58 What Sells and What Does Not
and money everywhere. That is a concept shot I took to convey the
sense of a successful microstock photographer. It was produced from
two separate shots. The fi rst was of Charles with the money and
cameras, shot against a pure white background. The second was of
the money background. I “cut out” Charles in Photoshop using a
technique I will refer to in Chapter 7 for clipping paths and dropped
him in on top of the money background. I hope it caught your eye
when you fi rst saw this book!
The bosses of the microstock agencies all agree that business con-
cepts are good sellers, and they should know. Business concept shots
are used to illustrate common business themes such as teambuilding,
teamwork, cooperation, success, and other groovy concepts that create
a positive image of whatever is being promoted or sold.
“Business Teamwork” (Figure 3.26) involved a little Photoshop skill
to combine the puzzle graphics with real people. I think it’s a great
image and so, apparently, do the customers of Shutterstock who have
downloaded it many times. Figure 3.27 is another great business
concept top seller by iStockphoto exclusive photographer Lisa
Gagne.
Sign images also sell well. Figure 3.28 is one of my top sellers; it
represents a simple case of combining a perspective-corrected image
of a sign with some text added in Photoshop. Text on signs can of
course be changed and a different message added. Provided the result
is suffi ciently different and useful, you should be able to reuse a pho-
tograph of a sign for many different purposes.Vectors
While this book is about microstock photography, be aware that many
of the biggest image sellers on the microstock agencies are vector
graphics. So, I should say a few words about vectors.
FIGURE 3.26 “Business Teamwork—Puzzle
Pieces.” © Andres Rodriguez/Shutterstock