Fake it to Make it in Stock Photography
Concepts are king and here is a way to do it on the cheap.
Hi, I am Charlie Borland and welcome to my All About Photography newsletter. I have been a pro photographer for over 40 years and have a lot to share with you. Please join the photo adventure by subscribing to this reader-supported newsletter.
Fake it to Make it in Stock Photography
Are you a stock photographer and looking for ways to make money in a less-than-perfect market? Well, there are lots of ways to do that and not spend a lot of money.
I have throughout my career been represented by 12 agencies and made money from a few of them. But the industry changed over the years and now I am only with one agent.
I learned a lot about stock images during that time and I have written about that here and there on this Substack. One of the most important things I learned was the idea of photographing concepts and one of my photo agents told me that the money was in concepts, not landscapes.
Here is a concept photo. What do you think the concept is?
It’s a man in a suit with an airline ticket.
Business Travel! If this was your guess, then you are a winner!
Medical Stock Photography
My stock agent got in touch one day and suggested a big shoot on medical-related stock images. I was always on board because I made money from these big shoots.
So I got busy researching what types of medical and research-themed stock images were already available. This is a great way to research ideas and I found lots of worthy concepts, then crafted plans to create my own style of imagery rather than copy.
The other challenge was finding a place to photograph. I had photographed at numerous hospitals and medical-related clients, but none of those relationships were strong enough to get me into a hospital to photograph. In fact, it would be nearly impossible so I did not work very hard looking. Instead, we shot in my studio and I faked it. (gasp)
My old studio.
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The Ideas
Since I had a ton of ideas, I set out to create a shot list. I won’t bore you with all the details but this shows the variety of scenarios we photographed that week. And I will have more tutorials later on on this topic.
We set up and photographed ideas like doctors and surgeons, nurses and researchers, and more. But none of these people were in that profession and were simply models dressed up. This is because I could not get into a real hospital with real people, and I don’t believe I ever would.
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The Surgeon
This post will focus on the surgeon and I have seen images from this shoot, posted online or published in print, with this surgeon the one I have seen the most.
I hunted up a lot of props like new nurses’ outfits (now outdated), scrubs, syringes, stethoscopes, test tubes, beakers, x-rays, and doctors’ coats. Yes, this cost me a bunch of money, but over the years I have easily earned it back.
The Surgery Setup
Knowing full well that I was faking these setups and could easily be answering critics about believability, I leaned into the concept part to determine how I would arrange the models, and what I would and would not show while photographing a believable conceptual scene for viewers to get it.
I started by arranging the three models as seen here. The background was just the white shooting wall in the studio. I used a 70-200mm lens and zoomed in around 100mm so I could use the power of the telephoto for shallow depth-of-field and that maintained the sharpness on the surgeon only.
Then I asked the rear and front models to move closer to or further from the surgeon until they all were sized right. I often refer to the subject, the sharp one, as the star of the photo, and any others are supporting actors. That is the case here. The surgeon is in focus while the other two are not.
Then, notice the lighting? This approach emphasizes the surgeon, which is the goal.
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The Lighting
I started with the idea of the colors I wanted and what would achieve the look I wanted. The amber color is warm and draws the eye, so I attached a Full-CTO amber gel to the lightbox below the surgeon and shone on his face. Here is the diagram showing the lights.
Then there is the mono light, also pointed straight up, with a blue gel on it and bouncing off the white studio ceiling. This fills the whole studio with blue light while the lightbox adds warm light (opposite of blue) on the surgeon.
Now, I want to mention again, that might 3D lighting software does not show color as seen in the photograph. You will notice the nurse behind is lit with the same light on the surgeon, but that didn’t happen in the photograph. And, the software does not have face masks or scrubs, so this is the closest I can get. AND, nurses don’t wear high heals or tight dresses.
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I next tested the lighting by adjusting power settings for proper strobe exposure and I call that the juggling act. You go up or down on the blue until you like the brightness, then up or down on the power for the warm light, until you find the tonal balance you like. For me, the subject is ALWAYS the brightest.
The exposure was f/5.6 @ 1/125th and ISO100. I will throw this in for those who don’t use strobes, but in a studio, you can have the ceiling lights and/or window light turned on and be part of your interior lighting by using a long shutter speed. Or you can use a fast shutter speed to block that ceiling and window light from being in your exposure. This is why I used 1/125th. It blocked all the light except the two strobe lights and this is how the creative lighting approach was produced.
One of many final images.
I hope you learned something and have some new ideas for yourself. Please share your thoughts or questions by posting a comment.
Keep Shooting!
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Amazing walkthrough, I'm quite sure I've seen the surgeon image in many medical brochures where I live haha.
Hey Charlie, how do you thing generative AI is affecting stock photography?