as models. If you need a model release for a particular photo later, you know where to find the model to obtain it.

Occasionally I get a model release request for a picture I took a decade ago. I consult my model file-card box and usually find that I received a blanket model release for an entire family when I originally took the picture. To obtain a blanket release, I had both parents fill out and sign the release and asked them to list their (minor) children.

What if I don’t have a release? Because the model was usually a neighbor, friend or relative, I often can track them down for the release.

In the early stages of my stock photography career, I obtained model releases on every occasion. I have since turned this completely around and now almost never get one. Experience has shown me that this administrative disruption of the mood or atmosphere of my picture-taking session isn’t necessary. Model releases are not required when a picture is used for educational or informational purposes. Since my personal Market List consists of magazine and book publishers, I rarely get a release request from an editor. However, since your PS/A and Market List are different from mine, you will know how extensive you’ll want your model release system to be. (See chapter fifteen for a full discussion on model releases.)

Dealing with Officials

The scene: You’ve arrived at an important high school football game to get pictures of the kickoff for an assignment and for your stock file. You’ll leave as soon as you get the kickoff pictures, so you see no reason to pay admission. You enter by a side gate and are met by an attendant with an officious “Where do you think you’re going?” expression.

You’re not going to let this fellow steal your precious minutes, so you try to ignore him. You walk right past him. “Wait a minute!” He says, insulted that you have not recognized his importance. He has the right to detain you, and he does—long enough for you to miss the kickoff shots.

Sound familiar? It will unless you keep in mind the stock photographer motto: “Officials: Handle With Care.”

As stock photographers, we frequently can’t get our pictures without first having to get permission from someone. Security is getting tighter in many sectors, which is understandable because past abuses—or the sheer numbers of people—have made it necessary to screen who takes pictures of what. You’ll encounter officials in many forms: gatekeepers, receptionists, police, bureaucrats, teachers, secretaries and security guards. You’ll even encounter unofficial officials: janitors, ticket takers and relatives of officials. No matter who presents himself as an official barrier to your picture-taking, handle the person with care, allowing for the amount of time you sense will satisfy his need to detain you. For example, a gatekeeper with sparse traffic might have the luxury of detaining you longer than one who is dealing with hordes of people.

One of the easiest official-eliminators is the “I need your help” routine. In the case of the football gate attendant, you say, “I need your help. I’d like to get a dramatic picture of the kickoff (look at your watch). Could you tell me the quickest way to the fifty-yard line?”

If an official wants to know something about you—why you’re here, what the pictures will be used for—here’s the answer: “I represent the John Doe Stock Photo Agency, and I’m John Doe. These pictures go into my files of over five thousand stock photos. They’re used in magazines, textbooks, calendars, anything that would be in the public interest—you name it! (Smile.)”

Try to cultivate officials who could have access to information relevant to your assignment. Ask questions such as “When will he be back?” “How many players are on this team?” “What time does the gate close?”

When you encounter an official who isn’t cooperative, try offering a copy of the picture you’re going to take. Don’t take his name on a piece of paper; such papers either get lost or add to your office work. Instead, offer him your card and say, “Here’s my address. Write me in about two weeks. The picture will be ready by then.” (Experience predicts that you have a one-in-a-thousand chance of hearing from him.)

Should you carry a press card? For large, important events, written permission from headquarters is your best introduction to on-site officials (headquarters usually issues its own press cards, stickers and/or passes). For the 999 other events you’ll attend, officials don’t ask for a press card. If you’re carrying two or more cameras around your neck (even if they’re borrowed from a friend), that’s official enough for them.

If you’ve found officials to be a constant thorn in your side, try the handle- with-care approach. However, there’s an exception: If you stand to lose too much time by acquiescing to an official’s demands (“Wait over there”; “Fill out this form”; “Stand in line”; “I’ll put you on hold”; “I have to check with my boss first”), then take a different tack: Try a different official. In the case of the football gate attendant, if he is uncooperative, walk away and find another gate. In the case of an uncooperative receptionist, wait until she goes on a coffee break or to lunch. The replacement might be more agreeable (or you might think of a better approach).

In cases in which no officials appear, don’t go out of your way to find someone to ask permission from. That someone may have no authority (a waiter in a restaurant, an attendant at a conference); he’ll only pass the buck, detain you and cause delays. Rather than take no pictures (because you didn’t have permission), jump in and start clicking. An official will usually come forward. Before he gives you his routine, give him your “I need your help” routine.

Officials can delay or even prevent you from getting your picture. When all else fails, remember this: It’s sometimes easier to apologize for jumping in and getting the photos than it is to get permission.

However, you owe it to yourself and to the rest of us in the field to carry out your projects in a professional way and in a manner that will earn the respect of the public. Keep courtesy a priority.