152 Twenty Tips and Tricks to Winning on Microstocks
FIGURE 8.4 iStockphoto recognizes the difference between a musical drumstick and a chicken drumstick and between a stick of rock and rock
music in this screen capture for one of my images of a drum being played. © Douglas Freer/iStockphoto
the nose. With other subjects, you need to choose the point of sharp
focus with great care. You may need to turn off your camera’s autofocus
and focus manually. As with most things in life, practice will help make
perfect. Good prime lenses come into their own when using selective
focus because they have a wider maximum aperture, essential for the
shallow depth-of-fi eld effects seen in “Allium Flowers” (Figure 8.5).Tip 15: Challenge Your Creativity
Creative images do well on the microstock libraries. Designers are
always on the lookout for something different among the plethora of
standard images, so why not try something really whacky!
In Chapter 3, we looked at concept shots, but I’ll bet you thought,
“I can’t shoot concept; I’ll play it safe.” Phooey! Somewhere in you