Customer Reviews

How To Make Money with Digital Photography (A Lark Photography Book)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

From the cover and a quick glances at some of the colorful photo filled chapters, this book seem promising at first. But the cliched saying of never judge a book by its cover has taken its toll. This book provides marginal advice on how to -potentially- make a profit from the wonderful world of digital photography, however, it fails to give any real world working model on how this can be accomplished.

Most of the marginally useful advices and sales model, i.e. pricing structure on stock photos, are based on the author's own personal preference and experience, rather than taking into account the wide breadth of pricing methods that exist in the real world of photography.

This is a great book for amateurs that are trying to break into the business of selling their prints from an outline or a strict table-of-content perspective of the available methods and channels of distribution to target, e.g. card stock, stock photo, art fairs, etc.

Most of topics cover seem to be more 'theoretical' than actual real-world hands down information and the author seems to expend more time, energy and care in expressing his disdain (with a condescending overtone, might I add) toward enthusiastic amateurs that aim to make it big and quick. His favorite recurring adjectives for such amateurs includes, but certainly are not limited to: prima donnas, pretentious, and pretend aficionado. Heller may be a [self-aggrandizing] professional photographer, but anyone with such high caliber should be more helpful, than pompous or supercilious. Remember Heller, you were an amateur at one point too.

Further more, Heller likes to take a seemingly interesting idea, get your hopes up and then tell you why you shouldn't pursue it because the odds are just too high against you.

Bottomline: If you are serious about licensing your photographs for use, then this book does not really cover the core foundations that you need to get your feet wet. On the otherhand, if you want to take a look at what you can do to -potentially- make a profit from your hobby, then this book basically gives you an -general- idea.

I'd give this book a 1-star for the lack of usable information and the author's cockiness, but it does contain some interesting theories and sales model to warrant a 2-star rating.

I'm not sure what the two other reviewers were thinking when they gave this two stars, this book is awesome. Surely, if you're already making money at this, the book may not be too useful to you, but if you're thinking of getting started and don't know how to get a foot in the door, this book is great. It goes over the major issues in a very plain, straightforward way. It talks about everything from equipment to software to business models, to advice about taking good pictures. Surely, the book can't tell you "sell your pictures on this site" or "talk to this person if you want to open a gallery" but it gives you a good framework for understanding the business, what area is right for you to target your photo sales, etc.

The writing is easy to read and digest. The author has a funny sense of humor, but unlike one of the other reviewers, I don't think he's cocky at all.

It would have been nice if the other reviewers suggested a BETTER book than this one on the same subject, because I haven't found a better one.

On the surface of it, this book seemed to cover what I was looking for, but it only took me 5 min after receiving it to realize that it would not be very useful. The format is chatty and rather uninformative and states mostly the obvious, like the fact that you can make money by selling prints, or pictures on the internet, but without much actual information on how to do so. The book does contain a lot of nice pictures (presumably by the author), but the print quality is actually surprisingly poor for a photography book.

Lark Photography books have a wealth of information in them. The lark name is well known among those seeking information and references to fall back on in their business and it refects quality. Except in this case....

The Author provides enough information to get someone thinking about possiblities and ideas but yet, not enough for a novice to actually perform those tasks. (ie, There is a sub topic of Digital photo editing that is only one page long and references no tools, locations to find more information. Digital editing could need a bit more discussion than that)

To make a long story short... for a Novice the book lacks. For a professional... The book is almost laughable. Those in between might get a few ideas but, is the time reading a whole book worth it for a few ideas?

Frankly, I would skip this one. I haven't read any more guides to sales. There must be guide with more detail than this. I wouldn't suggest this for even a someone shooting as a hobby. I don't like buying books that support an author that didn't provide anything truly substanial, I'm ashamed of this purchase.

This is a great book for the beginning photographer or for the intermediate taking the next step to improve their photos, expand their equipment and knowledge. It gives you a general overview of the thought process you need to have if you expect to take good photos. It explains everything in layman terms so that you don't get jumbled up with technical detail. This is by no means a technical book, it is a good companion book to other books that will give you the technical knowledge you need to help you make those great shots. It is a book more on the art form of taking good photos. Also this book has lots of great color photos so that you can see what the author is talking about on the end result of a photo following general rules of photography. I would have liked to see the technical aspects listed under each/most of the photos to help photographers with getting those shots as well as the location of some of the really great scenic shots.

Dan Heller has been sharing his insights and experience on his web site for some time. Now, this book has captured just that insight and experience in one, easy to read volume. For anyone who is thinking about making photography their livelihood or for amateurs who are interesting in what it takes to succeed, this book is a goldmine of information.