I shoot beauty and beauty related lifestyle. In traditional stock where a long shelf-life is demanded stock agencies will only accept beauty images that are “timeless”, because images must be saleable for at least five years. So in traditional stock you will see most beauty pictures related to health and beauty, spa treatments, applying makeup, etc. Macro stock agencies don’t want fashion style beauties, or glamour style beauties. According to the stock agencies these images appeal to a smaller market and have a short shelf-life. So they are not interested. But when you have a look at microstock agencies you see that also fashionable – and less timeless – beauty images ARE SOLD !! Some of the specialists are tremendous successful in it.
Iconogenic shows us how
Iconogenic – one of these specialists – works with (very) good models, good makeup artists and does the retouching herself (Iconogenic is a fabulous retoucher). Iconogenic produces also a lot of “natural beauties” but she really sells fashion and beauty (iStock exclusive). And she has a massive market in fashion & beauty magazines and websites. The very best magazines use her imagery – even Vogue !!! The concept of Iconogenic is good models, good makeup artists, very good post-production and believe it or not low production costs (no location shooting, no expensive studios, and a lot of digital manipulation).
So when traditional stock agencies tell you that there is no market for fashionable – or glamour – beauty imagery, they are wrong !!! The best microstock shooters – as Iconogenic – prove this time after time. But yes – there is only a market for the very best shooters who work with a very keen business model. The super trick is to shoot very high-quality beauty images with very low production costs. If you cannot manage that don’t even try !! This game is only for the best shooters, with the best post-production capabilities and able to running an extremely tight business model.
But it is a microstock game !!
Most magazines are cutting costs – even Vogue – and have very limited budgets for editorial images. Also many beauty related websites don’t have the budgets for high-priced macro images. This is your market for fashion style beauty images !! The success of good beauty shooters like Iconogenic shows there is a huge market for good fashion style beauty imagery. But at low prices !!! This is definitely a microstock game.
When macro stock agencies say “fashion style beauty images don’t sell” they are right, these images don’t sell at macro prices. But they do sell at micro prices !! And the sheer volume in which good beauty images are sold makes it a good business for beauty stock shooters.
When you target your production on the very high-end of the market – and deliver high-quality images with low production costs – you can run a very successful business. Of course this is a game for the “elite”, not many shooters are able to get all these aspects right.
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