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

by Dan Heller (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Whether you're toying with selling a few of your favorite digital photos or hoping to go completely professional, you need to read this comprehensive analysis of the business. It's utterly realistic about what to expect and how to gauge your own aptitude for making it in this highly competitive arena. The author, himself the owner of an extremely successful online stock photography company, begins by debunking misconceptions and defining the various possibilities open to photographers so they can pinpoint a compatible business model. An overview examines the different types of equipment and how they increase sales potential, and you're also given the lowdown on image management, advice on dealing with legal issues, ideas for establishing an online presence, and guidance on identifying buyers for your product.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Lark Books; illustrated edition edition (September 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579906788
• ISBN-13: 978-1579906788
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #480,088 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Fairly informative, not quite what I was looking for, April 5, 2007

By	oo63 (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

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.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for a non-pro, June 5, 2007

By	Keith M. Anderson (Moss Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing lack of useful information, April 12, 2007

By	T. Dokland (Birmingham, AL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.