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Categories

Choosing a proper category is very important for stock photos. If you submit to irrelevant categories then your photo will probably be ignored. You must make sure the category you submit to fits your photo well but is not too crowded. Looking at categories can give you a good idea of what photos you want to take. By looking at a few popular categories I hope that this will spark some ideas of photos to take.

Business

  • Pictures of Money
  • Taking on the phone
  • Working
  • Wallet
  • Shaking Hands

Food

  • Isolated Food Items
  • People eating out
  • Takeout foods
  • Utensils
  • Strange shapes with food

Foods must look very visually appealing when you photograph them. What I do when I want to make a food more “juicy” is add a little bit of oil to it.

Objects

  • Soccer balls
  • Keyboard
  • Tic tacs
  • Dominos
  • Microphones
  • Pencils

Nature Photos

Nature photos must be very high quality or unique. When I first started taking photos I noticed that the nature stock photos looked way too perfect to be real. Try to photo simple nature pictures. A picture of a heavy forested area that is cluttered will probably not be accepted unless it’s great. Flower photos are also very popular which means the stock photos are less likely to accept them unless they are high quality.

Holidays

  • Christmas Decorations
  • Christmas Lights
  • Stockings
  • Pumpkins
  • Hearts
  • Clovers

Fitness/Health

  • Stretching
  • Running
  • Walking
  • Abs

People

  • Happy
  • Sad
  • Excited

Objects

  • Teachers
  • Realtors
  • Students
  • Vacation
  • lawyers

If you want an in depth guide that teaches how to take great stock photos that will beat the competition check out Stock Photo Expert

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