http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-fashion-shot-of-a-young-man-image1308160

Chris Smith:
great advice, except you missed one huge issue. skateboarders and rollerbladers NEVER hang out together. skateboarders have a nickname for rollerbladers: fruit-booters because it’s so damn easy compared to their sport. same story for guys that ride bmx…just don’t hang out with the other two groups. also, where are the holes in the jeans? and who the heck uses HUGE headphones these days? lots of your work is great, but this shot of the group looks styled…and is poorly done. would have been better off just grabbing a few of the actual skateboarders, asking them to smile, and getting some authentic photos. would have saved tons of time too!

You are on to something interesting here. Notice that only the girls are using rollerblades. From where you are at in the world your statements might be valid, but not here. We found both rollerbladers and skateboarders to hang out together and not separated as you say. We found very few girls that actually skateboarded, but quit a few that rollerbladed. We also found quit a few people wearing headphones, because they look “cool” and not for the practical reasons. The wholes in the jeans we can’t do, because that will send a whole other kind of signal that will damage sales. We did not want to create an image that was authentic to the Skater or Rollerblader, because skaters and rollerbladers are not our customers. We wanted to take a few of the central features from those disciplines to create an image that appeal to our customers, the designers (the buyers).

By the way. Don’t be a ghost. Come around again and reply.

Looking forward to your next videoblog.

Steven

I think there’s a logical market for stock photos… maybe this is the just nature of it. And, really, what you’re doing is helping is stock photographers make better (less sucky?) stock photos.

On my last stock shoot, I took a very similar approach. I wanted to portray typical college students at a very normal looking college campus. I simply do not have any budget, a am a college student after all. The campus I attend has lots of new architecture along with the original neo-classical style. I told my models how to dress according to keywords that I had decided for the wardrobe and gave them specifics about wardrobe (along with a a pizza bribe.) We shot in a very small radius so I don’t have them walking around the huge campus (everything really is bigger in Texas.) I was careful to hide details about our location, like for example we have an exorbitant amount of short leaf pine trees where I live. While this may be a detail that works for some places, I kept the pine trees further in the background and the oaks closer. I also avoided the tell-tale orange patches of ground created by the pine leaf litter.

For school books I made a combination of new and used books and school supplies and bags, remembering that I have both of those like most students.

The results, while no where near the same league as yours, look much more real and convincing than my other failed attempts at college student looks. My models did a wonderful job putting wardrobe together from the keywords and color families I described to them. I just feel like I should have gotten more shots for the time we spent, but I imagine this experience will lead to more productive shoots in the future.

How do you manage the “up to date style production” considering the “life time” x “Cost per image” x “RPI” in order to predict the income in the year to come?

Also I would like to bore you a little more with a couple more questions even if it is not pertinent to this topic..

How do you manage the time invested in the previous shooting preparation. This seems to be really time-consuming and expensive. Looking at the video showing your studio I´m asking myself if this is really an example of your day to day shooting. If you take so many time planning your shootings, how many days per week do you actually shoot? And while you personally don´t, does the studio stay unused or do your assistants shoot in the meantime the typical stock photos in your studio?

And I have another question: I´ve read that you only employ ten people and wonder how that works. Do these people really do all the work (photoshop, upload, casting models and locations, styling, shopping for props, make up, shooting itself, administration of your company)? Or do you have a part of these works outsourced to freelancers or other companies?

And a finally question for the moment would be:
- a normal shooting day results in how many photos online?

Once again, thanks a lot for your helpful support .

Keep up the good work and thanks.