For HNC Block 2 projects, we will be covering Location Stock and Image Editing.
I will be setting projects that allow you to shoot location stock photographs on a variety of themes. To prepare those photographs, you will be using Image Editing techniques.
Stock photography is the provision of photographs which can be used and re-used for different markets. Many photographers now place their images in photo libraries where they can be accessed online by potential clients throughout the world. This increases the likelihood of an image selling, but it also means that the photographer is in competition with photographers from all over the world. So the work has to be of very high technical quality.
Magazine and editorial photographers can spend a lot of time raiding their archive of negatives or transparencies for suitable material for stock, scanning it, annotating it and submitting the work to stock agencies. This is one reason why it is absolutely vital that photographers retain the copyright on their own photography.
Digitisation and the internet allowed the stock industry to expand and it has been a significant part of the photographic business.
Photographs sent to a stock agency have to follow their technical guidelines and also their style guidelines. A major stock library is Alamy, which has very clear and strict technical guidelines and quality control:
Another agency, Trevillion, deals with pictures that are a little bit more visually enhanced:
4Corners is a travel and location stock agency that supplies magazines like the National Geographic. It features some very attractive photography, and it also has a section on 'reportage' series of pictures, as well as a section on 'alternative' photography styles.
Photoshelter has useful guides on stock photography:
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