OK. You have made the change to digital – you sold off your film SLR, emptied out your supply of old chemicals, you tested your brand new DSLR resulting in a memory card full of NEF files (I am assuming you purchased a Nikon) – and now you need to take the next step. So what is the next step?

Stock photography provides a number of challenges in each of technical, workflow and business areas. Digital stock photography provides an even greater number of challenges. Without wanting to sound trite, I think challenges represent opportunities. And I am going to take this opportunity (now that is a segue) of working through some of the next steps.

When you move out of the darkroom – or away from the E6/C41 processing lab – to digital imaging, you move into the computer world. At the very least you need basic computer literacy. In the next three or four articles, I will introduce you to an important aspect of digital imaging. Not composition, not lighting, not camera angles, but digital imaging workflow. You can bring your talents and expertise from the film world to the digital world; however, digital imaging workflow is something you will need to learn.

Perhaps strangely, I will start from the end of my workflow. My reason is, in order to develop a workflow, you need to know your destination. Or in this case, my destination - which is my web site, www.JohnHindmarsh.com . Blatant advertising, I know. Go on, have a look.

You need a web site. The Internet provides some excellent opportunities for displaying and marketing your images. Google will see your web site, pages and images. So will the Microsoft search engine, although it seems to be a touch slower to reach the scope offered by Google. And Yahoo is in there as well. Experiment. Open up Explorer and search for your name in each of these three search engines. Did your name show on the first three pages? (A user will probably try a new search after reading three pages of search results). You are more likely to be included in the search results if you have a web site that promotes your name. Some photographers use their business name. As long as there is name recognition by both the searcher and the search engine, I do not think it matters which name you use. A web site is an indispensable business tool, especially for the stock photographer.

The topic of searching and rules used by Google and other engines is a detour from my focus here, so I will save that for another article. My point here is to focus on the end deliverable. Your web site needs to present representative catalogs of images, perhaps a searchable database of images and details of your specializations and activities. Of course you can upload your images to one or more third party web sites, and not develop your own site. Or you can do both, develop a personal web site, and upload images to Alamy and any other stock agency that will accept and represent your images. Remember, your workflow is almost identical, whichever approach you decide to take.

A personal web site provides an extra touch, it represents you. It also provides extra work, as you will see. A web site is often described as a storefront – it is at least a doorway to your business and can be a very flexible marketing tool.

Designing and developing a web site is not easy, unless you have some background knowledge of how web pages fit together and of usability. It is probably best if you contract out this task, or utilize one of the sites that include pre-built ‘personalized’ site templates. I am not familiar with these and have no recommendations, you will see them advertised in most photographic magazines. While you may contract out design and development, you need a good idea of the ‘look and feel’ of the end product. That is your responsibility, ensuring a good site design.

Key design points –

1. Research other sites and build up an idea of how you want your site to look and feel. Draw out your site plan and discuss it with your developer. Remember, you want users to enjoy their experience when they visit. Overloaded text, tired jokes, boring music and other gimmicks are likely to destroy the effectiveness of your site. Ask yourself – would I return to this site?
   
   
2. Do not have a complex or noisy or cluttered or bloated opening or home page (indeed, or any page). Users get tired of waiting for lengthy downloads if they have slow connections, and will exit from your site before the first page download has completed.
   
   
3. Site navigation should be consistent, and simple, page to page. All links should work. Add links to other sites only if you think the other sites complement your site.
   
   
4. Provide clear and obvious contact details. It is surprising sometimes how difficult it can be to find a name, a telephone number or an email address . And if you are encouraging visitors to your actual storefront, include that address. (Travel photographers are reluctant to include both home addresses and travel schedules, for obvious reasons – let safety and prudence carry the day).
   
   
5. A web site can get dated. Sometimes you see a web site with a ‘current’ news report that is years old. If you include images – and this is what your site is about – you will need to refresh these on a regular basis so that returning visitors are not discouraged by the lack of activity on the pages. You may need to maintain text, as well. Plan this carefully.
   
   
6. The most important thing – make it very clear what you are offering to sell. My site covers multiple areas – travel stock, fine art, writing and workshops – which are all related. Some designers suggest a limitation on the scope to keep the sales message simple; otherwise the user is not able to recognize what your storefront is for.
   
   
7. The most important thing – well, this is just as important as point 6 – is to determine how you will display images. More advanced stock web sites provide search functions, supported by a database where the user can search by keywords. My site will not reach that pinnacle, at least not for a few months. Initially I will provide image catalogs developed in iView MediaPro 3 (in my next article I review this product); these catalogs have a topic structure and contain examples. This approach allows a user to see the range and quality of my images; optimistically, these will lead to a decision by the image purchaser to contact me.
   
   
8. You need a reliable web hosting service that can support you as you grow. The web host will look after practical things like registration of your domain name, support of traffic volumes, provision of disk space, back up of files, email services and online sales. I use Microsoft – see http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/tips/web-hosting-tips.mspx and http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/online/web-hosting/articles/. Microsoft have changed the way they host web sites (announced in December 2006) and suitable web hosting services may be available through http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officelive/default.aspx.
   
   
9. Finally – you will need to promote your web site. In addition to ensuring search engines can find and recognize your business, people – image buyers - need to know it is there. Send out newsletters, participate in photographic forums, attend relevant seminars and conferences, send out news releases referring to your web site to suitable magazines and other publications, make sure your business card refers to your web site, send out calendars and cards referring to your web site; in summary, do all the things that you need to do, to promote a business.
   
   
10. And finally – again, I know – get your site visitor’s email address. Some sites do not allow access unless the user registers with personal details. However, that can be seen as too restrictive for a general site. My approach is to encourage the user to contact me by email and then I can reply with follow-up details, newsletters, etc.

Well, that completes the objective. Now you have (at least the concept of) a web site where you can present your images. And in my next article I will start you on the way to building up a workflow that will get your images ready for presentation. In subsequent articles, I will look at DxO, Photoshop and other software that may be useful in the workflow.

Next, Workflow – The Beginning

Copyright © 2006 John Hindmarsh Contact Bio