How to Take Christmas and Seasonal Stock Photos

Wrapped Christmas Presents

Summer typically means slower sales for stock photographers.

But that doesn’t mean you should stop uploading. And if you’ve never submitted any images for sale, it certainly doesn’t mean you should wait to start. In fact, now is the perfect time to get started.

Think about it.

If you’re prepared with images that designers are looking for by the time sales pick up in the fall and winter, you’ll be off to a great start. So what kinds of images will designers be looking for when sales pick up this fall?

Stock photo superstar Lise Gagné tells us that you should upload seasonal stock photos two to four months before the season hits. Right now is the time to take photos depicting fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas… even New Year’s.

Christmas images are simple to take. Here’s how, in three steps:

  1. Start by going to a few stock photo websites and search for “Christmas,” so you can see what kinds of images sell best.
  2. Grab some wrapping paper, ornaments, ribbon, glitter, fake snow, candles… or whatever decorations you’re drawn to.
  3. Create a Christmas or winter holiday scene. You can use my cheap poster board studio method and take photos outside in the shade.

Snap & Sell Photo Club Premium Members are getting practice setting up Christmas and winter seasonal themes for their S&SPC Premium Challenge this month.

I’ll take a few seasonal shots this week to show you what I mean next week. In the meantime, think about some fall and winter stock photo themes you can photograph now while sales are slow… so you can upload them in time for sales to pick up again.

Got any ideas for fall and winter seasonal shots? Think you have a good idea, but not sure if it’ll sell? Share your thoughts on the Breakfast StockClub Facebook page.

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