Design--Your Important Tool
Advance Notes: We interviewed publisher, Rohn Engh, for this article. His insights can provide you with a marketing (and design) roadmap for the coming years in stock photography.
A. I'm all three, and at different periods have focussed on each of the disciplines in turn. In each field, I have found the fundamental requirement to be a good understanding of design. I was trained in design at Maryland Institute of Art for four years, but I didn't really learn design until I left school. I'm still learning design.
Q. How do you apply design to taking a photograph?
A. Every creative endeavor has two components, format and content. One can't exist without the other. A designer works with both. In my seminars, I teach photographers how to design their images so that both these components are present. If the format is solid and the content is compelling, you'll have a winning photo -- whether it's for editorial use or for an advertising campaign.
Q. What kind of format are you talking about?
A. It's not a hard and fast rule, but most appealing photos these days are those whose format starts with a meaningful background, includes an appropriate person or persons, a provocative symbol, and has the person(s) involved with the symbol. The design of the picture should be bold, poster-like.
Q. And content, how do we get that into the picture?
A. While format is a matter of engineering, content, on the other hand, brings out the artist in you. Your image should evoke a mood. It should allow the viewer to "read into" the picture. Your photo should allow the viewer to be a collaborator in your image. That's what good picture design is all about.
Q. Did you learn all this at art school?
A. No. When I attended art school in the mid-50's, design was more or less an elective. It took a back seat. Design was what happened after the product and marketing people did their part. I learned how to apply design properly after I got out of school. Successful companies today include design as a strategic and tactical weapon. Designers are now part of the integrated team in Corporate America.
Q. Why has design become so important?
A. The buying and viewing public are far more sophisticated today than three or four decades ago. Whether you are designing a photo or a camera bag, a shoe box or a dishwasher, the way your idea is presented to the public (a very fickle public, by the way) will determine acceptance or rejection.
Q. Even if the product is inherently "the best" -- if the design elements are lacking, the product will fail?
A. In most cases, yes. This applies especially in commercial stock photography, where a static generic picture-postcard of a beautiful scene will attract fewer viewers (and photobuyers) than one composed with the design elements I mentioned earlier.
Q. How does design affect stock photography as part of the New Media, e.g. web photos, CD ROMS, on-line photobanks?
A. It's no secret that stock photography has entered "the new economy," which is affecting all businesses, both locally and globally. The world is changing. You get competition for your photos from Spain as well as Maine. Prices are falling, but if you design your business structure well, you will be able to produce more.
Q. Meaning?
A. Corporate America, through the 70's and 80's, protected profits by shrinking their operations and cutting costs -- thanks to technology. But the shrinking is over. Profits now come from automation and volume production. If you design your business structure to fit the times we live in by utilizing today's available technology, plus design your stock photography using the format principles I first mentioned, you will move to the head of the line.
Q. Can you be more specific on what this means for stock photographers?
A. Today's cameras are much more sophisticated than the point-and-shoot cameras of the 70's and 80's that the pros looked on with disdain. The automatic controls on cameras today make it nearly impossible not to get a technically fine image. Couple that with Internet ordering of everything photographic under the sun, and you have a New Generation stock photographer -- the automated photographer who can operate on-the-fly and in remote locations, plus can provide more volume to his markets without increasing overhead.
Q. Can amateur photographers capitalize on the phenomenon?
A. More than ever, because they have access to the same equipment and production materials that the pro does. Times have never been better for the part-time stock photographer.
Q. How about marketing those photos?
A. We're back to the importance of design again. This time in relation to business structure. A stock photography business designed to take advantage of the new hardware and software can also automate the selling
Q. What do you see as the greatest hang-up for stock photographers today?
A. Too many stock photographers are clinging to the "old way" of doing business. Yes, there are many photobuyers who continue to operate their photobuying routine in the old way -- and this fosters the illusion that it's "business as usual" in our industry. But there's much more business to be had -- when stock photographers utilize the emerging global markets, for example. And there's the reverse: graphic houses and corporate art directors are realizing they no longer are confined to photographers from their local Yellow Pages, but rather they can just as easily tap the wealth of talent on the Internet, where in many cases they might find a better match for their visual needs.
Q. Do you have examples on how a photographer can move forward to strengthen his stock photo operation in today's business climate?
A. Yes. To design your business structure to take advantage of today's technology -- you will establish a presence on the Internet, with a website of your own, with hyperlinks to related websites. You will list your photo descriptions in the PhotoSourceBank Directory, and put examples of your work on PhotoSourceFolio, an internet image gallery. You will publish a CD featuring examples of your area(s) of expertise. You'll sign on with a stock photo agency that has a foothold on the Internet. You'll subscribe to a marketletter such as PhotoLetter or PhotoDaily to make sales. By doing all this, you will be doing what Corporate America will be doing in the coming decade to utilize today's new opportunities for delivery of product and making new sales contacts. And if your products (your stock photos) are designed to conform to the marketing needs of photobuyers (in the areas you love photographing) -- you will be riding the top of the wave of the next generation of stock photographers.
Rohn Engh, veteran stock photographer and best-selling author of "Sell & ReSell Your Photos" and "sellphotos.com," has helped scores of photographers launch their careers. For access to great information on making money from pictures you like to take, and learn how to sell pictures, and to receive this free report: "8 Steps to Becoming a Published Photographer," visit his website, PhotoSource International or call 800 624-0266
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