In today’s uncertain economic times everyone is looking for ways to earn extra income and if you are a photography enthusiast stock photography is a viable option to earning extra cash. Becoming involved in stock photography puts your photos out into the global marketplace where they can be seen and purchased by a wide variety of consumers. Undoubtedly this field can be incredibly lucrative; however, there is also a high potential to fail. Many people who jump into this business do so with their eyes closed and never understand why their photos were rejected at the outset. Understanding what the pitfalls are give you the opportunity to avoid them and become successful. If you want to try out this growing field here are some tips on how you can become successful.

The first factor for success is quality. Stock photography sites only accept photos of the highest quality so to avoid rejection off the bat you need to only submit photos that are crystal clear. The key to superior quality, apart from your talent, is a high quality camera. Using a minimum of 5 mega pixels set to maximum resolution should give you the quality you need to have your photos accepted. The key to making money in this business requires that your photos be accepted so that potential clients can actually purchase them and to make this happen you need to set your photos apart from the rest.

The second thing to remember is that you don’t want to burden the web site administrator by submitting 30-40 pictures at a time. The higher number of photos that you submit at one time, the higher your changes of having them ignored by the photo selector; this calls for absolute rejection! In the beginning I recommend you choose no more than three of your best photographs for selection. If you are extremely confident of your photos quality you might want to risk sending a larger batch but remember the potential for absolute rejection. Another thing to remember is to not change your photos file names since uploading duplicate photos will also ensure rejection. Once you have uploaded your photos you can rename them, using appropriate keywords to help consumers find your photos.

After the camera has done its job of clicking the picture, it is your turn to accentuate its appeal. To produce a ten on ten picture, make sure that no part of it is blurred or out of focus. Set the lighting in a way that every part in the picture looks enhanced and appealing. And to acquire a balanced lighting effect in the picture Adobe Photoshop is a reliable tool.

Keywords are important. To get your photos noticed you want to sure potential buyers can find them and here is where keywords come into play. Visibility is vital and ideally you want your image to appear in a keyword search within the first two pages. By showing up early in the you are increasing your opportunity for sales. On the flip side using too many keywords risks photo rejection as it can be considered spam. Therefore, I recommend you use a maximum of 10 keywords to make it visible.

If you can produce quality photos, correctly use keywords and a take a creative take on an ordinary item you will be sure to succeed in this field. Not only will your photos be accepted but you will outshine your competitors.

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