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1	PHOTOGRAPHY FOR PUBLISHING

FACE VALUE

Pictures of people are used in magazines of all kinds. For maximum impact, crop in tight with a telephoto zoom.

One of the biggest markets for photographers who want to shoot speculatively, rather than on a commissioned basis, and who want to market their images direct, rather than through a library, is publishing. This embraces a number of areas – including magazines, calendars, postcards, greetings cards, posters and newspapers – all offering genuine opportunities to make sales.

Buyers are always keen to see good quality work and require new material on a regular weekly, monthly or annual basis, depending upon their publishing schedule. Yes, they have existing contributors – that’s how they’re able to fill their current publications – but the door is always open to newcomers. So don’t feel reticent about making contact. Photographers often feel they’re being a nuisance by sending in work, but nothing could be further from the truth. Publishers need contributors as much as contributors need publishers.

Over the years I’ve spoken to scores of picture buyers, and all but a handful said they were happy to be approached by new photographers.

MAGAZINES

Magazines form the biggest single market for freelance photographers, with thousands on thousands of titles available. Magazine publishing is also one of the most accessible markets, as most editors are happy to hear from potential new contributors. If you are looking to earn money from photography, this is probably the best place to start. Lots of professionals cut their teeth by selling a few pictures here and there to magazines. With titles covering just about every conceivable subject, hobby, age group and occupation, you’re almost certain to be shooting pictures that would be of interest to someone.

The key to success

In any area of photography the key to success lies in understanding the kind of pictures that your chosen market needs and how they might be used. When it comes to magazines, the principle is simple: the editor needs to have a reason to publish the picture. Rarely, if ever, will editors use an image simply to fill space. The magazine business is too competitive for that, and every page has to work hard to win readers.

Some magazines focus on news, and are interested only in images that have a news angle. Others are more features-oriented, often with a practical emphasis: for example, a sequence on how to plant seeds for a gardening magazine; the effect of fitting a polarizer for a practical photography title; or feeding a baby for a parenting publication. They will also include pictures of products, people, places and anything else that is related to the subject matter – such as fashion in Vogue.

FOLLOW YOUR PASSION

If you like gardening, shoot plants. If you enjoy aviation, photograph helicopters. Start with what you know and you’ll have the best chance of success.

Stick to what you know

If you are serious about freelancing for magazines, what you must never do is shoot a range of subjects that you know little or nothing about and then try to find a market for them. That’s what a lot of freelancers looking to get into magazine work do, and that’s why so many of them fail. You go to the coast for a weekend and take lots of pictures of boats and yachts. Reviewing them, you think that maybe a sailing magazine might be interested. Or you visit a county fair and photograph dozens of vintage tractors, imagining that they’ll be of interest to a magazine about restoring old vehicles. Well, the images might be just what the magazine is after – but they probably won’t be. Unless you really understand the magazine, what it publishes and why, you’re just shooting in the dark. You need to choose your market first and then go out and take pictures for it. Editors spend a lot of time and effort giving their magazines a recognizable character, so you can assume that their requirements can be summed up as ‘more of the same’.

DRAMATIC PERSPECTIVE

Magazine editors want pictures with impact – and if you want to get published you’ll need to provide it. Here a wide-angle lens and a low viewpoint have been used to create a dynamic view of a conventional building.

Analysing requirements

Buying a reference title such as The Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook or The Freelance Photographer’s Market Handbook is a good starting point. The entries will help you to avoid obvious mistakes. However, there is no substitute for obtaining a few recent copies of the magazine you wish to submit to and scrutinizing them carefully. Study them feature by feature, and then as a whole. How much importance is given to the photographs? Are they small, medium-sized, or sometimes splashed across a double-page spread? What kind of pictures are they? Very specific or more general? Straightforward record shots, or more arty, creative treatments? Often a magazine will have sections devoted to both approaches to give a sense of pace and rhythm.

Look at credits for the photographs. Do the same names come up time and again or are they all different? Are they all individuals or are some credited to libraries? Most magazines use a mixture of freelance contributors, picture libraries and commissioned pictures. Some also have staff photographers – check out the panel that lists who works on the magazine. If a staff photographer is mentioned, that can limit your potential for making sales.

Guidelines for contributors

Many magazines produce a set of ‘Guidelines for Contributors’ to assist people interested in writing for them or supplying images. This will tell you about the ideal length for articles, the preferred format for pictures, the fees you can expect to receive and any other relevant information. These guidelines can often be found on the magazine’s website, and sometimes come in a printed form that can be posted to you. It is in the interests of the editors to produce them because they will get more material that meets their needs and less that doesn’t, and they save time by not having to repeat the information. If the magazine does not have specific guidelines for contributors, you can always ask them to clarify their requirements.

Use familiar subjects

The easiest way to get started is by concentrating on magazines that you are already familiar with. If you have a hobby, such as gardening, snowboarding, caravanning or restoring antiques, then you are already halfway there – you will know which titles deal with that subject, and you should have a good idea of the types of pictures they use.

Common sense dictates that you choose a subject that interests you. For one thing, you will spend a lot of time shooting it, and for another, you will produce better and therefore more saleable images if you have genuine enthusiasm for what you are photographing. Chances are that you have pictures on file that may be suitable – so you will not have to start from scratch. You may be in a position to pull together a submission from existing material. If not, you know what readers will be interested in seeing and can get going without delay.

MAKING IT SALEABLE

Images with rich, strong colours are always saleable because they can be used to brighten up a page of dull text.

When I started freelancing, I had young children whom I regularly photographed. I had hundreds of high-quality shots on file of them doing everything from drawing to eating to sleeping. It occurred to me to target some parenting titles, and I was delighted that two of the pictures from my first submission were used in a leading parenting magazine. I sent in material every couple of months after that, and shots were used regularly. Then I looked for a new market. Realizing that I had lots of pictures of the surrounding area, I submitted some to county magazines – once again with success.

The most important thing is to get your foot in the door. I have found that editors tend to be more receptive to submissions once one of your pictures has been published in their magazine. What subjects and interests fire your enthusiasm? A glance through your pictures will soon tell you. What kind of magazines would be a natural home for the kind of pictures you take? That should tell you where to start.

Photography magazines

Photographic magazines such as Amateur Photographer and Popular Photography can also be an ideal market for your work; they constantly need pictures to illustrate all aspects of technique, from lighting effectively to mastering depth of field. Some photo magazines have a policy of using readers’ pictures whenever possible, and go to libraries only when they can’t get the material they want from other sources. Features tend to have a seasonal bias, so if you have back issues go through them and note what appears when. During the dark months of winter, you are likely to find articles on winter landscapes, still lifes, birds, studio lighting, fireworks, indoor portraiture, Christmas and using flash. In spring, the focus shifts outdoors, and there will be features on landscapes, filters, portraits and spring itself – crocuses, rabbits, daffodils, lambs and so on. As the sun climbs higher there are summer subjects, including weddings, holidays, reflectors and travel. After that you have autumn, with writers waxing lyrical about warm light, higher ISO settings, autumn leaves and low-light shooting.

Whenever possible, you should supply ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots. And, following the digital revolution, magazines are increasingly interested in sequences of pictures that show digital techniques. When you are enhancing images – even if you are only sharpening them or using curves – keep the original image, any in-between stages, and screengrabs as well.

Quality counts

Of course, you won’t be on your own in submitting pictures to your favourite photography magazine – many other readers will have the same idea. Don’t let that deter you, however. I have spent many years editing photography magazines, and, in all honesty, most of the images sent in are not suitable for publication. While most submissions these days are correctly exposed, in focus, and otherwise technically competent, most lack impact. Frankly, they’re dull. This means that the opportunity is there for anyone who can produce dynamic, eye-catching images of popular subjects that can be used to illustrate technique features. As ever, use the pictures already being published as a guide to what the editor wants, and then shoot and supply more of the same.

Favourite photographic subjects

At any time of year, there are likely to be articles on the following:

 the most popular subjects, including portraits, children, buildings, sport, glamour, travel and still life

 different types of composition

 aspects of lighting

 exposure modes.5

 metering patterns

 shutter speeds and apertures

 lens choice: wide-angle, telephoto,

 zoom, specialist lenses.

TECHNIQUE IMAGES

Photo magazines are always looking for images that can be used to illustrate techniques.This picture could be used in a article on composition, shooting at night or architectural details.

HOW–TO SEQUENCES

Digital imaging magazines are always pleased to receive sequences of pictures that show different techniques–but make sure you include ‘screengrabs’ of what you’ve done.

Portfolio and gallery sections

As well as individual pictures and comparative sets, many photography magazines publish several images by one photographer, usually over three or four pages with accompanying text, in a ‘portfolio’ or ‘gallery’ format. For pictures to be used in this way, they need to have some kind of theme. They might be all landscapes, all taken using long shutter speeds, all in black and white or all composed using diagonals. Whether you specify it or not, any submissions you make will be considered for this kind of slot. So don’t just send a random collection of images; take care that they can work cohesively as a set.

It can also be a good idea, particularly in the early days, to narrow down the type of work you send to photography magazines so that you get known for that area. As an editor, I have a mental directory of who takes pictures of what. When I want nature pictures, for instance, I have two or three photographers who come immediately to mind. Not only do I know they have quality work on file, I also know they have lots of it – many thousands of pictures, covering most aspects of the subject – and they almost certainly have what I want. There may well be many other competent photographers who could supply me with work of an equal quality – but I don’t think of them. Once you have become known as a specialist, you can start to branch out, submitting other material – but in addition to the area you are known for.

Photography magazines also run regular competitions, some on a monthly basis, which can provide a decent income. See ‘Winning Competitions’ for more details.

Local area magazines

Another accessible market is local magazines that cover a particular town, city, area or county. While their freelance budgets are often modest, they are usually delighted to hear from photographers who either have strong local material or are able to shoot to order. They rarely have a staff photographer and are usually run by a small team, with limited resources either to track down the images or to get out and take them specifically.

The geographical area covered by the magazine may not be large, and the subject matter will therefore be ‘on your doorstep’ – which means that the time and effort involved is often minimal. You might even be able to build a reasonably comprehensive set of images as you go about your daily business, grabbing a few frames here and there when the weather and light is at its best.

A good starting point, as ever, is to get hold of a copy of your chosen magazine and study it carefully. Does it look as if they use freelance material? Is it the kind you could supply? If so, either give them a call or send them an email saying that you are a local photographer with pictures of the area, and ask if they would be interested in seeing a submission. Most will say yes.

If possible, send a selection of photographs of the subjects most likely to be used in the magazine for them to hold on file. In this kind of publication the focus is normally on people, natural history, and heritage in addition to specific locations. Don’t send in anything too arty or unusual, unless you’ve seen that kind of material published. County and local titles tend to have an older, more conservative readership, so shots that are straightforward in style are more likely to succeed.

If your images are right for the magazine, they will steadily get used over time – with a small but welcome cheque following on each occasion. But don’t rest on your laurels. Once you have made your first sale, continue sending material – and if possible get to the stage where it’s you the magazine contacts when they need a particular image.

That’s what happened to me with a local magazine called Stamford Living. I’d had a number of stock images published in it, and had developed a good relationship with the editor, when he rang up and asked me to shoot the Christmas cover – for the following year. With seasonal issues like this, you have to work a year ahead – the Christmas edition needs to be published at the same time as the festive lights go up, so you can’t do it the same year. So I spent a couple of pleasant, if chilly, evenings at dusk in Stamford’s picturesque streets, capturing the scene that was published the following Christmas.

UNUSUAL SUBJECT MATTER

Quirky images can be sold to a range of publications, so keep your eyes peeled for anything that’s out of the ordinary.

Note that not all local magazines will consider photographs on their own; some only accept complete words-and-pictures packages. Therefore, it’s worth learning how to write a simple article (see ‘The Write Stuff’ for some tips) to maximize sales in this area.

General-interest magazines

Some magazines are of general interest, not specializing in one particular area. Many have large circulations, often several hundred thousand copies a month or even a week, and are aimed at either a male or female readership. The good news is that general-interest magazines are often extremely profitable, and as a result have a healthy budget to spend on photography. The bad news is that most of the images either come from leading picture libraries or are commissioned from experienced photographers. That doesn’t mean there are no opportunities for the freelance, but it does mean there’s little point submitting a selection of shots. For a start, what subject would you send? With a fishing magazine, you know they want fishing pictures, but with a general-interest title the content changes every issue, and you have no way of knowing what will be featured.

COVERLINE SPACE

When taking pictures for possible use on a cover, make sure you leave enough room for the magazine’s masthead and the ‘tasters’ that describe what’s inside.

However, if you’ve got to the stage of having tear sheets of published work, and specialize in a particular area that comes around regularly – such as work–life balance in the women’s press or health and fitness in the men’s press – it is worth getting in touch so the magazine has your name on file.

Celebrity magazines

One of the biggest growth areas in recent years has been in the market for celebrity magazines. The shelves are now heaving with titles that show the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Some like to show them at their best, with the pictures perfectly styled, in a sumptuous location such as their own home. These are normally shot by established celebrity photographers, and it’s not easy to join that elite group. One approach might be to research any stars living in your area and approach them to see if they would allow you to take some pictures of them – perhaps offering prints they can use in their portfolio or website in exchange. If you hit lucky and get someone to agree, and the shots you take are good, that could open the door to more celebrity work. But don’t expect overnight success. This is an extremely competitive field.

Other magazines are more voyeuristic. They feature the rich and famous caught in an unguarded moment, often accompanied by a ‘witty’ caption. Sometimes what they’re doing is mundane, such as eating a hamburger in the street, and sometimes they’re doing something ‘wild’, such as rolling in the worse for wear after a night on the town. If that appeals to you – and it can be extremely lucrative if you get the right picture – you might want to join the hundreds of paparazzi wannabes who effectively stalk celebrities every minute of the day and night.

A more realistic option for most of us is to keep a camera constantly with us in case an unexpected opportunity comes along while we’re out and about. But even then you need to have the ‘killer instinct’ to do anything about it. I, for one, don’t have it. A few years ago I was returning from Nice, and ended up stranded for a few minutes on the tarmac outside the aeroplane. Standing alongside me was an A-list celebrity holding his young daughter in his arms and leaning against his wife who was holding their son. They all looked tired, dishevelled and fed up. It was a picture that would have been easy to take – I had a camera in my pocket – and even easier to sell. But I didn’t have the heart. They were clearly on their way home from a holiday and I felt it would have been intrusive to have exploited the situation. Others would not have felt the same and would have grasped the opportunity.

TRADE SECRETS

There are hundreds of ‘trade’ magazines covering many different kinds of business and industry, all of which have picture requirements.

Trade magazines

As well as the ‘consumer’ magazines I’ve discussed so far, which you can buy in newsagents anywhere, there are also ‘trade’ magazines, read by people working in particular industries or professions. You won’t find many of them in your local newsagent, or even in high-street outlets. Many are mailed directly, and unless you are in the business yourself, you won’t even be aware of their existence. That’s when a copy of The Freelance Photographer’s Market Handbook or The Photographer’s Market is essential – in these yearbooks you will find lists of many of the titles that are open to submissions from freelance photographers.

There are magazines for just about every trade and business, including medical, oil and gas, engineering, motoring and tobacco. Some are sold on subscription; others are funded entirely from advertising. Many titles focus on news, making them a must-read for those needing to keep abreast of developments in their area – or looking for another job. Often these publications are full of ‘situations vacant’ advertising, which is part of their appeal.

A typical trade magazine in the UK, for example, is Local Government News, which is read by everyone from professional officers in technical departments of local authorities to civil servants in relevant government departments. Like all magazines, it needs photographs to illustrate its stories and to brighten up what might otherwise be slabs of impenetrable text. As such, it has a regular requirement for quality pictures of subjects such as architectural and building projects, road schemes, urban designs and housing projects.

But which ones? And what should they show? Once again, you need to get a copy and look at what is published. Sometimes the requirements are extremely specific, and only ‘insiders’ will fully understand what is required.

The plus side of shooting for trade titles is that, because they are less well known and generally less glamorous than consumer titles, they don’t receive as much unsolicited material, which means that you don’t have as much competition.

Your first submission

When making your first submission to a magazine, don’t send too many images – as the old saying goes, you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. To make sure you make a positive impact, send only top quality pictures. If that means there are only 10 or 20, so be it. Trying to make up numbers by including second-rate material will greatly weaken the submission, and could lead to it being rejected – even if some of the photographs have the potential for publication. It may not seem fair, but that’s the way it works. And if the first couple of sets you send in are judged to be of poor quality, later submissions may receive only a cursory glance. They’ll see your name on the covering letter and not really bother looking at the material.

The most important thing to understand is that your pictures don’t necessarily have to be stunning to sell – they just need to meet the requirements of your market. But they must be perfectly exposed, attractively lit, pin-sharp and well composed. This is particularly true when submitting work to photo magazines and leading consumer titles, which naturally tend to have very high standards.

Magazine editors are busy people, and they need to be able to view images as quickly and easily as possible. When sending digital images, always include a hard-copy reference sheet, so there’s no need to put the CD in the computer to view the pictures. Use a good-quality inkjet paper and ensure the thumbnails are a reasonable size. Six images to a sheet of A4 paper (210 x 297mm/81/4 x 111/2in) is about right. If you go any smaller it’s difficult to see the content properly. Include a short covering letter, and make sure that any CDs and images are clearly marked with your name, address, telephone number and email address.

Following up

Don’t be in too much of a rush to follow up. A busy magazine can receive a large volume of submissions, and if you send yours in during press week – the obligatory panic when the pages of the next issue are being ‘put to bed’ – nothing will get looked at straight away. It’s only when things settle back down that unsolicited contributions tend to get considered.

Magazines vary enormously in how efficient they are in responding. Some will send an acknowledgment immediately, so you know your package got there safely. Others don’t reply until they’ve looked at the material, when you will get something between a curt ‘This doesn’t meet our requirements’ and a satisfying ‘We’d like to use some of the images in our next issue.’ If you haven’t heard anything within a couple of weeks, you could send the editor a friendly email to check whether the images have been received safely and whether they might be of interest.

CAPTURE THE MOMENT

Pictures don’t have to be stunning to sell,but they do need to be sharp, correctly exposed and capture the subject matter effectively.

The importance of timing

Rejection is a part of the freelance photographer’s life – it happens to the best of us. If you can’t handle rejection, it’s best not to send pictures to magazines in the first place. Often you won’t know why the pictures have been returned, and it’s certainly not the responsibility of the editor or picture editor to tell you why they didn’t want them. If you ask politely, they may give you some advice and tips on making a successful submission next time, but don’t count on it – they’ve got more important things to do, like producing the next issue. All you can do is look at each rejected submission carefully and try to work out what went wrong.

One possible reason for being rejected is timing. A tremendous amount of planning and preparation goes into producing a magazine. The editorial process of picture selection, captioning, layout, proofing and passing the pages does not happen overnight. This means that pictures (and articles) are required well ahead of the magazine’s publication date. The ‘lead time’, as it’s known, can be just a couple of weeks in the case of a weekly magazine, but is more often a couple of months for a monthly magazine or a quarterly.

INSIDE STORY

Many of the pictures used in magazines about homes are commissioned, but there are still opportunities for speculative freelance submissions.

Pictures of fireworks, for instance, will typically go in a November-dated issue in the UK, which will be on sale early in October – and that means it will go to the printers at the end of September. Final picture selection will typically be in the first two weeks of September, so you need to have your submission with the magazine by the middle of August at the latest, and preferably earlier. Don’t send it too early, though, because staff won’t be thinking about that feature yet. They will either return your package and ask you to submit it later or suggest putting it on file. The problem is that a couple of months down the line they may have forgotten that it’s there and choose other pictures.

Some material, however, is timeless, and you can submit it at any time for the magazine to keep on file. This suits editors, because they will have a stash of material readily available whenever they need it. This can work well for the freelance, with a cheque falling through your letterbox every now and again without you having to do much for it. However, it can also mean that images are sometimes left to gather dust, so it’s a good idea to send further submissions if nothing happens for a while.

Developing relationships

While there are exceptions, the editors of most specialist and trade magazines, and the features/commissioning/picture editors of glossy, large-circulation titles, are approachable. They need photographers as much as photographers need them, so you shouldn’t be afraid of phoning or emailing them to check their needs. It is usually a waste of time asking if they would be interested in seeing your pictures – they don’t know until they’ve seen them. So send them in anyway.

Once you have made a few sales from speculative submissions, you can ask magazine editors for their specific picture requirements. This considerably increases your chance of making sales. However, it’s not a good idea to ask what their current ‘wants’ are before you have developed a relationship with them – you could be from a rival magazine, after all, so they will often be cagey.

Further down the line – once they are publishing your work on a regular basis – editors will start contacting you to request material. Can you supply pictures of this, that or the other for our next issue? There may also come a time when they approach you with a commission. When that happens, you really are into a different ball game. You are being asked to deliver a specified set of images by an agreed date – and you must deliver or you won’t get asked again. If the commission is to photograph something that can be re-shot if things go wrong, such as a product or a comparative set of pictures with and without polarizers for a photography magazine, there’s minimal risk. But if you are contracted to attend an event and photograph it – such as a marathon for a running magazine – you will have just one chance to get the pictures. You will need to feel totally confident in your ability.

Fees for magazine work

Once you start selling your work to magazines, you soon discover that there are enormous variations in the rates paid, sometimes with no apparent logic. For example, I have been paid just £20 ($35) for half-page reproduction by one publisher and £100 ($175) for postage-stamp-size use by another.

As a guideline, repro rates are related to the size of reproduction and the prosperity of the publication. However, in a bid to maximize profits, publishing companies are rarely more generous than they need to be. Editors are often squeezed by their publishers, and have an agreed budget to spend on pictures each issue.

Some titles run on a very tight budget; the payments they can offer hardly cover the cost of postage and certainly not the time and effort involved in taking the picture. Some publications are extremely cagey about what they will pay – leading one to the conclusion that it’s probably not very much. Others are open about this despite their very low rates, although it’s a wonder they get anyone to contribute when they pay a pittance. Fees are generally higher in the more prosperous world of mass-market publications, such as the women’s weekly and monthly titles. But since a high proportion of their pictures come from libraries or commissions, this tends not to help the average freelance. Generally, with magazines, it’s a matter of having pictures published at their ‘usual rates’. It’s a buyers’ market, and you have to accept what they’re willing to pay or they won’t use your work. Expect somewhere between £10 and £50 ($17.50–$87.50) for up to half a page and you won’t be far wrong.

KNOW YOUR STUFF

When submitting pictures to specialist magazines you need to be able to supply detailed, accurate captions. With garden photography this means knowing the botanical name of a plant.

NEWSPAPERS

Newspapers offer mixed opportunities for freelance photographers. It’s not difficult to get your work published in local newspapers, but it’s not easy to get paid for it. National newspapers, on the other hand, pay extremely well, but to get published you need a subject that is particularly original or newsworthy.

ACTION STATION

Action stations Dramatic images can have a market at both local and national level, but there’s a lot of competition to get published.

Hold the front page

It would be great to have an image published on the front page of a leading national daily newspaper, so that millions of people around the country – or even the world – could see it. Hopefully you would get a sizeable cheque, too. But unless you happen to be on the scene with your camera when a bomb goes off or someone is kidnapped, you are extremely unlikely ever to take a picture that is sufficiently newsworthy. That is what the nationals are after – dramatic images that capture the attention of a notoriously fickle readership, and persuade them to pick up their paper rather than one of their rivals’.

Images for inside pages

The inside pages of newspapers are more mixed in content, with news pages at the front gradually giving way to general-interest features before running into the business and sport sections at the back. Unfortunately, the potential for freelancers in all areas is pretty small. Most of the news pictures come from agencies and staffers, and the features tend either to be illustrated with shots from libraries or specifically commissioned. However, newspapers are always interested in offbeat, quirky pictures to brighten their pages. If you take anything of that kind it’s work getting in touch, especially if they can be related in some way to a current story.

Most images for newspapers are sourced from staff photographers or international agencies such as Reuters, but occasionally an amateur or freelance strikes it lucky and grabs a once-in-a-lifetime picture that is splashed around the globe. It is always worth having a camera with you – a decent digital compact will do – and keeping alert for anything out of the ordinary. If you do shoot something with front-page potential, don’t hang about – call the paper immediately. If they like the sound of what you’ve got, they will send a bike over straight away, or ask you to email the image to them if you’re close to a computer.

Should the newspaper decide that they want to go ahead and publish, they will offer you a fee to sign the rights over to them. This is the time to keep a clear head and read the small print – don’t rush into things. That may be easier said than done, because they will probably put a lot of pressure on you to agree to their terms, especially if they are close to putting the paper to bed. You have to decide whether what you are being offered is enough. It may sound like a temptingly substantial sum, but bear in mind that if the picture is exclusive – no-one else has the image – and in demand, the paper will syndicate it around the world, making serious money in doing so.

What you really need to do, if you can, is to negotiate a percentage of any syndication earnings; that way, your return will be significantly higher. However, if the paper won’t budge, you may decide you have to take what you can get.

Local newspapers

Another option, albeit a less glamorous one, is your local newspaper. Every town or region in any country boasts at least one, and some have two or more competing titles. By their nature, local papers are focused on news and events within a particular area. Many have a small number of staff photographers, so the good news is that most of them welcome pictures from freelancers, usually accompanied by a short report or caption. The bad news is that many have no budget to pay for freelance contributions, so the best you are likely to get is a credit. Even so, if you want to gain experience and tear sheets, perhaps as a stepping stone to a staff position or to give you credibility in other markets, you may be willing to work on that basis.

Make sure that you retain your copyright in any pictures published, as one of the ways in which local newspapers generate revenue is by selling prints to readers. That is why you see so many photographs of groups published. Leafing through the latest issue of my local newspaper, I see a shot of a nursery that has received a glowing report (16 faces); a poet opening a school library (9 faces); a report on a filmmaking project (11 faces); pupils at a grammar school hearing about industry (24 faces in four pictures) – and that’s just up to page 9. If you are intent on shooting for local newspapers, therefore, you need to know how to organize and work with groups. If you don’t have much experience in this area, simply look at the way the pictures that are currently being published are composed and do the same.

CRICKET

Whether it’s cricket,baseball, soccer or whatever, regional papers are full of pictures of local teams participating in sports – but you rarely get paid.

It’s the same for other subjects. Photographs in newspapers need to tell the story at a glance and, because they are printed on newsprint – relatively poor quality paper that doesn’t reproduce fine detail well – they are also often clichéd in style and content, so they communicate the message quickly and easily. Someone who has just passed an exam may perform a ‘jump for joy’, while someone whose bicycle has been stolen may be shown sitting with their head in their hands looking despondent. Once you have developed a repertoire of such stock poses, you will find it straightforward enough to produce the right kind of pictures.

CELEBRITY FOCUS

Many newspapers like to feature well-known personalities doing something unusual. Virgin’s Richard Branson in a wedding dress is guaranteed to be newsworthy.

POSTCARDS

Changes in technology can affect markets in different and often unexpected ways. There’s no doubt, for example, that the development of quality camera phones has had an impact upon sales of postcards that no-one would have anticipated a decade ago. These days, many people on holiday prefer to text back a picture of themselves relaxing on the beach or living it up in a nightclub – rather than sending an anonymous ‘wish you were here’-type postcard.

That doesn’t mean the postcard market is dead, however. The sheer number of people going on holiday each year, and the number of times they do so, means that postcards are certain to be around for some time yet. Another reason they continue to sell is the picture quality, which is much better than most amateurs are able to achieve themselves. Usually the light is glorious, the composition attractive and the mood idyllic. If you’re looking to get into the postcard market, that is what you need to be shooting, too.

GO FOR IMPACT

If postcards are to sell they need to have impact on the stand, so look for ways of making your subject matter stand out.

Choosing the right subject

The vast majority of postcards are bought by people on holiday, so you need to focus on the right places – coastal resorts, popular inland towns, scenic villages, attractive landscapes, and beautiful gardens and cities that are popular with tourists. You must also select the right view or subject. Postcard publishers are looking for ‘definitive’ shots of a particular area – pictures that portray its spirit and essence. At almost all locations, there are certain things that you need to include: particular views, well-known buildings or monuments and specific landmarks. By all means take other pictures of the place, but don’t expect them to sell for postcards. Paris, for example, has certain iconic views such as the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, and even much smaller towns will typically have a few key landmarks. Not surprisingly, they are by far the most popular postcard subjects.

Clichés and original approaches

Successful postcard pictures are often visual clichés that depict the kind of subject matter visitors associate most readily with the place. Think of London, for instance, and you might think of Big Ben, red buses, Nelson’s Column, beefeaters, the Tower of London, black taxi cabs – and, sure enough, those are the images on the most popular cards. It’s the same in Paris, where visitors typically go for shots of the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame and Frenchmen wearing berets and strings of onions. Such subjects and treatments may seem corny and stereotyped, but that really is what people buy – because they sum up what tourists think of the location.

That said, postcard companies are constantly looking for new approaches, and in recent years have come up with a range of different treatments in a bid to stand out from the crowd. A number of companies, for instance, now publish cut-out postcards, where the card is designed in the shape of the subject depicted in the original photograph: a card of Big Ben will be shaped like Big Ben, for example. This means that the main subject in each picture must be bold and obvious so that it lends itself to this cut-out treatment. Simple compositions with few other elements are required, especially elements that are obstructing the main subject and make a cut-out difficult. Traditional long views won’t work. But don’t just go for the obvious – they’re pretty well covered already. Think laterally and try to come up with more creative pictures. In London, for example, you will see postcards of a pint of beer (shaped like a pint of beer), a red telephone box (shaped like a telephone box), and so on.

BEACH SCENES

The time when most people send postcards is when they’re on vacation, and beach scenes are popular sellers – so make sure you shoot them.

Shoot when the light is right

Another thing you need to do is take your pictures at the right time. More often than not, that’s during summer, in bright sunlight, when you can feature attractive blue skies. The only exception to this rule are places like the Lake District, the Scottish Highlands, Niagara Falls or the Grand Canyon, which are frequented all year round by people who are interested in more than getting a suntan.

Don’t reinvent the wheel

How do you know what the key subjects and treatments are when you have never been to a location before? Just look at the postcards that are already on sale in the place. By definition, their subjects are the things you need to photograph – because they wouldn’t have been chosen for postcards if they weren’t. Your first port of call when shooting with the postcard market in mind is the collections of cards currently available. Study them carefully. Even better, become a postcard collector. The great thing about postcards is that they are relatively inexpensive to obtain.

Who wants what

As your collection grows, you will soon develop a sense for what kind of material gets published. You will also notice that the market is dominated by a relatively small number of businesses, whose names you can find printed on the backs of the cards or listed in The Freelance Photographer’s Market Handbook. If you have some material that you would like to send in, or shoot specifically, it’s a good idea to give your target companies a call first, to find out if they are interested. This isn’t a particularly glamorous area of publishing, so you won’t encounter too many people with king-size egos – they are usually approachable and happy to help.

The magic hour

Many urban locations – cities such as London, Newcastle, Paris and Sydney – look particularly striking when photographed at dusk, when the lights in the streets and buildings have been turned on but there is still some blue in the sky. Rural subjects are often at their most picturesque in the early morning. Whatever the subject, it is a waste of time shooting images when the conditions aren’t right. Pictures where the light is as flat as a pancake or the sky is washed out won’t get a second look, and aren’t worth submitting.

TRADITIONAL SUBJECTS

Some subjects have been photographed many times over, but postcard companies are always looking to refresh their ranges.

You will find that most are keen to see new material, particularly of locations where cards sell in large numbers. The competition can be fierce, so new cards are added regularly as those that are not selling well are dropped from the range

It’s a different story, though, in locations where the volume of sales is lower – such as villages with a small but steady tourist trade. Here the cards are likely to be updated relatively infrequently – sometimes only once every five or ten years – so the demand for new images is considerably less. If you want to earn a reasonable sum from postcard work, it makes sense to focus on the main tourist areas.

Once you have sold a few images to a card company, you will be on their distribution list for specific ‘wants’ in the future, which will give you an inside track on what to supply. This gives you a much greater chance of success than when you are shooting blind.

Technical requirements

Since postcards are small – 9.5 x 15cm/6 x 4in is the standard size – an image in virtually any format has the potential to sell if it is technically OK. Most publishers will accept transparencies from 35mm upwards and digital files, but will rarely take photographic or inkjet prints.

Fees

The postcard market is not the most lucrative, but it can generate a useful income if you get it right. In my experience, the range of payments for postcard rights is from £50–£120 ($80–$200) per image. Some cards are multi-image, and that means you end up with a higher fee.

Self-publishing

Why not consider publishing your own postcards? If you have a collection of attractive pictures of your local area, you could have some postcards printed and sell them without too much trouble at a useful profit. There are a number of companies that specialize in printing postcards, but most general printers can help, too. It doesn’t cost much to have, say, 2,000 cards printed of each picture, and if they all sell you should at least double your money. The more copies you have printed, the cheaper the unit price gets. Local gift shops, hotels, restaurants, newsagents, museums, galleries and tourist information centres are all potential customers.

This is no way to get rich quickly, but it will spread your name around the area, which could lead to commissions for other work. You can invest the profits in having more cards printed until you end up with a good selection on sale – you could perhaps extend your range to include other locations, though it may be wise to keep things fairly local to simplify distribution.

THE DECISIVE MOMENT

When shooting with postcards in mind, choose the moment carefully, so there are as few distractions and unwanted elements as possible.

GREETINGS CARDS

The market for greetings cards is booming. People are sending more cards than ever before, and not just for traditional dates such as Christmas, birthdays and Valentine’s Day. These days, you can buy ‘Hooray! You’re Divorced’ cards, and there are plenty of ‘You’re my Friend’ blank cards, so you can write your own message. The good news for the freelance is that the proportion of cards featuring photographs rather than paintings and drawings continues to increase – and a number of companies now specialize in photographic greetings cards. The downside is that relatively few new photography cards are published each year and competition to supply the images is fierce, both from photographers submitting material directly and from picture libraries. If you are already shooting the right kind of material, it’s worth having a go, but if you’re just starting out there are more lucrative avenues that are worth trying first.

THE ‘AHHH’ FACTOR

Greetings cards usually have some kind of emotional element, so pictures are required that make buyers say ‘Ahhh’.

Getting started

The best way of starting is to do some market research. Spend a day visiting as many outlets as you can. As well as large high-street stores, go to smaller locations, such as local shops and post offices. It is also worth dropping into garden centres and DIY stores, which often stock ranges of cards. If you can afford to, buy at least one card from each publisher – remember that you can claim the cost as a legitimate research expense – so you have their name and telephone number. Make notes about what is in each of the ranges. As you study the cards on offer, you will soon notice that the most popular subjects by far are animals and flowers. These represent probably 80 to 90 per cent of the photographic cards on sale.

CAPTIONING POTENTIAL

The most saleable animal pictures are those which have the potential for a witty or amusing caption to be added.

Animal magic

The most popular animals are cats, pigs, dogs and – somewhat surprisingly – orang-utans. If you want to get published, those are the best animals to photograph. You can try others, but you would be swimming against the tide of demand, and less likely to be successful.

The market divides into two main areas: cute and humorous. Any picture that makes people go weak at the knees and say ‘Ahhh’ has the potential for greetings-card use. Think big, ugly boxer dog sniffing tiny, gorgeous kitten, or a fluffy young duckling held in the palm of a hand, and you’ve got the idea.

Jokey cards are common these days, and many use animals to provide the humour. Sometimes the picture is comical in its own right – a pig with its tongue out or a monkey parading its bottom – or it becomes funny once a caption is added.

If you have pets of your own, it’s worth having a go – but don’t be surprised if the results are disappointing. The secret of success lies in finding subjects that are supremely photogenic, and your long-in-the-tooth moggie or mongrel may no longer cut the mustard. If you are serious about shooting to sell, you will need to find a source of winsome kittens or puppies. Perhaps a local pet shop would be willing to help, or someone who breeds cats and dogs. It might be worth suggesting a quid pro quo arrangement – you provide them with images they can use promotionally and you are free to sell them. If they won’t go for that then you may have to pay. As long as the fee isn’t too high this can make sense financially, especially if you think about shooting for other markets at the same time, such as picture libraries or local magazines.

Farms can also be a good source of subject matter, particularly in the spring, when you will be able to photograph ducklings, piglets and lambs. At that time of year, some farms have open days, when you can go along for free or for a modest payment. You may find yourself jostling for position with children on a school trip, however, and it is probably better to arrange a private visit, when you will have more control, and are therefore more likely to end up with marketable images.

PASTEL COLOURS

Pastel images with blues and purples –such as these bluebells – are extremely popular with buyers.

Providing you have a powerful telephoto lens, it can also be worthwhile spending a day at the zoo. If the weather is good, and the animals active, you should end up with a number of appealing shots, one or two of which might be suitable for greetings cards. You will need a reasonably strong zoom because it is essential to crop in tight, for two reasons. One is that the expression on the animal’s face will be crucial in whether you make a sale. The second is that you need to exclude anything that reveals the fact that the creature was in captivity, such as mesh fencing or a glass enclosure.

Florals and garden scenes

The other common subject for photographic greetings cards is flowers – or ‘florals’ as they’re often called in the trade. The pictures can be of individual blooms, arranged bouquets or ‘country living’ still-lifes, which might include props such as jugs, vases and crockery. In other words, everything from a bunch of flowers in a vase to a garden scene to a field of poppies is required. Pastel images with blues and purples, such as delphiniums and foxgloves, are extremely popular, as well as bright images based around primary colours. You can’t go wrong with roses, tulips, daffodils and lilies.

It’s no good shooting a straightforward record of the subject. There needs to be some kind of emotional component arising from the way the picture is taken. The flowers need to be carefully arranged, beautifully composed, atmospherically lit and skilfully photographed to stand any chance of success. That doesn’t necessarily mean fancy studio lighting, but it does mean you can’t just knock the images out quickly. You need to spend time getting things right.

FLOWER POWER

Pictures of this kind can be used to illustrate cards for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day or birthdays.

Before having a go yourself, look at what is already available. You’ll find that there is a lot of fine stuff out there, so think carefully about how you can match the quality and, ideally, come up with something equally good, but different.

Other subjects

The worst thing you can do is to shoot pictures that you think would look good on greetings cards and then submit them to publishers. There is no surer way of getting rejected. Companies already in the market know their business. They know exactly what sells and what doesn’t, and they choose their subject material accordingly. It’s not enough for an image to be attractive; it must work as a birthday, Easter, Father’s Day or general-purpose card.

Keep abreast of what is being published, because the range of subjects and treatments continually changes. Right now, quirky, arty images are popular. These are sometimes just stylish, creative treatments of everyday scenes and situations – often in black and white. You will also see atmospheric landscapes, humorous shots of children, and ‘male’ subjects, such as cars and still lifes featuring sports equipment, wine and the like.

MONO FINE ART

There’s currently a trend towards ‘fine art’ monochrome images.

Fees

Considering how demanding they are in terms of quality and content, greetings card publishers don’t pay especially well. Fees can be as low as £75 ($130) and are rarely higher than £200 ($350). A small minority of companies operate on a royalty basis. This can give a regular, though usually modest, income into the future.

Given that most companies typically add just a small number of new photographic cards to their range each year – and occasionally bring out a complete new series – this is not a sector to focus on if you want to get rich quickly. Even if you have some really good material, you are unlikely to make more than a handful of sales each year.

Of course, every sale is welcome, but the return on time and effort is generally not as good as in other markets. That said, the payment is normally for non-exclusive, non-competitive rights. That means that you’re free to sell the same picture elsewhere, though not for use on a greetings card during the period for which the agreement is in force. Sometimes this will be limited to a period of time – three years is common – and sometimes will be ‘for all time’.

If you have an appealing feline image, for example, that you manage to sell to a greetings card company, you could, therefore, submit it directly to the publisher of a magazine for cat owners or place it with a picture library. But take care: if you do also market your pictures through libraries, it is essential that you let them know when you have already sold a shot for greetings card use. This is because most publishers of cards also source their material from libraries – and you could easily end up with a black mark against your name if the same image were to be published by two rival companies.

Image specifications

For many years, greetings card manu-facturers were among the most demanding when it came to quality. Quite why that might be, when a card typically measures just 13 x 18cm (5 x 7in), I’ve never really understood. At one time, many publishers insisted upon roll-film 6 x 7cm or even large-format 5 x 4in transparencies, and wouldn’t give 35mm originals a second glance. Happily, some of the companies who have entered the market recently are more relaxed about formats, and will consider all sizes of slides, including 35mm, and high-resolution digital files (normally 20MB+). Even so, pictures have to be of fine quality to succeed.

Most greetings card publishers are happy to receive submissions at any time, with no ‘closed’ season when they won’t consider new material.

THE RIGHT LIGHT

Classic country scenes captured when the light is right will always be welcome in the calendar and poster market.

CALENDARS & POSTERS

Many people buy a calendar each year: it’s useful to have one in the workplace or around the home so you can check dates and record commitments. Some calendars are simple affairs that just have numbers on them. But most also have pictures to brighten up the room – one for every month of the year. You need only to go into any gift shop or stationery store from August onwards to know that calendars are big business, with millions sold each year. You will see hundreds of different designs featuring every subject under the sun: cats, film stars, country cottages, tranquil scenes, wildfire, artistic black and white... Could you supply some of those images? If you are a competent photographer, almost certainly. Every year, the publishers need a complete new set of pictures, and most are happy to consider submissions from potential new contributors.

Quality counts

The calendar market is an extremely competitive field – and one where quality counts. Because the pictures are printed relatively large, and will be viewed for an extended period, they need to be technically perfect and have really strong impact. In the days of film, 35mm was rarely countenanced, and only medium-format and sheet film were acceptable. These days, most publishers demand high quality digital images, and will reject anything that falls short of their requirements.

Don’t bother submitting material if it is not up to the standard you see already being used. Picture buyers only have to find 12 images for each calendar and are heavily over-subscribed in most subject areas, with many thousands of pictures to choose from.

When to submit pictures

As with most areas of publishing, there is a cycle in calendar production that you need to fit in with if you are to have any chance of making a sale. This varies from one company to another, but most seem to focus on picture selection in the first few months of the year. That is generally the best time to make a submission. If you are in doubt, email the company or make a brief phone call to check for the optimum time. Don’t ask whether they are interested in seeing images from potential new contributors. The answer will always be yes – they don’t want to miss out on the possibility of losing a talented photographer to the opposition just to save a couple of minutes looking at their pictures.

QUALITY COUNTS

Quality is paramount when it comes to posters, in particular, as they’ll be displayed for long periods of time.

Where to send your pictures

The general market for calendars is dominated by a handful of companies, and you’ll find these listed in the various handbooks. There are also a number of smaller players that tend to be more specialized in their scope.

The best time to carry out market research is in the months coming up to Christmas, when the widest range is on sale. With postcards, magazines and greetings cards, it doesn’t cost much to buy a few samples so you can take them home for detailed study. Calendars, unfortunately, are considerably more expensive. This means that you need to do your research on site, making notes where they’re sold. While you might feel a bit self-conscious about doing this, you should have no problems if you choose a large newsagent, department store, garden centre or stationery shop, where you can be reasonably anonymous. If you spend no more than five to ten minutes in each outlet, and move from one to another, you should avoid any hassle or suspicion.

As well as the name, address and telephone number of the publishers, you should look for calendars that use the kind of pictures that you either take at the moment, and have on file, or feel you could take in the future. You also need to pay attention to the kinds of images that each publisher uses. The more information you can record, the better. If necessary, go back on a number of occasions, or visit another town or city if you are worried what staff may say.

Scenic subjects

One of the great things about the calendar market is its diversity. If you like to photograph something, the chances are that someone, somewhere, produces a calendar featuring that subject. That said, the biggest market by far is for scenic pictures – although some other areas, such as domestic pets, are popular as well. Some calendars depict specific towns, cities or counties and regions, while others are more diverse, containing pictures taken from all over a particular country. Such calendars aim to give a strong sense of place with each image, but also provide good geographical coverage, so there’s variety over the full 12 months.

As well as the traditional ‘blue sky and bright sun’ shots, more dramatic or atmospheric lighting will be considered, providing pictures capture the character of the area and depict a specific location well. However, it is mostly traditional ‘chocolate box’ colour images that are used, depicting landscapes, village scenes, famous monuments, thatched cottages, popular landmarks, harbours, beautiful gardens and tourist sites – although some feature more creative, moody scenic images such as sunsets, mists and stormy weather.

Publishers of scenic calendars are most keen to hear from photographers who have extensive collections of landscapes covering a certain area or country. That is because they prefer, whenever possible, to illustrate a whole calendar, or most of it, with the work of one individual. The benefits are twofold: the calendar has a common style running through it, independent of the different locations, and the logistics are much easier – the picture buyer doesn’t have to liaise with 12 different photographers, produce 12 purchase orders, and so forth.

However, don’t be put off making a submission if you don’t have national coverage. Providing that you have plenty of pictures of a particular region or a particular city, it’s worth sending them in – because they may be used for a calendar with a narrower focus. Most publishers are not interested, though, in seeing ‘bitty’ collections of photographs, no matter how good they are.

GONE FISHIN’

Calendars feature a wide range of subject matter to reflect popular hobbies and interests.

Details matter

One thing you have to be careful about when photographing landscapes with calendars in mind is that the locations appear unspoilt. Make sure you avoid cars, people, telegraph poles, road signs, rubbish bins and anything else that could prevent the scene from looking idyllic. Generally, you’ll be using wide-angle lenses to open up the perspective and create a sense of drama, but always check when doing so that stray elements of this kind don’t get included. Choose your vantage point carefully, and if necessary use a telephoto lens to exclude anything problematic.

Another thematic approach to the landscape calendar is to choose 12 images that are tranquil or restful in nature – such as sunsets and isolated beaches, waterfalls, ocean scenes, dramatic lighthouses with crashing waves, or calm or moody seascapes. This kind of series might be given a name to point up its theme, such as ‘Golden Thoughts’.

Animal subjects

Once you get started in the calendar market, it is reasonably easy to make further sales. But getting your foot in the door can be tricky when it comes to scenics. That’s because it is such a popular subject area – what could be more enjoyable than taking pictures in a delightful and photogenic location? – so many other photographers are submitting high quality work.

When it comes to other subjects, the competition isn’t so fierce, and publishers are generally delighted to receive material that meets their needs. Animals are probably the second biggest market for calendar images. Domestic pets such as cats, dogs, rabbits and horses are especially popular. As well as ‘generic’ cat and dog calendars, which include a mixture of breeds, there are also calendars for individual breeds. As with greetings cards, pets need to look cute and appealing for their pictures to be used in a calendar. That means that you can’t just take any old snap and send it in hoping it will be published. While there are fewer people submitting photographs of animals, some specialize in the area. Study carefully the pictures that are currently being published in calendars and take the same approach. As with landscapes, you will need to build up a reasonable collection of quality images before making a submission – and it’s better to focus on just one animal than to take a more random approach.