Hello, and Thank you for visiting. My name is Charles Wollertz, I've been a full-time traveling photographer for over 10 years. Started with micro stock photography and learned a lot from Just Doing It. From there I've been doing a lot more commercial work for different restaurants all the way from Costa Rica to northern Idaho.
Doing something, as uncomfortable as it may seem at the beginning forces you to learn new skills, practicing those skills will make you better at your craft. I am new to video, new to being in front of the camera, I am learning, expanding and growing in this path that I have chosen.
I have been inspired by so many great RU-vidrs out there and I wish to inspire others, if I can motivate just one person do do what they love without fear then I have reached my goal, believe me. If I can do this, anyone can.
Thank you for visiting my page I very much appreciate everyone that subscribes and wants to join me in this journey.
can you explain all four of the Licensing options on Shutter stock? I have them all checked on. Not sure if I should be doing it or not. Or let me know if you already did a video on this question.
Your own pace is fine. No need to change the way you are doing it. Love watching you as you make me laugh because at times you do silly things and I love your laugh. It breaks it up and I seem to learn a lot from you. You seem to have fun with what you do. You inspire me to pick up my camera daily.
omg it's a first video of you I'm watching and I don't know what your images look like but the guy saying your photos are "average" is just full of S, photography is art and all art is subjective, don't let anyone discourage you, please continue creating things!
Thanks so much 🙌 I try to keep my images looking real, not heavy filters or anything crazy, plus my stock photos are simple concepts, if that is considered average then I’m totally ok with that, in other situations I can be more creative and artistic but for stock I like to keep it simple 😁 Thanks so much for the comment, I appreciate the support!
@@wollertz haha you know what I actually googled you and found your shutterstock profile and your pictures look awesome! and I'll follow your channel, I'm just starting with stock photography and have so much to learn so thank YOU!
Agree with you. I've been in stock photography since 2012, begin as a total newbie with camera and photography. Now I'm still considering myself as a hobbyist rather than professional photographer. But until now it has been my main source of income to feed my family, thanks to cheap living cost in my country. Most of my stocks also made with very cheap production cost.
Awesome! Congratulations and thanks for sharing your story . By the way If you are making an income form this, that makes it a profession. You are a professional photographer 🙌🏼
In my opinion you did a great job editing those pictures, that's the way of the world. For example, BMW doesn't put a certain horrible color on their car because the guy who mixes the paint had a bad day...nope, they fix it, that's what people do...make it look great !!! Yes, very genuine and honest instruction video 🙏🏻
@@wollertz: you were saying that the photo that sold 131 times sold 100 times more than the one that sold 31 times, but 100 * 31 is 3,100, not 131. 100 more not 100 times more.
Put it to work. Get whatever certification you need to fly commercially and look for clients, its all about networking, look for people that need a drone, building inspectors, real-estate agencies, business that need or want advertising
I love it how in the beginning of this video you keep trying to say 'processing' and every time 'editing' keeps almost slipping out first! I thought that was quite funny. Hey, what's in a name: your content is great and you motivate me a lot! Thanks
If you're a purist then just go back to film. Let's not even have this conversation. Digital cameras Make changes to the image right out of the camera. When DSLRs were coming out people were saying real photographers shoot on film now with mirrorless cameras DSLR users are trying to say the same thing. 😂 Fantastic work by the way. I'm very interested in getting into stock photography, not because I have dreams of making lots of money with it but it seems like a fun thing to do. When I get 50 images or so that are acceptable to me, I'll see about getting into it and uploading them. That's probably not even close to enough, but we'll see. The best advice I ever got from a photographer is to take extraordinary pictures of ordinary things. I think this concept applies quite well to stock photography..
100% Best advise ever! and yes, I love the perspective changes with the seasons 🤣 (film dslr, mirrorless) 50 images is a good start, but to make stock work, it will take thousands. and uploading on a weekly basis for the algorithm. Thanks so much for the comment! best of luck 🙌🏼
I want to upload a different category pictures, should I create a new account for different category pictures or upload them on same account and create a new group for different category pics?
Thanks for your time with us. You teached me lot🎉. Just now i earned above 300 dollars in five month... Really numbers play the game. You are my role model..❤
Thanks for the video , I use Lightroom but not photoshop, For commercial purpose I understand and agree with your workflow, but for myself I do not remove items since they are not sold commercially.
Thanks! Lightroom's new AI replacement is catching up tp photoshop but its not as good yet. Pretty soon all we will need is lightroom 😅. Thanks for the comment!
Hi, great job on these stock videos man, I am learning from you appreciate a lot! I have two questions about stock that are boggling me and I can't find the proper answer anywhere: 1) If for example we submit some picture that is illegal to sell (for example some architecture that, sculpture, piece of art) that we didn't know we needed owner approval or even if it has an owned in the first place to sell it but one of the stock agencies still approves it, then in the end in case of some rights problem who is there to blame, a contributor or the stock agency? What happens for example if we already earned something from that picture and someone will sue us for the lack of release? 2) Does stock do some kind of clean ups? Or a picture that is approved but for example never sells in like 10 years will still be there? Do you know anything about this topic?
Thanks so much! 1. I believe that comes back to the agency. I've submitted images without knowing and they always reject them. Ive also had good selling photos removed because the rules changed A few years ago I had done a tour of the Black Hills in South Dakota and got some aerial and some ground shots of the Crazy Horse monument thing, I was selling them constantly and on day I got an email that all of my photos associated with crazy horse were going to be removed form my account because the tribe didn't want them sold. Thats editorial and commercial. 2. Some agencies offer clean up, or" donate for free" if they don't sell after 5 years, but for the most part most of mine are all on line since 2010. I made an experiment years ago and I removed the non selling images form one of the agencies and it killed my sales. Thats why I say this is about numbers. you need "bad" photos to help buyers find the "good" photo.
But if you take say 2 photos of a certain scene and stitch them together in Photoshop, you get the same result as a FF or probably even better with more pixels...if you wanted more of that scene visible. So if you have a MFT sensor of 25mp and take 2 photos because MFT is half of FF and stitch them together, you'll have actually a 50mp photo. Just saying 😊
A little different DOF but yes, and only if the camera has more pixels, my point was manufacturers usually cover their profits by not giving more megapixels on their crop to ff models of the same years
Hi Charles, Your channel is my inspiration towards stock photography. I am very new to this and I started uploading pics to shutter stock just 2 days back and got 5 pics approved. The value and content you provide through these videos are priceless. This channel is one stop place for learning Stock Photography. Your channel has everything i search for my stock photography doubts/qyestions.Thank you so much Charles. Keep going 🙏
I’ve been very lucky that most of the comments I get are uplifting and motivating. Once in a while something like this comes a long and puts doubts in others. That’s why I responded with the video 🤷♂️
I have no issues with the edits you made to the restaurant photos. I understand that you had to work under challenging conditions, and removing the AC Unit from the roof for advertising purposes was totally fine with me. I'm certain the client appreciated your efforts in dealing with the smoke and was pleased with the final results. Regarding Luminar Neo, I also use it for noise reduction, sharpening, and replacing skies. When you mentioned that you couldn't use skies from Luminar Neo in stock photography, I got worried because I sell photos with skies replaced using the program. I reached out to Skylum and asked if I could sell pictures edited using the sky packages from Luminar Neo as stock, and I received this response: "Please be advised that we do not have any limitations on this matter. You can use Skies in your stock photography." I just wanted to make sure you knew that the person I chatted with online didn't respond immediately but consulted with a supervisor before emailing me the reply. Thanks for another great video. Donna
Thanks for this! I was going by the contract that all agencies have, where we can only sell our own photos, But f Skylum isn't going to file any claims then I suppose there shouldn't be any issues 🤷♂️
@@donnabollenbach1922 I always use my own sky photos for replacements but not because of stock agency requirements. I just feel that the standard skies included with the replacement apps become recognizable. "I recognize that sky. It's from Photoshop." It's such a simple matter to add your own sky library (what's easier than taking a sky picture?) that it's worth it to me for the uniqueness.
What do u use for editing your photos - Display Tablet / Graphic Tablet ? I've budget to buy R8 Camera or a Display tablet, only one thing to buy at a time. Which option to consider first ? Confused between 2. Can I earn money clicking high quality photographs ? Please suggest best affordable Lens for doing Photography or Videography including macro shot that you like. Thanks.🙏
