Pixiq

After working for so many years both as the editor at Outdoor Photographer and as a photographer selling my work before and after that, I get a lot of questions about how a photographer can sell photos to Outdoor Photographer or any other publication. So I wrote an eBook about it, Selling Photos. I will give more details on it at the end of this post. I wanted to excerpt an important part of the book that covers some really important basics about publication photography. You may be an experienced photographer who is well beyond the typical basics. Don’t skip this information, though. I can tell you from a lot of experience that what I am talking about here is not common knowledge among photographers submitting work to publications, based on what I have seen submitted to a number of magazines, including Outdoor Photographer.

With the camera gear available today, you would think there would be no excuse for any technical problems with a photograph. A lot of editors really wish that were true. It would make their job easier in looking at submissions because then they would only be looking at good images and not wasting their time with the bad stuff. And here's a big tip on working with editors – don’t waste their time with bad stuff! Today's publishing world is full of stresses and editors often feel short of time. If they feel they have opened a submission and wasted their time going through it, they are not going to be looking very favorably on anything else that photographer might send them.

So what is a good photo for a publication? How do you create a quality image that meets the needs of an editor or other art buyer? We’re going to explore what it means to create publication quality photography, and these ideas can certainly be applied to any type of photography, whether it's published or not.

Minimum Requirements

A photo must start with good exposure, good composition, good sharpness, and so forth. There is nothing complicated about these things, although they can be modified by the word “appropriate” – good exposure, composition, etc., will need to be appropriate to the subject and what the photograph is about. But getting a good picture is simply the minimum requirement for being published. 

Most published photos are in color (though black-and-white is important for some markets). Color must be appropriate for the scene, and the image must be critically sharp. Sound obvious? I can tell you it is not based on what folks submit for publication. This is not about buying the best lens possible. I have had images published from inexpensive "kit lenses", and when I was editor, I have rejected unsharp photos from the top pro lenses. The majority of unsharp photos are unsharp due to camera movement during exposure. This is not simply about "blurry" photos. A lot of photos "look" sharp when they are not. If you find an image looks at all less sharp than others you have shot, trust that instinct -- the image is not sharp. 

If you find that you cannot shoot for any depth of field in low light, shoot so that what is sharp will be absolutely sharp. That may mean using a wider aperture or higher ISO so that you could use a fast shutter speed. Details like this are very important in getting a good picture for publication.

Minimum requirements are really the ticket required simply to enter onto the playing field. There are so many good photographers with so much good photography, that art buyers are uninterested in any images that do not meet these standards. Now these standards are not all that hard, but they do require some discipline to be sure you follow them.

There are seven things that I think are critical here and if you don’t follow all seven points, selling your images will be more difficult:

1. Photos must be well-crafted.

With today's excellent digital cameras plus a wealth of great learning opportunities such as those at BetterPhoto.com orLynda.com (I do classes at both), all photographers have the opportunity to create good-looking images all the time. Excellent photography is no longer only possible by a select few professionals. Even very inexpensive cameras can give professional results. So, anything less than a well-crafted photo will immediately be rejected.

What does well-crafted mean? It means paying attention to exposure: photographs that are not too dark or too light (for example, snow is white, not gray, or a black cat is black, not gray), highlights have detail where they need it, shadows look solid and not murky, or shadows look open with appropriate detail. It means having sharp images, because attention has been paid to finding the right focus point, the right camera handling technique, and a tripod when necessary. It means using light appropriately so that light and shadow work to support your subject and what you're trying to say about that subject.

If you are not sure about any of these things, learn them. There are lots of books available plus classes to help.

2. Photos must use appropriate technique.

If the picture should be sharp, it better be sharp. If the image should have blurs in the image, the blurs should be appropriate to the subject. If flash is used, then the flash must look right for the scene.

3. Photos must have clear composition.

Now when I say this, I don't mean that you can't be creative in your composition. What I am saying is that whatever composition you are using, it must be easily understood by the viewer, the photo buyer. If you have to explain your picture, then the composition is not very clear (I am not talking about explaining unusual scenes or subjects, but explaining the photograph itself because a viewer cannot figure it out).

Magazines especially have the need for a picture to be understood by the reader immediately because the experience of using a magazine is to look at pages rather quickly. Think about how the average person looks at a publication. They don't study each page of a magazine the way they might a book or a print on the wall. Photographers often see their photographs on the screen of their computer or in a print and they really study that photograph. People today, readers of magazines and books, do not study pictures that way. So a photograph must be understood quickly.

Editors are generally after very clear compositions for those reasons. There should be no question about what the subject is, and you should be able look at at pictures very quickly and understand them immediately. Clear, simple compositions are important for magazine and other publication photography. Look at any magazine and you will see this is true for most if not all of the images in an issue.

4. No garbage in the composition.

This is really important. Sometimes photographers get a little lazy, and they don't crop out problems along the edge of the picture, for example. A publication of any kind wants a photograph that is complete in itself and has nothing extraneous in it. You can't figure that you have some great action, a great subject, or anything else that is so good that nothing else matters. If the rest of the picture has distractions or other visual garbage in it, an editor or other art buyer will look less kindly on all the rest of the images. The only exception to this is breaking news of something so extraordinary that every newspaper has to have it on the front page.

5. Photos must be accessible.

Magazines, books and other publications are sold to people. Those people, the potential buyer of the publication, have to be interested in that publication in order to buy it and need to feel that the publication is understandable and accessible to them. Otherwise, why bother? People are busy today and have no time for magazines that waste their time and editors know that, too. Photos, because they are so visual and are seen so quickly by any potential reader, really influence that feeling of accessibility. Obscure or esoteric images might work with some obscure or esoteric publication, but are not going to work with most.

6. The standard views of a subject are a minimum requirement.

Every publication gets the standard views, and often will publish these views of certain subjects. Readers expect that. However, readers, and therefore photo buyers, expect really good, striking photographs of the standard shots. Everyone has this type of picture, so competition is also extreme and you will find selling such standard clichés are very difficult if that's all you have.

My eBook, Selling Photos: Secrets of selling photos to publications in today's competitive market, is available from Amazon.com for the Kindle format for under $7. You do not need a Kindle to read it, however. You can download an app that will work with your computer, Mac or PC, as well as devices like an iPad or Blackberry, that will allow you to read any Kindle book. The book is also available for the Nook and for Sony e-Readers. Download a Kindle app from this link. Go to the book at Amazon.com from this link.