As an editor, consultant and coach for 20 years, Barbara has worked with photographers of every range and specialty. Recently she was one of several editors chosen to work with the seven official photographers for Christo's Gates project in Central Park.

Last summer she worked with Corbis to evaluate 250,000 of its best-selling and most frequently requested images, a job that gave her a close-up look at how a major stock agency functions. "My job was to figure out what sold and why," she says. Based on her marketing analysis, she helped change categories and determine where images belonged.

With her experience both as an agency insider and photo researcher, Koppelman gave valuable advice on exploring stock agencies. To find an agency listing, Koppelman recommends the Picture Archive Council of America (pacaoffice.org), which lists member agencies and their web sites. She also singled out industry publication Photo District News, which publishes an annual stock issue. Alternatively, Koppelman says photographers can bypass stock agencies altogether and post their work on Photoserve.com or IPNStock.com (Independent Photography Network). Both sites promote photographers' work for a fee, and, like stock agencies, include detailed submission guidelines on their sites. Koppelman says photographers should consider the quality of the work presented on the web sites to see how their images stand up. Basically, a good stock image "is one a lot of people can relate to, and is shot well." And she advises to shoot vertically, if possible, which makes an image more marketable, and to leave space for copy.

She also suggests perusing web sites "as if you were a buyer. People who want to buy images are in a big hurry," she says, and they prefer sites that are easy to navigate. For example, she says, look to see if there is a lightbox option, which stores all the images a buyer selects.

Today's stock market, she says, is now all online. "It all happens digitally and it happens 24 hours a day. Whether you have prints, film or negatives, she says, agencies "will ask you if you can send a scan." If not, "they will charge you anywhere from $10 to $20 to scan each of your images." In general, she says, agencies prefer to work with digitally savvy photographers who can scan, transmit and caption images electronically.

In selecting images for submission, Koppelman says, "This is so important: You have to be your own editor first. Ask yourself what might your images be used for and what categories they fall into. Put them together in such a way that they have a flow and enhance each other. Then look for agencies that have this kind of work. Food, architecture, gardens -- agencies specialize in all of these and many more categories."

Agencies, she says, "have to feel from the beginning that you are responsible. You are entering into a partnership," and if you feel you want to establish a closer relationship, look for a smaller agency. She added that very often researchers prefer going to a smaller agency "because they don't want to look at a thousand images" of a specific subject.

On the subject of model releases, Koppelman says, "If you use an image to make money and you have no release, you can be in trouble." In answer to questions on copyright law, she directed photographers to editorialphotographers.org that has a tutorial on the subject.

Koppelman acknowledged that the field of stock photography can seem daunting at first, but she urged everyone to "find your match and take a shot."

Previous News

• Catherine Steinmann Lectures on Self-publishing at Camera Club
• Promote Your Work Through an Artists' Registry
• Barbara Koppelman Lectures on Creating the Perfect Portfolio