Get your images seen

If you're like most photographers, when it comes to uploading new images to Trigger you don't want to spend hours slaving over IPTC file data. It's the boring stuff that can add days to your file preparation before you get to uploading your high res files to us but unfortunately this dull wordy stuff is vital!! Having a good description and the right keywords with your images is very important if you're in this seriously and you want your images to stand any chance of being seen. Clients use these words to search and find your images so you need to try and put yourself in their position, what words would they use? It's not easy and it's virtually impossible to cover all possibilities and of course you are competing with all the other photographers using the same keywords. If you're not using software to help you select your keywords the next best thing is an online Thesaurus. It will open your mind to word associations you just had not considered but remember one thing, be accurate. The worst thing you can do is add keywords that are not relevant, this will send your valuable potential clients scurrying away frustrated as they see how unprofessional and unreliable your keywording is. So what else can help? Well, being a photographer in a small agency like Trigger rather than a giant like Getty has it's advantages. You simply have a better chance of being seen in a gallery of 10,000 images rather than 20,000,000.

Keywords are only part of the story of course, once the client finds your image you then have to have inspiring shots, with good lighting and great models with content that fits the client brief exactly and a suitable fee to fit the client budget!

Many photographers trying to sell their imagery for the first time as stock think it is a simple process of getting images with an agency and then they will sell themselves. At Trigger we edit hard to present the best images to our clients so they don't have to search through thousands of average images they can find elsewhere, but we live in an age flooded with digital photography where the number of images available far outstrips the demand. The general consensus is that most sales are made from only 10% of images held in a gallery. So, you need to produce imagery that is in the top 10%. That's the hard bit.

By regularly updating your images at Trigger your images go to the top of our 'Just Arrived' gallery and these get seen by designers on a daily basis, we also promote new images via social networking. So you can use this gallery to enhance the publicity of your images before keywords are even used by our clients.

There is keyword software to help in the time consuming process, but we can't recommend any particular supplier: http://www.imagekeyworder.com/ you can download this and try it free for 30 days.

just arrived - Images by Trigger Image

The Future of Photography?

Here's a really interesting viewpoint on how to market your work by a photo editor.

A Thought on the Future of Photography

Photographers need more fans.

Photographers spend waaay too much time and money trying to develop a very small and elite group of fans at the top. What needs to change is instead of thinking about having a couple of fans with deep pockets you need to start adding a large number with shallow pockets. These fans are actually just the same consumers you would potentially reach through traditional media except now they can find you without the help of magazines and newspapers. As these people abandon traditional media they’re looking for places to spend the time and money they used to spend at the top. Why not be there waiting?

If you somehow find marketing and selling yourself to average citizens somehow revolting, not to worry, there will always be a group of 500 successful elite photographers who dominate the top of this industry with a handful of deep pocketed fans (top Photo Directors, Art Buyers and Creatives) and if that’s your goal you can continue the long slow climb to the top, but for many people it’s just not possible to make that climb anymore or maybe the mystique of it all has suddenly evaporated.

If that’s the case you need to prepare to go get your fans back.

Christopher Anderson, Editor of Wired gives the following relevant example in his article,Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business (here)

Traditionalists wring their hands about the “vaporization of value” and “demonetization” of entire industries. The success of craigslist’s free listings, for instance, has hurt the newspaper classified ad business. But that lost newspaper revenue is certainly not ending up in the craigslist coffers. In 2006, the site earned an estimated $40 million from the few things it charges for. That’s about 12 percent of the $326 million by which classified ad revenue declined that year.

But free is not quite as simple — or as stupid — as it sounds. Just because products are free doesn’t mean that someone, somewhere, isn’t making huge gobs of money. Google is the prime example of this. The monetary benefits of craigslist are enormous as well, but they’re distributed among its tens of thousands of users rather than funneled straight to Craig Newmark Inc.

Here's the link for the full article and feedback from fellow photographers.... remember to post your replies on our Blog.

http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2008/03/19/a-thought-on-the-future-of-photography/

Trigger Slideshows

We now have 100 great photographers onboard at Trigger. Some are pro's some amateur, but who gives a fig about letters after your name when what's in your folio really counts. Whether you're creating inspiring imagery with a Hassleblad or a Holga putting it online is vital to get your folio seen and create interest from potential clients whether that's for your licensed imagery of your personal work. We provide a free pool where all our photographers licensed works can be seen and purchased from our galleries at any time day or night. In return we just ask you to provide a link to your licensed images at Trigger. We now want to make that link work even harder for you by utilising our new slideshow feature. We will create a personalised slideshow with just your work, you can then place your slideshow on your websites and blogs where clients can click an image and immediately link to your sales page on Trigger. Spread your slideshow as far as you can and it will always link back to your licensed work where clients can buy online. It's viral marketing and we're going to be offering 12 months worth of free slideshows to 5 Triggerites who leave the most interesting comments on our new Blog.

Make the most of your assets with our free marketing slideshow.