Simplicity in stock photography…
KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid. It’s really easy to say. But not always so easy to do when it comes to stock photos. I think most stock photographers, me included, sometimes try too hard to get as much into a stock photo as possible. Sometimes I take a shot and think: Hey, that was so complicated, so much going on, so exciting to look at – it’s bound to sell. Then of course I realise that it’s just cluttered and busy, and because of that it’s unlikely to sell. Obviously certain shots such as busy street scenes are cluttered for a reason but the older I get the more I appreciate simplicity, symmetry, single objects, clean lines and space. One of the reasons I’ve become attached to simplicity is that the right shots do sell. Simple shots have the ability to represent concepts such as power, absence, hope, the future etc. And even if they don’t have an obvious concept they still make powerful shots!
Dry stone wall and blue sky
Simple shots are often the ones that are the most difficult to create. Never underrate a very simple piece of work in any creative genre from website design, software development and copywriting to film making, animation, illustration and, or course, architecture. In my experience, the more simple the shot, the more difficult it is to get it right. A large part of that difficulty is overcoming our innate desire to show how massively clever we are by making it really, really complicated! Once we’ve accepted that simplicity is beautiful, elegant and clever, it becomes much easier to produce simple shots that sell!
Here’s a lightbox of some simple but effective stock photography: Simple stock photos
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