martini with a twist c&C

pattavina · Mar 10, 2009

I am trying to get started in doing some stock photography and this is one of the latest pictures i have taken. let me know what you think and generally any advice you can give on getting started in stock work.

DanCanon · Mar 10, 2009

I think it is too dark. If the lime were lighter it would pop out more.

pattavina · Mar 10, 2009

thanks I dodged the lime a bit. what do you think.

roadkill · Mar 10, 2009

i'd rather have olives

KvnO · Mar 11, 2009

Depth of field-wise, it looks more like a twist with a vodka martini.

I don't know if I like the dodging, there's a bit of a halo around the lime now.

Jeffrey Byrnes · Mar 12, 2009

I think the angle in which you shot this could be adjusted. If you werent so high up you would have a much more stronger view of the glass. It looks like youre trying to sell a twisted lime and not the martini.

craig · Mar 12, 2009

Martini with a twist is not making the cut. The image is confusing and somehow focuses on the lime. Do you have some other photos from this shoot? I would re think the shot and definitely use a full glass of booze.

Love & Bass

4thirds_dude · Mar 12, 2009

I tend to agree that DOF is a bit extreme with such focus on the lime...also, the shot looks grainy as if shot as too high an ISO or no noise reduction was applied in post processing.

nikonguy · Mar 12, 2009

stock photography is really hard to make money at unless your REALLY GOOD... a buddy of mine is into stock, and he's a great photographer, he makes about 500/month, but it require a LOT of time on his part.. he spends hours doing photos and then hours editing them so that other people will find his photos useful.

with the OP's shot, it kinda looks more to me like, you saw this on the table, took and picture, and thought "that might make a good stock photo" and I think this is the #1 problem with people trying to get into stock... stock photos are not "on a whim" pictures, they are strategically planned out.. the photographer sets up the stock photo, not the photo itself.

I have another buddy who makes a living doing stock photos, thats all he does, he spends his whole day in a studio with a lightbox, taking pictures of things that people need.. he goes out and buys things that people might need pictures of, he invests into stock photography, and because he does that, and puts all the time into, he makes 6 figures a year (i didn't mistype that, 6 figures)

just to give you a FEW samples of what he does (and he's given me permission to do this) heres a couple of his shots:

for this pic, he only had a white helmet, and didn't want to spend $80 on orange ones, because he thought to himself, "i bet people could really use orange helmets as well as white ones" and he spent hours in photoshop to get it from white to orange, and still look natural.

the other key to stock photography is the tags you give your photos... if you just give it 4 or 5 tags, people will never find it.. each of his images has like 30-40 tags which again, he spends time thinking up, so that no matter what someone is searching, there is a high chance they will hit his images.

blur · Mar 13, 2009

Nice attempt. The replies make sense, though: the lime-twist seems to be the focus of the photo and not so much the martini itself.

nikonguy: That is some very useful info. Thank you!