The most successful photographers are the ones who stay up on current photo trends and are able to predict the types of images photo buyers are looking for.
But short of getting out a crystal ball and peering into the future, how do you really know what will sell?
Stock Agencies Can Tip You Off to the Latest Photo Trends
Luckily for us, several stock agencies have awesome resources on their sites to help you keep up on what’s selling right now and anticipate what’s going to be hot.
Next time you’re not sure what to shoot, here are five places to look for inspiration and the latest photography trends:
- Shutterstock’s “Most Popular Images” page. This page has a”Top 50” images for the week section as well as “top 50 images ever.” Note that you have to be signed in as a contributor to access this page.
- Curve is a blog published by Getty Images and is filled with helpful articles exploring current visual trends.
- Corbis has put together a series of “creative research reports” that really dig into the nitty-gritty of specific visual trends. Reading through these helps you to understand the “why” behind certain trends.
- Fotolia has a page on its website that lets you see their best-selling images from the day, week, month, or of all time. This is a quick way to get an idea of what is selling now.
- Bigstock lets you search their entire image library by “most popular.” This is another way to quickly get an idea of what’s selling now.
BONUS: Stock photographer Andrea Gingerich wrote a brand new guide, tailor-made for us, on hot stock photo trends for 2015. Snap & Sell Photo Club Premium members get it for FREE, starting today!
If you’re a Snap & Sell Photo Club Premium member, you’ll find the brand-new guide on your member page, under the “bonus” tab.
Taking a couple of minutes to check out these websites from time to time will give you some great ideas for shooting images that are likely to sell. If you’ve uploaded lots of images, but you’re not seeing many sales, do a little research and try shooting something new!
