As promised, I’m back to share some tips on how to make stock photos with more color than those in the previous post. What I’ve decided to start with is color as given to us via mother nature because she’s everywhere and so easy to get in the background, why now use her to our fullest advantage when it comes to the background.
Baby Mocking Bird Stock Photo
First I want to point out this image of a baby mocking bird. This bird image is simple in composition, with the bird at the bottom and the “copy area” at the top. As you can see there is nothing in this image but mother nature: the bird the grass. That’s it. The rest is lighting and composition. And although this image has a lot of movement implied with the way the grass is laying, it works well to created curved lines that help to soften the stark (nearly angry) look of the baby bird. This image is how it came directly out of my camera. No touching up or post processing. Are all images that way? On could only wish. If they were, there would never have been “dodging”, “burning” or filtering in darkrooms years ago.
The World In My View Stock Photo
To the right you’ll see an obvious use of color and of manipulation and post-processing. This little girl had a sucker that she put to her line of sight and blocked out the camera from her point of view. Doing this left nothing but a little red candy. The idea for this image originally came from a contest on Flickr, however it was picked up by the Getty Images Stock company just as it is seen here.
The colors in this image do clash, and they are bright in places, like in the beads of her necklace. The reasons that it passes the stock tests are many. One being that bright colors, coordinating or not, are representative of childhood and so they are appropriate especially on her beaded necklace. Another reason is because some of those colors tend to repeat themselves, like the green : in the background, the shirt, the necklace; the blues: the shirt, the necklace, the world; and bright pink: the necklace, and her fingernail polish. And just to let you know there is no nature in this image, except for the lighting. The background is AstroTurf.
I will leave you with these two examples tonight. With so much going on in the world the past few days my mind has been left spinning and isn’t at its peak tonight. I do apologize for that. However I will be back with more information and photographic tidbits and tips as soon as possible. Take care.
